simple_praise
10-10-2007, 10:36 PM
well, tonight it all came to a head...
If you remember from my other thread, we have been having problems with our Lead guitarist, his ego, and not serving the song but wanting to be the "star"-playing constantly, etc.
Well, we have band sheets that the Worship Leader and I put together to define parts for each person in our band..we have 5 vocalist, a drummer, a bass player, an acoustic rhythm guitarist, myself on Electric Rhythm guitar, and our lead player.
On a song last week, we did "Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord" by baloche. I did the arrangement and we follow the style of one of the recorded versions where the Acoustic Guitarist plays by himself, drums play symbols quietly, bass joins in and the whole band cranks up the energy when we hit the chorus. All is well in practice. Well, Our lead player, let's call him BOB, plays a "solo" during the quiet intro part of this song and proceeds to play lead licks throughout, over the top of the vocalist.
Our band leader called him out on it one on one , brother to brother. We've been working for months to get him to find ways to add accents to the songs as lead, by using unique voicings, etc. to spice it up, exactly what you'd expect (I think) for a lead player to do in a band with our configuration.
Well, tonight he shows up late for practice, doesnt speak to anyone really, and proceeds to not play a note on the guitar until we are 3/4 of the way through practice. He plays those few notes, looks at his watch, and proceeds to pack up his stuff.
It's time for our brother to be out of the band for a while in my opinion. I asked the band leader to step up and suggest that he ask the lead player to evaluate very carefully if he wanted to continue in the band in the right spirit. I was miserable during practice. With him not doing what he normally does in these songs, I had to step it up and play rhythm and add some interest all the while enduring the dirty looks.
It was very unfair of him to bring that to practice. If you are not in the right spirit, you need to stay home. It's going to come to a head. It always seems that he pulls some kind of stunt like this right before we are supposed to play out, and true to form, here we are...
Pray for all of us to do Gods will and to gently but firmly establish some boundaries.
If you remember from my other thread, we have been having problems with our Lead guitarist, his ego, and not serving the song but wanting to be the "star"-playing constantly, etc.
Well, we have band sheets that the Worship Leader and I put together to define parts for each person in our band..we have 5 vocalist, a drummer, a bass player, an acoustic rhythm guitarist, myself on Electric Rhythm guitar, and our lead player.
On a song last week, we did "Open the Eyes of my Heart Lord" by baloche. I did the arrangement and we follow the style of one of the recorded versions where the Acoustic Guitarist plays by himself, drums play symbols quietly, bass joins in and the whole band cranks up the energy when we hit the chorus. All is well in practice. Well, Our lead player, let's call him BOB, plays a "solo" during the quiet intro part of this song and proceeds to play lead licks throughout, over the top of the vocalist.
Our band leader called him out on it one on one , brother to brother. We've been working for months to get him to find ways to add accents to the songs as lead, by using unique voicings, etc. to spice it up, exactly what you'd expect (I think) for a lead player to do in a band with our configuration.
Well, tonight he shows up late for practice, doesnt speak to anyone really, and proceeds to not play a note on the guitar until we are 3/4 of the way through practice. He plays those few notes, looks at his watch, and proceeds to pack up his stuff.
It's time for our brother to be out of the band for a while in my opinion. I asked the band leader to step up and suggest that he ask the lead player to evaluate very carefully if he wanted to continue in the band in the right spirit. I was miserable during practice. With him not doing what he normally does in these songs, I had to step it up and play rhythm and add some interest all the while enduring the dirty looks.
It was very unfair of him to bring that to practice. If you are not in the right spirit, you need to stay home. It's going to come to a head. It always seems that he pulls some kind of stunt like this right before we are supposed to play out, and true to form, here we are...
Pray for all of us to do Gods will and to gently but firmly establish some boundaries.