Cocky Players!

Im really annoyed cos I asked this 2nd guitarist to join my band and play rythmn. But hes suddenly got it in his head hes a great player, particularly at solos and lead work. In a word.. hes not! He'll say listen to this and then and then claim tha monstrocity to leave his amp was "hey joe" or something! Then Ill play it perfect and he'll just ignore the fact that his version was awful.

The worse thing is he now wants 50% of the lead work! Geez, simple things like the intonation of his bends are simply poor.

How do I put him down a peg or two? Hes only been play a year but has got it into his head hes brilliant. Hes oblivious to the fact that while he mite be playing the rite notes, the resulting noise from his amp jus aint good.

Sit down with him and a couple beers and have a sincere man-to-man talk. Something like, 'Hey, you suck. Seriously. You might have potential and all that good shtuffit, but it's not showing yet. Do you want to play in my band under my terms and rock, or would you rather keep crappily funking around by yourself in your bedroom?'.

Well, that would probably be a really bad thing to say, but don't be afraid to be blunt.

Tell him that you are the lead guitarist and that you will give him as much of the guitar workload as you think he can handle, and the better he gets in both playing guitar and being humble, the more he can do within the songs.

There right. You must tell him the truth. Im sure if he will understand you. If not then get another guitarist for your band. He will just hold the band back if he is not that good !

hmm... hes just one of these players who is playing the right notes... but his technique is crap and his timing is all wrong. He played stairway to heaven and I couldnt even tell what it was!
So far as wot we need from him in our band hes capable of, a few power chords, the odd riff or two.
But hes got it into his head hes as good, if not better than me, and really am pretty annoyed.
He reminds me of me after only playing a year, but Ive come a hell of a long over the past 2 years and theres no way hes passing that off.

well he isnt a good guitar player if his technique and timing is bad. It is important that a rythem player has good timing.

Bring a tape recorder to your next practice and make a very crude recording then have a post-mortem over a couple of beers after. Tell him what he is doing wrong and how to improve it. If he has any sense he will treat it as a learning experience and you will end up with a better guitarist, though you will have to do your best not to be patronizing !

If that doesn't work, kick him out !

Originally posted by PonyOne
Heavy distortion can distort the sound of a chord so badly sometimes that the difference between an A5 and an A5sus are indescernable.

Or in some cases, the difference between an A5 and any other chord is indiscernable.

Originally posted by Axl_Rose
How do I put him down a peg or two? Hes only been play a year but has got it into his head hes brilliant. Hes oblivious to the fact that while he mite be playing the rite notes, the resulting noise from his amp jus aint good.

Sorry guys, I think you're all wrong. The best advice I could give is dump him. Fire him from the band. If he's truly as bad as you proclaim, what's the point in even discussing this? As the expression goes, 'you can't turn **** into gold'. Why bother starting with a mediocre player?

When I audition musicians, I go through tons. Guitarists are a dime-a-dozen. Don't settle until you're satisfied.


Matt

I wish drummers and bass players and singers were as common as guitarists. I wouldn't have any trouble starting a band up then.

exactly, dump him no matte rhow it hurts, i had to do it once and it sucks to do it but i will tell you now that it is going to slow you down alot man. If he is already like that i can tell he isnt intelligent and i can tell he needs more expierience and his attitude is wrong, it wont get better quickly so best thing to do is get rid of him and say sorry, look for someone that is musically mature and talented u know.

Eh, dealing with cocky players is easy. Just show them up. I tell a lot of people this, and they say "but but but but, the rest of the band doesn't realize that what I'm doing is better than what he's doing". And this point, its a simple case of.. if it sounds good, it is good. You may be playing some awesome Shawn Lane type stuff, but that won't cut it in a Metallica cover band (my last gig, ugh...).