I got fed up with the never ending cycle of formng a band, getting good enough to gig, getting gigs, arguing about set lists, not enjoying gigs, the band falling apart for trivial reasons, forming a band........etc.
I've given up on the idea and I'm happy enough writing and recording on my PC - virtually no one listens other than those that click through the link in the monthly BC comp.
I completely agree. The fact that a notation reader has to translate a note name into one of several alternative finger positions isn't an efficient way of writing music for stringed instruments. A piano player, trumpet player and many other instrumentalists of course have no choice where to play a note anyway.
True. I might not play a cover as it was played in the original recording, but most people wouldn't notice most of the time. I saw a band the other day that I have depped for where I consider the bass player to be much better than I am, but in a couple of songs he was playing different rhythms to the original. I suspect I was the only person here that noticed.
I'm not entirely convinced that being able to read notation is in any way better than being able to read tab in terms of musical understanding. The only difference IMO is the lack of rhythmic direction in tab. As for ear training looking at a sheet in front of you - in either format - will not help one iota.
I write as someone who struggles to read notation (I have been learning recently after not trying for 40 odd years) but have had some basic formal musical theory training - I know where the notes are on a fretboard, I know my scales, and I know my modes. However as a guitarist I generally think in terms of chord patterns and visualise patterns for bass/lead lines rather than note names.
As for tabs not being correct I suspect the reason the tab isn't correct is the same reason someone is looking for tab in the first place - the passage is difficult to hear in the mix or simply too fast to be able to differentiate the notes.
I think Kirsty MacColl lacked any kind of charisma. Fairytale of New York excepted she never sounded like she was interested in singing the songs much.
You've listed lots of reasons why you are unhappy and none why you want to stay with this band. If it's your band sack the guitarist and singer, if not time to move on.
For getting together with a band that might go somewhere I'd start with https://www.joinmyband.co.uk/
You can filter by county. There's an awful lot of rubbish on it but I've managed to get my last three bands from it (joined two, formed one).
For getting to know the local venues https://www.lemonrock.com/ is your best bet.
A few reasons why this might be the case.
I've been in bands where the blokey banter would have horrified a lot of women. That may not be very appropriate in these enlightened times but it does still go on. If the band feel they are incapable or unwilling to change their behaviour they might be better off without a women in the room.
My last band was two guys and two girls. One of the girls didn't want to lift a finger setting up and expected the blokes to do it. Although I've been in all male band where people have failed to pull their weight the there was never a claim that it was because they were physically incapable of lifting the PA speakers. The two girls also tried top rebrand the band as female led band, pushing the guys into the background. As far as the guys were concerned we were all equal contributors, and telling them that caused a bit of aggro.
Many of the songs we did were originally male vocalists - mainly because of a lack of female fronted bands in the genre we were doing. The singer in some cases insisted on rewriting some of the words because they weren't appropriate for a woman to sing.
What am I looking for? In terms of bridge design what are the fundamental properties required for your design? In a standard bridge design I would expect the saddles needs to be hard but this material is not as hard as most steels or brass. I'd also expect any bridge to be made of relatively dense material* but this material is very light, and you want stability under load but this material isn't particularly strong.
* The choice of a less dense material would likely result in an increased vibration of the bridge compared to a similar design in a denser material. The payback is that the amount of energy transferred to the bridge would result in less sustain from the string.
We're probably all in the same position - it's just a matter of time. I'm running Cubase 7 LE which is a single machine license so would need to sort out how to re-install on a new machine. It doesn't run on Win 10 either so I'd either have to upgrade to a newer Cubase version or buy a 'puter with an obsolete OS. Or buy Reaper. I don't have that many VSTs mostly Amplitube and a few freebies.