Firing band members

[Stub Mandrel]

13 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

 

I find the whole thing a bit silly to be honest. It's probably the same sort of people who complain about clip on tuners being left on during gigs. Who gives a sh#t? At long as the audience and band are enjoying it, you could have a full set of Encyclopedia Britannica on stage for all I care. 

 

I'm more like 'I learn my part, the drummer, guitarists and keyboard player learn their parts. Why can't you?'

[Bassfinger]

I don't know about you chaps and chapesses, but I find the band members that moan about others, that are the most critical of their bandmates, are usually the ones who invest the least time in practice and are the most prone to dropping major musical clangers on stage. I prefer do my hoir a day minimum, then turn up and keep my trap shut, let my fingers do the talking.

[dmccombe7]

3 minutes ago, Bassfinger said:

I don't know about you chaps and chapesses, but I find the band members that moan about others, that are the most critical of their bandmates, are usually the ones who invest the least time in practice and are the most prone to dropping major musical clangers on stage. I prefer do my hoir a day minimum, then turn up and keep my trap shut, let my fingers do the talking.

I've definitely come across that myself but not always the case. I practice the set lists every day,  (now retired so its easier to find time). If i have time i'll run thru full set but usually i run thru set #1 one day and then #2 the next. I have 2 bands running and if i'm gigging at weekend i focus more on that bands set for the weekend maybe the Wed-Fri i just do that bands sets.

Even when i was working i would run thru half the songs every night after dinner.

Dave

[FinnDave]

6 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

I've definitely come across that myself but not always the case. I practice the set lists every day,  (now retired so its easier to find time). If i have time i'll run thru full set but usually i run thru set #1 one day and then #2 the next. I have 2 bands running and if i'm gigging at weekend i focus more on that bands set for the weekend maybe the Wed-Fri i just do that bands sets.

Even when i was working i would run thru half the songs every night after dinner.

Dave

I try to find time to play for at least an hour everyday - sometimes from set lists for one or the other of the two bands I play with, or simply put on a suitable album (well, just stream it through the computer) and play along to it. Partially to keep the songs in my head, but also to keep my fingers working. 

I'm also retires, and the lack of being constrained to get things done in by a certain time makes it harder to find practice time, not easier!

[dmccombe7]

14 minutes ago, FinnDave said:

I try to find time to play for at least an hour everyday - sometimes from set lists for one or the other of the two bands I play with, or simply put on a suitable album (well, just stream it through the computer) and play along to it. Partially to keep the songs in my head, but also to keep my fingers working. 

I'm also retires, and the lack of being constrained to get things done in by a certain time makes it harder to find practice time, not easier!

Mostly do it after dinner as will usualy be at home then. Its funny but i sometimes wonder how i ever fitted work into my day. LOL

Dave

[FinnDave]

9 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Mostly do it after dinner as will usualy be at home then. Its funny but i sometimes wonder how i ever fitted work into my day. LOL

Dave

My wife hasn't retired yet, so there is always a list of things for me to do….

Bass practice is never on her list!

[Bassfinger]

3 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

I've definitely come across that myself but not always the case. I practice the set lists every day,  (now retired so its easier to find time). If i have time i'll run thru full set but usually i run thru set #1 one day and then #2 the next. I have 2 bands running and if i'm gigging at weekend i focus more on that bands set for the weekend maybe the Wed-Fri i just do that bands sets.

Even when i was working i would run thru half the songs every night after dinner.

Dave

I do half an hour from the setlist, and half an hour of whatever takes my fancy.  Even when I was working it wasn't unknown for me to be awake in my hotel room at 2am with the Hofner Shorty and Tascam bass trainer doing my hour.  Bass is what I do, and aside from the safety and wellbeing of my family theres nothing more important to me, so thats the sacrifice I sometimes made.

 

Now I'm retired I walk Mini Bassfinger to school, take a loop back round my fields with the dog, then straight away do my hour.  Its rare im not done and dusted by 1015hrs.

 

The good habits of successful people...

Edited June 8, 2022 by Bassfinger

[TimR]

Practice is cheating. 

[MacDaddy]

4 minutes ago, TimR said:

Practice is cheating. 

 

Agreed. It's like getting a few episodes ahead on a boxset.

[JellyKnees]

You were upfront about it, he took it badly which is entirely his problem. Whenever I've been in a similar position, I've always tried to be fair and honest with people. It's never easy, but in general most musicians take it on the chin and move on.

 

I've only been sacked from a band once. The drummer (a college educated jazz guy with ideas frankly way above his level of success/ability IMHO) who had started the band told myself and the singer/keys player that he had another project he wanted to work on and was folding the band. I found out a couple of days later that him and the guitarist were advertising for replacements on joinmyband. The singer (who was much younger than me, and was writing a lot of the material) was pretty upset about it and she challenged him in an online chat group we had set up. It was a joy to watch him squirm and try and weasel his way out of it. If he'd just been honest and told us why he wanted us out I'd have respected him and gracefully accepted it, even if I didn't agree with him.

[nilorius]

Well, i got another way. I was invited to rehearsal to some pop-rock band, which said that they are looking for me for some time. I went to them. Asked what do they want to hear from me - very easy stuff, just over chords or more groove where bass is more noticeble, which i like better. They say - play just what You want. I thought if could show them my skills it would be better, so i quickly went in to the groove and played some interesting not so easy stuff, without mistakes. After half hour they just said - no, You are not kind of a bassist we like, sorry. I was confused and just packed and went away. Strange things happen before and after noon.

[NancyJohnson]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

Practice is cheating. 

 

All the drummers I know don't have the space to set up even the smallest four piece kit in their home environment, so the only time they play is when they're in a room with people.   They don't practice.

 

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

Now I'm retired I walk Mini Bassfinger to school,

 

Now that made me laugh. 

Dave

[nilorius]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

All the drummers I know don't have the space to set up even the smallest four piece kit in their home environment, so the only time they play is when they're in a room with people.   They don't practice.

 

All the drummers i know, think they are very good and special, but at final it is that no one can't play without metronome.

[NancyJohnson]

30 minutes ago, nilorius said:

All the drummers i know, think they are very good and special, but at final it is that no one can't play without metronome.

 

Which also makes things nightmarish when you're used to recording with (for instance) MIDI drums or live loops, especially if you're making use of cut and paste techniques.

[peteb]

3 hours ago, TimR said:

Practice is cheating. 

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, nilorius said:

Well, i got another way. I was invited to rehearsal to some pop-rock band, which said that they are looking for me for some time. I went to them. Asked what do they want to hear from me - very easy stuff, just over chords or more groove where bass is more noticeble, which i like better. They say - play just what You want. I thought if could show them my skills it would be better, so i quickly went in to the groove and played some interesting not so easy stuff, without mistakes. After half hour they just said - no, You are not kind of a bassist we like, sorry. I was confused and just packed and went away. Strange things happen before and after noon.

 

I got kicked out for 'bejng too widdly', although it was Hawkwind like improvisations and walking bass as against root notes, rather than flash slap or anything like that.

[martthebass]

2 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

I got kicked out for 'bejng too widdly', although it was Hawkwind like improvisations and walking bass as against root notes, rather than flash slap or anything like that.

 

I was also once chastised for this by the most widdly widdly tappity tappity lead guitarist.  I laughed and laughed.

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, nilorius said:

All the drummers i know, think they are very good and special, but at final it is that no one can't play without metronome.

 

I just dug out an old DAT my band at the time recorded live in our living room.

On inputting to my DAW I discovered that once I'd lined a track up with beat gridlines almost all the tracks (apart from the 2 that had tempo changes) were still in time to within a few milliseconds.

Great drummer, Matt was (and still is!). He's now working as the reference for the atomic clock.

[nilorius]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

 

I just dug out an old DAT my band at the time recorded live in our living room.

On inputting to my DAW I discovered that once I'd lined a track up with beat gridlines almost all the tracks (apart from the 2 that had tempo changes) were still in time to within a few milliseconds.

Great drummer, Matt was (and still is!). He's now working as the reference for the atomic clock.

So You think Matt is a legend ?

[Leonard Smalls]

Either a legend or a leg end!

😁

[Lfalex v1.1]

On 06/06/2022 at 11:04, pbasspecial said:

This was a great takeaway from the documentary Sidemen:

 

Top 3 Rules:

 

#2. Look the part

That's me screwed in perpetuity, then. 🤣

 

Back OT, I've been "fired" for far less than the guitarist in the OP was let go for, so I'd not be too concerned. 

 

[SteveXFR]

I've been booted from one band. I knew it was coming and was fine with it but the way they did it sucked. It followed an argument about the two guitarists insisting I needed to buy an Ampeg SVT classic, I said maybe after some gigs when I know how things are going but they insisted it had to be straight away. They then booted me a few hours later saying it was because they wanted to play 3 gigs a week and knew I couldn't do that. This was back in January this year. No one is getting 3 gigs a week at the moment let alone a new band. I'd rather they'd just been honest.  As it goes, the drummer quit shortly after and they've not replaced either of us or played any gigs.

I did get a text from one of them last month asking whether I'm in a band now, obviously I told them I am and playing four gigs a week. 

[dmccombe7]

35 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

I've been booted from one band. I knew it was coming and was fine with it but the way they did it sucked. It followed an argument about the two guitarists insisting I needed to buy an Ampeg SVT classic, I said maybe after some gigs when I know how things are going but they insisted it had to be straight away. They then booted me a few hours later saying it was because they wanted to play 3 gigs a week and knew I couldn't do that. This was back in January this year. No one is getting 3 gigs a week at the moment let alone a new band. I'd rather they'd just been honest.  As it goes, the drummer quit shortly after and they've not replaced either of us or played any gigs.

I did get a text from one of them last month asking whether I'm in a band now, obviously I told them I am and playing four gigs a week. 

Why the Ampeg SVT Classic. ? I bet they had Marshall stacks 

No guitarist should be telling any bass player what amp to use. They dont have the intelligence to make such statements. Maybe once they have their brain refitted to the head area they can make suggestions. 

Dave

[SteveXFR]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

Why the Ampeg SVT Classic. ? I bet they had Marshall stacks 

No guitarist should be telling any bass player what amp to use. They dont have the intelligence to make such statements. Maybe once they have their brain refitted to the head area they can make suggestions. 

Dave

 

No, they wouldn't play anything as common as a Marshall, they had Cornford amps. 

Basically, they saw that most bassists who play arenas use Ampeg SVT heads with SVT 810 cabs so obviously that's the only acceptable thing for me to use.

They asked which famous bassists use solid state Orange amps (that's what I use) but they'd never heard of Sergio Vega (Deftones), Troy Sanders (Mastadon) or Geddy Lee (you know).

Edited June 10, 2022 by SteveXFR