How should I handle un-serious band-mates?

Originally Posted by: maggiorBy "veto" I meant you get to unconditionally throw out one of the choices. He gives you a list of 3 songs, you get to say "no" to one of them...no questions asked. He'll have to pick another song to replace it with. At that point, you are done.

I wouldn't be so quick to disreguard "boring" guitar parts...I say this from experience. In reality, there will be songs that you play that you just love to play, and other that just aren't very exciting. Just like life - every moment is full of excitement...there are peaks and valleys.

You can find things to do to make boring parts less boring. Sometimes the boring songs are fun, because you can step back and relax and really enjoy the groove playing with the band! When you're part is difficult to play, you can't afford that luxury. When you are playing in a band, remember that it's not just the sound you make, but the sound of the entire band! When a band has a good groove going, it can be fun just banging on a tambourine!

As an example, a song we are doing now is "Honky Tonk Women". The rhythm part of this song is not very exciting...G, A, C, and D. Open chords...ho hum. However, this song has a really cool groove to it. By using some different chord voicings and fitting my strumming and feel into the groove of the "lead" part, it's fun. Still not the world's most exciting song to play, but I managed to take a boring part, make it more interesting for me, and really integrate it into the groove. This is a way you can put your stamp of creativity on the song even though it's a cover.

Good to hear you're building up your endurance with barre chords. That will help your playing a lot!

I agree that there are songs that are fun to play and songs that aren't as much fun. For me, stuff like "Smoke On The Water" and "Whole Lotta Rosie" are fun to play, or even "Hold The Line", despite its verse guitar parts being quite hard to get the rhythm right on. What do those songs have in common? All of them feature at least one awesome Riff, and I LOVE playing that kind of Riffs. If I had full authority in my band that I'm trying to put together, the repertoire would be nothing but Riff-Rock :)

I'm going to start looking for some other people to play with. I've got a few ideas already, but I won't rush things. I don't mind if I have to be the band leader and the person in contact with venues. That'll be fine with me, as long as everyone else contributes in some way as well :) I just don't wish to sing if it can be avoided. It'll probably be for everyone else's best too :)

I agree with you that it's all about the sound of the band as a whole, not just the individual member. There are some great songs where the guitar is very scarce, that still work, because of the execution. In fact, sometimes it's more about what certain band members don't play than what they do play. "Hold The Line" only really features a prominent guitar Riff during the Chorus, but it works and quite possibly makes the song that much better as a whole.

I also agree on the groove part. "Summer Of 69", the first song we agreed on, has two chords during the Verse (D5 and A5), and the Chorus has 4 (B, A, D and G), but the Chorus' rhythm is pretty fun to play anyway. Then comes a difficult arpeggio part, and the verse again. After second chorus, the bridge comes along with 4 new chords, possibly in a different key, and it's pretty okay as well, and finally, there is the arpeggio part again, with a solo on top of it. Over all, it's not that hard to play, and the verses could be more fun to play, but the sum of all parts makes it worth the trouble of learning it...

I'll try suggesting the veto idea, and hopefully get somewhere soon... If not, it's time to find someone else.

Originally Posted by: KasperowI also agree on the groove part. "Summer Of 69", the first song we agreed on, has two chords during the Verse (D5 and A5), and the Chorus has 4 (B, A, D and G), but the Chorus' rhythm is pretty fun to play anyway. Then comes a difficult arpeggio part, and the verse again. After second chorus, the bridge comes along with 4 new chords, possibly in a different key, and it's pretty okay as well, and finally, there is the arpeggio part again, with a solo on top of it. Over all, it's not that hard to play, and the verses could be more fun to play, but the sum of all parts makes it worth the trouble of learning it...

I'll try suggesting the veto idea, and hopefully get somewhere soon... If not, it's time to find someone else.

I think you get the idea! As far as the arpeggiated part - I still have trouble with that too! I've gotten better - the key seems to be being able to accurately hit a particular string on command without hitting others. Consistency is hard...

BUT, don't let that prevent you from doing the song...if you have to, fake your way through that: strum it with downstrokes, abbreviate the arpeggio. I bet you could come up with a way to fake it that sounds pretty good. In the background, work on improving that skill.

Originally Posted by: maggiorI think you get the idea! As far as the arpeggiated part - I still have trouble with that too! I've gotten better - the key seems to be being able to accurately hit a particular string on command without hitting others. Consistency is hard...

BUT, don't let that prevent you from doing the song...if you have to, fake your way through that: strum it with downstrokes, abbreviate the arpeggio. I bet you could come up with a way to fake it that sounds pretty good. In the background, work on improving that skill.

That's what I've been doing so far. I've found that it becomes remarkably easier to play if I only play the highest notes (the ones on the E-String for the first half and the notes on the B-String for the second half, then repeat) and just throw a modulation effect on top. I haven't figured out which one gives me the best results, but I really can't hear any actual difference between this and the full arpeggios when I'm playing it. Adding that Modulation Effect is just a bit hard without the right pedals though. Luckily, I get money in just two days, so I might just go check out some gear soon :)

Learn your basics before you move on. I use to have a 1 hour lesion every Saturday morning. As I remember D and C was my first two chords. That's all I had to practice so that was my week, making and letting go so those chords. Next Saturday I got another chord because I had D down. It was boring!!!! But in about 2 months I could make the shapes, not so they rang right when my fingers landed on them, but my fingers knew where they were going. F and Bm took longer.

While all that " " <-- insert you own word(s) .................. It's worse not being able to. This is truly one of those things that the longer you put it off, the longer you hinder yourself.

I use to play a lot of songs I really didn't enjoy playing, but watching the crowd react and enjoy it was cool. So I started to enjoy them, kind of surprised me.

Originally Posted by: haghj500I use to play a lot of songs I really didn't enjoy playing, but watching the crowd react and enjoy it was cool. So I started to enjoy them, kind of surprised me.

Good point! I haven't experienced this yet, but I hope to! I can see this happening though, it makes sense.

Originally Posted by: haghj500Learn your basics before you move on. I use to have a 1 hour lesion every Saturday morning. As I remember D and C was my first two chords. That's all I had to practice so that was my week, making and letting go so those chords. Next Saturday I got another chord because I had D down. It was boring!!!! But in about 2 months I could make the shapes, not so they rang right when my fingers landed on them, but my fingers knew where they were going. F and Bm took longer.

While all that " " <-- insert you own word(s) .................. It's worse not being able to. This is truly one of those things that the longer you put it off, the longer you hinder yourself.

I use to play a lot of songs I really didn't enjoy playing, but watching the crowd react and enjoy it was cool. So I started to enjoy them, kind of surprised me.

I have to agree with Rich... Playing something, anything really, to get the crowd moving would be awesome. But even so, I just know I will never be satisfied with just playing covers. Then again, lots of successful bands have played covers. In fact, I can't even count how many bands I know that started out with playing lots of covers, so I suppose I should just settle for playing covers to begin with. I'm going to try and find a few songs that give a good over-all idea of what kind of music I want to play, and then learn to play those songs, and find someone who wants to play the same kind of music and take it from there. On that note, I'm still in the process of exploring my style, but since my tastes in music are pretty wide (from Blues to Hair Metal is a pretty wide array of genres, I'd say). I think the list of songs that define the kind of music I want to play is going to look pretty awesome :) Let's just hope I'm not the only one who wants to play the kind of music that's going to end up on that list :)

Haghj500 actually suggested that, but I agree...we are all in violent agreement :-).

Understood that your ultimate goal is to write and perform your own music - no problem with that. Doing covers to start with though gets you moving and learning other skills, like playing and communicating with other musicians.

Dream Theater, Primus, and Queensryche all have done covers...quite good ones!! All 3 of these bands are very progressive (or were at one point) and have developed their own unique sound.

I think you are on the right path.

Originally Posted by: maggiorUnderstood that your ultimate goal is to write and perform your own music - no problem with that. Doing covers to start with though gets you moving and learning other skills, like playing and communicating with other musicians.

Dream Theater, Primus, and Queensryche all have done covers...quite good ones!! All 3 of these bands are very progressive (or were at one point) and have developed their own unique sound.

I think you are on the right path.

Apparently, so did Deep Purple on their first albums, before "In Rock" transformed their sound into the sound they're known for. Plenty of other good bands started with covers too, and still keep them in their setlists. Slash has "Immigrant Song" in some of his gigs before "Paradise City", GNR started with covers and still plays plenty of covers during their shows, Pretty Maids (a Danish Hair Metal band who never quite reached the success they aimed for, yet have still released more than 10 albums) did Thin Lizzy's "Please Don't Leave Me" and during their opening set for Aerosmith, they threw in "Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2". And that's just off the top of my head. Deep Purple are also a great example of the two different kinds of covers. "Come Together" sounds pretty close to the original, while "Help" is a slowed-down, almost sad-sounding cover of the original up-beat song. All in all, lots of good bands have played covers and still do. And after all, there are some songs I think could be fun to play covers of, so if I start with those and move ahead from there, I might just pick up a couple of tricks along the way. I'm not too keen on learning to play solos exactly as on the recording. The recognizable parts, yes, but whole solos? Not really...

So, I just tried writing down that list of songs that I like and that help define my style (and in most cases, that I could actually see myself enjoying playing Live...). Turns out that said list is a bit longer than probably should be. Then again, having a list of 73 songs (that's not finished yet, by the way) gives me a good place to start :) I can already play a few of the songs, and some of the songs are ones I'm in the process of learning. The rest, well, I'll have to find out which ones are easy enough to start with. The songs by Deep Purple or Søren Andersen on my list generally seem to have some simple riffs, so they might be a good place to start, while some of the more complex stuff might have to wait...

A few of the songs on my list right now aren't exactly the most famous either, but I believe that a well-done cover can change that. Just take Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy's "Please Don't Leave Me". Until a week ago, I didn't know it was actually Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy that wrote it, because the radio always plays Pretty Maids' cover of it, which rocks a bit harder, and gets more people dancing. So there's always a chance that people will actually come back time after time, hoping to hear a certain well-done cover :) So I'll take it slowly and learn as many of those 73 songs as possible, and hopefully learn from each and every single one of them :)

Well, I just got a message from the Bassist. Long story short, he has (after almost a month has passed since last time we talked) somehow come to the conclusion that there's a conflict of interests tbetween the two of us... He made it very clear that he only wants to play music that features simple basslines and preferably without guitar solos, while I would prefer to play music that feature great awesome guitar riffs and cool solos (not necessarily limited to guitar solos). I don't blame him though. We're different people with different tastes. I'll just keep practicing until I'm truly ready (hopefully within the next two years...), and then I'll form a band and play gigs... And have fun. I must not forget to have fun. None of us must forget that :)

On the bright side, I now no longer need to be aware of him when I get back into starting a band. In the meantime, there are still some technique to be improved and plenty of songs to be learned from GT, Tab Books and Rocksmith, and Rocksmith 2014 just added some Slash-tunes a few weeks ago, so I've got plenty of stuff to learn. "Back From Cali" is pretty fun to play, despite not being one of my favorite Slash-tunes, so it's definitely going into my daily schedule (and possibly setlists). It's also easier than most other songs on my list, so all's good :)