Communication, consistency, and the apparent lack thereof.

Begin rant.

Is it a generational issue?

I am, as I have stated before, a bass guitar player. I have a consistent gig I play every Friday, one that I play once in a while on Tuesdays, and a project band which is slowly falling apart before we've really done anything.

Yesterday I was scheduled to play. I get out of work after about 4:30PM, so if practice starts at 5:30PM, I basically go home, grab my gear, and head back out. That is, if I want to be on time and continue my reputation as a consistent, solid, player.

The problem was that as of leaving work, I noticed I had received a text which essentially stated, "I am sure you knew this, just wanted to make sure, but you aren't playing tonight."

I was taken aback at the insinuation that this was information I was supposed to have already gotten or known. Sure, we were having a Christmas party...but all that meant to me was that instead of specifically playing worship tunes, they would likely be carols or hymns appropriate to the time of year.

This is even more of a shock because I had been asking to be put on the schedule for a few months now, as I got tired of being cold-called an hour before playing started to see if I wanted to come play because they had no bass player. Then having people make poor jokes about me being late or it being my fault that we didn't get much time to practice didn't help either.

I am not thin-skinned, but this is just stupid. I play the bass because I like low frequency noises, I enjoy repetition, and I enjoy playing with other people. The bass guitar, more I would say than any other instrument except perhaps drums, most completely satisfies all of these criteria for me.

So why is it then that people find it acceptable to show so little respect?

In my "band", we have "written" a few songs, which amounts to about 6~7 guitar riffs that our guitarists thought sounded cool. They are heavy on the distortion. Very heavy. I was told we were going for post-hardcore, but we don't have anything "post" about it at all. All but perhaps one of these songs has anything more than the guitar part written.

In a twist of irony, it has been the drummer with whom I have had the most common ground in wanting to flesh out what we have and get some quality time refining what little we have to show. Even recently, our drop guitarist has expressed that "we really need to practice".

I am not fond of "taking the lead". I am an introvert, and I tend to like being the guy who stays in the back, just kinda doing my own thing, but provides a critical role and knows what he is doing and does a good job. Perhaps I just need to get with some people who intend to be musicians rather than being famous.

End rant. ^_^