Auditions - Am I being too picky?

[molan]

So my band fell apart recently and I've been looking for something new to try.

Thought I had a good option but I've just turned down an audition and got a mouthful of abuse from the band leader because of it. It was booked for tomorrow so obviously it's late notice and I can, partially, understand his frustration. However. . .

When first contacted I was given an outline of types of music which sounded interesting so thought it worth trying out.

I was then sent a list of 70 songs to review. A quick look over them showed quite a few I quite liked the look of and I thought would be interesting to play.

After a lot of faffing about we got a date booked (I had been super flexible throughout in terms of availability).

I was then sent a revised list of 25 songs to learn for the audition. I've never had to learn more than 4 or 5 in the past. I was told to let them know if I wasn't able to learn all 25 but that I was expected to have at least a dozen sorted. Seemed to be quite a strong implication to learn all 25 though.

When I looked closely at this list it seemed that they'd picked the most 'obvious' / cliched ones and this should have sounded some warning bells. I decided to give them a bash anyway & booked today to go through them all. I quickly realised just how 'samey' they all were and got bored playing them quite quickly. Odd thing is that they range from some 60's stuff through to 90's yet all seem to have the same groove & feel to them.

At this point I used by good old 'acid test' - if I went into a pub and heard a band playing these songs would I want to be in that band. The answer was a resounding no. I tried the list on a couple of other people who had similar views.

So - am I being too picky by only wanting to play songs I like (both in terms of listening to and enjoying playing) or should I bite my tongue and take a gig because it'll get me out & playing again. . .?

[voxpop]

Molan, find music you Iove to play, it can seem like an age on stage playing material that does not interest you.
Give them a shove and keep looking.

Also, 25 songs seem a tad excessive. I have only ever had to learn a max of 6 for an audition.

Edited June 6, 2013 by voxpop

[RhysP]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1370370908' post='2099916']
So - am I being too picky by only wanting to play songs I like (both in terms of listening to and enjoying playing) or should I bite my tongue and take a gig because it'll get me out & playing again. . .?
[/quote]
No and No.

[the_skezz]

25 songs just for an audition? Christ no.

[steve-bbb]

did they do ...... walk on by ?

[JTUK]

You only need a handful of songs to know if you have enough to work with.

If I were to hold an audition, I would pretty much know the guy could play...and all we would be looking for is the 'chemistry' ...
so within a few songs that is sorted and you are down to exploring things.
You can run through more songs just for fun..and to see where they can take them... but it is asking too much for someone to 'learn' more than 5
songs if the project doesn't have legs. IMO.

If someone asked me to learn 20 odd songs, I'd be thinking I'd got the gig so it would be worthwhile....

We did recently audition a drummer tho who was recommended ...and I should have known better...and a drum teacher to boot, from a respected drum teaching franchise, IIRC.. but we were ready to walk after two songs.
After a while, you know what is going to work pretty quickly...

The whole point of an audition is to proove the idea has promise.. not to play the track perfectly, ..that is what subsequent workouts are for.

[Bloodaxe]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1370370908' post='2099916']So - am I being too picky by only wanting to play songs I like (both in terms of listening to and enjoying playing) or should I bite my tongue and take a gig because it'll get me out & playing again. . .?[/quote]

Nope. Not from where I'm sitting anyway.

The last band that I was going to go for seemed to tick a lot of the right boxes for me:—

One of the guits/vox lived about 10 mins walk from me (handy for woodshedding)
Regular gigs at local venues (so I wouldn't be reliant on blagging lifts)
Genre was my kind of thing (i.e. mostly Blues/R&B.),
Band had a servicable website with a 'private' page that contained rehearsal audio, youtube links, mp3s, chord charts/lead sheets and set lists going back several years. They'd also put together their version of a Real Book that got added to as required.

So… I applied & got invited to try out, so spent a few days woodshedding at home using their excellent resources. Started well, but as I went further it became apparent that there were things I really didn't like:—

There seemed to be rather a lot of Country. I'm really [i]not[/i] a fan of the genre - I'll tolerate [u]a couple[/u] of numbers in a set, but that's about it.
Transpositions. I understand that singists need to do this, but if it results in the tune becoming a bugger to play it ought to be dropped IMO.

The final straw was one completely needless re-arrangement of an Elvis standard that utterly müllered the original. It was rather odd… I got really angry about that for some reason. A polite e-mail to the guit soon followed.

I don't expect any band's setlist to be a [i]perfect[/i] fit with my tastes, but it's got to be around 90% otherwise I'm not going to be happy. As I do this for sh!ts, giggles & beer money, my happiness comes first.

Oh & FWIW, being asked to learn 25 tunes for [i]an audition[/i] is totally OTT - that's sub gig territory.

Pete.

[BigRedX]

No you're not being too picky.

However OTO wimping out of an audition with less than 24 hours to go is very bad form. If you were booked into a rehearsal room and the terms are anything like they are here in Nottingham then the band you should have been auditioning for will have just lost at least 50% of the room rental. If that happened to me I'd not be a happy chap either.

[jezzaboy]

Naw I think you did the right thing. The band I`m playing with at the mo aint going to well so I put out some feelers. I played with one of the bands who have been going for 10 years or so, and when the guy gave me the song list, I asked him if they played them in the same key and the same way as the recorded versions. Yes was the answer, so I cracked on.

Come the night, I found out that on 3 of the 6 songs, they played them in a different key and some of them bore only a fleeting resemblance to the recorded version. No one explained the arrangements before hand and I ended up trying to catch on to what they were doing. This strikes me as un proffesional and I bailed out after the audition.

The other bands either played songs I have no interest in playing (build me up buttercup anyone?) or were clearly not very experianced. So, you could say I am being picky or that I like playing with people who know how a band works and want to get enjoyment from the type of music I play.

[joeystrange]

You're not being too picky.
There's no point being in a band you don't like just for the sake of being in a band. Afterall, the main reason we all do this is because we enjoy it.

[fretmeister]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1370373341' post='2099983']
No you're not being too picky.

However OTO wimping out of an audition with less than 24 hours to go is very bad form. If you were booked into a rehearsal room and the terms are anything like they are here in Nottingham then the band you should have been auditioning for will have just lost at least 50% of the room rental. If that happened to me I'd not be a happy chap either.
[/quote]

+1

[Prime_BASS]

I was asked to learn 15 songs for an audition, that was ok as they were apparantly into what I was after playing (mainly RATM)

I got the list and most of it is never even heard of, so I messaged them saying, there was no chance I was learning 15 songs for an audition. Done.

[gary mac]

No you are not being picky.

If the songs bore you now, just think how it will feel after you've gigged them a few times.


The only time I would learn that many songs would be for a dep, not an audition.

[molan]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1370373341' post='2099983']
No you're not being too picky.

However OTO wimping out of an audition with less than 24 hours to go is very bad form. If you were booked into a rehearsal room and the terms are anything like they are here in Nottingham then the band you should have been auditioning for will have just lost at least 50% of the room rental. If that happened to me I'd not be a happy chap either.
[/quote]

I have to admit I hadn't thought they'd lose money on the room. My usual place allows regular bands to cancel inside 24 hours without penalties. There's a loose arrangement that anyone who uses the facility regularly gets a few free cancellations and then after that have to pay up but get a credit against a future booking.

It was a daytime slot too so it won't have been heavily demanded and should be easier to cancel. Also I didn't even get confirmation of the booking and songs until Sunday afternoon and today was the first opportunity I had to really sit down and work my way through them.

I thought it was fairer to 'walk' now rather than go through the audition and then part ways

Having thought about this more I'm sure it was the right thing to do. The way things were arranged and a couple of things the band leader said seem to demonstrate, in hindsight, that he might not be the nicest of people. I've also discovered they have a regular bassist and were advertising anonymously to try and get someone else in before they fired him.

[JTUK]

Wouldn't worry about it Barrie, but you might want to offer ( or consider..) to pay a cancellation fee if there was one...???
It can only be a half fee and it might be worth it just to put the whole thing to bed...

As for playing songs we don't like..... I tend to like them even less if we can't do anything with them so the band has to be on the same page
in that regard and realise pretty quickly that their favourite song actually doesn't sound so good the way the band plays it... and by the same token
naff songs might get a bit more mileage if something just clicks.

[fretmeister]

Instead of sending money for any cancellation fee, send them some CDs that aren't in 4/4 time!

[witterth]

[quote name='voxpop' timestamp='1370371336' post='2099924']
Moran, find music you Iove to play, it can seem like an age on stage playing material that does not interest you.
Give them a shove and keep looking.

Also, 25 songs seem a tad excessive. I have only ever had to learn a max of 6 for an audition.
[/quote]
its Molan, not Moran, unless you know something I don't. I don't think he's a moron, just being "picky"
Molan always seems to know his Sh*t
25 tunes (pub covers) is a doddle really init?

[BigRedX]

As someone whose been on the other side of situations like this more than once in the last 6 months, cancelling at the last minute can not only result in the band having to stump up anywhere between 50 and 100% of the rehearsal room cost depending on the conditions (that's certainly the case with all the rooms that I use) but will generally leave insufficient time to arrange for another musician to come an do the audition.

From your OP it does sound as though the band have little clue, but IMO that's all the more reason for you to behave in as professional a manner as possible, and that should have involved saying "no thanks" as soon as you got the final song list.

[KevB]

I was like you, really wanted to wait until the absolute right vehical for me came along after the last band split. I was still looking over a year later. Eventually bit the bullet and joined a band that weren't necessarily playing my preferred choice of music but jut needed to get out there playing again. Met all sorts of people who have depped for the band I joined and who are in other bands so it puts my name about in a networking way and been asked to join other bands whilst in the current one, don't think it would have happened any other way. Ideally I'd like to fit in a 2nd band who are less busy than the main one but playing music I get more of a buzz from. However there just aren't many of that type around, hence my initial 'picky' year of sitting at home scanning the want ads and only playing a note in anger at jam sessions. I was sent a 33 song list to learn, except the 'audition' was actually a full paying gig with people I'd never met and I somehow still got the job!

Edited June 4, 2013 by KevB

[molan]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1370378843' post='2100120']

From your OP it does sound as though the band have little clue, but IMO that's all the more reason for you to behave in as professional a manner as possible, and that should have involved saying "no thanks" as soon as you got the final song list.
[/quote]

I agree. Unfortunately I didn't get this list until Sunday afternoon and wasn't able to look at it until late Sunday evening.

I had a proper chance to go though it last night but wasn't able to actually listen through it until this morning. I spent maybe 3-4 hours labouring with it before realising I really wasn't enjoying it. There were some songs on the list I liked but playing them back to back highlighted how I interesting they were.

It was only then that I realised what a mistake it would be to take things any further. I sent a very humble and apologetic note as soon as I decided that I'd be wasting their time by auditioning.

[Platypus]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1370373341' post='2099983']
No you're not being too picky.

However OTO wimping out of an audition with less than 24 hours to go is very bad form. If you were booked into a rehearsal room and the terms are anything like they are here in Nottingham then the band you should have been auditioning for will have just lost at least 50% of the room rental. If that happened to me I'd not be a happy chap either.
[/quote]
The above may well be the case, however, you still did the right thing.
If you had turned up, played your 20 songs, or whatever and got the gig, then said thanks, but no thanks as its not my kind of music, though thought I'd turn up anyway, so as not to disappoint you! - well, i think they would have been even more pissed.
You called Tim as soon as you realised it wasn't for you and you can't say fairer that that, in my book

[peteb]

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1370389050' post='2100315']
So to get this right, he expects you to learn 25 songs for a pub covers band in three days for an audition that he is holding behind the current bass player's back for a gig that may or may not exist (depending on the situation with the current guy)??

It is hard to say if you are being too picky or not, but you definitely did the right thing in pulling out of the audition...!
[/quote]

So to get this right, he expects you to learn 25 songs in three days for an audition that he is holding behind the current bass player's back for a gig that may or may not exist (depending on the situation with the current guy)?? And then he gets upset because you didn't fancy it?

It is hard to say if you are being too picky or not, but you definitely did the right thing in pulling out of the audition...!

Edited June 4, 2013 by peteb

[Les]

25 songs for an audition is crazy. I would have fired them off the instant that message came through.

[Conan]

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1370375304' post='2100031']I've also discovered they have a regular bassist and were advertising anonymously to try and get someone else in before they fired him.[/quote]

[BobVbass]

[quote][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]25 songs for an audition is crazy[/font][/color][/quote]

It depends on the context really I suppose - if it's a jam based audition to see if you all gel (and I much prefer these for a first meet as anyone can play any song with enough practice but you can practice liking people!) then that's fine so long as everyone's aware and don't expect you to be note perfect (like the one I did the other day; about the same amount of songs 25 ish - three of the band knew it was an initial jam- no one told the guitarist so he seemed to have the hump with me jamming it (I'm the fastest song jamming blagger around so there weren't many bum notes) - chap was a tad on the arrogant "big I am" side so I wouldn't have played with them anyway so no great loss.

If they expect note perfect then not more than about five songs with a week or two's notice; I'd also prefer a recording of the band actually playing the songs if they really want it to be bang on.

as for cancelling the day before, probably a bit on the naughty side if it cost them rehearsal room money but I'm sure they could have just used it to practice themselves so what the hell