Have to boot my best mate out of my band...

[Aus_rock_god]

Wassup mofos.

My band has had a lot of trouble with our lead guitarist for a while. Namely, he has no sence of rythem and he's tone deaf.

So the guy's a pretty **** guitarist.

We've decided to give him the flick tomorrow.

The problem is, his twin brother is the bassist in our band, and he's also my best mate.

The band also means a lot to the guy, but the fact of the matter is that it's unenjoyable playing with him, and I'm personally sick of having to teach him every single song in our set, over and over again, once every week.

The worst thing is the guy is trying so hard to improve, and today he told me "I'm going to get my roster for work tonight so we can arrange some practices because last night I played pretty ****", which makes me feel much worse about having to fire the poor guy tomorrow.

There's absolutly no way we can keep him in the band though, because we've been trying to teach him for over a year and he still hasn't improved.

I just can't think of a nice way to say he's a tone deaf guitarist with no sence of rhythm who can't play melodies.

[Trigger_003]

That's really not the best job out there.

I guess you could say that if he gets lessons and/or reaches a certain standard he can re-audition or something; by what you say, the guy seems keen enough, just lacking the skills. At least that's a bit nicer than being told you suck and that's it, which isn't really what you'd want to be telling your mate anyway.
It's possibly worth telling him in a one-on-one situation as well, if he's the kind of person who's lacking self-confidence and is going to be hurt more being told by a group... *shrug*

Good luck with it... hope he doesn't take it too hard.

[Brad on bass]

i know exactly how you feel mate, my best mate used to be in my band playing lead, he was a good guitar player by himself in his bedroom but when it came to a band we had to teach him every song about 4 times each. i play bass and me and the singer/guitarist just had to look where the other ones playing to learn a song, but with him we had to stop and show him the chords.....he also had these little sooky tantrum thingys, so we decided to give him the boot after his next tantrum, but hey he quit? we didnt have to do anything, i guess he just realised it and would rather quit than be kicked out....it was a hard thing though, but to this day hes still my best mate and rockin fella, just because your kicking him out doesnt mean you cant be mates.....
well thats my life story

[pitchfork]

Be honest, its all I ask of my freinds.
Knowing what people think about your playing truthfully is getting on the road to improvement, your doing him a favour by telling him his flaws and he will understand if you kick him out of the band if he's not egotistical

[zfzgg]

Be honest, its all I ask of my freinds.
Knowing what people think about your playing truthfully is getting on the road to improvement, your doing him a favour by telling him his flaws and he will understand if you kick him out of the band if he's not egotistical

Erm...Pitchfork?

He said 'Lead Guitarist'.

:p

But i agree, just tell him the truth, in a nice way.

[Phototropic]

Anyone who calls themselves a lead guitarist is a gimp

Guitarist will do

[Diatonic Dissonance™]

"What instrument do you play?"
"Lead guitar!!1"

[Aus_rock_god]

Exactly^^^^

Anyways. I tryed booting him today, but his brother wants to give him a month and a half to lift his game.

[Mitch2oo6]

Brother love, but dont allow it. A year is more than enough time. You could go like this forever.

[Aus_rock_god]

That's exactly the way I feel.

It's tougher being the songwriter of the group, because I want to express myself through my music, but when the guy can't even play in time it sh!ts me to no end.

On top of that, a local band that I really dig wants me to play bass with them, and the guitarist from that band digs my music and wants to play in my band, and a few other sh!t kicking guitarists have asked that I ditch the guy and get them in, but apparently his bro won't have a bar of it (excuse the bad musical pun).

[musicNEVERdies]

give him like a month and explain to him if he didnt improve you guys have to kick him out.By this maybe he will practice harder and try harder.Just give him a chance.

[Mitch2oo6]

No. No more time. You wont have time in the real music world, so get used to it now.

[Phototropic]

Yeah I say get rid of him

[Mitch2oo6]

THeres your general consensus :)
Fire the mother ****er.

[Alive]

I play the the Lead Guitar.

It's like a normal guitar, but heavier, and more metal.

Oh yes, it works on so many levels.

[kidthatplaysguitar91]

why is he the "lead guitarist" if he's bad, there really shouldnt be a lead guitarist in any band, 2 people can solo if you want a solo, and the lead guitarist always plays rhthym, but to your question, have someone else tell him, haha

[Aus_rock_god]

Don't know, he just likes to "solo" a lot (don't get me wrong, when he does a solo it sounds great at times, but it's more or less noodling).

[FRUGiHOYi]

Yeah, that sucks. I have a similar situation with my best friend, only the band is not together yet. You would think that makes it easier since I won't have to fire him, but it's pretty much clear that we are doing this together at this point. Problem is I write the songs and I don't think he is good enough to play them. He says he will learn them, but he never does. I also want two singers and he is good at that, but he can't play and sing at the same time and he says he will but he doesn't try. I don't want him to just be a lead singer. It seems like all he does is just give excuses all the time. He is so excited about it, but he doesn't put enough effort into it. It's going to suck to have to tell him, but if he doesn't put more effort into it, I'm going to have to tell him somehow that he's not in the band.