General Music Chat

Makes me wonder if I shouldn't just go back to 'doing it all myself' in the studio.

Already documented the issue with Instant Karma's rehearsal space. Haven't heard back form either local rehearsal space place, but doubt they are in our budget at this point. That means endless equipment set-up/breakdown for our weekly rehearsals.

Last night had my 4th rehearsal with the acoustic act. The mando player has only made one of the practices - that's the reason they came looking for me, to be able to have 3 guys for gigs when the mando player can't make it.
The set list is 1/3 originals from the other guitarist, plus some older cover tunes, plus some mando instrumentals (bluegrass, celtic) when that guy shows up.
Anyway, during practice last night the other guitarist started out by saying 'I'm in a slow mood tonight', but that really didn't affect the song speeds - and thats the problem, this guy is really not used to playing with others and his speed varies like a yo-yo. Me and the bass player (his brother) told him, and he got defensive at first, saying 'I want that part to be faster', but it was more than that, his rhythm guitar playing would skip notes, throwing the tempo off, leaving me and the bass player to 'catch up'. Or he would speed up/slow down multiple times during a chorus or verse. He also does most of the singing and sometimes he is just so off-key that I cringe when I think of telling friends to come see us in September at our next booked gig.
Even these few practices have let me open up my acoustic lead playing skills, but leave me wanting more. There is basically no singing-harmony in any of the songs - neither of the others can really do harmonies, as far as I can tell. I introduced one irish song (The Night Pat Murphy Died) into the set list last night and their singing along in the chorus showed that singing in more-or-less unison is going to be the best they can attain.

I'd quickly call it quits with these guys if a better opportunity came along - or at least tell them I'll be glad to play the Sept gig and fill in, when they need me for a paying gig. The other guitarist keeps mentioning various open mics that are not suited for our music, or for places looking to hire bands for full gigs (we're still working on the first 1 hour set of songs). And these possible gigs are all typically in the city, which is a pain for me to go to.
Well, thanks for reading if you made it this far, just needed to vent!

Your last sentence is telling. If it's a pain to go to the city to do a gig it might be better to back off the band thing. Bands play in cities, sometimes not in the best neighborhoods or it's far from your house, but that's where you got to go to play music for people. The fun should outweigh any issues; if it doesn't, time to quit.

Stay with it Mike and you'll find
the group your looking for.

Timing problems, I might be out of style,
but today I don't like to play with bands
without a click track, there is no guessing
about the time, and whose in time and who
ain't.

Your right bands are frustrating. This new band
I joined I'm totally committing to, and keeping
my mouth shut (so far so good), and I'm going
to make them sound better then their record.
I've decided I won't get mad about anything, and
after this group is all over I'm not going to leave mad.

Good Luck Mike, bands are tough, you've got to make
them work, if you can.

Your last sentence is telling. If it's a pain to go to the city to do a gig it might be better to back off the band thing. Bands play in cities, sometimes not in the best neighborhoods or it's far from your house, but that's where you got to go to play music for people. The fun should outweigh any issues; if it doesn't, time to quit.

There's a ton of places around New England these days for acoustic acts - although many require that you have your own sound system. Not just in the city, either. I can make it into downtown Boston in 25 minutes when traffic is good. These guys practice outside the city, I can make it there in 25 minutes on a weekend day, but last night took 45 minutes due to the residual rush hour traffic.

The 'fun factor' is definitely a consideration.

If its not fun then there is really no reason to do it.

I played in a bluegrass/gospel thing for a while and the singer was just like you described, he would leave out sections of songs one minute then the next put them back in, come in off the beat, for a while it was kinda fun cause it was a challenge to change things on the fly, but I quickly got bored with it.

The thing you said that stuck out to me most, was the fact that you didnt feel good inviting friends to come see you in this group.

I would just do the Sept gig, if you have committed and then quietly drop out if it were me, like you said maybe call me if you have something paying. But for me I wouldnt play in any situation that I was embarassed to be seen in, and that I had doubts about.

Good Luck

PS my band doesnt rehearse much these days, but when we do I have to set up pa, move my furniture around the whole deal, but its really not that big of a deal for me, cause I do it at my house these days. So no travel involved, after having traveled up to an hour and a half to play with others thats a bonus in itself at this point.

I'll keep that September advice in mind, John. Who knows what else may come up in the next month, anyway.
The Sept thing is to be the 'feature band' (opening) at an open mic night - yah, non-paying, what's up with that? Depending on the turnout of other performers, I may do a solo set myself.
They said when they did this 2 weeks ago there weren't more than 15 people there including the other performers - this was outside with a decent microbrew pub around the corner. I think they started too late (9pm) to keep dinner-goers around. Area is hopping (big biotech area) during the week, not so much on Saturdays.

I'm with JW . Day jobs are for sucking, bands are for fun.
You can be psychotically committed to a band project, but it still should be fun.

That's my .02 anyways.

I'm with JW . Day jobs are for sucking, bands are for fun.
You can be psychotically committed to a band project, but it still should be fun.

That's my .02 anyways.

Mike, I agree with JW, Sans and the rest of the guys. If you have doubts commiting 100% to a project, deep down inside it's probably not what you want. You should be looking forward to practice and performance, not dreading it. Good luck!

This takes limitless patience. Yeah I get frustrated, but these days it's not with the music so much as it is with lack of venues and disrespect of PAYING for services rendered. As long as we continue to rehearse regularly, play a few gigs when we can, move the material forward, do some studio work occasionally, I'm happy.

Yesterday's practice with the trio guys was a little better - the 'owner' of the group has taken our comments regarding his speed issues to heart and is attempting to smooth out those problems.

Meanwhile, I've had a couple more inquiries from my CL ad, so will see where things go. Tomorrow night is Beatles band practice, first one in 2 weeks, need to figure out what we are going to do about a practice space. I heard back from one place, a small room (less than 300 cu ft) going for $440/month - out of our budget until we are gigging regularly.

Find a local place and offer to host open mic there every week. If it works out you'll get to rehearse and store gear for free. I did this for nearly seven years, met a lot of musicians, honed my improv skills and put two bands together. The Farleys never rehearsed for the first five years of our existence, we just performed at open mic.

Beatles tribute work requires serious practice time, not open mic/in front of people work. That would work for the trio, but that's just acoustic guitars anyway.

I don't know, the songs are all more than 40 years old, if everyone does their homework you should be able to show up and play them. No one really cares what you do at an open mic, trust me. Performing forces you to get it together quicker. The longer you spend rehearsing the less likely you will play out.

I never heard of anyone showing up at an open mic with 2 sets of keyboards, 5-8 guitars, having all their multi-part harmonies (sometimes all 6 of us are singing) down just from practicing at home ....
Sure, if we wanted to sound like a crappy garage band, we could do it and would never progress. How many open mics let you start and stop songs to go back and work on parts of songs, or stop and go over the harmonies acoustically? '40 year old songs' may sound like 'oh, easy, I can play Back In The USSR, Saw Her Standaing There' .... but to do the songs well, and accurately ...

Now IF we could find a club that would let us set up our stuff and do this every week - and that we could be assured that our stuff would still be there in 1 piece each week - that would be great! Know of any places north-of-Boston?