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Guitarists... why are they such knackers

spacecowboy

By spacecowboy,
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spacecowboy Mentor

spacecowboy

Posted
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So this is a quick rant, 

 

Background

 

I moved to Warwick about 14 months ago, joined a band, it didn't work out, but me and the singer decided to leave and start something else. 

 

Myself and the singer put together 2 hours of covers to we'd like to play, and spent a couple of weeks on Bandmix finding the right people to play together in this new band, the goal was to play good paid gigs (IKR), we all have full time jobs so this is a weekend thing for fun / cash, for this we need competent and committed musicians who can learn that volume of material very quickly, gel as a band and get out on the road asap, aside from one drummer who we all thought was genuinely going to kill us we've managed to pull a good group together... or have we?

 

Problem!

We have two guitarists, myself on bass, a drummer, a keys player and our singer, everyone except these guitarists have learned the 2 hours of music in a 4 week period and the rest of us are in the position to work towards building a set with our own structures and instrumentations, and this is where we have a real problem, one guitarist while very good has only turned up for 1 practice in 5, mostly dropping out on the day of rehearsal via text, the other guitarist while not as technically gifted as the other one is solid enough, but, again he has only turned up for 3 rehearsals and in 4 weeks hasn't seemingly learned anything, his biggest downside being he can't use chord sheets or sheet music, if we write the notes out and the structure on a board he doesn't know how to follow, he changes key by using a pitch shifter instead of playing the new chords in different positions, its painful, he freezes to the spot and plays nothing rather than just playing the basics of the song... so with that being said, myself and the singer have had to give them an ultimatum, in 2 weeks they must catch up with the rest of us, play the songs well and make rehearsals or we'll have to let them go. 

 

The good guitarist was honest and said he doesn't have time to rehearse but when we get a gig he'll play... so we as a band pay every week and rehearse getting nice and tight just for this knacker to come in and widdle all over the set and take a cut home with him...?  no thanks, so he's gone.

 

The other guitarist has a mammoth task of learning all the songs in a 2 week window cause he's apparently learned nothing in the previous 4, my worry here is when the singer says "ok, sounds good but let's change the key to B", we'll all play in the new key and he'll just not know what to do... which isn't ideal, in truth I think he'll just bail before the next rehearsal and we'll have to start the search again.

 

Nice guys, but not right.

 

Ending

 

Why are guitarists such bloody knackers?

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Lozz196 Grand Master

Lozz196

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Guitarists haven’t been a problem in every band I’ve been in.

 

But in every band I’ve been in that has had a problem it’s been the (lead) guitarist.

 

My theory is that they simply can’t handle being “number 2” as no matter how good they can play the focus is on the singer. This fries their fragile minds/egos so they become difficult in order to be the focal point.

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Rich Grand Master

Rich

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Getting rid of Git 1 is definitely the best move. Just turn up for the gigs? Cheeky sod. And to be honest, if Git 2 can't play over changes he's a waste of space, so I'd give him his marching orders too. It's a complete pain in the arris finding the right people, but the perfect guy/gal for the job is out there somewhere.

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ezbass Grand Master

ezbass

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I think the OP should be retitled, Musicians…. Why Are They Such Knackers.

 

I have had a almost a week of passive/aggressive shenanigans from the drummer, with him manufacturing a scenario where he can take offence at something trivial and throw his toys out of the pram. If you want to leave just say you’ve had enough, don’t look for someone else to blame. FFS! 😤

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la bam Mentor

la bam

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Simple for me......

 

Cancelling rehersal on day of rehersal is completely unacceptable.

One off fair enough. Twice, no. Third time they're out. What's the point of trying anymore?

 

Not learning songs? Unacceptable. As above.

 

If they're committed they will learn the songs and turn up.

 

If they're not ,then .......

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EJWW Experienced

EJWW

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Eliminate both guitarists and replace with a single committed individual with adecent amount of emotional intelligence. 

Might mean taking longer to get out there gigging but worth it IMO.

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spacecowboy Mentor

spacecowboy

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31 minutes ago, Heathy said:

As you have a keyboard player, hopefully you can progress without either guitarist. You may find that you don’t even need one!

Yeah the guitarists weren’t my idea! Singer wanted two, the keys players face was a picture when he found out there was two… he’s so talented as well… he can absolutely do the job for both of them! 

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dodge_bass Experienced

dodge_bass

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1 hour ago, spacecowboy said:

Yeah the guitarists weren’t my idea! Singer wanted two, the keys players face was a picture when he found out there was two… he’s so talented as well… he can absolutely do the job for both of them! 

Absolutely get rid of both of them. They both sound like a total waste of time. Find one decent guitarist, it will be worth the wait. There’s no longevity in either of these two players and they’ll only cause ongoing trouble down there line if you try to persevere. Good luck. 

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oldslapper Grand Master

oldslapper

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I’m in two bands. Both have exact same personnel except for the drummers. 
So it’s really one band but we play for 2 different artists. Makes it a lot easier and everyone is fab. The guitarist learns his parts and is better prepared than everyone most of the time. 
Makes such a difference. If he was a dik I’d be asking him to move on. 

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ossyrocks Mentor

ossyrocks

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As a guitarist in my previous life for decades, I would say that the one who can’t change key, can’t play, end of. That shows a complete lack of any basic understanding and you should let him go. The other one just can’t be arsed.

 

You also have a keys player, so you only need one guitarist. I wouldn’t want to play in a band with two guitars and keys, even if I was playing guitar.

 

Rob

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spacecowboy Mentor

spacecowboy

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I’m glad so many of you agree! I was having a slight pang of regret airing it all, but it seems we all feel the same! 
 

After talking with the singer last night I think the outcome is they’re both going to go! At least any new guitarist has a full band to join and can make the parts theirs! 

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