with a previous partner I had he was not good at all about staying in time. He didn't listen to me as we played. He also was a very limited singer. Before we started one thing I sressed is that we had to be completely honest with each other & if we didn't sound good wether him or myself we had to tell each other cause the critics wouldn't be so kind. Eventualy I had to make him play along with a metronome to get him to hear how badly he was doing. He argued with me at first but then relented & started practicing with a metronome. He made great improvement. Eventualy he quit though, which worked out because I ended up with a much better partner. But the point is you have to make that stance sometimes or you will (at best) never improve & at worse your audiance will run when they see you coming or laugh at you