squeally dan
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I play in a wedding/party band. The drummer (who is also seings lead on 90% of the tunes) and I are best friends and we started the band together 13 years ago. We have been playing together for 20. He is a great dude and he also does all are booking.
Anyway, we usually play as 4 piece: drummer/lead singer, keyboardist, me on guitar, and a bass player who also sings lead on a few songs. These guys are all awesome players.
A couple years ago I started playing guitar at my church and met some new musiscians there. I got to be friends with a sax player. We eventually invited him to come play in our band. He's a good player but not awesome, but people really seem to respond when he plays. He does the whole cheesy walk out in the crowd thing and people love it.
We play 2-3 gigs/week but he probably only plays with us once/week or less. We could get him more but we usually don't want to pay the extra to have him there. When he started playing I had to adjust to the fact that I wouldn't get as many solos, and that was fine. It was harder to split the lead between me, the keyboardist, and a sax. I still got to take leads on the standard stuff-play that funky music, boogie shoes, and the songs that typically have a guitar solo.
I also have to mention that we don't typically plan stuff out. The drummer who sings usually just points to whoever he is wanting to take the solo. Well, a few weeks back I get ready to play my solo on Play that Funky Music, but the drummer points to the sax player instead of me. Huh? At the end of the night, he said something like "sorry dude, I feel like I didn't call on you much tonight". I told him I didn't care, but I would love to at least play solos on the songs that typically have guitar solos. He said "ok" and said he really just doesn't think about stuff like that when he's in the moment.
After that he would always call on me to play the solos in the standard guitar songs. And when our sax player doesn't play a gig, I get called on much more. Our keyboardist always gets more solos than me, but I don't care because he is better than me. He has a bigger vocabulary than me, and I love listening to him play. However, that isn't how I feel about the sax player. Anyway, everything was good and then we played a weeding this past weekend. It was a blast. The bride and groom were dancing and so was a huge crowd of family and friends. We go in to Play that Funky Music, but when my solo comes around, the singer points to the sax player. THe sax player proceeds to walk out in the crowd and solo for what seemed like a week. Then the drummer pointed to the keyboard player and he took a solo. I get none. Whats up with that? After the gig, our singer didn't say anything about it.
Having said all that, it brings up some questions for me. I left that gig with a weird feeling and I can't get it off of my mind. I guess it makes me feel less important to the band. I'm already faced with the fact that a good portion of our music is more R&B and keyboard based. Now I feel even less important.
My first inclination is that I need to go practice. I need to get better and I need to be so good that he will want to call on me more often. I know our singer loves the sound of keyboard. When we started we were a blues trio with only guitar, bass, and drums. I really think he got a bit burnt on that same old format and now prefers some different sounds. I now find myself hating saxaphone. I want to tell him to try playing some chords. I am starting to see him as a glorified harmonica player. I am a bit bitter.
What do you guys think? Ever run in to anything like this? Am I just being a baby? I know its a bit of an ego thing and a bit of an esteem thing. I pride myself in having much less ego in comparisson to other people in the band. I'm probably not a typical guitar player. I don't feel I need the limelight. I actually feel a bit embarrased, when the singer calls out my name and gets the crowd fired up about a guitar solo. However, I feel like I have a smaller role to start with and don't want to loose what little I am doing. I love the music. I get to play with my best bud and with some awesome musicians that I am constantly learnig from. Is it just a matter of me needing to step my game up?
Sorry for this way too long post. I think writing this was therapy because I already feel better. Just wanted to see what other musicians have run in too. Tell me if I'm being awuss. I can take it.
Anyway, we usually play as 4 piece: drummer/lead singer, keyboardist, me on guitar, and a bass player who also sings lead on a few songs. These guys are all awesome players.
A couple years ago I started playing guitar at my church and met some new musiscians there. I got to be friends with a sax player. We eventually invited him to come play in our band. He's a good player but not awesome, but people really seem to respond when he plays. He does the whole cheesy walk out in the crowd thing and people love it.
We play 2-3 gigs/week but he probably only plays with us once/week or less. We could get him more but we usually don't want to pay the extra to have him there. When he started playing I had to adjust to the fact that I wouldn't get as many solos, and that was fine. It was harder to split the lead between me, the keyboardist, and a sax. I still got to take leads on the standard stuff-play that funky music, boogie shoes, and the songs that typically have a guitar solo.
I also have to mention that we don't typically plan stuff out. The drummer who sings usually just points to whoever he is wanting to take the solo. Well, a few weeks back I get ready to play my solo on Play that Funky Music, but the drummer points to the sax player instead of me. Huh? At the end of the night, he said something like "sorry dude, I feel like I didn't call on you much tonight". I told him I didn't care, but I would love to at least play solos on the songs that typically have guitar solos. He said "ok" and said he really just doesn't think about stuff like that when he's in the moment.
After that he would always call on me to play the solos in the standard guitar songs. And when our sax player doesn't play a gig, I get called on much more. Our keyboardist always gets more solos than me, but I don't care because he is better than me. He has a bigger vocabulary than me, and I love listening to him play. However, that isn't how I feel about the sax player. Anyway, everything was good and then we played a weeding this past weekend. It was a blast. The bride and groom were dancing and so was a huge crowd of family and friends. We go in to Play that Funky Music, but when my solo comes around, the singer points to the sax player. THe sax player proceeds to walk out in the crowd and solo for what seemed like a week. Then the drummer pointed to the keyboard player and he took a solo. I get none. Whats up with that? After the gig, our singer didn't say anything about it.
Having said all that, it brings up some questions for me. I left that gig with a weird feeling and I can't get it off of my mind. I guess it makes me feel less important to the band. I'm already faced with the fact that a good portion of our music is more R&B and keyboard based. Now I feel even less important.
My first inclination is that I need to go practice. I need to get better and I need to be so good that he will want to call on me more often. I know our singer loves the sound of keyboard. When we started we were a blues trio with only guitar, bass, and drums. I really think he got a bit burnt on that same old format and now prefers some different sounds. I now find myself hating saxaphone. I want to tell him to try playing some chords. I am starting to see him as a glorified harmonica player. I am a bit bitter.
What do you guys think? Ever run in to anything like this? Am I just being a baby? I know its a bit of an ego thing and a bit of an esteem thing. I pride myself in having much less ego in comparisson to other people in the band. I'm probably not a typical guitar player. I don't feel I need the limelight. I actually feel a bit embarrased, when the singer calls out my name and gets the crowd fired up about a guitar solo. However, I feel like I have a smaller role to start with and don't want to loose what little I am doing. I love the music. I get to play with my best bud and with some awesome musicians that I am constantly learnig from. Is it just a matter of me needing to step my game up?
Sorry for this way too long post. I think writing this was therapy because I already feel better. Just wanted to see what other musicians have run in too. Tell me if I'm being awuss. I can take it.
