Keeping Band Mates Happy

mudslide73

pintspiller said:

vonLayzonfon said:

In addition to 4 and 5...

Particularly for cover bands, if you don't like a song suggestion, say so. Don't make everyone else learn it and keep turning up, week after week,  saying, "I've not looked at it yet."

Band practice is not the time to learn your part.

It happens all the time. Sometimes it's me.

We sometimes have opposite where some folk learn a song that hasn't been agreed by our vocalist and get a cob on when he can't sing it. Anything that requires a super high register is out but they keep suggesting them.

Also if we didn't want to play Bryan Adams's or Robert Palmer's stuff six months ago we don't now. 

vonLayzonfon

monquixote said:

Similarly I've detailed on here how I was in a band where someone set up a really elaborate song selection process involving excel spreadsheets and voting and then totally ignored the results.

Been in this situation, too. Totally not worth the effort. 

Jalapeno

MODS: Threads merged

pintspiller

monquixote said:

Similarly I've detailed on here how I was in a band where someone set up a really elaborate song selection process involving excel spreadsheets and voting and then totally ignored the results. 

I was in a cover band that set aside a practise every few months to select and list 100 songs we could/should do, try them out over a month or so, then just do the ones the vocalist picked.

ZenOvertone

Another band I was in did the excel voting system, it was rigged as band members would lobby others behind the scenes to pick the same songs, the final say was with vocalists though...

tony99

ZenOvertone said:

Another band I was in did the excel voting system, it was rigged as band members would lobby others behind the scenes to pick the same songs, the final say was with vocalists though...

understandable, most important person in the band really

monquixote

I think the best way ends up being pick songs that are popular and within the vocalists range with a veto if anyone really hates anything.

I did have one band pick a song that had a massive shred solo in it and say "I don't see what the problem is just do some shredding".

I was playing a Gretsch through a Deluxe Reverb and a low gain overdrive.

meltedbuzzbox

monquixote said:

I think the best way ends up being pick songs that are popular and within the vocalists range with a veto if anyone really hates anything.

I did have one band pick a song that had a massive shred solo in it and say "I don't see what the problem is just do some shredding".

I was playing a Gretsch through a Deluxe Reverb and a low gain overdrive.

It wouldn't have stopped Chet Atkins

Greatape

The difficulty I found was to find a way to point out what was going wrong where without the person in question feeling like you just called their mother a whore. International diplomacy would be easy by comparison.

ZenOvertone

Someone has to manage the politics, I seem to be the one urging people to see the bigger picture, you have a unit that works over a couple of years but working by managing different people in different ways, it's not a commitment issue usually but communication, slow response over gig offers, transport problems last minute that you don't find out about until you see a lonely figure struggling with a gig bag over the shoulder and a trolley holding a bass amp on the way to the gig on foot!  We will always help out but not knowing there's an issue is a far bigger problem.  We have a rhythm section that is really good but both of them have issues, replacing one would likely lead to a band stopping working as I can't see anyone else working with either independently!

fandango

tony99 said:

ZenOvertone said:

Another band I was in did the excel voting system, it was rigged as band members would lobby others behind the scenes to pick the same songs, the final say was with vocalists though...

understandable, most important person in the band really, after the bass player.

UnclePsychosis

JerkMoans said:

fandango said:

Ah, but isn’t the whole forum all about regurgitating the same old questions?

What if there were no rhetorical questions?  

What do you get if you cross a joke and a rhetorical question? 

Funkfingers

Jalapeno said:

MODS: Threads merged

That should kill it.

Parker

So I have always been the organiser in the bands I played....and I enjoyed it mostly (but also had usual grumbles outlines here). In my last band, it was the drummers baby. Problem was I was pretty critical - we were good enough to charge a decent chunk, but he kept lowballing us ‘as it was his hobby’. Nice, but actually this was a decent top up for my wage - I sacrificed at least one night a week to rehearse and very regular weekends that affected my family time - I had great fun too, but the money justified it to my wife for screwing up our weekends. You’re either professional and charge your worth, or you tootle along and do it for fun. You need to decide which side of the line you fall. He also always arranged really early set-ups as he clearly hated being at home with his wife on a Saturday afternoon. We clashed. Both remained professional, but there were lots of awks moments. 

mrkb

Funkfingers said:

Jalapeno said:

MODS: Threads merged

That should kill it.

I think it has- I can’t see what the numbered points refer to, has the merging deleted some content?

octatonic

mrkb said:

Funkfingers said:

Jalapeno said:

MODS: Threads merged

That should kill it.

I think it has- I can’t see what the numbered points refer to, has the merging deleted some content?

Content was deleted, but not from the merging.

mrkb

octatonic said:

mrkb said:

Funkfingers said:

Jalapeno said:

MODS: Threads merged

That should kill it.

I think it has- I can’t see what the numbered points refer to, has the merging deleted some content?

Content was deleted, but not from the merging.

Ah, I see now, was flouncing one of the things that happens if you don’t keep your band mates happy? Oh well, could have been an interesting thread.

Funkfingers

Any reply made to an immediately preceding post without quoting it is now stranded. Whatever sense there ever might have been has been lost.

Nikc

After reading this I have come realise the only real answer is clearly get a digitech trio - and a looper for added fun - job done

soma1975

Greatape said:

The difficulty I found was to find a way to point out what was going wrong where without the person in question feeling like you just called their mother a whore. International diplomacy would be easy by comparison.

Was what was going wrong said person's mother starting whoring?