General Music Chat

I've had a few ads up around town for musicians, and have only received a couple of responses. Suddenly, I get a call from a young "guitarist" (you know it's bad when I put it like that-lol!). He told me that, although he just turned 18, he's been playing since he was nine. He talked about playing lead guitar for bands, and even hooked me up to a couple of youtube vids (the vids weren't great, but I can definitely see some potential). When we discussed what genre of music to play, he said he was "all about the classic rock", and, after spending six years living in Nashville, he had a pretty strong country influence as well.
So we got together to jam...

The first thing I caught was that he was going to be stubborn about tuning. I can tune by ear, but am usually a little flat. Even after tuning my own instruments with an electronic tuner AND offering to let him use it, he basically refused. We never did get in tune together, and spent a couple of hours playing back and forth, rather than working on songs together.

Next, we got into picking songs. I know I'm not a young guy, but I've never considered Guns 'n' Roses to be classic rock...(slaps forehead).

"Do you know any Steve Miller?"
"Never heard of it."

"Creedence?"
"I know Creed!!"

I named a few other bands and just got blank stares...

In actuality, his guitar playing has a solid foundation-he did play a lead or two, note for note from the original. His technique is decent, although his timing needs work.

The most amazing thing is that the kid is a really good songwriter! He played 4-5 originals (and sang them), and I was genuinely impressed. He's got some talent there.

While I know I don't have the patience to try and build a full time band around this, I honestly would like to work with the guy. The downside is that he calls five times a day (gad, I hate that!). Although I really hate this word, I think he has "potential". That being said, I foresee an enormous amount of work (mainly on my part) to shape him into a valuable bandmate-and keep in mind that he is 18, and has the attention span of a teenager.

Getting to the point (finally), is it really worth it, in YOUR opinion, for me to take this kid under my wing, or will it be just another case off ol' Joe working his butt off for diminishing returns? I don't have anything going right now, but at this point in my "career", I'd rather do nothing than beat my head against the wall repeatedly.

Opinions, PLEASE!!!

To mentor another is never a waste of your time. He may waste his by not utilizing the tutorial to his best advantage but your investment in another is not wasted.
The question as I see it is this.

Do you know what you expect out of the deal ??

To mentor must be a selfless act.

Just my opinion, but then you asked.

Opinions, PLEASE!!!

hmmmm. There's gonna be huge maturity gap there. What do you think the avg age will be of the other members? If it's gonna be mosly people your age, he's gonna feel odd playing your crowd - if you're gonna end up being the old-timer on the other hand, you're gonna feel odd playing his audience.

depends on the kid I guess, and whether you're up for being a mentor - but know that at some point he's gonna wanna be a rock star for his age group.

Christian A.

Mentor him just to be a mentor if you want, but don't form a band with him.
Honestly, with all the struggles you W.V.ers have, you might just wanna move elsewhere.
Or go join a blues or jazz group where age isn't a factor.

Great points, guys.

I know what I would LIKE to see happen, and that would be to form a cohesive unit...realistically, it's probably asking too much. I would love to take the oppurtunity to share my knowledge with him, but I think that it has to work both ways-in the sense that he has to want that also. He was pretty quick to try and "balance out"...in our first conversation, he told me everything musical about himself that he could think of-almost as though he was trying to validate his experience level to me. It might be difficult to back up and say "Whoa! hold on, son. You gotta few things to learn first!"
On the other hand, I do feel that he is open to learning more than what is immediately before him. Yeah, he'd like to play Staind and stuff like that, but I could probably throw a ton of classic rock at him, and he wouldn't blink (not that I would necessarily do that).

Jazz. Eeeewwww. (j/k).

It seems like the general consensus is to offer to mentor him, but leave the band situation out of it. I have to agree, and we'll see how he takes it.

Thanks folks!

Eh...if he won't tune, I won't bother. I really hate that!

As far as "mentoring" goes - I've worked with a cpl younguns, & I wouldn't call what I did mentoring, but I think I contributed to their musical knowledge, & they got to contribute to some good music.

Bottom line - you see potential. Is there enough for your efforts? Will he do his part & make the music good?

If you think it could work, give it your usual hunnert percent. If you think you need time to see how it goes, do it part-time for awhile & see how it goes. If you have too many doubts at the moment, meet him at a few open mics & see if he learns his part for the tunes, cuz after all - it'll only work if HE's willing to work.

The nice thing about mentoring a young musician is that you can sometimes learn as much as he does in the process. I have heard really good licks coming from bad musicians before. Whenever you are teaching something to someone, you are also learning.

VERY good points, guys, and I agree. Since posting this, I've put a lot more thought into the situation, and have come to a similar conclusion. I'm going to give it a try, as far as working on some music with him.

However, if I see it going nowhere fast-particularly due to his state of mind (and that is a concern, considering how he demonstrated to me how important it is for him to be "on my level"), I'm not going to waste a lot of time on it.

The roles have been reversed for me in the past. And sometimes, those people who were in the position that I am in now weren't always the most diplomatic. The trick for me now is to continue to encourage his development, without saddling myself down to something that is only going to frustrate me. I'll stop rambling now...

Thanks everyone!