Have you ever not clicked with anybody musically??

[Broon]

I havent had the pleasure of playing with that many people, perhaps only 5-6 in total. None of these has really caused that many problems when playing with them. I have heard people say before how they did not 'click' or they were just not compatible.

Anybody here found this? I am interested to know why it didnt work and what went wrong.

After all its only matching music to music, (aside from personal issues of course..)

[Jo2]

Michael Heath (aka Fledderjohn) said:

ayewrite said:

ive never really clicked with anybody musically.....im pretty rubbish really but i can write a song,and i like playing with myself...says it all really.

I've tended towards more solitary pleasures in recent years (that's the internet for ya). I really couldn't be arsed with setting up a band again.

I do however still enjoy playing with my brother simply because, on so many levels, we kind of "get" each other. The thing with the two of us is that we never really question what the other is doing - there is just this trust that the other will know what to do. Pretty much the only conversation we ever have is about confirming chord patterns and song structure.

That's how it is with Richard and me...we send each other the chords, structure, and lyrics. When he sends me tracks and asks me to sing or do backup vocals, he doesn't specify what he wants me to do. When I send him tracks for lead guitar and bass, I don't specify what I want. But we trust each other's judgment, and it seems to work.

[Jeremy Perron]

Maria and I used to be in a band with a drummer who

1) Got STONE DRUNK every rehearsal and gig
2) played the same rhythm on every song
3) got faster as each song progressed
4) call M & I Prima Donnas.
5) was teribly misogynistic and insulted every woman who joined the band - including Maria)

We left the band, and the bass player and rhythm guitarist called us a month later asking if they could join us!

so yes musical, behaviour and personality differences... they are all connected..

[Jeremy Perron]

Chris said:

Stu. said:

I was once in a wedding band... ...Even his favourite song Psychokiller was destroyed by his timing disability.

What kind of weddings did your band perform at?
Ones that weren't expected to last very long presumably.

Strangely enough, the band which I described in my last post, did actually do a couple of weddings. We played Psycho Killer (Murder), Hey Joe (adultery and murder), Whipping Post (Adultery and Betrayal) etc etc.

One of the two marriages has worked out. The other did not. Guess we have a 50-50 on that one...

[Alan Cleveland]

Absolutely.

I spent a year and a half in a local "studio" with a guy who I shared my copyrights with. The deal was that I'd make music, he'd make production, and we'd make money off of the tourists after completing my Alaska project.

Because he is technically a better musician than I am, I thought it was a good pairing and at first it was. But, he couldn't keep himself from OVERPRODUCING the music in my absence. Every week I'd come back and listen to music that sounded too ... too... too.... umm... burdened with unaccountable sounds.

The song Sounds Of The Midnight Sun would have an organ in it that sounded like a baseball game was going to start. Another song that WE ALL AGREED only needed as female voice and a tamborine I returned to find in total shambles with his lead guitar played on two different guitars ... there was no consistency.... I have a song about fishing the Bering Sea that is pretty sad.... he ran a bass through it at mach 5 and made it into disco fever.

He'd always do this when I wasn't there.

I have missed a ton of opoportunities while Johnny Harpsichord was turning my Clam Soup into fruit punch!

Yes, it has happened to me.

[Bell Tone Easy]

Musically - live - I don't think this has happened to me. That's as - you are excluding personal issues.

Happens some times when listening or playing to records. For example I just grew weary the other day, playing drums along with a Santana record. If I had the talent to follow along on the guitar I'd be dying happy, but I was not, and eventually became bored playing along with the rhythm section, because there wasn't much variation. Too - perfect.

I have had about a dozen experiences when a band member wheeled around and shot me some sort of dirty look about something I was doing on the drums. I really fucking hate that as I don't send drumsticks flying at my fellow musicians - or dirty looks - ever playing live. Even if I don't think they're nailing that lyric. Or their voice sounds like many cats dying.

For me that is an extreme lack of professionalism, and is sure to be noticed by the audience.

[Jo2]

That's true. Band mates like that are better left in the dust. On-stage criticism is inappropriate, even if nary a word is spoken.

Bell Tone Easy said:

Musically - live - I don't think this has happened to me. That's as - you are excluding personal issues.

Happens some times when listening or playing to records. For example I just grew weary the other day, playing drums along with a Santana record. If I had the talent to follow along on the guitar I'd be dying happy, but I was not, and eventually became bored playing along with the rhythm section, because there wasn't much variation. Too - perfect.

I have had about a dozen experiences when a band member wheeled around and shot me some sort of dirty look about something I was doing on the drums. I really fucking hate that as I don't send drumsticks flying at my fellow musicians - or dirty looks - ever playing live. Even if I don't think they're nailing that lyric. Or their voice sounds like many cats dying.

For me that is an extreme lack of professionalism, and is sure to be noticed by the audience.

[Michael Heath (aka Fledderjohn)]

Ah but I do believe there is a tradition or an old charter that states, "when ever a song goes disastrously wrong all members of the band should immediately turn their backs on the audience and stare at the drummer".


Bell Tone Easy said:

Musically - live - I don't think this has happened to me. That's as - you are excluding personal issues.
Happens some times when listening or playing to records. For example I just grew weary the other day, playing drums along with a Santana record. If I had the talent to follow along on the guitar I'd be dying happy, but I was not, and eventually became bored playing along with the rhythm section, because there wasn't much variation. Too - perfect.
I have had about a dozen experiences when a band member wheeled around and shot me some sort of dirty look about something I was doing on the drums. I really fucking hate that as I don't send drumsticks flying at my fellow musicians - or dirty looks - ever playing live. Even if I don't think they're nailing that lyric. Or their voice sounds like many cats dying.

For me that is an extreme lack of professionalism, and is sure to be noticed by the audience.

[Maria Hall]

Brilliant Michael!! ha ha ha.. Ah but I do believe there is a tradition or an old charter that states, "when ever a song goes disastrously wrong all members of the band should immediately turn their backs on the audience and stare at the drummer"
I shall use this 'old charter' at the very next opportunity! lol

Michael Heath (aka Fledderjohn) said:

Ah but I do believe there is a tradition or an old charter that states, "when ever a song goes disastrously wrong all members of the band should immediately turn their backs on the audience and stare at the drummer".


Bell Tone Easy said:

Musically - live - I don't think this has happened to me. That's as - you are excluding personal issues.
Happens some times when listening or playing to records. For example I just grew weary the other day, playing drums along with a Santana record. If I had the talent to follow along on the guitar I'd be dying happy, but I was not, and eventually became bored playing along with the rhythm section, because there wasn't much variation. Too - perfect.
I have had about a dozen experiences when a band member wheeled around and shot me some sort of dirty look about something I was doing on the drums. I really fucking hate that as I don't send drumsticks flying at my fellow musicians - or dirty looks - ever playing live. Even if I don't think they're nailing that lyric. Or their voice sounds like many cats dying.

For me that is an extreme lack of professionalism, and is sure to be noticed by the audience.

[POSTCARD COMETS]

Yes, this has happened to me.
I've worked with fine players with whom there was no common ground in terms of how we saw, heard or executed music. Bear in mind that they could, and likely would, say the same about me (except for the fine player part).
Often for me this involved the degree of, shall we say, detail in their playing. Overplaying, if I'm being blunt.
I've also had mismatches with players for whom the effects were a LARGE part of their sound and approach. I once knew a player who was frozen onstage because the batteries to his stomp pedal were dead. I like effects in a lot of circumstances but sometimes they stand between me and the music being played. Again, this may be my shortcoming but it impedes the "click".
But for the most part, the failure to click is based on the failure to listen or at least be open to what the other person is doing. Again, this goes both ways. When I play with someone else, I expect the collective result to sound richer, to represent the song more fully than when I play solo. You can't do that if you don't listen to the song or at the very least the other player.
The challenge is, of course, that the stronger your vision of what you play, the more you have to strive to fit what your collaborators do. But listening is the only way it works in my opinion.

[POSTCARD COMETS]

Bell Tone Easy said:

Musically - live - I don't think this has happened to me. That's as - you are excluding personal issues.

Happens some times when listening or playing to records. For example I just grew weary the other day, playing drums along with a Santana record. If I had the talent to follow along on the guitar I'd be dying happy, but I was not, and eventually became bored playing along with the rhythm section, because there wasn't much variation. Too - perfect.

I have had about a dozen experiences when a band member wheeled around and shot me some sort of dirty look about something I was doing on the drums. I really fucking hate that as I don't send drumsticks flying at my fellow musicians - or dirty looks - ever playing live. Even if I don't think they're nailing that lyric. Or their voice sounds like many cats dying.

For me that is an extreme lack of professionalism, and is sure to be noticed by the audience.

Buck and I were discussing this the other day. He came across a live recording of his band the Altona Kahunas, playing their CD release party no less, and you could hear the bass player yelling at the drummer in between songs. Appalling behaviour and completely ineffective to boot.

[Djay Buddha]

I have had some similar experiences in the studio as an engineer, where it is equally important to create a good rapport and and productive atmosphere. One memorable ocassion was when a duo booked a week in the studio to record an album of covers, so these two guys turn up on day one armed with a childs keyboard with pre-recorded tunes on it. So I think fair enough they are going to use these as a template and use the studio keyboards to record the songs! Nope they insisted on using their keyboard presets and the singer couldn't sing a note I mean exceptionally bad even worse than me and that is saying something. So i put up with this for a couple of days and after one session they complained that the sound was amatureish and they were professionals! tehy didn't stay long after I lost the plot and told them how crap they were..

[POSTCARD COMETS]

Djay Buddha said:

I have had some similar experiences in the studio as an engineer, where it is equally important to create a good rapport and and productive atmosphere. One memorable ocassion was when a duo booked a week in the studio to record an album of covers, so these two guys turn up on day one armed with a childs keyboard with pre-recorded tunes on it. So I think fair enough they are going to use these as a template and use the studio keyboards to record the songs! Nope they insisted on using their keyboard presets and the singer couldn't sing a note I mean exceptionally bad even worse than me and that is saying something. So i put up with this for a couple of days and after one session they complained that the sound was amatureish and they were professionals! tehy didn't stay long after I lost the plot and told them how crap they were..

Rick, you couldn't get a professional sound out of a kid's keyboard and a pitchy singer? You're losing the Buddha touch!