This.No, you should not feel bad. Sometimes bands do not work out for various reasons. Stuff happens. You probably did not waste their time.
I suppose I just hate to leave a bad taste in anybody's mouth, ya know? I'm sure with a couple of free gigs pending and a December paying gig at a local nudist colony, having the drummer and 50% singer up and quit six weeks out is not anything anybody would want to deal with. So I get that. But I just felt like this was the time to put my foot down, especially when other opportunities with real players come up (five gigs booked already), and the Devo band's last few gigs of 2022 coming up, it's hard to make the time happen for the blues guys. If they didn't find another drummer so quickly I suppose I'd feel worse, but I don't have toBig difference between a rock band that thinks starting a blues band is just grinding out enough 12 bar progressions and a band that respects and understands what it takes to put together a show that will entertain and keep a crowd around all evening. A good blues show can be an exciting dynamic experience for sure and that is a hill I will die on.
There is play book to playing the blues well,I started a blues band with good players that loved and respected the form and we sounded terrible for 15 rehearsals before making any progress but ended up being pretty good.
Sometimes you just get the feeling a project is never or will take way to long to come together, in this case you trust your gut and exit gracefully like Bo did,probably best thing for everyone in the long run
As a drummer I would NEVER play in a band doing the blues. Vocals? Maybe. Bass guitar? Maybe. I have different playlists for different instruments and you’re not alone there. All band time is good time. Rock on anywayI really thought I could be patient and work with this new band that wanted to play the blues. But in the end, I had to leave. I just didn't have the time to play with people learning how to play the blues. In my current world, the blues is what the band would play at the end when they ran out of stuff to play and it gave everybody a chance to stretch out and solo (like a time filler). I appreciate real blues, but I just could not stay in a "student" blues situation. I really thought I could, but just ran out of patience.
They did find another guy more at their level and they're happy. I just don't know if I should feel bad for wasting their time, or wasting mine. Does that sound mean?
This totally. Once you have reached a certain level of proficiency, you don’t want to play with people not of the same proficiency.With the preface that I'm not implying I am some super fantastic drummer or musician in general: I left a band after a couple years because my skill level was much further ahead of the other musicians. Really nice dudes and we did some fun weird stuff but at the end of the day I can't sit down and play a basic 4/4 for an hour while two dudes are trying to figure out scales and are not yet to a level of understanding that they were not even in tune. Everyone starts somewhere, I'm not knocking beginners. But I am at a point in my personal journey with music that I need to share the stage with somewhat competent players.
Your profile photo belies that statement. That right there, my friend, is unambiguously a super fantastic drummer (albeit an apparently modest one).I'm not [...] some super fantastic drummer
Haha thank you, I appreciate it. That gig was at Smith's in ATL. Super cool venue and great staff, drove 9 hours to play one set then turn around and come right home.Your profile photo belies that statement. That right there, my friend, is unambiguously a super fantastic drummer (albeit an apparently modest one).
Haha thank you, I appreciate it. That gig was at Smith's in ATL. Super cool venue and great staff, drove 9 hours to play one set then turn around and come right home.