Would I be a jerk in this situation?

[basslayer]

I am friends with the Joe, the room mate of a band member, Roger. In talking with Joe about the change to making music on stage to working on music at home, they respond by telling me that Roger never practices. I don't say anything to anyone about it because I am not trying to have Roger think I'm spying on him through his Joe. Joe isn't a musician. He doesn't know any other players in this town but me and Roger.

We are working on an EP individually with our various DAWs and getting mixed by our engineer. Roger sounds like he doesn't practice and creates a bunch of garbage takes. Roger almost quit, then walked it all back and produced almost passable with cut and paste tracks and it wasn't spoken of again.

A few months later, I'm talking to Tina, who plays the same instrument as this Roger about another band Tina and I play in together. Tina misses playing the type of music that I play with Roger. In talking about playing that type of music Tina says that she talked with Roger and Roger told that he never practices because he is focused on starting a business.

Aside from my ears, I have two unrelated sources telling me that Roger doesn't practice. Its not my call to fire Roger, but my question is, should I tell the band leader now that Roger doesn't practice?

 

[Phaenomenal]

Here's a thought: talk to Roger. You have the perfect segway to a conversation that MAY eventually come around to where his head is at music-wise: You have heard that he is starting up a business. Maybe you aren't overly interested, but making him feel supported and listening to some of the challenges on that front that may be eating up time for him to practice could also prove enlightening to you. Maybe this is a temporary lack of time, maybe he's embarking on something that will take him out of music altogether. To run to the band manager after saying in your post you didn't want to appear to be spying on him moves you from worrying about being a perceived spy to a perceived snitch and I don't think that will be an improvement. Far better to approach him and say truthfully, you heard though your mutual aquaintance he is starting up a business.

 

[Mike N]

Has anyone else in the band noticed that Roger doesn't practice?? That's typically something that sticks out like a sore thumb and if his lack of preparedness is halting the band/project from moving forward it should be obvious to all.

 

[dalkowski]

Roger's practice habits (or lack thereof) are immaterial, and you can't change them for him anyway. Plus it doesn't move the conversation forward to say, "So-and-so says you don't practice."

Go straight to the crux: His performances are the problem for the band/project. Address it at that level and let him figure out if he wants to put in the work to deliver the quality you need.

 

[bwildt]

What is important is not whether Roger practices or not. Some people can get by OK without a lot of practicing. I see no need to mention that to anyone. Is Roger meeting expectations of the band? That is the question. If he is producing sub-standard results, that is what needs to be addressed, not micro-managing is methods. What he does to produce the needed results is his business. Your band is only interested in his performance.

 

[LBS-bass]

If Roger plays like he doesn't practice and it drags down the rest of the band, then everyone should notice and decide if they have a problem with it. If he doesn't play well and the rest of the band doesn't care, you have a bigger problem than Roger not practicing.

I went through this with my old band in the days before COVID. The problem with this is that every member has a responsibility to the others to not embarrass the entire band on stage. If one member is dropping clams everywhere, that means I can't comfortably promote things by sharing performances live or even edited, and it means that everyone who came out to hear us didn't get a worthy performance. When I ask my friends to come out, I want to be proud of what we're doing up there and each member has a responsibility to the others to make a performance something to be proud of.

My thought is that if the others haven't said anything about Roger, and it's bugging you, you might talk to Roger. If Roger doesn't have time (as was the case with our member), he doesn't have time, and there's nothing you can do to change it. You can explain what I said in the last paragraph, but if Roger is busy he likely doesn't want to focus that much on whether his performance is polished. He just wants to have fun and be in a band.

So you are likely going to have to decide if you can live with that. Priorities can be very different from member to member. If the rest of the band is unhappy, then you might end up having to make some changes, either by giving Roger a chance to clean up his act or replacing him. But you need to give him a chance to at least understand that his not practicing is letting the other members down.

 

[kesslari]

What @Phaenomenal said. Talk to Roger.

 

[lfmn16]

should I tell the band leader now that Roger doesn't practice?

No, it's irrelevant that Roger doesn't practice. What is relevant is that he can't play the parts and the BL presumable already know that.

 

[g-dude]

Form a band with Tina, get signed to a major label, and then bump into Roger years later and pretend that you don’t remember his name.

Boom. Solved.

 

[MustangWally]

Hang about, this is TalkBass. And what is the first rule of TalkBass? Fire the drummer!!! And from the sounds of it, hire Tina.

 

[basslayer]

Thanks for the advice.

I have talked some with Roger, but perhaps not enough. I explained that the expectations of the music weren't going to be lowered to get a release out. Roger's lack of preparation was noticed by others in a sense. We aren't getting together as a group at this point, so the band is all working at a distance. Roger recorded his part at another player's house, creating useless takes. The release was pushed back and Roger did kind of passable with editing work. The problems with Roger's playing were noticed then, but not really addressed again after the release made more progress.

 

[SLPimp]

Talk to him. If he's more focused on something else, he may be looking for an out without quitting.

 

[Killing Floor]

Wait, I’m confused. Are you Roger?

 

[mrcbass]

I support the "it doesn't matter if he practices" camp. It matters what he brings to the performance. If everybody is happy with that, then no drama. Sounds like people shouldn't be happy with it, so the group needs to decide to lean on him or replace him. If their not up for either option, then you need to decide if it's worth your time and sanity to keep working with people who don't care.

Brining it up sensibly doesn't make you a jerk.

Lack of preparation is a big deal to me. I'd rather play with less talented people who are working hard at it than some monster talent who just phones it in.

 

[Nev375]

I don't know what "kinda passable" and "almost passable" means.

Is the goal of the band to produce almost passable music? If so, I don't see a problem.

You can increase your expectations for Roger or lower your standards as a band.

 

[Bullitt5135]

That whole scenario reminded me of the word problems on the SAT exam.

Talk to Roger and see if he is still committed to the project. I'd say something like "I was listening to the tracks, and it doesn't seem like your heart is in it. Is something going on that I should know about?"

Unless you are prepared to deal with the disappointment, it's better to nip this in the bud sooner rather than later. Maybe Rog is looking for a way out. Or maybe he just needs a kick in the pants.

 

[dalkowski]

 

[LBS-bass]

Is there a reason you can't bring in Tina while Roger is there? You didn't say if Roger is your drummer or not. We initially tried bringing in a second player to help our guitarist out, with the idea that if he could fall back to mostly playing rhythm chops, the other guy could do most of the heavy lifting. It didn't work, but it did mean we had another player in the band so that when we finally did have to tell Mr. Clam that his services were no longer needed, we didn't have to start over.

To answer your original question, I don't think tattling on Roger's practice habits is the right approach. You all need to decide how important the quality of his contribution is to you as a band, and just deal with the actual problem, which is that he isn't playing well.

 

[Lesfunk]

Sounds like Roger needs to get into the business of practicing

 

[singlemalt]

If this is all being assembled through your individual DAWs, why can’t Tina, (or anyone who is interested) have a crack at it?

Call it taking the Steely Dan approach.

A band meeting and listening session should be enough to accept or decline a recorded performance. Your guy either gets something down you can use or he doesn’t. And he can do it in a reasonable time without huge hassles.

If not, the writing is on the wall for ol’ Rog. And you won’t have to make the call or play the snitch.

It’s not like you are burning studio hours at a charge.