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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!
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!
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…
