What's the hardest band member to find?

Dew Knot Hump

Dew Knot Hump

Sausager
I used to think it was drums or a good singer but now I'm convinced that it's a keyboard player. I've placed 9 craigslist ads, asked three or four people if they knew anyone, reached out to my friend Eric who I've played in bands with before. He said he'd be way into it but he has a year old kid and owns a bagel shop which means he gets into work at 4am every day. One of my co-workers is married to the head of the music department at a college downtown and I reached out to him too.

Nothing. :mad:
 
Finding a keyboard player who understands how to play "rock keyboard" is hard...we're lucky that we have Gary but if I needed another guy it would be a very short list of folks I could reach out to and I know a TON of musicians around here.
 
Flamencology said:
Relocate to Vancouver and I'll do it.
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I appreciate the offer but at the moment I am going to have to pass.

Mark I apologize in advance because when I saw what I called the thread you now will be flooded with Viagra related parody threads like "How Can I Make My Member The Hardest?"
 
Mark Wein said:
Finding a keyboard player who understands how to play "rock keyboard" is hard...we're lucky that we have Gary but if I needed another guy it would be a very short list of folks I could reach out to and I know a TON of musicians around here.
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Fuck, there aren't exactly a lot of great rock keyboardists in history, let alone in a specific geographic space and time.
 
I was thinking single girl with bi-curious tendancies...

*edit, missed the "band" part. my bad*
 
I would say a great lead vocalist based on my bands experience, but you might be right with the keyboardist idea. Me and the keyboard player in our band are the only constants for the past 4 plus years so we have never had to look for one.

One issue I've run into in other situations (not this band) is that a lot of keyboard players are classically trained and while that is an advantage in many situations, they tend to have rhythm issues when switching to rock music. Not is all cases certainly, but enough that I have noticed it to be a trend....
 
cfgsteak said:
I was thinking single girl with bi-curious tendancies...
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I'd have no problem with that (actually I'm married so I would have a problem.) What I want shouldn't be that difficult, a mix of B3, piano and synth type sounds. I know a guy who would be perfect but he has two kids, just got divorced (from the drummer I was in a band with back in the early 1990's) and makes his money playing music full time and my band isn't a "money" band.
 
When I was playing keys in my last band, we were one of the only bands (other than the synthy dance bands) that actually had a keyboard player in town. I got offers after just about every show for either session work or to join another band full-time, and I'm not even all that good. So I'd say keyboard players are in pretty high demand.
It seems like most pianists who play pop/rock want to go down the singer-songwriter route, rather than play as part of a band.
 
Mark Wein said:
Finding a keyboard player who understands how to play "rock keyboard" is hard....
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Definitely. Pretty much impossible up here. Locally there's only one guy up here - he's rare in the sense that he's both a really good jazz pianist and a good rock keyboardist.
He's basically impossible getting hold of though, since he's always booked for months.
I've tried several piano students and such in bands previously, and the trouble is when most of them start getting good, the jazz guys routinely play way too much and the classical guys are often incapable of (or at best helpless) playing without notes. Not to mention that a lot of them turn into genre nazis that can't do music "beneath" them.
Well, if they don't want the gig, their loss. :grin:

Occasionally a really good exception does indeed happen though. :)
 
12Pack said:
* Googles Benmont Tench *
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The Heartbreakers Keyboard player. One of the best.

I have never tried to find a keyboard player. The one band I was in that had one, sounded much worse when he bothered to show up.
 
Benmont is a freakin' awesome, a very humble player from videos and reads. I also like Reese Wynans.

I forgot about Bill Hollmann who just cooks with the late great Danny Gatton.
 
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Mark Wein said:
Finding a keyboard player who understands how to play "rock keyboard" is hard...we're lucky that we have Gary but if I needed another guy it would be a very short list of folks I could reach out to and I know a TON of musicians around here.
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Yeah, you are lucky to have the Doc. Some of his keyboard solos i have heard were jaw dropping.
 
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