Being The Only Guitar Player In The Band

OK guys....let me clear the air about this.

I'm NOT a ********! If fact, I'm one of the most easy going guys you'll meet.
How forgiving am I? Let's go back in time, shall we?
The band I WAS in (Due East),
http://www.myspace.com/dueeastofnc
...was quite different when I joined.
First of all, the band was a Country/Country Rock cover band that played a few older (think CCR) rock songs and a couple of blues tunes thrown in there.
The lineup was:
Charlie - 64 year old bass player (knows only Country bass lines, hates Rock & Roll)
Terry - Harmonica (Charlie's buddy and co-founder of the band)
Kenny - Keyboards/Guitar (slightly retarded, hit by lightning @ age 26)
Joey - Drums/ harmony vocals
Donna - Lead Vocals
-----------------------------------------
I nearly didn't join at my tryout because the band was so slack, but Donna was a badass singer and I felt I might benefit by hanging around (hoping for a format change).
Donna and Joey both wanted to play more Rock (as did I) but the bass player was dead set against it. (Terry to a lesser degree) Kenny didn't care.
I pushed for more Rock and within 6 months, half the list became Classic Rock songs. Terry & Charlie quit.
Terry was dead weight anyway. He originally played mandolin/fiddle/guitar/harmonica but was reduced to harmonica (before I joined) because he couldn't play well enough on any instrument. Even his harmonica playing was 100% improv and was never the same twice. Terry was a funny guy with a possitive attitude (told great jokes), but he NEVER PRACTICED at home. Blues improv harp will only get you so far and he was such a poor judge of when NOT to play, he'd play on nearly every song! You shoulda heard him try to play harmonica to songs like "Wheel In The Sky" and "I Love Rock & Roll" :lol: It was really hard to keep from laughing on stage. It got this way because Terry didn't come to many rehearsals and when he did, he sat out...deciding on what/when to play.
By gig time, we didn't know what Terry was gonna do...until he did it! Donna had to instruct him NOT to play on certain songs after gigs. (eventually this reduced him to sitting out on over half the list. (no wonder he quit)
Two weeks after I joined (on a day when Terry didn't make it to rehearsal) I questioned the need for an exclusive harmonica player in a 6 piece band. (sometimes cutting pay to below $60 per gig) The band ignored my suggestion. (founding member syndrome, couldn't kick him out) It also made me look like a bad guy.
So, for 8 months I put up with trying to teach a 64 year old man how to play rock basslines that he DIDN'T want to play and NEVER practiced at home (me...frustrated? :x ) while his 59 year old buddy improved harp anywhere he though he could squeeze in a few notes. (my, that was fun) But I kept my cool 8)
Kenny (age 51) was what I call a "scramble brain". His thoughts we random and made no consistant sense. (extreme ADD) He was like a child in some ways and his sister had to keep tabs on him (remind him to pay bills & stuff). He was on disability and mentally I'd say he was 15 years old. Quite a handful to deal with sometimes, but a nice guy that played 95% of his parts right and practiced diligently. He was a fairly good player but screwed up about 25% of the time onstage. (scramble brain syndrome)
Joey is a so-so drummer and fairly good harmony singer (on some stuff) but some of the more complex drum parts had to be played HIS WAY, lacking the talent to do it correctly. He glossed over any shortcomings he had...but pointed out EVERYTHING anyone else did wrong. (what a ********) Joey was also "tech challenged" :lol: and hampered my attempts at getting a good sound through the P.A. (a know-it-all Yankee from N.J.)
Donna was very patient at first and tolerated lots of negative points but she began blowing up at rehearsal just before Charlie & Terry quit.
Once we got a new (better) bass player and got rid of the harmonica player, things settled down a bit and the band began making real progress.
Kenny was the next to go. He was the weak link now and his guitar parts were deleted from the next (3) demo songs we recorded. (he still thinks he was on the recording, we never told him)
Joey & Donna dogged Kenny and put him down until he quit. (talk about @ssholes!) He didn't deserve such treatment. (I stood by him, but it didn't help)
So then it was just 4 piece for a few months until I found another guitar player. Chris was a supernice guy, but his guitar playing had no feel/no chops and his rig was horrid (Line 6 POD X3 Live - Alesis power amp - Crate 4x12" cabinet). I personally went to Chris's house to tutor him (cramming for gigs) on his guitar parts. I also found out that Chris was really a bass player (since 1982) and had just started playing guitar recently. Good thing, too...because....within 8 months, the new bass player quit! (Donna & Joey pushed him out by ignoring his wishes...the dickheads :twisted: )
So Chris took over the bass duties (he wasn't much of a guitar player anyway, even though by this time I convinced him to buy a minimal tube amp head {Peavey Valve King} not to mention spending much time on learning his parts) and the band continued as a 4-piece for nearly a year with continued moderate success.
By the time I left (July 4th) we had jumped the shark. Crowds were diminishing and our favorite club (best crowd/most money) had a patron killed in a tussel on the dance floor. That drove most of the regulars away & brought a bunch of cops & lawyers around (court/murder case pending).
Joey and Donna started riding me about MY guitar playing. That's about the time I left. I could take it from Donna (she's nearly perfect onstage...the best singer I've ever played with) but not from Joey.
Joey & Donna are a team. They are both from N.J. and tended to flock together. I was never treated like a friend by either one of them. I was a hired gun...for 3 years.

BTW, the recordings on the MySpace page:
Immigrant song
Barracuda
Long, Long Way From Home
...are me on guitar. (only me) I also mixed it on my com with Sonar. (the basic tracks were cut at a friend's house) I recorded the extra guitar tracks on "'Cuda" and "L,LWFH" at my house. My M-Audio Black Box is the only thing I used for the recording. (no live amps)

The other songs ("Tush" and the live stuff) I had nothing to do with.

It was cool that you shared your experiences here...must have been a purge of alot of strong feelings. I went and listened carefully to barracuda..and ya know what? You should be glad to be out. Donna isn't that good. Having lived in the south and in the north i can see why you'd have the feeling you have...good players are HARD to find. Most people are BS artists who can't deliver. This happens in the North,too..but there are so many players..you just move on to the next one..not the same in North carolina..where you are ,I suspect..(btw..I played in No carolina..a one off gig about a week ago...and have relies in the area..so i have spent some time in the Triad area).
back OT...maybe its because you dont have as many good players to work with that you worked with these folks....Donna isnt that good..and the Drummer misses the point of the drum parts on Barracuda. I have worked with a number of great drummers here in the Long island area..and we would hang drummers like that guy for fun.(!!!) He doesnt get the parts...and his Hihats default in some sections to a very white-boy 2/4 feel..what the hell is up with that? Its subtle..but its there.
I think the drummer is a jerk because he is a jerk and not because he is a Yankee. I know Yankees, and Southerners,too....Ive seen jerks come in all shapes and sizes and are available in the north and south with equal access to all!!! Believe me, a friend of mine tells a great story of his audition in the south...he came in with a Flying V in his case and a guy in the band said "We dont want no Eddie Vanheflin, ya hear?"
..whenever i think about that..I smile.
But hey...all bands are a good experience..next time you'll be even more aware of things and do even better. I go thru the same stuff. The PA stuff..the "I wont play that song" stuff, the musician who wont rehearse stuff, the musician in the band who wont stop noodling when the song is over....blah ,blah,blah...
I try to make them better..and visa versa...but i think Im the only one who sees the totality of it. And I rightfully claim the higher road because I tape nearly every reharsal, study every one of em..I video lots of the gigs, I travel and do gigs elsewhere (played in Nashville 3 days ago at 2 places)...so i try to not over speak my expertise. I know what I know because I paid FULL price for what I know. And its true NOT because I'm saying it..its true because anyone who did what i do would conclude what i conclude.
So...what Im saying is..these guys suffer from delusions of adequacy. Maybe its all fine and well in a very small market, and mainly for fun..but when times get tough ...other people who swallow their egos will do better...and I think you'll be playing with them, because the cream always rises to the top.
be well. GtrGeorge[/i]

I read a lot of bands that will break up in the future in this thread.

Being in a band is about team work. What is boring to the drummer can be made up in another song. There doesn't have to be a guitar solo in every song. The key to working together is complementing each other. Listen to a band like Def Leppard, each of the guitar parts is really nothing, but together they stand out.

Remember that the main part of music is having fun, if you don't have that... Time to move on.

Personally I play what the song wants. And as a guitarist/keyboardist my place is not the spotlight. Take me away and there is a huge hole in the wall of sound.