Am I being unreasonable (singer issues)

RedRabbit · September 2013

mike257 said:

There's a few threads over on Basschat discussing singing whilst bassing, with some good pointers on practice methods and plenty of real world experience shared , might be worth a look for him!

Missed this before. I'll check them out and send him a few links if there's anything I think he'll benefit from.

Cheers!

BenSirAmos · September 2013

digitalscream said:

we're on the same team.

We are on the same team, so we should be working on delivering a show for the audience, not calculating whether some other band member is perfect, in our opinion. Everybody has an opinion - and those opinions are valid and welcome. It's just that I want all band members to focus on delivering a show, not focus on whether I can reproduce a recording.

digitalscream · September 2013

BenSirAmos said:

digitalscream said:

we're on the same team.

We are on the same team, so we should be working on delivering a show for the audience, not calculating whether some other band member is perfect, in our opinion. Everybody has an opinion - and those opinions are valid and welcome. It's just that I want all band members to focus on delivering a show, not focus on whether I can reproduce a recording.

I wasn't talking about reproducing a recording, and I think you know that. Whatever...

Guitarse · October 2013

I worked with a bass player like that...kept playing the wrong notes and coming in at the wrong places. It was never his fault apparently. He kept blagging his way through the songs (covers) and saying he's making it his own! A bullshitter, basically, so I walked!

With playing covers, you have the original song as a blueprint, so there's no excuse for not listening to it, and if it's not going right, just get him to listen to it at band practices and show him how it goes.

Give it another couple of rehearsals and if this guy can't accept that he's getting it wrong, get rid of him. Sounds harsh, but if he's going to keep holding the rest of you back, it's time to look for another singer.

dogload · October 2013

Guitarse said:

With playing covers, you have the original song as a blueprint, so there's no excuse for not listening to it, and if it's not going right, just get him to listen to it at band practices and show him how it goes.

I couldn't agree more. I think this problem is partly a result of the internet providing easy access to lyrics, which make singers (and sometimes musicians who just download tab instead of listening to the actual song) lazy.

Edited due to piss going off the boil.

Bidley · October 2013

dogload said:

I couldn't agree more. I think this problem is partly a result of the internet providing easy access to lyrics, which make singers (and sometimes musicians who just download tab instead of listening to the actual song) lazy.

Edited due to piss going off the boil.

Disagree. The resources available now are brilliant for learning songs. Now people don't have to wing it by playing what they think the band they're covering is doing. Learning to play stuff perfectly by ear is a nice exercise and absolutely a massive asset, but it shouldn't be a prerequisite.

dogload · October 2013

I'm not dismissing the usefulness of online facilities (indeed I have used them myself) but in my opinion they shouldn't necessarily be the first port of call. When learning something isn't it better to actually listen properly to the actual song? I know it's not a perfect analogy, but you wouldn't paint a landscape without having a good look first. I have had to listen to far too many examples of kids learning songs from online tab and not really understanding what the actual tune is.

To be honest, my post was largely based on a rant about singers not learning songs and lyrics without listening to the original song (and in particular my original songs), choosing to rely on internet sources for lyrics. In such cases I do think it is better to grab a pen and paper and listen.

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Am I being unreasonable (singer issues)

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