General Music Chat

As some of you know our bass player is leaving. We are 3 peice band and I am keeping an ear to the ground to hopefully find an already established band and join up with them. Yesterday I went for an audition I had talked to this guy almost a month ago and asked him for a playlist. Well he never sent it and I assumed they were not serious and just blew it off. Last Thursday I get an email saying they wanted to audition me Yesterday so we go back and forth with emails and I finally get the playlist with a shortlist of songs I am expected to learn for the audition (no problem) I work on some of them Sat and Sunday morning I am ready. We are supposed to play from 5:pm to 8:pm I get there at 4:10 with my parts nailed and we start promptly at 5:00 to make a long story short by 5:10 I'm thinking how can I get out of here without insulting them they were frikken horrible. So me being the nice guy that I am, I endured sheer torture untill 6:45 when I said I will play one more song and then I have to go. I am sure I looked like an a$$hole but I just couldn't take it.
When I told my wife about it she laughed uncontrolably and said you have been through this before. My question is how would you guys have handled this? They did ask me if I was coming back and I told them honestly I was looking for something more structured and probably not.
Because of these situations I have a real hard time trusting people. They should have been honest with me up front and they were not. I can't help but feel how am I ever going to find another band if I don't get out there and audition and the first time I just throw caution to the wind and trust someone I get a situation like this.

We auditioned with a drummer several years ago and he was awsome.
When we finished up he said. You guys have some talent that you need to develop more (gave us some pointers that I no longer recall) then said that he felt like he was too advanced a player for our band and our style and wished us luck and thanked us for our time.

He told us the streight out truth of the matter, and we appreciated him for it. He has since come to some of our shows, helped us with our sound check. Congradulated us on our progress.

What were we talking about? Sorry!

You never know till you try. Auditions are a two way street.

I try to be diplomatic about it. If its tough I will just go into solo mode and use it as live backing rythyms tracks.

I would just say its not what Im looking for.

I hate to admit it but Ive been on both sides of this situation. I got contacted by some prog rockers a couple of years ago. I learned a couple of complex arrangements fo some standard songs for the audition. I couldve played with these guys, but it would have taken massive woodshedding on my part to get up to speed, plus I had way more live experience and couldnt figure out what you would do with this music, It was cool to kinda get the yahs yahs out playing with them, but who was going to pay to hear us do it. They said I wasnt what they were looking for. Oddly enough they did call me back a few monthes later. I told them that i wanted to get in front of people and not jsut play in the closet for personal enjoyment.

Haley I think the best thing to do is be honest. Just say this isnt what Im looking for, you dont have to say they are bad or good, cause a yr or 2 from now one of these players might come back to play with you again. If you trash them they will feel that you are an ass hole so just be as cool as possible.

Oh man...I can think of not one, but two incidents just like that.

The first rehearsal was at my house, so all I had to do was move everything into the living room. The second, and worse of the two was not too far away, and thank God there was an adequate kit already there. If I would have schlepped my jungle gym over there for that fiasco, I would've really been pissed! Oh, yeah, it was upstairs too!

These clowns were terrible, couldn't carry a tune in a paper bag! If there was a song I wasn't sure of, we'd play the cd so I could get a handle on it. No problem, until they started playing along and over it to the point where I couldn't hear the damn cd!

I put up with the total lack of organization for about an hour, before I finally gathered up the sticks I brought, and said "bye". When I got there, right on time at 3pm, everybody's watching NASCAR and slamming beers, so that probably should have given me a clue!

These situations arise because of blown expectations. You've got an expectation in your head of what the audition should be like. They've got an expectation of what it should be like. How do you know your expectation and theirs' are the same?

I think the only way to remedy this sort of thing is to either call or meet the person before the audition and get all the expectations on the same page.

We had the same problem recently with a bassist we auditioned. We made the mistake of thinking he would be as laid back as the previous bass players we had auditioned. We had set ourselves up with an expectation but we had not relayed what those expectations were to him. He came in with a different mindset than one we were prepared for. Needless to say, our expectations were not met, nor were his.

Fortunately we agreed as a band to give the whole thing a second chance, and he agreed to come back. So before the second session I had a one-on-one with him and setup what our expectations were, and he was able to clarify what his expectations were. The second session went MUCH better...


I find that in life - in general - my mood is greatly affected by how closely my expectations are met. If I expect a movie to be good and it sucks, I am disappointed. If I expect to spend my Saturday afternoon vegging out and playing video games, but the wife insists I mow the yard and babysit the kids while she shops, I get disappointed.

So why do these expectations get blown up? Because I didn't read enough movie reviews to understand if the film would meet my expectations. Because I didn't communicate with my wife to make sure of what her plans were for Saturday afternoon, and I didn't relay my intentions.

It's all about communication. If you communication your expectations then the other party has a chance to adjust their behavior to meet those expectations, or they have a chance to say, "Hey, I can't meet those expectations, so we better just call the whole thing off".


Of course - none of this addresses the issue of misrepresentation. Sometimes, even when both parties have clearly expressed their expectations, things still don't work because one party misrepresented themselves.

In that case, if it were me, and I were in your shoes, I tend to be polite about things, but I'd also speak my mind. I'd say things like, "I am used to a more structured audition environment" or "when I'm in a band I like to practice like this..."

All you can really do is share with them your expectations and tell them what you think, but in a nice way. You don't have to be a jerk about it.

Sans, they did ask me what they could do to improve and I did give them advise in an honest but tactful way.

JW, I always in a situation like this try to consider other peoples feelings and I think that I was honest also. Its hard to have all these elements in a conversation when they are all setting there looking at you. I usually prefer a one on one conversation about these very touchy subjects.

Azsticks, They tuned to E flat which is not a problem, but then they didn't know their own songs after a year, I knew them better than they did and I had just learned them. I had to tune down and none of them would stop noodleing for me to do this, The singer could not sing (sang every single note sharp) and he had to listen to every song before hand while the guitar player and bass player played along with recordings tuned to A440 even though they were tuned to E flat no organization at all.
I told them first of all they need to learn the songs in their own time and come to practice with their parts nailed and they need to tune to A440 since 99.9% of their tunes are recorded that way. If they had a diagreement about how a song went they would be able to figure it out without having to retune. We all know how difficult it can be to retune a guitar with a floating type tremelo arm (whammy bar) up and down of which their guitar player and I both have.
They indicated that the reason they tuned to E flat is because their last singer couldn't hit the notes. I told them that if the singer can't hit the notes you should probably pick songs that are within his range or think about getting another singer that can hit the notes. I am of the beleif that if you are a real singer you know to stay within your range and tuning down a half step is really not going to make much of a difference when you are singing an entire night.

Sometimes, even when both parties have clearly expressed their expectations, things still don't work because one party misrepresented themselves.

Yeah, but you're usually already married before you find this out.

LOL Colorsfade, we posted at the same time, we were both typing so I didn't see your post untill after I had already posted. I had a very long conversation with the drummer prior to the audition and told him exactly what my expectations were there was no question. He knew. I think it was really about misrepresentation on his part because afterward when I was about to drive off he came over and told me initially after we had talked he figured they weren't what I was looking for. It pissed me off that he didn't tell me that but I didn't say anything I just drove off into the sunset LOL!
I think they just wanted to jam with no consideration toward me.

They tuned to E flat which is not a problem.

The singer could not sing (sang every single note sharp)

Maybe if they start tuning A440 the singer will be right on it.

Ratsass,

hehehe I just start shredding on 220 bpms with 16th notes.


Then they ask me to leave.. J/K


Serious note: Honesty is the best policy. I would have said "Don't want to take up anymore of your time... This is not what I'm looking for... best of luck."

LOL jsantos, I seriously considered doing exactly that I wanted to so bad at about 5:10.
Honestly at first I thought it was a joke. I really thought the guy from Candid Camera was going to come out and it would have been, the jokes on you dude and we would have all had a good laugh but no such luck.

LOL jsantos, I seriously considered doing exactly that I wanted to so bad at about 5:10.
Honestly at first I thought it was a joke. I really thought the guy from Candid Camera was going to come out and it would have been, the jokes on you dude and we would have all had a good laugh but no such luck.

hehe on the flip side of this.

I auditioned a while ago with a fusion band with this drummer who won the Guitar Central national drum off. That guy was a monster.... heck the whole band had mad chops. I was clearly out of my league.

But I was just so inspired that I made up excuses to jam out more.

After 20 minutes of trying (and failing) to match Altered Dominants with Polyrythms, they politely said that I had to leave. hehe.

LOL jsantos, I seriously considered doing exactly that I wanted to so bad at about 5:10.
Honestly at first I thought it was a joke. I really thought the guy from Candid Camera was going to come out and it would have been, the jokes on you dude and we would have all had a good laugh but no such luck.

You would have started shreading and they would've loved it and asked for more.

I've been to so many auditions that were bad situations for so many different reasons. After three or four songs not getting any better it's time to just leave. Just be polite and say "Hey man you guys are pretty good but this isn't what I'm looking for" and just leave. There's nothing worse than a bad vocalist. Some people have NO IDEA how bad they sing. I feel sorry for some bands that may have good musicians and poor vocals. Poor vocals bring down a lot of bands. Everything's got to be right or it's not worth the aggravation. I love it when bands send me a set list and I show up and they DON'T KNOW a song on it. NOTHING pisses me off more than that. To me that's rank amateur bullsh*t. Three or four trainwreck songs in a row IT'S TIME TO LEAVE....