Annoyingly un-cooperative band members

FinnLizzy

I noticed that a lot of this forum is just advertising, so I'm going to break the trend

Anyone have any stories of previous bands that failed due to one really sh1tty member?

I had a band a while ago where the bassist didn't believe it was necessary to go into drop D for certain songs (namely, drop D songs) and thought that tuning his bass before leaving his house counted (he kept it in a soft bag).

He'd also get thick with me when I point out that his tabs were wrong (tabs aren't written in stone, but he played them regardless of how horrible they sounded).

Rant over!

Oh I hear you. Had a drummer that would point blank refuse to play without a click. Even to jam...

And by the way, if you want to see less ads: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056428509

steve79

ya i've been there with a few different bands and its unreal to see someone in a band with that much stupidity and such a **** atticude and there way is the only way and what used to make me laugh with these people is when you tell them what there doing is wrong or out of tune they go into baby mode and throw a little fit

Yakult

Been in countless bands myself and more than anything, the lack of dedication and drive is really missing in alot of musicians it seems. All talk about "making it" and "getting somewhere" but when it comes down to the work and effort they just don't bother.. Pisses me off big time. Thankfully, playing now with 3 fantastic, hard working musicians who have alot of drive. Bit of a change!

Treyd2k6

How about a lead singer who never turned up for practise? Worse case was before a string of gigs (4) in the one week he decides not to turn up for practise because he "didn't play an instrument" so he felt like he wasn't needed. Practised anyway, played the gigs and made a show of ourselves because he messed up countless times. This happened a few different times. Oh and he walked out on our recording session without doing vocals because he was drunk.
Never understood why Slash left GNR because Axl was soooo good. I now know...

RANT OVER

:cool:

ohigg84

Oh, i've gone through my fair share of arrogant and stuck up musicians!

I had a singer before who told me my guitar was out of tune when it clearly wasn't.

I got a so called singer who was from Brazil, and he shows up with a guitar and who turns out doesn't sing, so there were 3 guitars for an ac/dc band at rehearsal, he left pretty quick! Tellin me how to play Back in Black and the chap couldn't play for ****!
I had a guitarist before who showed up late for a rehearsal and turned up his small amp so loud that no one could hear themselves play , that was a real disaster..

I got a drummer and his friend who were interested in auditioning for the band I was putting together and they knew 2 songs out of seven that I wanted them to learn. That went well..Ha!

So its very very frustrating. Just keep the faith!

Duke Leonal Felmet

I have been playing in bands for about 12 years, and the vast majority of musicians I have played with are all talk and no action. I sometimes think some people want to play in a band to be 'cool'. This also applies to musicians who are afraid to play anything but 'rock and/or roll' music, again for fear of not looking 'cool' on stage. All of these people are to be avoided.

Thankfully, I have managed to find five other musicians who don't care about being 'cool', because to be frank, we are anything but. But in a way, that liberates us to play whatever music we like.

My two cents, anyway.

Dord

FinnLizzy wrote: »

He'd also get thick with me when I point out that his tabs were wrong (tabs aren't written in stone, but he played them regardless of how horrible they sounded).

Rant over!

I had a guitarist try out last year like that. Despite me showing him that the tabs were quite clearly in the wrong key, he kept playing that. I tried to show him how to play it but he wasn't having any of it.

...and don't get me started on the disappearing musicians. There must be a black hole out in Dublin somewhere. I don't get how people can agree for a rehearsal and then not bother showing up. :mad:

Duke Leonal Felmet

Dord wrote: »

FinnLizzy wrote: »

He'd also get thick with me when I point out that his tabs were wrong (tabs aren't written in stone, but he played them regardless of how horrible they sounded).

Rant over!

I had a guitarist try out last year like that. Despite me showing him that the tabs were quite clearly in the wrong key, he kept playing that. I tried to show him how to play it but he wasn't having any of it.

...and don't get me started on the disappearing musicians. There must be a black hole out in Dublin somewhere. I don't get how people can agree for a rehearsal and then not bother showing up. :mad:

It's because they are useless. :-)

Esy

Duke Leonal Felmet wrote: »

It's because they are useless. :-)

And because they are dicks.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

Dord wrote: »

...and don't get me started on the disappearing musicians. There must be a black hole out in Dublin somewhere. I don't get how people can agree for a rehearsal and then not bother showing up. :mad:

I feel i must share this story....il try to keep it short. Agreed to sell a pa system to another band, big rig 2 2*18 bins and 2 2*15 tops, and matching amps. We are from roscommon, agreed to meet half way, loaded the van (2 man job) ran the guy when we got there, said he would be there in 10 mins, and his battery was running out so he asked the colour and make of the van (like it mattered, we were the only van in the place) anyway, that was the last i ever heard of him......a sat eve and around 50 beans on diesel gone.

Johnatorium

Treyd2k6 wrote: »

How about a lead singer who never turned up for practise? Worse case was before a string of gigs (4) in the one week he decides not to turn up for practise because he "didn't play an instrument" so he felt like he wasn't needed. Practised anyway, played the gigs and made a show of ourselves because he messed up countless times. This happened a few different times. Oh and he walked out on our recording session without doing vocals because he was drunk.
Never understood why Slash left GNR because Axl was soooo good. I now know...

RANT OVER

:cool:

Some people are just too Rock'n'Roll for Rock'n'Roll!!

guitarwrist

I have encountered numerous musicians along the way, mostly bassist coincidently who (a) refuse or not bother to actually learn the proper basslines for a song, (b) refuses to accept that the first 5 frets of the 2 thickist strings actually exist and give a super low end to a song when needed, (c) refuses to play a song because it aint cool enough! I think Joe Dolan tunes at a 60th bithday party is perfectly acceptable:) I could turn up at rehearsal having learned the guitar part for a song at home over a few nights only to have to call out the root notes to the bassist who didn't even listen to the tune which infuriates me!!! I guess attention to detail is a must. Rant over.

Malice

FinnLizzy wrote: »

I had a band a while ago where the bassist didn't believe it was necessary to go into drop D for certain songs (namely, drop D songs)

I've got two basses with low Bs and depending on the song it's not necessary for me to detune to play along. I have encountered problems with guitarists who try to follow what I'm doing on the bottom string when they're playing a 6 string guitar and are in dropped D. They tend to get lost but that's usually a clue that the guitarist may not be suitable for whatever the project is .

I've been fortunate so far to have had worked with pretty dedicated folks by and large. A special mention must go to the drummer who told me he was well able for time-signature changes and liked stuff like Dillinger Escape Plan. One part of that sentence was true and when I tell you that the guy couldn't play in 3/4 time maybe you can guess which part . It's always a bad sign when I have to sit behind the kit to demonstrate something .

On a related note I went for a jam a few months ago with a singer, guitarist and drummer. We were setting up our gear in the singer's shed. The guitarist took one look at my 6 string bass and said "What the fuck is that? The poor lad couldn't handle all those extra strings and he didn't even have to play the thing!

RC88

encountered a few here as well

once joined a group where the lead guitarist would play nothing but COB and Slayer songs and to say the least play em badly, seriously nothing else, anytime anyone else in the band wanted to do some sabbath metallica, led zep or queen, he would go f**king bananas, start throwing anything he'd grab at whoever was close to him , a fully grown man acting like a baba, dunno if they ever got rid of him cus i left myself less than three weeks after(needless to say i ran for it)

then there was another back some years ago, i was in a band back in school when a lad who played the bass joined the school and signed up for the music class(the school offered that and sports) we invited him to jam with us just to be nice to the newby, now some guys can only play one song cause its the only one they know, he simply wanted to play this particular song(american idiot) over and over again note per f***ing note, and did'nt like it if you did your own improvisation during the song, but just as it was on the record, after bout 2 hours when we tried suggesting something else he stormed off claiming we did'nt know what we were doing, when he came back the next day we simply said no and carried on ourselves

Dord

Malice wrote: »

On a related note I went for a jam a few months ago with a singer, guitarist and drummer. We were setting up our gear in the singer's shed. The guitarist took one look at my 6 string bass and said "What the fuck is that? The poor lad couldn't handle all those extra strings and he didn't even have to play the thing!

I had a guitarist get pissed off before that my bass was active. He didn't like the red LED on the front. FFS, it was MY bass and I was playing it.

Sidney77

I have been in a few bands over the years and the worst is the people who dont want to be in the band anymore but dont bother telling you.

Duke Leonal Felmet

I do wonder why people bother at all. Why make the half effort when you can stay at home and relax? Why not take up another hobby that you enjoy? Why do something that you clearly don't want to?

Perhaps some of these people are reading now. Do you continually not turn up to rehearsal? Act like an asshole when you are there? Oversell your abilities? Refuse to learn songs or work in a team, in general? Just plain unreliable?

Why do you do it?

Grolschevik

If the "musicians wanted" section was to be moved to Adverts, can you imagine the feedback that'd be left?:D

Rigsby

Grolschevik wrote: »

If the "musicians wanted" section was to be moved to Adverts, can you imagine the feedback that'd be left?:D

True!! The topic of leaving feedback came up before. People would then have an idea of who they were dealing with. It would definitely separate the genuine posters from the spoofers. :pac:

Rigsby

Duke Leonal Felmet wrote: »

I do wonder why people bother at all. Why make the half effort when you can stay at home and relax? Why not take up another hobby that you enjoy? Why do something that you clearly don't want to?

Perhaps some of these people are reading now. Do you continually not turn up to rehearsal? Act like an asshole when you are there? Oversell your abilities? Refuse to learn songs or work in a team, in general? Just plain unreliable?

Why do you do it?

My guess as to why people do it, ( not turn up for meetings/rehearsals ) at least in some cases, is lack of confidence. Yes, there are the time wasters that reply who have no intention of following through. They are definitely a mystery to me. Then there are others who might genuinely be interested, until the crunch time comes for a meeting/rehearsal. Then the "my granny is sick," "the cat died," etc ( that is if you are lucky enough to be notified at all !! ) excuses start flooding in, as the person has got cold feet.

raindog.promo

Rigsby wrote: »

True!! The topic of leaving feedback came up before. People would then have an idea of who they were dealing with. It would definitely separate the genuine posters from the spoofers. :pac:

The thread in question:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=73644105

If you look at the "know your musos" thread (stickied) you'll see what I think is one of the problems/issues with this forum. The idea behind it was to put a picture of yourself up with a sample of your playing and to maybe put a link to your post in your signature. It started off well but quickly went to people seeing it as just another form of advertising for themselves and leaving just a link, no picture, no samples, no explanation.

Self advertising is all well and good, I can't complain if it's done well and with a bit of thought but that's just half arsed laziness. The problem/issue I see is that a lot of people see this forum as just a bands wanted noticeboard and have no intention of getting involved. That's their choice, not really a complaint and having the musician wanted ads as a sub forum may help to change that.

Other examples can be seen by people posting ads and perhaps they get what they want or give up, but either way a lot of people then just don't bother to reply to other people who reply to the ad in the thread (PM is a different matter). Not only do these threads push other threads off the front page but are also a lost cause, especially if you have to go trawling through them looking for an ad of interest.

You could do a few things:
1) have a minimum post count in order to be able to place ads. This can be annoying for users however.
2) Have a system where an OP has a number of days to reply to a reply in their threads. If a post is reported and then not replied to it can be considered by default to be "dead" and deleted by a mod. This will mean that some people who have valid reasons for not replying will have to repost their ad, but that's just the way it goes.
3) The sub forum may solve these problems. It's a case of "wait and see"

dneilan

Hi Yakult,

I,m looking for a band for our wedding next May in Meath. every band I come across have 3/4 guitarists and a drummer. So I suppose I,m lookin for something more alternative like a banjo, trumpet or sax even a keyboard thrown into the mix.. any help for a slightly clueless band searcher?!

mg1

Some of the most arrogant, big headed, rude, ignorant, and agitating people i have ever had the dis-pleasure of dealing with have been musicians who like to think of them selves as "pro's":mad:
They talk the talk, but most def do not walk the walk. Its a rare thing to find someone who is as talented as they make out and also has a good personality to boot!
A pro is a beautiful thing but its damn hard to find the real deal!:D

Duke Leonal Felmet

dneilan wrote: »

Hi Yakult,

I,m looking for a band for our wedding next May in Meath. every band I come across have 3/4 guitarists and a drummer. So I suppose I,m lookin for something more alternative like a banjo, trumpet or sax even a keyboard thrown into the mix.. any help for a slightly clueless band searcher?!

I would say look in the golden pages or online for wedding band promoters. They will have a list of acts on their books, and should have something to suit your needs.

thejigsaw

A couple of years ago the band I was in were being courted by a record company. The label guy came to our practice place and gave us all contracts to look over. Just as we were making plans for the coming year our drummer announced that he was moving to italy for the year! We were shocked. No warning, no hints, nothing. He blew it for us and we lost the label interest because without a drummer we werent able to do anything.

Folmhaim

Abundant experience with this. Members who don't show up and then just sort of vanish after missing five practices in a row. I've had people who refuse to play in anything other than 4/4 or 6/8 and accuse me of getting too "proggy" if I try out other time sigs. A singer who didn't know how to transpose a vocal melody up a fourth. A drummer who threw a fit every time I so much as suggested a beat I thought might sound cool in a song. And so on and so on.

Fandango

Yakult wrote: »

All talk about "making it" and "getting somewhere" but when it comes down to the work and effort they just don't bother.. Pisses me off big time. Thankfully, playing now with 3 fantastic, hard working musicians who have alot of drive. Bit of a change!

I hear ya. Alot of musicians seem to think if you have a few good songs, the MD of Universal will just knock on your door some day with a recording contract. Live the party lifestyle after you are an internationally established act but until then get the ****ing finger out and work to make it happen!