D
Deleted member 5962
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Sorry, WAY too much to post in someone elses thread. (Sorry Aahzz) so I'm copying it over here, and deleting it there.
Oh dang! Sorry, forgot about this.
So, a few years back, a friend of mine calls me and says "how would you like to play in my band?" He knows I won't play bars, so I'm curious enough to ask what "his band" is. Turns out, the pastor at his church has been a "singer songwriter" for years, and has actually performed solo for years. But in putting together music for his church, he got several members to form a band at the church. So my friend (who is a good drummer) and another member who was a good bass player and the pastor decided to start playing their music at other churches, youth activities etc. After playing solo all of his life, the pastor starts liking the idea of having his own real band, but quickly realizes that bass, drums and acoustic guitar is not quite enough. So Matt tells him that he should get me to play lead and rhythm electric guitar to complete the band. Matt says he wants me to come and audition, so I do. This guy has written all his own music for years, so I've never heard any of the songs, so what they decided to do, was their normal practice, but me just jump in as soon as I felt I could.
They were simple songs structurally, and he had written out words and chord chart, so I basically listened to one verse and then jumped in. All I did was play along on electric because he was so used to playing by himself, there was no place built in for solos. So, that practice goes very well, but then it's over. And once it's over, the drummer decides he and I should have some fun. Now, at this point, I've done nothing but strum some clean chords for the songs.
I quickly figured out that my buddy was trying to show them a little more of what I "do" because he immediately started launching into Led Zeppelin, then Rush, then Van Halen etc. Well, the bass player (very good player) jumps in and before you know it we're playing song after song and the leader is not playing, he's just sitting and watching and loving every minute of it. I mean he's yelling and cheering while we're playing and just really getting into it. After about an hour of this, he says "look, I had someone already chosen for this spot but Matt told me I had to hear you first and I want you in the band. Will you play with us?" I told him that I was very interested, just needed a bit more info on what, where and how often they wanted to play out. He said that was great and we'd talk during the week and he'd see me at practice next week.
When I got to practice the next week, the music sheets had all changed. He had put guitar solos in every song, and some times, multiple solos. So we'd play through them and I'd start soloing and a couple times he'd just stop. He said "I didn't expect you to have a solo already, since I just put these in there tonight." He was surprised that I could just jump into a song I barely knew and throw solos on it. But it wasn't long and he was saying "you're holding back. I want you to play more like you did when you guys were jamming." I told him that I was trying to play solos that fit with the original vibe of the songs, which were really like Christian Folk music. He said "put ROCK on the end of that, and play like that." We practiced for a month and every week, the songs became more and more rock, and less folk. He was the one pushing it. He said he wasn't used to playing with a band and never had so much fun in his life playing his songs. He said he loved what we were doing with them and that he had multiple gigs booked for us already.
At two months in for weekly practice, the songs had completely transformed from folk music to rock, blues/rock. Every song had solos, one song had a 2 minute guitar solo intro... I was having a blast. He had a photographer come in a take band photos, printed up posters and flyers, and then one week he had a digital recorder hooked into the mixer and said he was going to record our practice. We had a GREAT practice and we were rocking that night.
The next day... (continued next post)
Oh dang! Sorry, forgot about this.
So, a few years back, a friend of mine calls me and says "how would you like to play in my band?" He knows I won't play bars, so I'm curious enough to ask what "his band" is. Turns out, the pastor at his church has been a "singer songwriter" for years, and has actually performed solo for years. But in putting together music for his church, he got several members to form a band at the church. So my friend (who is a good drummer) and another member who was a good bass player and the pastor decided to start playing their music at other churches, youth activities etc. After playing solo all of his life, the pastor starts liking the idea of having his own real band, but quickly realizes that bass, drums and acoustic guitar is not quite enough. So Matt tells him that he should get me to play lead and rhythm electric guitar to complete the band. Matt says he wants me to come and audition, so I do. This guy has written all his own music for years, so I've never heard any of the songs, so what they decided to do, was their normal practice, but me just jump in as soon as I felt I could.
They were simple songs structurally, and he had written out words and chord chart, so I basically listened to one verse and then jumped in. All I did was play along on electric because he was so used to playing by himself, there was no place built in for solos. So, that practice goes very well, but then it's over. And once it's over, the drummer decides he and I should have some fun. Now, at this point, I've done nothing but strum some clean chords for the songs.
I quickly figured out that my buddy was trying to show them a little more of what I "do" because he immediately started launching into Led Zeppelin, then Rush, then Van Halen etc. Well, the bass player (very good player) jumps in and before you know it we're playing song after song and the leader is not playing, he's just sitting and watching and loving every minute of it. I mean he's yelling and cheering while we're playing and just really getting into it. After about an hour of this, he says "look, I had someone already chosen for this spot but Matt told me I had to hear you first and I want you in the band. Will you play with us?" I told him that I was very interested, just needed a bit more info on what, where and how often they wanted to play out. He said that was great and we'd talk during the week and he'd see me at practice next week.
When I got to practice the next week, the music sheets had all changed. He had put guitar solos in every song, and some times, multiple solos. So we'd play through them and I'd start soloing and a couple times he'd just stop. He said "I didn't expect you to have a solo already, since I just put these in there tonight." He was surprised that I could just jump into a song I barely knew and throw solos on it. But it wasn't long and he was saying "you're holding back. I want you to play more like you did when you guys were jamming." I told him that I was trying to play solos that fit with the original vibe of the songs, which were really like Christian Folk music. He said "put ROCK on the end of that, and play like that." We practiced for a month and every week, the songs became more and more rock, and less folk. He was the one pushing it. He said he wasn't used to playing with a band and never had so much fun in his life playing his songs. He said he loved what we were doing with them and that he had multiple gigs booked for us already.
At two months in for weekly practice, the songs had completely transformed from folk music to rock, blues/rock. Every song had solos, one song had a 2 minute guitar solo intro... I was having a blast. He had a photographer come in a take band photos, printed up posters and flyers, and then one week he had a digital recorder hooked into the mixer and said he was going to record our practice. We had a GREAT practice and we were rocking that night.
The next day... (continued next post)
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