Markaholic said:
I tryed out for a particular band one year who wanted me to play note for note what they were doing on the very 1st practice with them! As i try to tell them.."hey let me get a feel for it first" they INSISTED i play what they were doing NOTE FOR NOTE.
Yeah I have been to tryouts for people like this too. Actually there are a lot of them out there. What the hell is wrong with those people? How can they possibly expect you to know their original songs, note for note, the first time that you ever meet them? It's totally absurd, and another reason why I am happy doing my own thing these days, because of clowns like that. I think they're multiplying too.
But I do disagree with you about a songwriter wanting a guitar player to play the song note for note, I mean that I disagree that this is always a bad thing. If it is properly explained, and time is given for me to learn it, no problem. And the funny thing is that i can learn just about any song, almost inmmediately in real time, if we set down to do it that way. In other words, two people who respect each other and their abilities, sitting down for one of them to show the other a song and how they envision it being played. I can learn it much faster like that then with some group of dickheads who just start playing it and expect you to join right in. Many songwriters have definite ideas about what their songs sound like, and I don't mind helping them to bring their ideas to sonic reality. In fact, I enjoy it. It's fun to do, it's fun to be the guitar player who brings somebody else's ideas to life. Have you ever read about Captain Beefheart, who would literally explain the songs to the players through conversation and by making the sounds himself? He would basically just "talk out" the song and he would sound out every note! Regardless of what you think about the Captain's music - personally I think that his lyrics are fantastic but can't listen to too much of the music in one sitting - it must have been a trip to watch him "explain" his songs. But as long as the songwriter is not a dick about it, I have no problems with doing the song the writer's way. Just think how many great songs might not have gotten done, if somebody kept trying to change them every time. On the flip side, I might make a suggestion if I think that I can improve a part, and it can be discussed and either implemented or not. That's also part of a good songwriting team.
As we have both seen, people who are dickheads about their music usually become apparent at the first meeting. It rarely goes any further than that, for me. I used to wonder how people like that ever find anybody to play with them. They act superior to everyone they meet. But as I have grown older, enough time has gone by where I have seen the whole progression of it all. And from what I've seen, these bands are mediocre at best, the kind of band that the locals all say are good, but when they really think about it, they don't really like them, they are just so used to having them around. Big fish in a small pond, and left behind by everybody else who had even half a chance of something better. You'll generally see the dickheads ten years later, when you go back home for a reuinion or something. They'll still be there, sweeping up after their shift at the hardware store, still wearing those stupid 80's shredder boots and trying desperately to conceal their receding hairline - and if you're real lucky, you'll catch them by surprise after not seeing them for ten years and get to hear their pathetic mumbling about some record deal that's about to happen....oh yeah, you mean the one from 1997? And the saddest part of all is that they still believe that they are waiting for that deal.
Music, more than just about anything else in life is a big circle. Nobody ever really drops off of it, but everything does come back around.
