Your musician pet peeves

you know what, I hate being the only classically trained musician in every project I participate in... you feel isolated amongst a bunch of mindless bashers who you are constantly tryng to sheppard along, even the accomplished players are often incredibly unmusical and just don't 'get it'

people who have never spent serious time in a student orchestra or big band are more concerned with what they CAN do than what they ought to do...

but I love popular music.... so it is what it is

Same here man. Maybe this is more common than we think. Possible?

maybe globally, but if the issue was geographical we would all wind up in bands together and the uneducated would cluster together as well

Perhaps there is a rise in self/YouTube/internet taught musicians who actively disregard music intelligence?

No, this predatesyoutube

I've always had a chip on my shoulder towards classically trained musicians when I was younger. I felt that if you had to be taught something, it was naturally within you. I do appreciate having one around in a band, but I won't ever teach myself chord names and such because I feel for what I do, I don't need it. It also takes the joy out of playing for me. It becomes math instead of art.

Occasionally another musician will tell me something that goes over my head like, "It's C# A Dm but then you redo it with a G later". This is usually a guitar player and I just tell them to play it. If I hear it, I can replicate it, and then add or take away from it as I feel it needs. It's a small language barrier but I rarely deal with it. I have noticed that a lot of the players I am around who go by chord names and such don't listen to the whole band of a song, but just the vocals and their instrument. Plenty of times where they thought the bass did exactly what the keyboard or guitar did and I'd tell them to listen to the album again :)

I have a great ear and I use it, but you're just wrong about training. Early training backs my ear up as a writer, arranger and even a transcriber of other people's songs and arrangements.

chord names are more of a jazz/rock/pop thing... good to know but not what I mean when I say classical training...

I'm sure your ear gets you by. That said I am respectfully rolling my eyes at your entire statement.

1: Musicians that insist on "noodling" around during sound check. It's an opportunity for you to get your prime monitor mix, not practice the lead licks/progressions/etc.

2: The idea that drummers aren't musicians.

*edited to add pet peeve #2

2: The idea that drummers aren't musicians.

Anyone who says otherwise needs to watch Whiplash.

http://i.imgur.com/w8j6phk.jpg

"Damn, a tiny mark that's only visible under a microscope. Better call a luither!"

Wonder if anyone was anal enough to gig a guitar to hell while still repairing every small mark and such... That'd be something scary to look at.

As a Musician in General

1.) People whom are living legends in their own minds. Been in bands with these sorts of people - most of the time they are the singer/primary songwriter and think they write "hits" and that we are going to become the next top 40 overnight sensation, when in reality, and in a lot of cases, just another guy who wants to get rich/famous quick. Before too long with these people, it becomes more and more about the sex/fame/money than about the joy of making music and the "magic" gets sucked out of the project by that attitude. A lot of these types have no idea how the modern music industry works either.

2.) People who refuse theory because it's not "punk rawk" or some other crap like that. It sucks when I try to explain something technical musically to someone and they can't understand it because they either developed their own language, or just play random stuff but can't explain how it works.

3.) People who are snobbish because they know theory. Theory is for inter-musician communication and nothing else, it does not make you a better person for knowing it, it just makes you a better musician to convey to other classically trained musicians. I kind of ride this ridge somewhere in the middle, and just keep learning as I go. I know how to read staff and tab and 99.9% of the time I still do everything from memory because it's faster. Does not make me lesser, just makes me efficient.

4.) Musicians who bring their significant others into band decisions when the S.O. is not a musician or not involved in the project. All that is is a catalyst to drama and causes all kinds of annoyances.

5.) People whom seem to think that controlled substances are an important part of making music. I don't like babysitting a stoned out drunkard who can't play. Have had to do it too many times. You know what sad is? A 28 year old babysitting a 38 year old alcoholic bass player whom is probably on way more than that.

6.) This fucked up contradictory view on money vs. wholesome reason to be performing. Ie. the catch 22 that if you make money as a musician that's what you are after, but if you don't make money you're a no talent hack - who are you to judge based on what is coming in and going out. Even Sonic Youth and the Sex Pistols played for money! Even hitmakers like Journey and Lady Gaga do this because they enjoy what they are doing.

I think a lot of musicians need to stop being judgemental pricks. It'd make the world a better place.

As a Guitarist

1.) Gear Snobs, my #1 enemy. They always pester me to buy this or play that because it's "better" than what I have. Um, I've worked DAMN HARD to figure out what gear I like to play, go buzz off and go shill your Les Pauls and Marshalls elsewhere bub. If anything, I love to tell these guys that it's not 1979 anymore, amps have more gain, you don't need Humbuckers to shred anymore, and Kemper is going to make their oh so special "Valves" obsolete. Don't like that I play a Chinese amp I modded myself, or wacky angular "gumbyesque" "Kirt Kobain" guitars - well, nobody is telling you to watch me, why not go visist some friends with a beer at the bar instead.

2.) Non-Musicians commenting on how many guitars I own. I own 30 because I BUILD, PLAY, and MODIFY existing guitars. I also sometimes sell my creations and want to make some hard to find models accessable to a handful of people who like them if I feel like. Yes, I'm aware I'm not Paul Reed Smith, Tom Anderson, Les Paul, Leo Fender, or Ned Steinberger - and I don't care or really want to be. Most of these people are the type of snooty Bellevue/Park Avenue/Hollywood types whom drive a BMW and have to live a "status symbol" life so if it's not 100% about money, it's not worth "investing" time into. Have you ever heard of "hobbies"? Maybe you should get some other than judging people on what they do with their free time, stop looking at everyone else and start taking a look in the mirror. Guitars are a passion, not a profession for me currently.

Crossing into non-musicians actually because of the above...

3.) I'm over 30, so a lot of people think I just need to cut my hair, hang it up, make a few babies, and "Grow Up". Well, that might be YOUR dream, but it's not mine. I'll keep doing this till I die. I'm not after money (already have it, I do I.T. for a living), I'm not after sex (I have a smoking hot wife), I'm not so crazy about fame, what I'm after is doing what I enjoy doing, creating/playing/performing. Sure, I'm not selling out Madison Square Garden, yes I'm just a little peon playing guitar on the small time local dive bar scene, but I ENJOY IT. That's why I do it. If I ever got bored or tired of it, then I'd quit and go do whatever else I'm into.

4.) Just because I'm into doing musical things does not mean I don't need to take a break every once in awhile and pursue other things. A lot of people know me as "the man of 1000 hobbies" but really that's just how I nurture my interests all around. Sometimes I need to put the guitar down and pick up a keyboard/mouse and study for I.T. work and my computer passions instead, or video games, or handyman things like fixing things around the house/car/whatever. I'd say I do a pretty good job at staying well rounded. Yes it generates a lot of clutter in my life, but that clutter is only temporary.

So there's some pet peeves I have to deal with as a musician....true love is having such a long post like above and being willing to keep going despite.

3.) People who are snobbish because they know theory. Theory is for inter-musician communication and nothing else, it does not make you a better person for knowing it, it just makes you a better musician to convey to other classically trained musicians. I kind of ride this ridge somewhere in the middle, and just keep learning as I go. I know how to read staff and tab and 99.9% of the time I still do everything from memory because it's faster. Does not make me lesser, just makes me efficient.

I've experienced two people this summer who believe theory is all there is. What's worse, both these people are not the best I've played with and they are stuck playing the same patterns over and over in all songs. I value natural talent over forced any day. If a person picks up a paint brush and creates a master piece, and another spends 2 decades having others hold their hand and teaching them to paint before they make their master piece, which of these is the greater? Kids who can sing well naturally vs adults who take singing lessons is another go-to for me. The kid, only a hand ful of years out of the womb is able to do what the adult struggles to do and finds improbable to acomplish on their own.

My advice. Out play the theory snobs and when they mess up, throw it in their face when they hit sour notes with comments like, "Oh, what scale is THAT?" Turns them radfaced everytime.

I'm supposed to take classical guitar as a give-me elective this year, but I feel like if I will lose something by taking it. I will no longer be able to say I did it on my own. I feel like by taking a class, I'm telling everyone I don't have the intelligence to do it on my own, and that eats me up. I'm tempted to swap classes before the semester starts.

Bring Me The Horizon, Asking Alexandria... um, guys help me out, those are the only ones I can think of from the top of my head.

Bring Me The Horizon? Asking Alexandria? NO WAY! Bring Me The Horizon have absolutely no love songs. Asking Alexandria are metalcore and Danny Wornsop's voice is not squeaky at all. In fact, it is screaming. Pierce The Veil might be one, although some of their songs are quite metal. I'm not really sure what other bands, but bands like AFI, BMTH, and Asking Alexandria are definetely not.

The radio

Guitar Center techs who point at the broken $100 Squier and say it's the "best beginner guitar on the floor"

Guitar Center techs

People who only know Smoke on the Water and call themselves bassists

Genre snobbery

People who insist certain hip hop artists have talent

People who insist bass isn't an instrument

People who don't know chords but memorized every Van Halen guitar solo

People who suck at their instruments but won't admit it.

Guitar Center techs

Guitar Center setups

Guitar Center guitars

SUPER THIS. I don't like math, but I do like music, so I actively stay away from chord names. I'm just like, "Oh, that fret and this finger position. Okay." I don't care for theory, though having a classically-trained musician in your band is an underrated commodity.

This is another pet peeve. Please stop it. Nobody named Worsnop can be in a worthwhile metal band.

HEY! Boom and Evil and other music theory naysaysers, your opinion is that people who have studied think they're better than everyone who hasn't. This is seldom the case. Usually people who have serious musical training aren't snobs, its people with a little, spotty education who are the snobs (this is really prevelant amongst metal-shredders, which probably infuences Boom's perception since that's his sphere). These type of people with a little bit of info and less udnerstanding want to wave the flag all the time that they've done a little learning. "Oh, that's a Lydian mode, dude! Don't you know ANYTHING?" gets annoying for people with training just like tis annpoying for ear players. But people like you guys who are PROUDLY ignoring thousands of years of western musical traiditon going back to pythagoras start to piss me off. You're far cockier than people who learned to read and understand (and musical notation is one of the msot REMARKABLE invsntions in the arts, buys! before recording all sogns would be forgotten if not passed on from oen generation to another, which is why music used to eb so simple like gregorian chant.... try memorizing all the parts to a big choral piece melody-by-melody! notation is a big deal). Basically what you theory naysayers are telling me every time you mouth off is that your decent ear is better than 2500 years of musical tradition built up by a lot of very smart and talented people. You don't like math? well quit music. The tempered tuning you use every day you pick up a guitar or bass is mathematically derived. Those 12 tones are not arbitrary. It took a lot of cleverness to reduce the western scale from having a sharp and flat at clsoe intervals to the system we have now that allows for key changes (although it makes your B string sound a bit wonky when you play a C chord if you're really listening, but at elast you don't have to return every tiem you want to play in F isntead of C or G).... yeah, key changes. But not just changed within a song like the Who's my generation. I mean that without the theorists and just with ear playing you would have to retune a stringed isntrument EVEYR TIME you wanted to play in a different key. When the village idiots got together at the pub in the renaisance all the sogns woulda been in whatever key the lute was tuned to until people wanted to take a rbeak from dancing and chat. Yes, all the songs might be in G.... like a 90s green day show! But there was a hope, a lot of smart musicians were consulting their geometry textbooks and working on a solution that everyone could agree on. The very same people naming all these chords and scales were also inventing equal tempered tuning abck then making your whole musical existence possible. Everything you hear today, even modern eastern music, has adopted this mathematically-derived 12 tone tuning system which used pythogoras's ideas from way abck when to divide the unwieldly ancient scale into fewer, uniformly spaced tones and semitonesand the inspiration for this groundbreaking innovation you are taking for granted WAS HARMONIC THEORY. The same theory behind writing a good chord change and all thsoe cales and modes you think aren't important.

I am not saying you two aren't talented. I am not saying that without music theory you cna't make music. I am asking you to stop mouthing off and souring other people to learning a little about the math and hsitory that got us from the first faltering attempt to jot down the melody to a plain chant up to complex sequencing software like Logic. I mean, they didn't calll their software logic because music is arbitrary and illogical! You don't like amth? well, its all around you and there's noe scaping it. i am not good at math but I love and respect the power of numbers and the logic of equations without which I couldn't enjoy and udnerstand the world around me beyond a caveman survival level.

For many of us learning about music theory and the hsitory of how our music 'grew-up' is really addictive. When I was little I just wanted to learn tor ead well enough to pick out a tune from a song book on my crappy little synthesizer or my viola, but it was a total rabbit hole that ahs informed my life in a way that isfar more enjoyable than if I were just writing one four five tunes on a guitar.

I agree.

I just find the language unnecessary to get to the core of the music.

I also know you're litwrally fifty million times better at songwriting because of theory. And that's fine.

I also know you're litwrally fifty million times better at songwriting because of theory.

I never said that. I do feel that in all artistic endeavors, no matter how modest, its a good idea to have a lot of resources in your tool bag... that way you don't come out of it looking like a tool bag.

...Exactly. I wrote a song in... 8th grade? usind theory, and it turned out relly well. I felt awesome, but I had no solid grasp of the concepts at all. Writing other songs, later, I did similar things with different chords and (without theory) wrote some good shit, I believe.