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Why did you quit your last band?

#181
Mine is a tale of two projects - with a common theme.

Project one: Original singer freaked out one rehearsal when his musical theory ability was questioned. Took his ball and went home...then proceed to go on an alcohol fueled rant via internet/text/email to all who would listen about how amazing he was, but was particularly nasty to guitar player. (stick a pin in this)
Next singer in the same band would accept EVERY SINGLE GIG he was offered. Dive bar residency on a Monday night? Sure.
Wednesday night fill in opening for a punk band? Sure...
Upshot was none of our friends came to see us (mature, originals hard rock band), and we never had an opportunity to write new stuff. We had meetings to plan, and then all plans were ruined by weird gigs. When singer was asked to back off a bit, he quit. Band dissolved.
Wasn't really interested in playing with others for a while....I was tired of loading out at 2 AM on a Monday night/Yuesday morning after playing to 20 people in a dive bar.

Project two: Fast forward/ squiggly lines after a couple of years original singer calls to say he needs a musical director for a new project he's starting up.
Songs have been written in rough form. Guitarist, and drummer were not so experienced, but lovely people. We work the songs into very nice arrangements.
One night I'm exchanging relatively benign/mundane texts with singer, and he suddenly took umbrage to something I'd said/the tone in which I'd typed it. Explodes in tirade, and avalanche of expletives, insults, and epithets. Deletes my number, apparently.
Next day I call guitar player to wish him well, and apologise if I had acted/said anything like the singer accused me...
"Dammit. He always does this. Every single time he gets something going, he gets drunk and picks one person in the band to release all his insecurities, and gripes at. Sorry, man. I really like you."

So, I'm back to my home recording, writing, woodshedding, and relaxing early nights.
 
#182
I'm a pretty new bassist (been playing 3.5 years.) Gigged at a few churches when I first started playing, then went on a hiatus for over a year when I had a baby. Anyhow, I figured I'd get back into playing with other people. Found a church not too far from home at the top of 2017. Band did not communicate well (not providing me with the song list prior to rehearsals, deciding to play new (to me) songs on a whim during the service, etc.) After a few weeks, I decided I'd had enough. I actually just quit a few days ago.

Lots of other little nuisances that I won't even bother to mention. With any band, you've gotta take the good with the bad, but this situation had way too much "bad" going on. I should add that I was volunteering as an unpaid musician, and I believe you should be getting something out of playing out (money or just having fun.) I was NOT having fun, nor was I learning anything.

Nevertheless, I feel I have still been learning and growing as a musician, even while not being part of a band. Been practicing daily since I first picked up the bass. Also taking some more lessons (for now.)
 
#183
Those guys never really were good about getting together to play or gig. Really it was just me practicing my bass every day on the off chance they had an hour or two on the weekend to rehearse. The one guy is still wanting to form this band again as a side project. its been two months since he mentioned it and still no peep.:)
I think some people like the idea of a band when they are drinkin or having too much coffee but the full scope of all the work is the reality that comes to roost later. :)
 
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#184
Jimmy4string said:
I think some people like the idea of a band when they are drinkin or having too much coffee but the full scope of all the work is the reality that comes to roost later.
Click to expand...
Truth! Guess I've fortunately been at it long enough that it doesn't take long to sort those types out.

Jeez, reading all these stories, particularly dealing with originals projects, is getting depressing. Gotta wonder how in the hell an originals band EVER gets enough momentum to ever get anywhere. Tough gig. Counting my blessings here.

FWIW last band I played in before taking a 12 - 14 year hiatus just basically finally burned out. Played every weekend, often both nights, had to schedule weekends off/vacations off just to be sure we didn't book them. Drummers wife graduated nursing school and had another child (we're talking late 30's/early 40's age group here) and he needed to slow down a bit to help out at home. We just all mutually decided that we'd had enough and disbanded. Drummer started back up with another group about 4 years later, I waited until about 3 years ago to get back into it myself, took me that long to get over the burnout. Guitar player and I are back together in this group having fun again and while not currently gigging as much as I'd like it's all looking up, good group of musicians all pretty much on the same page and working as a unit towards a shared goal. As I said, counting my blessings here.
 
#185
Music wasn't to my liking, and I was allowed no input. If the BL didn't already know the song, we weren't doing it. BL kept a revolving door of lead singers. Guitarist was too loud, drummer too weak. And I had better offers.
 
#186
Originals band. Nice guys and girls, interesting music. Good gigs... but few and far between.
Weekly rehearsal for a year and we still had only about 50min material ready. Rehearsals didn't result in getting newer songs ready, nor older songs that I had learnt from their recordings and we never got to play for who knows what reason...

Nah, too much faffing about for little 'action'. I just told them I was getting too busy with my main band and didn't have the time to commit properly longer, and parted in good terms... I played one more gig and introduced them to my replacement. All good.
 
#187
There were 3 of us all with different political views. I don't care what your political views are, I just care that you treat people with respect. Other 2 were longtime freinds going back about 10 years to college. 1 member shows me a text from the other member that if he votes for a certain candidate the freind ship will be compromised. I confronted the sender. I considered this a warning. He later asked me if I followed a certain political event. I told him I didn't because my views are so outside the norm that it doesn't make sense. He made some patronizing remark. I quit right there. End of band as the other member said he couldn't take the sender anymore and their freind ship was probably over.

I don't understand how you can't be freinds with people who don't share your political views. There are so few that share mine that if I was this narrow minded I wouldn't have any freinds. My best freind does not share my religion, political views, nor does he care about music.
 
#188
They could not be bothered to practice outside of the "rehearsal" with the exception of the singer, who was always hyper-prepared.

The two guitar players and the drummer just picked it up from where we left off last rehearsal. As a consequence progress was so slow I could not see us ever getting to the point we'd be gigging. I left after a couple months.

Regards
Mark
 
#189
Mark_70 said:
They could not be bothered to practice outside of the "rehearsal" with the exception of the singer, who was always hyper-prepared.

The two guitar players and the drummer just picked it up from where we left off last rehearsal. As a consequence progress was so slow I could not see us ever getting to the point we'd be gigging. I left after a couple months.

Regards
Mark
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this my friend.....Had this problem in a Band I was once in.
 
#190
IMHO they were not as serious about Music as I am. Didn't really want to play any of the songs I wanted to play and felt like in the end I was just being used. It felt like you're just the Bass Player type of thing so I just kinda got Ghost on them. Not available, busy on that day, can't gig on that date etc.
 
#192
I'm feeling perfunctory, so without much elaboration I'll say I dissociated from my last band because the circus - er - band leader was a possessive, pretentious flake. To her credit, I'm glad it went down that way or I might not have taken up with my current band which has been nothing but a great ride for the past year and a half.

Not a knock on female BLs as I now work with another one, but we've gotten on famously from the word go.
 
#197
I was in a local Beatles tribute for a few months.
Band leader (keyboardist) wanted to play 4 hour gigs with no breaks. He sits to play (I just can't sit and play bass/sing). We are all 54-60 years old. That is like 75 Beatles songs!
Learning (and keeping fresh) that many Beatles songs was/is a HUGE amount of work.
Money was OK, but mainly because band leader runs sound from the stage. Usually had some issues. It did get better when he got a digital mixer.
I normally use IEM, but nobody in this band does. Constant stage volume/monitor issues.
Was supposed to be a "side project" for me, but too many gigs were being booked to allow me to play in other bands.

They are great musicians and great guys - but it was too much for me. We parted on good terms and they have found a replacement.
 

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