Fire singer or leave band?

picodon

picodon

Silver Member
Haha it must have been years since I last wrote here :)

So my colleague bassist and a guitarist friend of his started a band and they found a singer. They "hired" her without me present and on unclear terms, like come and play with us, like 95% of the starting bands I guess, which is OK until you find it's not a great team after all. We've played for about a year now.

She never took any lessons. She just plainly can't sing. She has no clue of rhythm either. (Neither does the guitarist -- it's hard when it's 2 out of 4). We never hear her well enough I guess. This may sound absurd but she's really very subdued in the rehearsal room or else there's terrible feedback. So we hear her only just. Until the mini concert a few weeks ago, where the sound was really crystal clear, unlike the rehearsal phone recordings. You could really hear everything. And she was awful. I was too embarrassed to listen to the video let alone to let anyone hear it. It was ridiculous.

I don't think a year of weekly singing lessons can solve this. I don't have the patience, also. Something must happen. The "problem" is that we get along really well. I must either convince the others to fire her. Or quit myself, which is probably what's going to happen because we're probably too nice to send her off.

I'm not really looking for advice. Please post stories that are much worse even, that would help :p
 
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Dude that sucks, I hate it for you. Sometimes you gotta be that guy, or at least you have to decide to be the one to bring it up if it bothers you that bad..

Here's mine:
I formed a thing with two newish friends, a guitarist and the other guy was doing bass/vocals but still just learning bass although doing quite well. Our chemistry is great! At thier request I ran an ad for a dedicated bass player. Found a bass player who showed up and really knows how to play, but I found him to be pushy and kinda lame for reasons. The other two guys love him because he can play bass but I already know that I don't like the guy and our musical philosophies don't align so to speak.
So they are like yay, and I'm like, booo, and dude is in the band now. Ugh.
 
I’m in a “blues” band with beginners and it’s funny how they love the 12-bar form, but have no idea how to make each song sound different from the last one. So for me, it’s really a “bluesy” situation that just isn’t fun. But I persevere because they’re willing to do the work to get gigs, and our newest booking is at a nudist community (I know it’s not going to be the pornstar fest everybody assumes it will be) but at least they get gigs 😂😂
 
Once a long time ago, we had a great singer who was one of my best friends. But, his voice started going out, so we had to ask him to take a break. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. He eventually got better and re-joined our band. Peace and goodwill.
 
I'd talk to your 'colleague' bassist in private. If he doesn't agree with your opinion, then you're likely outnumbered and its time for you to flee.
I don't think lessons for her is an answer. No band would say to the drummer, "hey you're in but we want you in lessons".
 
I'd definitely talk to the others in the band to check how they're feeling, but if the singer's bad no one will want to hear your band play. Not even a little. You'll be "the band with the lousy singer."

I'd suggest having a band meeting and make everyone watch the video of the concert. Folks often need objective evidence because we don't always understand how we sound in context, and we also tend to mentally gloss over our shortcomings. Sitting down to see and hear what your band is putting on stage might at the very least help start the needed conversations...
 
Maybe you can listen to the recording with the band present, and if she's not there you could plant the seed in the minds of the other players. Say "how good does Chanelle sound in this part?" when you know she sounds crap lol
 
Winston_Wolf said:
I'd definitely talk to the others in the band to check how they're feeling, but if the singer's bad no one will want to hear your band play. Not even a little. You'll be "the band with the lousy singer."
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This!!
She's too unsure of herself to be a singer, is my diagnosis. She will take a beer or two and then she will sing but the beer doesn't help either :( There's no number of beers at which she sings well.
 
opentune said:
I'd talk to your 'colleague' bassist in private. If he doesn't agree with your opinion, then you're likely outnumbered and its time for you to flee.
I don't think lessons for her is an answer. No band would say to the drummer, "hey you're in but we want you in lessons".
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That's what I'll do.
 
Bo Eder said:
I’m in a “blues” band with beginners and it’s funny how they love the 12-bar form, but have no idea how to make each song sound different from the last one. So for me, it’s really a “bluesy” situation that just isn’t fun. But I persevere because they’re willing to do the work to get gigs, and our newest booking is at a nudist community (I know it’s not going to be the pornstar fest everybody assumes it will be) but at least they get gigs 😂😂
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It's OK to play with beginners as long as it's a lot of fun, but how do you stay motivated to work on yourself? That is my problem with this band, and heck I'm still a beginner myself, I need to work hard but I don't feel inspired, it's as if my subconscience has already decided.

I never played nude, Bo, that looks like a great challenge. Watch out with those rimshots :p
 
Bo Eder said:
I’m in a “blues” band with beginners and it’s funny how they love the 12-bar form, but have no idea how to make each song sound different from the last one. So for me, it’s really a “bluesy” situation that just isn’t fun. But I persevere because they’re willing to do the work to get gigs, and our newest booking is at a nudist community (I know it’s not going to be the pornstar fest everybody assumes it will be) but at least they get gigs 😂😂
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Laughing with, not at.

I've seen some weird shit over the years. There's no business like show business.
 
picodon said:
It's OK to play with beginners as long as it's a lot of fun, but how do you stay motivated to work on yourself? That is my problem with this band, and heck I'm still a beginner myself, I need to work hard but I don't feel inspired, it's as if my subconscience has already decided.

I never played nude, Bo, that looks like a great challenge. Watch out with those rimshots :p
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Well, let me be the first to say, the band will be DRESSED. However, maybe I’m lucky since I have a number of other music projects to be a part of that aren’t so taxing. And TBH, with this blues band, I’m the lead singer for 50% of the time, which makes me the director most of the time. So I guess it’s fun in an educational aspect….
 
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