Is it just me?! Bloody musicians...

[Damonjames]

[quote name='Monkey Steve' timestamp='1502187925' post='3349811']


It depends, doesn't it? I've certainly developed a lot when playing in bands with people who are better musicians than me, sort of on the job learning.

But I've also been in bands with people who are stuck at their level. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the bands dis somewhat level down rather than up. No matter how good the lead guitarist is, if the rhythm guitarist can't get the backing chords right behind the solo then (without wanting to get into another debate about what the audience notices) that's the level you're stuck at.

I'm pretty much with Happy Jack here. the best bands I've been in from a personal and professional point of view, are the ones where we were the closest mates, and all played to the relevant musical standard required (and for one in particular it wasn't the highest musical standard, but it was appropriate for the gigs and the audience we were getting)
[/quote]

Agree totally, although we aren't in a band any more, those three morons are still my best mates 😂

[stingrayPete1977]

[quote name='Monkey Steve' timestamp='1502187925' post='3349811']


It depends, doesn't it? I've certainly developed a lot when playing in bands with people who are better musicians than me, sort of on the job learning.

But I've also been in bands with people who are stuck at their level. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the bands dis somewhat level down rather than up. No matter how good the lead guitarist is, if the rhythm guitarist can't get the backing chords right behind the solo then (without wanting to get into another debate about what the audience notices) that's the level you're stuck at.

I'm pretty much with Happy Jack here. the best bands I've been in from a personal and professional point of view, are the ones where we were the closest mates, and all played to the relevant musical standard required (and for one in particular it wasn't the highest musical standard, but it was appropriate for the gigs and the audience we were getting)
[/quote]

Lots of bands have done well with mixed abilities, look at oasis!

I could have said U2 but I didn't

[blue]

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1502182759' post='3349740']


I understand your hesitation Blue, but let's face it, they are just hooks to hang an excuse on. I managed to rebuild a band with my drummer 3 times while holding down a full time job and have two kids under 4. Granted, we fit into the weekend warrior category, but it's still takes commitment.

You are either in it or you are not. If you want to make it work, you will.

Musicians are some of the flakiest people I have had the misfortune to meet. They can take the fun out of playing
Music in a heartbeat.

On the other hand, if you get the mix of personnel right, it's downright amazing!!
[/quote]

Agreed, however I would say you are the exception.

Blue

[AndyTravis]

Well, just to chime in with an update.

On Thursday...

I'm meeting 2 new singers and a drummer.

We've set ten songs and we'll see what happens.

I actually logged onto joinmyband.co.uk and it took a lot of guesswork out, quite a useful little website that.

[Damonjames]

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1502218959' post='3350084']
Well, just to chime in with an update.

On Thursday...

I'm meeting 2 new singers and a drummer.

We've set ten songs and we'll see what happens.

I actually logged onto joinmyband.co.uk and it took a lot of guesswork out, quite a useful little website that.
[/quote]

It can be, but it can also be full of the types you mentioned in th OP!!!!

Good luck mate!

[blue]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1502190909' post='3349848']
It's all down to compromise like any relationship.

You'll have a natural leader who needs to be able to take into consideration other people's views.

A band is essentially a team.

You don't have to be mates, you just have to work well with each other while performing and practicing and have good communication skills.

It works both ways, people aren't mind readers, sometimes you have to spell things out when they're not working as expected.
[/quote]

Communication is key.If you don't have it in a band sooner or later there will be a consequence.

Blue

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1502218959' post='3350084']
Well, just to chime in with an update.

On Thursday...

I'm meeting 2 new singers and a drummer.

We've set ten songs and we'll see what happens.

I actually logged onto joinmyband.co.uk and it took a lot of guesswork out, quite a useful little website that.
[/quote]

The site owner is not very helpful however. I was using it for a while when I hit problems. My log-in details would not work all of a sudden. I suspected a corrupted file somewhere or a hack but I got zero response to the issue. I asked for my account to be reset three times in writing. I couldn't make a new account with the same email address. I gave up.

I think it's a case of someone running a website from home that has become more popular than predicted. One day I might change my email address but not for that.

More in keeping with this topic however is this; I was once the flaky bassist that is the elephant in this room.

A couple of years ago I was desperate for something to take me out of a horrible situation - I was caring for my mum at home on a full time basis, I believe 24/7 is the txt spk way to describe it. She was unsafe on her own. I had been practising harder than I'd ever done in my life because I was tied to the house and had lots of free time. The inevitable loss of my mum was looming but I could not allow myself to feel sorry for myself. As her main carer, to do so would have been irresponsible. If I hadn't got bass as the outlet for my frustration I'd have gone completely barmy. As it is I still have bouts of anxiety and depression.

The thing that kept me focussed on what I would do after she passed on was the notion that I might be able to take my bass out and play. I had had a taste of it in my youth but stopped to devote time to my apprenticeship. Once my care duties were done, I'd be free to get cracking again, right? I had no job. No prospect of one. What was there to stop me? Well, that was the idea at the time.

I answered an advert in the paper for three older lads who were looking to get a six-piece going and they auditioned me. I was offered the part and given a set list. They were optimistic that they would be booking pub gigs later in the year with their singer who was receiving treatment for cancer. I was waiting past the time when the auditions for the other new members were supposed to be finished so I dropped into the hall where the lads regularly practice. I found they had a bass player there already! To cut a long story short, the band leader (Drummer) had neglected to let me know he had another lad lined up. There was no animosity. I was just disappointed. I had enough to be dealing with emotionally so I left quietly.

Six months later, mum was in residential care so I had opportunities to go out of an evening where previously I couldn't without getting a qualified sitter in. I got a call from the band leader to say that they'd lost their other bassist but that their singer had successfully completed his course of chemotherapy and would I still be interested. I was and I accepted.

I got the revised set list and slept on it. There were some snags to the engagement that were glossed over the first time I had accepted. They could not be ignored this time. The big one is that I no longer drive. This makes me a flaky proposition right from the off. Although I have a driver at my disposal, my house mate, I can't expect him to be always ready to take me to practice and gigs no matter how keen he is to roadie for me. I decided in the cold light of day that I would not become the band's flake this time. I remember how cut up the other lads were back in Dublin when my apprenticeship took priority and made me the flake back then.

Within a week of accepting the offer for the second time I sadly made the call to the band leader and said that it would be unfair to commit when I could not guarantee attendance at all of the practice sessions, 20 miles from here. I didn't see how I could be reliable enough for their project. We were [i]both[/i] disappointed this time.

It is hard enough to get musicians who you click with on a level that results in decent music. Try limiting your options by looking for all of your band mates in a tight radius from your home. My only hope of getting a little band together is to find members within range of a bus ride and then piggy back on another band member's transport for gigs. My days of carrying my bass to practice on a motorcycle are done!

I know.

Edited August 10, 2017 by SpondonBassed

[steantval]

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1502218959' post='3350084']
Well, just to chime in with an update.

On Thursday...

I'm meeting 2 new singers and a drummer.

We've set ten songs and we'll see what happens.

I actually logged onto joinmyband.co.uk and it took a lot of guesswork out, quite a useful little website that.
[/quote]

My previous experience of using that site has been nothing but total frustration, loads of idiots advertise on it, time wasters and people with their heads in the clouds.

[fleabag]

Its always been the voxists that kept messing our band up. Over 7 years we had 5 of the annoying bar stewards.

I was on the loose a month or so ago, because i thought our band had simply given up on crooners, then we got a call from rhyth gitwrist, that he'd found a vocalister. Myself and rhyth git were the only 2 members who bothered to turn up to see how this new guy was.

As it happned, he was a dreamer who'd told himself he could but he could do nothing of the sort. Soon after me and the other guy had seen this non singer, the other guys sent emails that they had come to the end of their tethers. 7 years together down the toilet

Thank voclasits, you effing prima donnas

[AndyTravis]

Well.

Got 2 new singers instead of one.

And a funny guy as the new drummer.

Will see how this pans out.

[oldbass]

[quote name='Damonjames' timestamp='1502185615' post='3349788']
If you are not at the same skill level (and I have had this situation) you need to have musicians that can compliment the shortfall. In my case it helped make the sound!
[/quote]

Absolutely.
We comprise a virtually silent drummer who might as well not be there (he places his indexes on top of the sticks?..eh)....a lead guitarist who is only a smidge better..and then the keys who is a cathedral organist (incredible musician, without him, well I dread to think), a rythmn twelve string/vox who's not bad, and lead vox who's okayish and me.

To say its me and the brill keys guy holding it together would be an inderstatement yet somehow this hotchpotch of talent appears to work....weird!

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='AndyTravis' timestamp='1502403515' post='3351294']
Well.

Got 2 new singers instead of one.

And a funny guy as the new drummer.

Will see how this pans out.
[/quote]

Oo! Oo! Is your new drummer Peter Griffin?

He's the first result I get when I put "funny guy" into my search engine (DD go).

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOtcOFNh9bg[/media]

I hope you lot gel and make some good noise. Best of luck to yer.

Edited August 11, 2017 by SpondonBassed

[mikel]

[quote name='oldbass' timestamp='1502427359' post='3351324']
Absolutely.
We comprise a virtually silent drummer who might as well not be there (he places his indexes on top of the sticks?..eh)....a lead guitarist who is only a smidge better..and then the keys who is a cathedral organist (incredible musician, without him, well I dread to think), a rythmn twelve string/vox who's not bad, and lead vox who's okayish and me.

To say its me and the brill keys guy holding it together would be an inderstatement yet somehow this hotchpotch of talent appears to work....weird!
[/quote]

It sounds interesting. Are you doing covers or originals?

I love it when a bunch of mismatched musicians come together and produce something just a little bit different. I have been in bands with experienced and well educated musicians and you say "Lets run through (Insert old standard), everyone know it?" And everyone plays there part as the original recording. Its nice, but its all so predictable and music by numbers.

My last band consisted of me, on drums, and I am from the Stewart Copeland/Ian Paice method of drumming. The keys player, who played entirely by ear, no musical training or ability to read music, and from a strictly Blues background. The guitarist who played a semi acoustic through a 20 watt fender amp and was a Jazz Fusion nut. A vocalist who had never picked up a mic in his life and had no idea of any music before about the year 2000. And the bassist, who's idea the band was and loved to play FUNK. We were to be a funk band. It was great. No one was told how to play there parts, or to modify there natural musical instincts, and the blend of styles was almost magic.

We did none of the Funk standards as the original recordings and funked up songs from the genres that the different musicians put forward. One of the most creatively satisfying bands I have been a part of.

[blue]

[quote name='steantval' timestamp='1502401690' post='3351285']


My previous experience of using that site has been nothing but total frustration, loads of idiots advertise on it, time wasters and people with their heads in the clouds.
[/quote]

All it takes is a few carefully chosen questions and its very easy and fast to flush out the idiots.

Blue

[xgsjx]

Well what went from a very promisingly & Keen singer last week has ended in a no show this week.
So with a gig next Friday, me & him are taking singing duties. Neither of us can sing, but we both sing better than the drummer!
Bloody singists! That's 5 this year.

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1502919571' post='3354449']
Well what went from a very promisingly & Keen singer last week has ended in a no show this week.
So with a gig next Friday, me & him are taking singing duties. Neither of us can sing, but we both sing better than the drummer!
Bloody singists! That's 5 this year.
[/quote]

You're not paying them enough in jelly babies. Try wine gums.

Seriously though, I'm inclined to take lead myself in my next band rather than go through all of the time wasters like you are having to. It helped of course that Vintage TV interviewed Glenn Hughes the other night. He's an inspirational bass/vocalist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BExpG10BH0

[xgsjx]

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1502951636' post='3354539']
You're not paying them enough in jelly babies. Try wine gums.

Seriously though, I'm inclined to take lead myself in my next band rather than go through all of the time wasters like you are having to. It helped of course that Vintage TV interviewed Glenn Hughes the other night. He's an inspirational bass/vocalist.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BExpG10BH0[/media]
[/quote]
Wine Gums! None of them have been worth that much!

I think if I was to sing anywhere near as good as Glenn Hughes, I'd need all the things he said that wasn't good. I've emptied folk clubs with my singing voice!
I know a singist who can't commit to a band. I'll see if he's interested in doing some covers for 1 evening. No commitments.