You're fired. ...... This just isn't working out. Or in one case.... Man, you're too good to be playing in a country band in NC. You need to be with players who can show YOU something about the guitar. I've heard them all. And... I've used them all.

Other than that.... it was often a disaster trying to fire someone. Some were yelling matches and some ended up in fist fights, and some.... people just cried. It was rarely about talent. It was more about personalities. Often we overlook the personality when we're starting a band and just look at the talent so it was rare that we ended up with a non-talented player because they never made it past the auditions stage. The personality gets overlooked or hidden for the initial first few weeks after being hired. He's an arse, but so are we, kinda thing until suddenly, it IS a problem when he's standing on the B3 cussing out the audience for requesting a song halfway into the show.

Most of the bands and players I have been in have been fairly good players. With me, if someone is reasonably talented and is willing to work up the tunes, they are a better bet than someone who is exceptionally good but is a PITA to work with. One of the best bands I was in was a band where everyone in the band was considered a "B-list" musician to the "A-list" players in town". You'll do until we can get so and so from another band. We were decent, and like the kid who gets picked last to be on the team, we had more nights sitting at home than being on stage. Hence the reason we gravitated towards each other and started a band. We had been together in a band previously with some other folks.... and in the second incarnation, it was just the 3 of us. We went to a battle of the bands... a big event with 30 bands from all over the east coast. Good money offered for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. We had pulled into the staging area when we ran into a bunch of the "A-List" musicians from our town who were in a really tight, professional sounding band. They were there to compete. No joke.... they laughed at us to our faces.... "What are you guys doing here? Come to listen to a good band? We'll show you how it's done" It made us feel bad.... seriously. So we decided...screw it, we're not going to beat those guys so we're just going to have a good time and go home. At the end of the day..... the A-List guys didn't place in the top 6 finalists, but we did. Coulda knocked me over with a feather when we got the news that we made the finals. We ended up taking the first place prize and the venue owner approached us to open for a big regional name a few weeks later.

Yeah, it was business, but it was also a family and friends. So it wasn't exactly a matter of firing and hiring whenever someone did something. Work it out. We're a band, we're a family. And we're friends. The better bands I have been in have had a special spark that made it work when the original players were involved. In those bands, when someone was eventually fired or quit, that spark was gone and the band often broke up totally shortly thereafter.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.