Guitarists... why are they such knackers

[Dankology]

14 hours ago, spacecowboy said:

he changes key by using a pitch shifter instead of playing the new chords in different positions

 

Surely this sounds horrible - or has technology advanced greatly?

 

Bit of a red flag in either case though.

[spacecowboy]

2 minutes ago, Dankology said:

 

Surely this sounds horrible - or has technology advanced greatly?

 

Bit of a red flag in either case though.

Nah you’ve got it in one, it sounds like he’s using a pitch shifter so it sounds comical, I’m shaking my head just thinking about it

[iconic]

Not wishing to generalise.. 

 

...which always means I will😉

 

I find in my 'sphere of influence' those on bass tend to be the more cerebal, thoughtful, organised type, which I see as pros. More practical engineering wise too. 

 

Con wise, the bassisti tend to be more 'anoraky' about their gear and always chasing 'the tone'.

They usually own more examples of their 'stock in trade', more amps, flit between strings makes and types, proper gear sluts....guitarerers seem more satisfied with their gear, or maybe not so bothered.

Strat or Tele, 9s, 10s or 11s, and either love or hate Micheal Schenker. 

 

That said, guitar playing mate of mine has 14 guitars and an ex automotive Research and Development engineer, can take or leave Michael Schenker, so what do I know🤔😉

Edited May 2, 2023 by iconic

[iconic]

15 hours ago, spacecowboy said:

....can't use chord sheets 

 

 

 

 

I think that's enough, sight reading is tough for many but....

[diskwave]

Man I had 40 yrs of this...where to begin. Guitarists are no diff to any other musician, there's good and not so good. Ur situation is doubly tricky cause two gits plus keys with a left hand pounding, the whole show is gonna sound like mud unless you can find guitarists who know when to back off and then know where to shine. Ive worked with ur setup and unless the gits know when to do this it will become a volume P!!!!!! contest real quick.

 

You need competent sensitive musicians who ain't gonna play bar chords over everything and who know when to stop playing. Its probably the tallest order in getting a coherent multi instrument band together and it's not easy cause there simply are not that many competent guitarists in the pool.

 

In all my years I've probably only played with a tiny handful of gits who can do this, and they could all read the dots.

 

Best

[iconic]

38 minutes ago, greavesbass said:

 

You need competent sensitive musicians who ain't gonna play bar chords over everything. 

That got my interest, I'm trying to learn guitar....as opposed to playing on top three strings or CAGED chords? 😎

[BigRedX]

Bad guitarists are no worse than any other bad musician. Get rid ASAP, because by keeping them in the band your are only enabling their bad habits. If you kick them out (and tell them why you are kicking them out) then maybe they will eventually learn, or stick in the environment where they are currently best suited - playing by themselves at home.

[fleabag]

Oh my.

Who said you only need one gitwrist.  We have 3 of the f@ckers.   To be fair , one of them also plays keys. All of us play to a decent pub / covers standard.

My self and one of the gits were in a previous band , too.

 

Strangely, we all get on well.  Who wudda thort.

[TheGreek]

It isn't as if gits are a rare commodity  - part ways and audition the other 5million...for the one space.

[asingardenof]

I'm not the most technically gifted musician, so when I was auditioning for my first proper band (my current one) I worked my butt off to learn 20+ songs in 3 weeks in my spare time, which with my various other commitments was not the easiest task. To have done nothing in a month is just unacceptable, however talented you are, as is just not turning up to rehearsals, so I reckon get shot of both of them and find some other folks who are actually prepared to commit.

Edited May 2, 2023 by asingardenof
Word choice

[nige1968]

Nothing to add to the general knowledge pool about guitarists, but would like to give kudos to the thread title. Made me smile, and there's not enough of that around.

[Boodang]

Now you've moved to Warwick do you get free bass guitars? 

[Boodang]

We've just taken on a second guitarist with some very irritating habits. He treats rehearsal time as 'time to start learning the songs', although after a friendly word that has hopefully changed. But most bizarrely, and a first for me, he reads the charts from an ipad which he props up on top of an amp in the rehearsal room against a wall, then faces the wall with his back to the band! Quite comically, our keys player waves at him with futile gestures to try and direct the nuisances of the song whilst the guitarist carries on in ignorance reading his chart. I've loaned him a music stand which seems like a revelation to him.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Boodang

[Count Bassy]

22 hours 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! 

And probably that of the bass player as well!

[Waddo Soqable]

4 minutes ago, Boodang said:

We've just taken on a second guitarist with some very irritating habits. He treats rehearsal time as 'time to start learning the songs', although after a friendly word that has hopefully changed. But most bizarrely, and a first for me, he reads the charts from an ipad which he props up on top of an amp in the rehearsal room against a wall, then faces the wall with his back to the band! Quite comically, our keys player waves at him with futile gestures to try and direct the nuisances of the song whilst the guitarist blindly carries on reading his chart. I've loaned him a music stand which seems like a revelation to him.

It's a kind of modern version of "shoegaze"  

[snorkie635]

On 01/05/2023 at 17:24, Waddo Soqable said:

Get the duff guitarist a capo? 

Or hire Boris Johnston? He already uses one.

[snorkie635]

2 minutes ago, snorkie635 said:

Or hire Boris Johnston? He already uses one.

 

[spacecowboy]

2 hours ago, Count Bassy said:

And probably that of the bass player as well!

Nah I’m sure he sucks at that bit, no left hand…

[nilorius]

Nothing to do with this, they are, they was, they will be, just like dinosaurs. We just have to live with this, it's ok !!!

[Downunderwonder]

12 hours ago, iconic said:

sight reading is 

a completely unknown skill for many.

[Waddo Soqable]

1 hour ago, snorkie635 said:

 

And he does backing vocals by the looks 👍

[nilorius]

6 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

And he does backing vocals by the looks 👍

Praise the Lord.

[Waddo Soqable]

12 minutes ago, nilorius said:

Praise the Lord.

Or the other bloke.. 👿

[nilorius]

10 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Or the other bloke.. 👿

You mean Joker or Hell lord ?

[Geek99]

On 01/05/2023 at 17:19, spacecowboy said:

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?

I think your fears are justified 

guitards are ten-a-penny, find others 

 

i