I quit!

DrewJD82

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Some of you may have read my whining about not having any motivation to pick up my guitar lately and I figured out why!

I had joined a cover band 2-3 months ago and long story short, the date I would join them onstage kept getting pushed back. They’ve got a long setlist and wanted me to be fully rehearsed before getting onstage, but kept getting these offers for private gigs where they were being asked to learn special sets for. I totally get it from their end, they’ve got a system down and they’re extremely efficient in rehearsals, probably the most professional cover band I’ve ever seen, really. Since they were never going to play these songs again after these gigs, it made no sense for me to learn them along with the 40+ list of songs I was already learning, so it basically became “We want to get you in practicing our normal set, but we couldn’t pass these gigs up”

Again, I get it. Some of those gigs are definitely going to turn into many future gigs as two of them are for venue owners. But my onstage date kept getting pushed back, I wouldn’t be getting onstage until late September, as per the last conversation. So I quit last night, no hard feelings on either side, guitarist totally gets it, just bad timing for both of us.

I hadn’t really thought of it much until I was talking to him, but every time I’d pick up my guitar I’d feel guilty if I weren’t practicing their songs or learning more of them. A lot of them need to be figured out in the practice room because some of them don’t even have guitar parts in them. If I started playing chugga metal riffs I’d chastise myself for not practicing the cover tunes and this is entirely why I haven’t felt like picking up my guitars lately. The second I was off the phone I was rippin’ up metal riffs and it’s all I could think about today at work.

It was literally like getting out of a relationship and realizing how much freedom you have all of a sudden! Unless a really perfect, REALLY perfect, cover situation comes up, I don’t think I’ll bother again for a while. But man have I been getting the urge to put an original metal band together again. We actually have a scene for it down here, no one is doing it to “make it”, it’s mostly dudes my age (40) that just like playing metal in a live setting. So we shall see, but I predict my musical output is about to pick back up again!
 
judas priest slayer GIF
 
Hahahah well, putting together a metal band will take some time. The drummer situation down here….there’s 5 great metal drummers here and they each play in 5 different bands already. Craigslist is barren for metal band members unless I want to join some 16 year olds. I’m going to have to do this the old school way and go snipe some members from existing bands. :rofl
 
Good for you!! When the timing in life, relationships, work, bands, etc. works out you know it, dont force it when it's not meant to be. You will probably hear from them again one day.
 
Wise move Drew 👍🏻 You are far too talented to waste your time doing cover band garbage…no offense meant, but I just don’t see any passion in those types of bands…
damn straight GIF by Shock Top

Hahaha I appreciate that, man. I really just miss playing guitar live, I figured a cover band would be the quickest way to get up there and have some fun without investing a ton of energy into the process that an original band tends to require.
 
Covers are fun. Originals are fun. Covers can be brutal and draining. Originals can be brutal and draining.

For me, it's more about who I am with and what we are doing (and how we are doing it!), then what is
getting played. I say that as a dude who grew up looking down on "cover bands." Yeah, I was that guy. :facepalm

If it's fun, then it's fun! And at 55 I now know it is we ourselves who make things fun. Fun is an inside job! :LOL:
 
Fun is an inside job! :LOL:

I learned that lesson long ago… Had two musician friends, who were perfect example of the issue. One was a super talented bass player who worked in a “up with people band“ who had access to the biggest budget coolest shit ever. He introduced me to Kurzweil.

The other guy was the most talented musician I ever met and could play anything. Perfect pitch n’ all that jazz… would only work third shift at 7:11 because he didn’t want to “compromise” … didn’t understand that “inside” biz concept at all.

Ymmv
 
I couldn’t do it. Any band I’m in that’s going into a bar or club I can’t rehearse to death. One or 2 in a room for a couple hours is ok but more than that just feels like a waste of time. Bands I’m in basically have to think on their feet. I like a date it needs to be ready by (gig date) so it forces me to learn the stuff. I’d have probably pushed to take those private gigs, too if it were me. Might have been a lot to learn though.
 
I couldn’t do it. Any band I’m in that’s going into a bar or club I can’t rehearse to death. One or 2 in a room for a couple hours is ok but more than that just feels like a waste of time. Bands I’m in basically have to think on their feet. I like a date it needs to be ready by (gig date) so it forces me to learn the stuff. I’d have probably pushed to take those private gigs, too if it were me. Might have been a lot to learn though.

Yeah, the overall idea was that I had 40+ songs to learn for the regular setlist and learning these other ones would have been adding too much to my plate, while they‘d have one more person to be concerned about learning the parts in rehearsal while they already had some headway on them. They also tend to re-write/change keys quite a bit so a lot of stuff required the guitarist showing me what he was doing. (At least he did this the legit way, not just making up his own shit, dude’s big of theory).

I hate over-rehearsing as well; once the band has the songs down the gigs are generally good enough to keep them up to par. That’s the quickest way to get me sick of playing in a band is practicing the whole set every damn rehearsal.
 
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