Galadrm
Senior Member
Well, I do love playing in my band, but there are a couple of things I just can't stand.
Both the guitarists in the band refuse to buy a proper tuner pedal. We gig relatively often, often enough to own one in my opinion. One guitarist has one of those dodgy clip on tuners that doesn't work half the time, the lead guitarist doesn't even own a tuner, thinks he can tune by ear just fine. Maybe he can 90% of the time, but it also requires that the whole audience to hear you tune down from standard to drop D with your 3rd, highest gain channel engaged while the lead singer is trying to do a bit of stage talk.
The other thing that I cannot stand is when they fail (normally forget) to hit their pedal for a dynamic change in the song, and then compensate by hitting it halfway through the first bar of the chorus. Their excuse is that the pedal was not near them at the time, hence couldn't press it. I quietly think 'well get in the right ****** position before a section change so that you can press your pedal right on time.'
The last straw on my temper came today when teaching a new guitarist (good friend) our originals for our EP launch, as our current guitarist has a broken wrist. Mid way through jam he kept insisting he was in tune, while I was telling him he wasn't, this debate ended with me using a tuner (god knows how I found one) to prove he was wrong. He then blamed it on the fact that his absolute tuning was out, but not his relative tuning. All the guitarists I know do not seem to care whatsoever about absolute pitch, just so that their strings are in tune with each other.
I just cant stand these habits, I am always spot on with my parts and well prepared for gigs. A bit of a rant but am also looking for a solution/discussion. I'm guessing these are just the guitarists I know and not all of them. I think if I played guitar in a band there is no way I would adopt these habits. What is the best way teach them to use their pedals properly and to convince them that the use of a tuner pedal is not an 'opinion' but a requirement.
Both the guitarists in the band refuse to buy a proper tuner pedal. We gig relatively often, often enough to own one in my opinion. One guitarist has one of those dodgy clip on tuners that doesn't work half the time, the lead guitarist doesn't even own a tuner, thinks he can tune by ear just fine. Maybe he can 90% of the time, but it also requires that the whole audience to hear you tune down from standard to drop D with your 3rd, highest gain channel engaged while the lead singer is trying to do a bit of stage talk.
The other thing that I cannot stand is when they fail (normally forget) to hit their pedal for a dynamic change in the song, and then compensate by hitting it halfway through the first bar of the chorus. Their excuse is that the pedal was not near them at the time, hence couldn't press it. I quietly think 'well get in the right ****** position before a section change so that you can press your pedal right on time.'
The last straw on my temper came today when teaching a new guitarist (good friend) our originals for our EP launch, as our current guitarist has a broken wrist. Mid way through jam he kept insisting he was in tune, while I was telling him he wasn't, this debate ended with me using a tuner (god knows how I found one) to prove he was wrong. He then blamed it on the fact that his absolute tuning was out, but not his relative tuning. All the guitarists I know do not seem to care whatsoever about absolute pitch, just so that their strings are in tune with each other.
I just cant stand these habits, I am always spot on with my parts and well prepared for gigs. A bit of a rant but am also looking for a solution/discussion. I'm guessing these are just the guitarists I know and not all of them. I think if I played guitar in a band there is no way I would adopt these habits. What is the best way teach them to use their pedals properly and to convince them that the use of a tuner pedal is not an 'opinion' but a requirement.