Help with an inexperienced/bad musician.

Post one of your recordings in the MP3 clinic ostensibly to get feedback on anything but the guitarist, and we can all come along and tell him how bad he is... You can pretend to be horrified.

Or, take him to the crossroads..

Guitarists..... admittedly there's a lot of them, but in my experience they have a greater percentage of suckage than any other instrument.
 
Ahhh the good old church praise band. I used to be in your shoes...then I quit because I couldn't stand to mean to the people who didn't know they couldn't play well :) My advice is, if it seriously is like you say, get someone who really knows what they are doing to come in and observe you guys while you practice/play live. If the problem is what you said, that person will have no problem picking out the guitarist as the culprit. Let him get called out :D
 
You could have Greg_L here give him a talking to. :D

What I have done in the past is to find a really good (in your case) guitarist to come in and sit in as a guest from an other church or what have you to play with your praise band and I think the proof in the pudding will show very quickly. ;)
 
I find it more difficult to deal with the "great player, bad musician" type.
You know? The kind that "knows theory" and can hit up the wankery on their instrument of choice (be it blast beats, or way too fast sweep picking) but they can't write a song for sh*t without trying to include a part that is skillfully impressive but musically terrible.

*sigh*
yes, I'm ranting.
 
Brenton said:
I was wondering how you guys would deal with this, as I am on the edge of my patience.

We have a worship team in which I play the keyboard for. We have two keyboardists, a drummer, a couple of singers, and a guitarist. Our skill level varies but as for the keyboardists and the drummer, we have a good ear and can rely on that during playing. The guitarist has been playing for about six years but still has not made significant improvement in his playing ability. He has stated that he cannot hear harmonies, could not identify any chords or chord progressions by ear, and overall doesn't have a good ear or natural musical talent.

He constantly tries to tell us that as a group we aren't together, were always rhythmically different and need to improve as a group. I've reviewed our music for about a month straight through the recordings and cannot hear the problems he is talking about because they are not present. What I do hear is wrong notes and rhythms from the guitar while the other three instruments play off of each other.

My point is this, how do I point out the problems to a person who doesn't have the ear to hear the mistakes and doesn't think that I am right?
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You might think your skill in music is your only defining characteristic, so it's important to you that others recognize and acknowledge it... and this requires publicly outing other musicians who are not up to your standards.
Long and short, if you don't like the guys you are playing with.... if even that one dude is making your playing experience that miserable, just quit and find folks that you can enjoy playing with. Is there a lot of money and a big label contract involved? Thought not. Why ruin everybody else's fun trying to impose your standards on them? They deserve to enjoy themselves too.
Remember that no matter how "good" you think you are, there's always folks that are better, and who will talk trash about you because your skills don't meet their standards. In music in general, anyone who's not as good as you is going to be a "bad musician" and anyone who's better than you is going to be "too technical". That's just how musicians think.
No need for drama, or to hurt anyone's feelings. Just quit ("Don't have time", "school obligations" etc) and that will help motivate you to find people you can enjoy playing with.
Music should be fun.
 
Who's in charge of this group, or is it a total democracy? If everyone feels as you do, then just get rid of the guy (or is he the minister's son?)
 
I don't care if they meet my standards or not. I don't step on musicians that may not be on the same skill level.

What I do care about is musicians who doesn't have musical experience or an ear trying to dictate and tell everyone else what they're supposed to do. We all like him as a person but he is stepping out of line as his position as a musician in the group to the point where he is publicly commenting problems on our church website and it must be dealt with.
 
Brenton said:
I don't care if they meet my standards or not. I don't step on musicians that may not be on the same skill level.

What I do care about is musicians who doesn't have musical experience or an ear trying to dictate and tell everyone else what they're supposed to do. We all like him as a person but he is stepping out of line as his position as a musician in the group to the point where he is publicly commenting problems on our church website and it must be dealt with.
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Well then, simply log off of here and go tell the guy that what he is doing isn't cool and he needs to stop. It takes some balls but it's a simple resolution to this simple problem.
 
guitaristic said:
Well then, simply log off of here and go tell the guy that what he is doing isn't cool and he needs to stop. It takes some balls but it's a simple resolution to this simple problem.
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Or just have gutaristic email him anonymously, telling him he is not doing right. Maybe he will think it as divine intervention...
 
I have to wait til sunday lol. Then we can cry together, pout a little, and take it out on the instruments.
 
guitaristic said:
Well then, simply log off of here and go tell the guy that what he is doing isn't cool and he needs to stop. It takes some balls but it's a simple resolution to this simple problem.
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There ya go. If everyone else in the band feels the same way then do it together- you'll have the upper hand if things get violent! :D
 
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