Most annoying part of being a musician?

C

ConnorGilks

Experienced
Lets all vent just a bit.

We all have things that annoy us when it comes to being a musician. Things we have to do that just suck. Things that make it difficult to do what you love, or maybe things that are hugely beneficial for your band but are really difficult or tedious to do. So tell me, what's your "thing" and why?

Mine is probably booking a tour as an independent band. You can book a bunch of dates but it's so hard to get in contact with all these venues, find bands in the area that are similar style, find venues that are decent, make sure the same staff member(s) you spoke to are going to be there when you actually go on tour 6 months from now, etc. It always works out for the most part, but just such a pain to do.
 
Most annoying thing as a guitarist on home-parties, when there's a guitar somewhere in the room:
"Do you know <insert random radio pop song>? Can you play it please?"
Best solution to this: "Sure... if you sing." ... that usually makes most people shut up about it.*

Most annoying thing as a guitarist on gigs:
You always have to be the first to arrive. And you leave last. Even the Axe hasn't changed that for me. It just brought me on par with the drummer here.

Most annoying thing as a guitarist on rehearsals:
You are the technician. And that's okay with me. But nobody cares if something technic-related doesn't work and that annoys the hell out of me, as you are always told to fix it afterwards, even if it's easier to fix an issue with others around.

Most annoying thing as a musician in general:
Everyone's a critic.

*doesn't work on attention-whore wannabe singers, though.
 
At least most of you are professional musicians. I have music as a hobby only. My biggest problem is lack of time to practise, and when I have some free time the wife comes in with a long to do list. :-( I hardly touch my Axe FX2.
 
Drug addict musicians (who hide it) wasting months/years of my time. Weekend warriors pretending to be pro's.
Like Zwiebelchen said, being the only guy who knows how things work, how to fix them, and being the only one who cares.
Being told by a musician that they are classically educated and finding out a few minutes later live on stage that when you said "its a ii-V-I in Bb", they have no fucking clue what you are talking about.
Etc, etc, etc....it never ends.
 
ConnorGilks said:
Haha I agree on that party one. The worst is when people hear I'm a musician and ask me to play and I'm stuck with "Do I play the Green Day songs I learned when I was 13, or do I play some technical death metal on this god awful acoustic guitar?" I usually just avoid it haha.
Click to expand...

HAHA! Go for the technical death metal on the awful acoustic every time my brother!
 
Playing with musicians who haven't practiced the material, always rubs me the wrong way. Grant it we have usually three days to master 6 songs, but come on, you signed up for that. There is no mystery here. Now grant it, I play churches so you have different levels of players and I am fine with that, I embrace that. But it doesn't mean that you don't have to work hard to be the best you can be.
Rant /
In my music career, I have played dive bars when I was a teenager, toured trying to make it, like everyone else. Had the defeat of failure for months eating ramon noodles daily, tucked my tail between my legs and had to move back home, when all was lost. So been there done that...

Just learn the song, yes that one. And when you're done with that learn the other 5 right. And hey Bass player, there are more notes than just the root, did you even listen to it, or are you just reading a chart, blehhhhh. Drummer your good brother, but you're not that good. work at it will ya.

/ Rant off

I will play a song at least 30 times each. might be excessive, but in the end its a noticeable improvement from say the 5th time verse the 30th time.

You want to be good, there is no getting around practice.

And lastly Video games will deter you from what you really want. For you young lads Girls, for us older guys talent.
 
Zwiebelchen said:
Most annoying thing as a guitarist on gigs:
You always have to be the first to arrive. And you leave last.
Click to expand...

Curious, why is that? We always let the sound guy and drummer arrive first and then everyone else sets up after them. I know I'm usually the first one completely packed up at the end of the night.

I'm with Connor: booking gigs sucks.
 
Funeral said:
Drug addict musicians (who hide it) wasting months/years of my time. Weekend warriors pretending to be pro's.
Like Zwiebelchen said, being the only guy who knows how things work, how to fix them, and being the only one who cares.
Being told by a musician that they are classically educated and finding out a few minutes later live on stage that when you said "its a ii-V-I in Bb", they have no fucking clue what you are talking about.
Etc, etc, etc....it never ends.
Click to expand...

Spot on!

But I'm one of those weekend warriors, so I guess I can't complain too much...

At least I'm not on meth!
 
scottburrow said:
Playing with musicians who haven't practiced the material, always rubs me the wrong way. Grant it we have usually three days to master 6 songs, but come on, you signed up for that. There is no mystery here. Now grant it, I play churches so you have different levels of players and I am fine with that, I embrace that. But it doesn't mean that you don't have to work hard to be the best you can be.
Rant /
In my music career, I have played dive bars when I was a teenager, toured trying to make it, like everyone else. Had the defeat of failure for months eating ramon noodles daily, tucked my tail between my legs and had to move back home, when all was lost. So been there done that...

Just learn the song, yes that one. And when you're done with that learn the other 5 right. And hey Bass player, there are more notes than just the root, did you even listen to it, or are you just reading a chart, blehhhhh. Drummer your good brother, but you're not that good. work at it will ya.

/ Rant off

I will play a song at least 30 times each. might be excessive, but in the end its a noticeable improvement from say the 5th time verse the 30th time.

You want to be good, there is no getting around practice.

And lastly Video games will deter you from what you really want. For you young lads Girls, for us older guys talent.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on this Scott. There's nothing worse than all the songs sounding the same because people just read and play the chart rather than learning the part.

30 times - me too. Maybe not that many, but whatever it takes, to the great annoyance of my wife.
 
Other people's view that we don't actually do anything, that it's just easy, and/or that we're just wasting our time.

And, for those who do it full time (musicians and instructors too), that we "must love our job", that we need to "get a 'real' job".

Or, God forbid, that music isn't actually all that important. (Yes, I get that more and more from people. I think it has a lot to do with where we live though.)
 
This really hits home for me as a long time guitar instructor, but it's often true in general.

Good post. Particularly, the part about video games (include social media, and even those who say they want to learn an instrument but are over-involved in sports).

scottburrow said:
Playing with musicians who haven't practiced the material, always rubs me the wrong way. Grant it we have usually three days to master 6 songs, but come on, you signed up for that. There is no mystery here. Now grant it, I play churches so you have different levels of players and I am fine with that, I embrace that. But it doesn't mean that you don't have to work hard to be the best you can be.
Rant /
In my music career, I have played dive bars when I was a teenager, toured trying to make it, like everyone else. Had the defeat of failure for months eating ramon noodles daily, tucked my tail between my legs and had to move back home, when all was lost. So been there done that...

Just learn the song, yes that one. And when you're done with that learn the other 5 right. And hey Bass player, there are more notes than just the root, did you even listen to it, or are you just reading a chart, blehhhhh. Drummer your good brother, but you're not that good. work at it will ya.

/ Rant off

I will play a song at least 30 times each. might be excessive, but in the end its a noticeable improvement from say the 5th time verse the 30th time.

You want to be good, there is no getting around practice.

And lastly Video games will deter you from what you really want. For you young lads Girls, for us older guys talent.
Click to expand...
 
Singers that pick songs without considering what parts are in it for the other musicians - example - if you are a 4 piece band that uses tracks for keyboards don't pick a song that has absolutely no guitar in it.
 
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