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have you ever had to kick a band member out of the band?


mbengs1

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I went through this when i was in college. i had a band and the drummer wasn't good enough and my brother was a convenient replacement for the old drummer. i also didn't like my rhythm guitarist and didn't want to jam with him. so i ended up as the only guitar player. that band isn't together anymore but we had some good gigs. anybody else had to kickout band members?

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Yes...it is the only way to solve a problem that won't solve itself. I have also walked out of bands, like in the case of yours where the other guitarist and the drummer were not able to cut it, I walked [and took the bassist with me] and started a new band. Fired a few bass players, guitarists, drummers, keyboard players, horn players, and percussionists over the years, singers too.

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You know what is worse ?

 

When everyone else in the band elects you to be the " bad guy ", who tells the " outed guy" that he's out.

One band that I was in wanted me to tell the bass player he was out of the band, just because he was not very good looking and the guy was beyond belief in his playing ability ( played like Billy Sheehan, Jeff Berlin, Jaco ) and also locked in to the drummer and pushed the drummer harder and responded well on dynamics and improvisation. Plus, he was a great guy to deal with and very humble. I hated to tell him the news and I felt very bad about it. My luck every time, I'm always selected to be the bearer of bad tidings.

They brought in a pretty boy ( it was the 1980's , go figure ) that was very very average and then they asked me not to "show boat" so much. So I quit and moved to L.A.

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Drummers get fired more than all other chairs combined. Why is that? Lots of reasons, but an important one is that most of the other guys can't play their parts by themselves and so they rely on the drummer to keep things going. Another reason is that drummers are essentially a collection of grooves. If you pick a song - one song - that they can't dissect, then they're fired because they can't cut . . . one song. I remember one band it was "Last Time" by the Stones. Another band was "Sing a Simple Song" by Sly. Another band, it was "Crosscut Saw".

 

If it's more than one song, how come y'all could figure that out at the audition?

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Yes I've had to fire a few folks over the years, in excess of a dozen. The hardest people to fire are female singers because their feelings are so raw and on the surface. The other hard ones to fire are drug addicts, because both of you know their problem is wrecking their lives and facing the truth is hard. Had to fire about four guys with drug problems. One guy was coming down from a high so hard, he fell asleep and missed a whole set - we couldn't find him anywhere. Sure hope he got straightened out. Two others got their life together, but sadly, one guy I fired committed suicide shortly after. Tough one.

 

On a lighter note, back in the early eighties, we auditioned bass players with this tune. We auditioned over forty and only two could play the tune properly so we took the one that was willing to travel. I've posted this before, it's a very simple line but easy to mix up the rhythm in the "A" section. Then the "B" section comes and most guys just gave up. But that was a long time ago before all the music university kids were on the scene. [video=youtube;sgGQxnzy1Qs]

 

In case you wanna check the chart out it's on page 167 of The New Real Book (the legal one).

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I was playing songs like this in the sixties and seventies when soul and jazz players - and a fair number of music school guys - were filling most chairs of road bands. I've said this before, but guys raised on four-on-the-floor exclusively aren't going to get syncopation. Same with those changes and progressions.

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Who here has had to do it from someone that has been around for 5 or 6 years. That is what I would like to hear.

 

One of the guys I had to fire had been with the band for years (four or five) and we considered him a friend. We worked six days a week, 48 to 50 weeks a year, so we played a lot of gigs together However, he got deep into drugs, and started hanging out with with some seriously heavy people. One day I came into the dressing room to see our town's most notorious drug dealer just chilling out with said band member. Things went downhill from there and we parted ways soon after. As I said, he turned his life around, but it was a rocky road back.

 

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I would never tolerate an incompetent player that long, nor a jerk, junkie or an abusive personality. I tolerated one guy for three years...finally he missed a band meeting and every one else said...'his time to go...'

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OK that is something else entirely. What if the rest of the band is growing and someone else isn't, he is not a trouble maker, he is a friend, and has been around for years. It really becomes more difficult. It's not something I have had to deal with before.

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OK that is something else entirely. When the rest of the band is growing and someone else isn't' date=', not a trouble maker, he is a friend, and has been around for years it becomes more difficult.[/quote']

 

That's a tough one. I co-fired a guy years ago who was super nice, super smart, and just a super guy. He was also the visionary of the band. Wasn't progressing at the same pace though. Lots of bad feelings all the way around.

 

This year, same deal, but it wasn't my decision. One of the band members threatened to quit if the member in question didn't go. I wasn't too far behind, so the leader cut him loose. It was a relatively short stay, but he had been friends with one fellow for years. I felt bad, but not bad enough to keep working with the chap. Life is too short!

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I agree with you on that statement you stated.

Most musicians don't know how to lock into a drummer very well. I was lucky one time to jam with just a drummer, the guy got me to "feel" the dynamics, get into the groove of the "pocket" and lock into everything. He taught me how play more rhythmically .... I'M m forever in debt to Ralph Bailey .👍

Drummers are criminally over looked and under appreciated in my book !!!!

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It´s just about actual situation in my band. We are not satisfied with our current drummer. We know it for months, situation get still worse, we know that we must left him out of the band but still postpone it. What are we afraid from? Maybe that we won´t find another one, so the band progress will stop.

Kicking band member out of a band is uncomfortable every time. But I have experiences from the past, that after bad member left the band, the better one will come. I convince about this fact my current band members and we are going to kick our drummer out at next rehearsal. Do you think, it´s better to do it as a whole band or only between four eyes?

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