It was pretty good Blues band but the lead guitarist had drug problems and the drummer, who was good at getting bookings, was a four-banger rock drummer who'd never heard of a shuffle.
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Why did you quit a band?
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I have a quit a couple of group as a bass player,
1. The guitarists couldn't play.
2. The singer couldn't sing.
3. The material was boring.
Once as a guitar player
1. The bass player was bad (happens to be the local legend bass player in the town I currently live)
2. The material was boring.
All other groups I've played with I have happily learnt all the material and made every rehearsal and gig.
1. The guitarists couldn't play.
2. The singer couldn't sing.
3. The material was boring.
Once as a guitar player
1. The bass player was bad (happens to be the local legend bass player in the town I currently live)
2. The material was boring.
All other groups I've played with I have happily learnt all the material and made every rehearsal and gig.
I've left a few bands. The first was a contemporary church choir, that was more about the music, than it was about the spiritual leadership. At the end of Mass, the director would say "great show" everyone. To me, that wasn't why I was in it. When I left, they spread rumors about my sexual preferences and that I was leaving the Church. None of it was true and not Christ-like at all.
When I was married and was about to have our first child, I was in a local touring band and some other loosely held jazz combos. The touring band schlepped our own gear. So, a Saturday gig would take Friday night packing the van, all day Saturday travelling and playing, and I wouldn't get home until 1 or 2 AM on Sunday after unloading all the gear back into our studio. Having a newborn on the way, was definite incentive to lighten up schedule. I took a 13 year hiatus from playing out.
The last band I left was about year ago when my 4 teenagers and wife needed more of their dad's and husband's time. I also took up leading Scouts full time (during non-work hours) rather than splitting my time between music and Scouting.
All of my decisions have been based on my values and life choices. I wish I had more time in the day to keep my skills up to play music proficiently again. I'm sure I'll get time later in life to play more.
When I was married and was about to have our first child, I was in a local touring band and some other loosely held jazz combos. The touring band schlepped our own gear. So, a Saturday gig would take Friday night packing the van, all day Saturday travelling and playing, and I wouldn't get home until 1 or 2 AM on Sunday after unloading all the gear back into our studio. Having a newborn on the way, was definite incentive to lighten up schedule. I took a 13 year hiatus from playing out.
The last band I left was about year ago when my 4 teenagers and wife needed more of their dad's and husband's time. I also took up leading Scouts full time (during non-work hours) rather than splitting my time between music and Scouting.
All of my decisions have been based on my values and life choices. I wish I had more time in the day to keep my skills up to play music proficiently again. I'm sure I'll get time later in life to play more.
I quit my band because one member - lets call him Phil, would not quit posting racist and misogynist memes, and blatant political falsehoods, on Facebook. For a long time, I was willing to overlook his spiritual and political differences for the good of the band, but when my several of my friends started asking me, "are you really friends with this Phil guy?" I would defend him and say, "sure we have differences of opinion, but he's a basically good guy". I asked him several times to refrain from posting anything political or racist, or misogynistic, because it implied that the rest of the band at least condoned that behavior - he frequently promoted our shows on his FB page - and would usually agree to tone it down, but then it would start back up a few days later. When I found out we'd been denied a lucrative gig because of a FB post of his, I was done with him. The band broke up soon after I left.
I quit a few bands during my time when I was playing for a living. I had become sick and tired of the chaotic nature of rock bands with new members coming and going, getting good and then suddenly it breaks up, etc. I managed to scrape by and make a living playing in bands without having to get a regular job but it meant travelling long distances. I quit my last three piece band where I played guitar because there was conflict over adding a new person and I had just had enough of the whole scene. I truly love music but now that I look back it was a good decision. I was never going to become a success and I had developed a serious drinking problem. I think my story is pretty typical. I finally got into the regular job I ended up retiring at when I was nearly thirty but for practical reasons it made sense.
The primary reason was a move to another state for my day job. However, it was somewhat of a relief for other reasons I had been considering. You know, the usual often long drive to/from gig and typical sound and light set up and sound check, play 3-4 sets, break down and packing up the sound and light and personal equipment. While some locations were plug and play, it wasn't usually the case. Or we could get a venue for an evening gig to start us at 8 instead of 9 so getting back home by 3 a.m. wasn't required. I get that it is part and parcel of the business but was getting tiring and we were playing alot, especially during spring and summer with outdoor events. More importantly was the return of a drummer who had left over disputes with my predecessor. He was good at getting gigs but an average drummer. It didn't help that he was a chain smoker, running out for a smoke during a break just as we were supposed to go back on stage. Or his snarky girlfriend would bring a lit cigarette to him which didn't help his performing. Or that he might show up high or drink continually during the gig. Or not help at all with sound or light set up, although I will give him that setting up a drum kit is more than my bass setup. He and his girlfriend would sit in his car while we were setting up. Or that he refused to give me promo material he developed to help me to snag gigs (he wanted the franchise on booking). Or that for the relatively few practices we had to fix something or add songs, he would show up an hour late (with girlfriend as a distraction) or no show. Or that he was kind of a jerk to me despite my efforts to establish a rhythm section relationship. Or that the prior drummer when I joined (the band had been together for 12 years before I was recruited) was fabulous, non-smoker, non-drinker, showed up on time, didn't complain and was a really nice and professional guy. Regretfully, he left to focus on the other of his two bands. Nuf said.
I have quit several bands over the past 40+ years for various reasons, but of late I have quit because the drummers could only play in one of two ways: loud and louder. As one who is already suffering substantial hearing loss, it wasn't worth the risk to my hearing ..... or my temper. It got to the point where I no longer cared what we sounded like, and that is when as a bass player you know it is time to quit!
I was in a tech metal band once with some mates.... they were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay above my league Hahahaha bailed because I simply couldn’t keep up and felt like I wasn’t the right fit. They found a good suit and I still watched all of the shows!!! No bad blood, everyone wins!! Yeeee!
I was with The Texas BleuCatz for almost 8 years as their bass player and soundman. Me and the drummer always arrived at a gig 2+ hrs early to set up and check the PA I built from scratch......AND.I never got paid any extra for doing so.
I started having some health issues that has put me in the hospital several times. Two days before 1 gig at The Honkey Tonk club in Azle Texas I had a cellulitis flairup that put me in the hospital. Needless to say they blaimed me for losing future gigs with this club when the truth was the cheapskate owner only wanted to pay us $250 for a 4 piece band. Our fee for 4hrs was $600 to $800. Well then we played a gig at the newly rebuilt American Legion Hall at Lake Texoma. That went really well and we picked up two jobs off of that and I rode up there with the lead player. Coming home he didn't say anything to me about any issues he had with me and my health. The next day I received a text message basically telling me that I was replaced or fired to use the right word and then the s*** hit the fan after that.
Needless to say I quit the band for health reasons and I still play today at church and on Monday nights on open mic night at a local club that I know the owner. All relationships with the three other members in the band have been lost after seven and a half years of being called family. Oh yes...they did have to buy me out on the PA. That cost them close to $700 and I laughed my ass off but being fired by a text message takes the cake. I have never been fired from a band and I've been in over 8 bands. Oh well still playing and loving every minute of it.
I started having some health issues that has put me in the hospital several times. Two days before 1 gig at The Honkey Tonk club in Azle Texas I had a cellulitis flairup that put me in the hospital. Needless to say they blaimed me for losing future gigs with this club when the truth was the cheapskate owner only wanted to pay us $250 for a 4 piece band. Our fee for 4hrs was $600 to $800. Well then we played a gig at the newly rebuilt American Legion Hall at Lake Texoma. That went really well and we picked up two jobs off of that and I rode up there with the lead player. Coming home he didn't say anything to me about any issues he had with me and my health. The next day I received a text message basically telling me that I was replaced or fired to use the right word and then the s*** hit the fan after that.
Needless to say I quit the band for health reasons and I still play today at church and on Monday nights on open mic night at a local club that I know the owner. All relationships with the three other members in the band have been lost after seven and a half years of being called family. Oh yes...they did have to buy me out on the PA. That cost them close to $700 and I laughed my ass off but being fired by a text message takes the cake. I have never been fired from a band and I've been in over 8 bands. Oh well still playing and loving every minute of it.
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I will stick it out under most circumstances, but the one I absolutely won't tolerate is not playing out. I end up being the booking agent in most of the bands I've played with, and if I'm getting decent gigs, especially if folks are calling ME about availability and I have to decline because the other members don't want to play, I'm gone. I've quit more than one band for that reason.
One band:
Having a dominant band leader / principle songwriter who lacks the discipline to remember / recreate the songs he wrote... And then expects the rest of the band to just follow his lead so he doesn't look bad. Aaaand always attempts to "tune by ear" and insist I tune to him.
Another band:
Constant toxic / negative attitudes, including but not limited to: racism / sexism / thinking that all music released after 1980 sucks. Insisting that Gibson+Marshall is the ONLY guitar rig that should ever exist. Calling rap music "N****R music".
With another band (that I loved playing / hanging with):
I nearly quit due to rehearsals being cancelled at the last minute on a regular basis for no legitimate reason. Like, "I'm almost at the house" last minute. They convinced me to stick around, only for them to fire the rhythm section and become an electronic duo.
Having a dominant band leader / principle songwriter who lacks the discipline to remember / recreate the songs he wrote... And then expects the rest of the band to just follow his lead so he doesn't look bad. Aaaand always attempts to "tune by ear" and insist I tune to him.
Another band:
Constant toxic / negative attitudes, including but not limited to: racism / sexism / thinking that all music released after 1980 sucks. Insisting that Gibson+Marshall is the ONLY guitar rig that should ever exist. Calling rap music "N****R music".
With another band (that I loved playing / hanging with):
I nearly quit due to rehearsals being cancelled at the last minute on a regular basis for no legitimate reason. Like, "I'm almost at the house" last minute. They convinced me to stick around, only for them to fire the rhythm section and become an electronic duo.
Two words...IDIOT VOCALIST. Joined an otherwise great band last year, that happened to have a very good singer.....who happened to be the biggest dips**t I’ve ever worked with. Started with his plan to tell knock-knock jokes at gigs (one of which being a joke about disabled people-NOT COOL), ended with him displaying an inability to hear when his pitch went WAAAAAY off and he was audibly thrashing his vocal cords. And, by “thrashing”, I DON’T mean the kinds of things singers can do when they’ve studied the proper techniques used by the pros to replicate those kinds of vocals. This guy was just completely atonal and could not even hear how horrible it sounded. And he did this on only three out 50 songs we played, the rest of them he sang normally and did a great job. But those OTHER three songs were so bad that you forgot about everything else. Most every band in my town has decent to great musicianship and largely inadequate vocals, so this vocalist killing his OWN performances was too much for me, cause it reflected poorly on the entire band. Sucks too cause the guitarist was really starting to see the benefits of doing vocal-only rehearsals and how much better we were starting to hear our backup vocals sounding, only to have the lead singer messing it all up.
I left a band after the second rehearsal because the drummer couldn't refrain from racist and insulting political commentary while I was around, even though I had specifically mentioned that I would not be getting into political discussions in a musical situation. Unfortunately I was stuck with him on the long drive back from that rehearsal; to avoid a needless confrontation I didn't say anything, but emailed to let them know I would not be joining them. I felt bad for the guitar player, he really wanted me in the band and offered to pay for my rehearsal time, but I just couldn't.
My general rule is to not join a band if I'm a better guitarist than the guitarist.
I'm just going to get frustrated and stop going to rehearsals.
I've left a couple of bands due to downright abusive behavior by the bandleaders. It gets old fast.
Salud!
Most inconveniently, I fell in love with the singer and took the highway. The infatuation passed, still good friends with her.
In other band, the drummer was terrible. I spoke to the BL, told him the dummer was not up to the task, he decided to keep him, I left.
Most inconveniently, I fell in love with the singer and took the highway. The infatuation passed, still good friends with her.
In other band, the drummer was terrible. I spoke to the BL, told him the dummer was not up to the task, he decided to keep him, I left.
No... the band quit me!
In retrospect, I should let them off - It might have been the amount of heroin I was taking at the time. But Hey! I cleaned up my act, ready to resume duties, only to find they had gone their seperate ways, 12 years before.
Now we laugh about it. - well, ok - me and one other.
True story.
