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My Duet Experience


maarkr

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I'm not an advanced or very talented pianist, having taken up piano gradually over the past few years... but I still desired to see if someone wanted to get together for an acoustic/piano duo. A guy on CL invited me over, so I showed up and he had a nice area set up for playing. I brought a smaller backup keyboard to use, and we got it setup in the mixer. Next thing you know, he starts wangin away on some song I'd never heard. The guitar sound was loud, the low end sounded like the eq was really boosted over the 10" speakers... so he's playing this thing hard and fast and singin away. I tried to pickup the chords, but it wasn't your basic I-IV-V... then he says, "oh i usually play one step down." Well, we played a couple songs that he had told me beforehand that we would play, and I kindof knew them, but not by rote. He was quick to shout out every chord mistake I made as he was singing, as I was straining to hear my keys over the fast-paced guitar noise. After that, he started a round of "do you know this one" and played a couple of minutes of some "fast-as-hell" song while I sat trying to figure out some chords for the parade of several unknown songs he played. I prodded him for some songs that i may know, and he rattled off about a dozen songs I was not familiar with. After about 2 hours of listening to him play and trying to find some chords that would fit, I packed up.

 

I sent him an email a few days later and said that we weren't musically compatible.

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Most CL ads point out the kind of music the party wants to play. Metalcore doesn't interest me for example especially for a duo. Maybe you have to decide if you're gonna be the leader or follower, but mostly make sure propsects know what kind of music you're into.

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Some people work with you, others do not. There is no sense being in a musical endeavor that is not fun. That's why we call it PLAYING music.

 

Notes

 

more to the point, some pay attention and listen, and some are totally self-centered...we call the former musicians, the latter @$$#013$...sadly, maarkr found one of the latter. They outnumber the former a million to one, sadder still...

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I recall a story about Count Basie. When he auditioned musicians for his band, he considered attitude to be much more important than skill. Not that skill wasn't important, but if one guy had the chops to do the gig and had a cooperative, fun loving attitude and the second guy had monster chops but had a bad attitude, Basie would take the first. And whether you like that type of music or not, the Basie band always sounded great.

 

I also recall another where he got to a gig and the owner apologized that the last piano player beat up the piano, a few keys were missing, and the repairman can't come to fix it for a couple of days. Mr. Basie replied, "I just won't play those notes." - Now that's the right attitude.

 

Notes

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I recall a story about Count Basie. When he auditioned musicians for his band, he considered attitude to be much more important than skill. Not that skill wasn't important, but if one guy had the chops to do the gig and had a cooperative, fun loving attitude and the second guy had monster chops but had a bad attitude, Basie would take the first. And whether you like that type of music or not, the Basie band always sounded great.

 

 

And this is SO true. Bands are called "bands" for a reason. It's about the energy and music you produce as a combined unit. And you create that based upon the players you have. If you have a guy who plays killer solos? You probably incorporate a lot of that. If your drummer is great at reggae beats? You probably incorporate some of that. If you have different types of players, you go off in a different direction. Musical chops is just one of the necessary tools in the kit. Some of the most successful bands in history didn't have what most musicians would consider to be the best players on their particular instruments. But together they made magic happen in spite of, or most likely BECAUSE of, their limitations in certain areas. That's often where the 'art' is created.

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Kind of like a basket ball team working together. I've seen bands that weren't very good because they didn't listen to each other and work together. Whether B-ball or a group of musicians, the show off egotist can make the whole team look (or sound) bad.

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A guy on CL invited me over......... ....Next thing you know' date=' he starts wangin away on some song I'd never heard...... .....he started a round of "do you know this one" and played a couple of minutes of some "fast-as-hell" song...... ......After about 2 hours of listening to him play and trying to find some chords that would fit, I packed up..[/quote']

 

It sounds like an unfortunate experience and I have learnt that a bit of time spent up front 'screening' potential partners can save a lot more time wasted in the rehearsal space. These days I have a bit of a process I follow:

 

1 - I ask them to send me a list of 10-20 songs that best represents what they do/want to do and I send the same to them.

2 - We listen to the songs on each other's list and decide whether we like the other's selections enough to consider working together

3 - We each pick 5-10 songs from the other person's list that we either know already or are keen to learn.

4 - We then have an agreed list of 10-20 songs that we learn seperately before bringing to rehearsal

5 - If the rehearsal works well, then we have the option of working togehter. If not, we at least learnt some new material

 

May be worth a try, especially if you're a new player and need that time to prepare.

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It sounds like an unfortunate experience and I have learnt that a bit of time spent up front 'screening' potential partners can save a lot more time wasted in the rehearsal space. These days I have a bit of a process I follow:

 

1 - I ask them to send me a list of 10-20 songs that best represents what they do/want to do and I send the same to them.

2 - We listen to the songs on each other's list and decide whether we like the other's selections enough to consider working together

3 - We each pick 5-10 songs from the other person's list that we either know already or are keen to learn.

4 - We then have an agreed list of 10-20 songs that we learn seperately before bringing to rehearsal

5 - If the rehearsal works well, then we have the option of working togehter. If not, we at least learnt some new material

 

May be worth a try, especially if you're a new player and need that time to prepare.

 

not to beat a dead horse.... but it's really humorous now. I like the screening thing and I should mention that we got together a couple of years ago and talked but he was very country and I was more euro/rock and less experienced on the keys. Prob should have not even gone there.

1- He sent me 8 songs, i sent him about 5

2- I picked out maybe 5... the other country songs I told him I'm not interested in that style.

3- He didn't like my songs.

4- He added a female vocalist but would not tell me any songs she was singing, even after trying to get songs for her (see post in Solo Acts for female vocalist songs).

5- I did learn the songs he sent me but I don't play them any more.

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Sounds like he was just trying to show off, and had no interest in doing anything musical with another person.

 

Maybe you should have two or three tunes that you can bring to the table, so that you don't get totally caught up in the other person's bag. They could be easy, but reflect where you would like to go. If the other person knows them, and/or can pick them up, and play them well, then that's a start. Especially if they seem to like your choices.

 

Way, way, way back my band was looking for a bass player. I've told this one before, but hey, I barely remember, so here goes again... We would let the auditioning bass player get comfy with some easy stuff, maybe even his choice, then we would request that he listen to and play a particular song. Out of the forty or so, pretty good bass players we auditioned, only two could play the song without completely messing it up. It's easy, but you have to have a good sense of time, and a good memory to learn it in five or ten minutes. BTW we didn't provide a chart. Just for fun, see how long it takes to nail the rhythm in the verse. Hint it's two times off the beat(& of 1, 2nd 16th of 2, then on beat 3), third time starts on the one, fourth time off the beat and repeat the whole thing. Harder than it seems. And all the while Mr. Carlton is doing a counter picking rhythm.

 

Oddly enough the two guys that could play the verse also had no problem with the bridge - but only one guy could sing the song and play the bass part. Of course these days this tune wouldn't be challenging enough since bass pyrotechnics have become more common.

 

[video=youtube;sgGQxnzy1Qs]

 

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I've been trying to find a bass player to start up an oldies/rockabilly trio, similar to the Stray Cats. Auditioned a guy a few weeks ago who had no trouble playing the songs (which are all pretty simple as far as chords go). I asked him if he was interested and he said he really didn't like that style of music, saying it was not challenging enough. When I asked him what he liked to play, he told me he only likes playing old blues songs. So how is that more challenging?

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I've been trying to find a bass player to start up an oldies/rockabilly trio' date=' similar to the Stray Cats. Auditioned a guy a few weeks ago who had no trouble playing the songs (which are all pretty simple as far as chords go). I asked him if he was interested and he said he really didn't like that style of music, saying it was not challenging enough. When I asked him what he liked to play, he told me he only likes playing old blues songs. So how is that more challenging?[/quote']

 

I thought for sure you were going to say old Jaco, or maybe Dweezil's tribute to his Dad's stuff. Blues being more challenging than rockabilly - that's odd. Maybe he just didn't want to buy a string bass and learn how to twirl it :)

 

 

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There was a Rockabilly Trio that were very successful throughout the 80s and 90s but they broke up last year due to a lack of gigs. The bass player played a stand up. Some of the more modern Blues is more challenging than Rockabilly.

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