Guitarist Tourettes

[Boodang]

I’m in a covers band and at gigs, between numbers, the guitarist blurts out death metal riffs, none of which we do in the set. Recently we got a second guitarist and, encouraged, is now doing the same. I was talking to the 2nd guitarists wife and she said ‘well, the audience seemed to like it’ but my point is yes, but A. We’re not doing the song the riff comes from (which is metal) & B. we do lounge numbers like ‘fever’. 
We’ve talked about this issue, particularly that I don’t think it’s very professional, but it still continues. I’ve never come across this before in any band. I’ve suggested that separately they form a metal band to get this out of their system! They want, and enjoy, being in the covers band but it’s like a guitarist form of Tourette’s where between numbers they can’t help themselves. 
At the moment we’ve lost our sound guy so I’m doing the mixing. Their noodling fecks me off so much that the ‘automatic’ mute function operates on whichever channel a feckwit metal noodling guitarist is using. They think this is unprofessional! So touché. 
Has anybody come across this sort of behaviour before? I haven’t come across this problem before at this level, but it doesn’t seem to extend to keyboard players, drummers or vocalists, if anybody it seems to be the province of guitarists. 

Edited July 28, 2023 by Boodang

[JapanAxe]

As a guitarist as well as a bass player, I am very conscious of the poor impression that between-song p!ssing-about can create. I am therefore careful to avoid noodling in the gaps. However, I do occasionally like to finish minor-key songs with a bit of ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic’.

[KK Jale]

I feel your pain. I once played in a band where, in the breaks between songs, the guitarist would play a short excerpt from the next tune in the set, at full volume. He seemed to be utterly oblivious that he was doing it. As it happened the band didn't last long and I never got him to even admit to having this habit, let alone change it...

Edited July 28, 2023 by KK Jale

[Boodang]

9 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

As a guitarist as well as a bass player, I am very conscious of the poor impression that between-song p!ssing-about can create. I am therefore careful to avoid noodling in the gaps. However, I do occasionally like to finish minor-key songs with a bit of ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic’.

Id settle for a bit of ‘teddy bears picnic’ rather than whole segments of sandman… spare me!!!

[Boodang]

23 minutes ago, KK Jale said:

I feel your pain. I once played in a band where, in the breaks between songs, the guitarist would play a short excerpt from the next tune in the set, at full volume. He seemed to be utterly oblivious that he was doing it. As it happened the band didn't last long and I never got him to even admit to having this habit, let alone change it...

It's like an 'adulation' syndrome some musicians have (I'm looking at guitarists here) where the audience appreciation has to be just for them. 

[Beedster]

Yep, similar issue with a singist a few years backc, used to do impressions of a Memphis-based rhinestone-clad cheeseburger-munching Jailhouse-Rockin’ performer between songs in our otherwise bluegrass set. Used to make me so so SO angry.
 

Funny how the ‘But people seem to like it’ argument was also used …………

[casapete]

Absolutely unprofessional or even cool. Ask them if they’ve attended major gigs where this happened?
Smacks of amateur hour big style for me - I’d get them to knock it on the head pronto. If they feel

the current band is not where they’re at, then as you say get them to get their metal rocks off

somewhere else. 

[miles'tone]

Sounds hilarious. As a punter I'd probably enjoy that! 😄

[uk_lefty]

35 minutes ago, KK Jale said:

I feel your pain. I once played in a band where, in the breaks between songs, the guitarist would play a short excerpt from the next tune in the set, at full volume. He seemed to be utterly oblivious that he was doing it. As it happened the band didn't last long and I never got him to even admit to having this habit, let alone change it...

Had exactly the same thing!! Took about a year of "PETE FFS WILL YOU STOP PLAYING THE MELODY FROM THE NEXT F'ING SONG JUST BEFORE WE PLAY IT???!!!" at gigs, rehearsals, on band WhatsApp group to eventually get through to him. 

 

It's worse than constant tuning of guitars and pedal b*ggery creating dead time between songs. Just don't do it. Doing stuff from a different genre too is just weird. 

 

I'm not allowed to play 80's riffs in soundcheck in case anyone gets the wrong impression about our 2000's indie and pop-goes-rock band. Which makes sense, really.

[Doctor J]

It's not something exclusive to guitarists. I've been in bands with drummers who did it, even bassists who did it. In my last band, the singer always took ages to get to the next song due to the insuffereable jiiba-jabba. Look-at-me syndrome, the curse of our age. You can't purge it from someone's personality. Best thing to do is structure your setlist so you go straight from one song to the next. We would do three songs back to back, everything in clusters. Bang bang bang. Gap. Bang bang bang. Keep them busy so their idle mind can't wander to the point they need to feel people are looking at them thinking how wonderful they are. Get disciplined, get your setlist together and get tight and you can cut this crap right down.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Doctor J

[Woodwind]

12 minutes ago, casapete said:

Absolutely unprofessional or even cool. Ask them if they’ve attended major gigs where this happened?
Smacks of amateur hour big style for me - I’d get them to knock it on the head pronto. If they feel

the current band is not where they’re at, then as you say get them to get their metal rocks off

somewhere else. 

 

 

I couldn't agree more.

 

Absolutely unacceptable, complete amateur hour. I know we all make music for a variety of reasons, but if you're in a cover band and want ongoing paying gigs then what happens between songs is as important as the songs themselves imo.

 

Good luck getting them to stop.

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, Boodang said:

...‘well, the audience seemed to like it’ ...

 

In the spirit of 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em' (because you can't ever beat 'em...), get the other band members on board, and when it next happens (next gig, in all likelihood...), 'cover' the song that they're messing about with, and play it as a babd right through till the end. Then carry on with the rest of the set as if nothing had happened. You'll soon find out if the audience are up for it, and, if they really are, add some 'metal' to your set list. 

[Franticsmurf]

I was in a band where the guitarist played the riff from a song we didn't play between songs and the audience started chanting for the song. The chanting continued after each of the following few songs before we ended the set. The rest of the band were not pleased with him and he left shortly after. 

 

I've been in several line-ups where the guitarist (in my experience always the guitarist) either noodles between songs and/or during the set up, sound check and even when the rest of us have left the stage for a pre-performance beer. It is extremely unprofessional, usually unwanted from the audience and very annoying. It always seem to be to be an attention seeking thing.

 

[gjones]

I think it shows contempt for the band he's in and the music you play. I've never been in a band where the guitarist, or any other band member 'fiddled about' between numbers, other than when I was in a school band.

 

I assume the guitarist is an adult and this isn't a school band?

[Burns-bass]

2 hours ago, KK Jale said:

I feel your pain. I once played in a band where, in the breaks between songs, the guitarist would play a short excerpt from the next tune in the set, at full volume. He seemed to be utterly oblivious that he was doing it. As it happened the band didn't last long and I never got him to even admit to having this habit, let alone change it...

My currently guitarist does this. Drives me up the effin wall.

[Gasman]

In my current band minus two, the guitarist (otherwise an intelligent talented responsible bloke) did this at the slightest opportunity. Bad enough at rehearsals (the rest of us trying to work out a number while he started playing about at full volume with his looping pedal), even worse at gigs. Maybe at a performance it's an insecurity thing, reminding themselves how a riff or melody goes before starting in case they c*ck it up, but why doesn't the rest of the band have to do the same? Meh....

[Boodang]

3 hours ago, gjones said:

I think it shows contempt for the band he's in and the music you play. I've never been in a band where the guitarist, or any other band member 'fiddled about' between numbers, other than when I was in a school band.

 

I assume the guitarist is an adult and this isn't a school band?

Very much an adult band. 8 piece and nobody under 40. In fact the guitarist and I started this band last year and between us we provide everything (pa, mics, stands, keys, drum kit, even the bl**dy tambourines) and he has a rehearsal facility we all use with everything setup. The guitarist is very talented and dedicated, puts in the work so he knows the songs, which makes this tourette's all the more awkward as in every other respect he's spot on.

[Boodang]

4 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

In the spirit of 'If you can't beat 'em, join 'em' (because you can't ever beat 'em...), get the other band members on board, and when it next happens (next gig, in all likelihood...), 'cover' the song that they're messing about with, and play it as a babd right through till the end. Then carry on with the rest of the set as if nothing had happened. You'll soon find out if the audience are up for it, and, if they really are, add some 'metal' to your set list. 

Well, I think one of the issues with playing metal songs is that it would be a bit at odds with the rest of the set and what we're known for, which is a mix of lounge stuff like 'fever' 'feeling good' and Stevie Wonder and EW&F numbers. And we have a violinist so it also goes into wagon wheel territory. 

I think there's some people in the audience who would love some metal songs but A. I wouldn't and B. They're at the wrong gig. We could always try and do Enter Sandman in the style of wagon wheel, that might be novel. Might also stop the guitarist noodling if he realises we'll take his favourite metal numbers and turn them into country songs!

[Downunderwonder]

36 minutes ago, Boodang said:

country songs

Could do Country Road in GimmeGimme metal style and see if he gets the hint?

[Beedster]

I was thinking through the rights and wrongs of this last night, largely because it’s so common and about so much more than just an annoying few - in fact a lot of us probably either do it or have done it (there’s a thread on here somewhere about what well-recognised basslines we like to play at gigs).
 

So I thought I’d shift genres and pictured an orchestra performing Wagner, and between the 2nd and 3rd movements a French Hornist kicks in with a solo rendition of the famous last movement of Mozart’s last Horn Concerto.

 

Would be fired on the spot 😆

[Franticsmurf]

9 hours ago, Gasman said:

Maybe at a performance it's an insecurity thing, reminding themselves how a riff or melody goes before starting in case they c*ck it up

I do this before a couple of songs, but I use the mute function of my tuner pedal so that no one else has to hear me.

[Gasman]

 

25 minutes ago, Franticsmurf said:

I do this before a couple of songs, but I use the mute function of my tuner pedal so that no one else has to hear me.

Perfect remedy - needs posting on Guitarchat!

[Mokl]

This sounds absolutely dire. I feel for you! 

[FinnDave]

The bass player I replaced in a local Grateful Dead cover band (more country & blues than heavy metal, for those unfamiliar with the band) played a slap solo between songs. It was so bad that on the one occasion I watched them play (before I had joined them), I had to leave before the set break.

[casapete]

6 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

The bass player I replaced in a local Grateful Dead cover band (more country & blues than heavy metal, for those unfamiliar with the band) played a slap solo between songs. It was so bad that on the one occasion I watched them play (before I had joined them), I had to leave before the set break.

It would have been a slap fest of a different kind had I been in that band. 🤣