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Hello guys, I need to vent a bit about some of my band members.
I've been playing guitar since I was 14 (24 now) and played in a lot of bands, but only recently (a year or so) I picked up drumming and singing and I started a band with some longtime friends. We are four: singer/guitarist, guitarist, bassist, drummer/vocalist 2
Things are turning out quite well! In few days we will release our first EP, which we expect to circulate quite a bit in our area (and hopefully even more). Things are looking bright, so what's the matter? Well, there are 2. I'll go in order.
1) the guitarist and the bassist are f****** DEAD on stage. We play punk/rock, so basically you have to act like crazy on the stage. Jump around, mouth the lyrics, etc. It's a lot of stage presence and it's necessary if you want to try to make it big: when you start playing in better venues, it doesn't matter if your music is good if you look like a guy who is playing in his bedroom. The singer and I are doing everything we can, but since he has to sing and I have to play drums we can't move around too much (I just can't). It should be up to the 'free' players and if you watch the famous bands they know how to do it. It's so frustrating: we told them like a hundred times and everytime they reply 'ok I'll do better, I did ok etc'. They DIDN'T. We have some friends videotaping our concerts to see what do we need to improve, and they are just dead on their feet, casually headbanging (which makes it even more awkard, it just looks like they are obliged to.)
2) the guitarist. The guitarist was a bassist at first, and started playing guitar 3 years ago. What's the problem? He's way too casual. He doesn't care about anything. In 4 years of playing guitars, the sum he invested in music is 200 euros (250 dollars) for a terrible guitar. He's good at playing, but he doesn't know BASIC stuff. He doesn't know the basic chords, he has no idea at improvising, and as I said he doesn't seem to care about his musical universe. I've never heard him say things like 'I like that amp, I'll try to save for it', 'I need to change strings so the sound will be better', 'Man, I wish I could buy that guitar.' This is just wrong. I've never meet a musician with such little interest in the thing he does. I'm really desperate on this point. He is still using a terrible guitar strap that usually you see 10 years old boys use when they start .-. When I pointed it out to him, he replied 'what's wrong with this strap?'
The singer and I are getting very frustrated at this. Our songs are good, dammit, and if we only had a cool stage presence I think we could cut it quite far. At least we could try! I don't wanna stop playing and think 'what would have happened if I had motivated people as band members?'
We are planning on having a band gathering next week and discuss this things clearly. However I fear that a simple talk can't make interest in your instrument appear from one day to another.
Sigh...
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Pretend you are in a guild in an MMO or in a BW/SC2 clan. What would you do?
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Swap out the guitarist. It sounds like you're good friends with him but for the good of the band you have to find a new guitarist. The bassist... I don't know, he doesn't sound half bad, just bad on stage. At the very worst, keep him as a session guy and have your current guitarist take over bass duties on stage.
But honestly, just lay out the bottom line, essentially everything you said in this blog. Don't let them repeat the same words they usually do, try and get to the root of what is going on and then find a solution from here. I want updates too if you're still around next week.
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Why isnt your Singer doing crazy shit when you have a dedicated one ? Out of most concerts of that kind of music i watched, the singer was by far the most active on stage.
edit: sorry i missed that your singer was also the lead guitarrist
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On June 28 2013 07:48 gaymon wrote:
Why isnt your Singer doing crazy shit when you have a dedicated one ? Out of most concerts of that kind of music i watched, the singer was by far the most active on stage.
Because he is also the rhythm guitarist, so he has to stand near the mic stand!
Sentinel, I will keep posting updates to the first message! Thanks for support guys!
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Italy12247 Posts
I'll happily play lead guitar for you guys if you play in Milan, my band's going to shit anyway :D
On topic, you could try having your singer just singing and finding a lead guitarist with good stage presence; your current guy can go on rythm. It sounds like he can't do much lead anyway.
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On June 28 2013 08:08 Teoita wrote:
I'll happily play lead guitar for you guys if you play in Milan, my band's going to shit anyway :D
On topic, you could try having your singer just singing and finding a lead guitarist with good stage presence; your current guy can go on rythm. It sounds like he can't do much lead anyway.
Ahah we're near Bologna, so a bit too far ;D
Well in that case we should just fire the lead guitarist and take a new one. The singer is just ok playing rhythm guitar and it's good at both. But it's hard to fire, because this band started with the idea of 'we're all friends, we hang out evey weekend so if we convert that in a band it's gonna be awesome, great group spirit etc.' 
We're gonna confront them next week. It's gonna be tough.
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The second one is not your problem. If you band gets big, get him a new one or ask for a sponsorship from a company. Till then, don't worry about it. The first one, talk with them, they need to act like they are enjoying it, but this also falls heavily on you as the drummer and the singer; the drummer in a rock band needs to look as if he controls the sounds and the singer needs to look like he is directing the music. The drummer needs to be on the spot and needs to have BIG motions a lot of times, the singer needs to have little ones that convey the motion of the song physically. The guitarists need to do their part by running around the stage, if that is the look you are going for. Honestly, at the concerts I've been to, the guys are pretty stationary and the music is what makes the listener happy, not gimmicks.
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You don't need 'stage presence'. You need good music, period.
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On June 28 2013 11:29 guN-viCe wrote:
You don't need 'stage presence'. You need good music, period.
That's totally not the case for all genres. OP says they do punk rock (?), an example of where just good music isn't always going to cut it.
On the other hand, I'm a folksy acoustic guy. Stage presence is less important there. Yada yada !
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The people in your band are being themselves. This unfortunately isn't exactly what you want. You have done all the friendly nudging you can do - either, you're satisfied with what they're doing, or you need to find those other people who want to play in a band with, instead of telling people around you who they need to be.
Somewhere, your guitarist is writing a blog about their uptight drummer thinking he's the best and wanting to be the next big hit and bitching about his guitar strap, as if though that's their problem. None of you are right or wrong, and unless you are exaggerating, they are ruining your dreams of going professional while you are ruining their casual fun.
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i think that bands that 'make it' end up being the ones that just want to play together. dont try and make something out of nothing, you either have it or you dont.
like you said, there needs to be that passion. not just for the instrument being played but playing together.
stage presence comes with time just go out play shows put your heart into it and have fun, if the music is even half way good then the crowd will get into it.
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EPT
