Well i have been asked to give a master class at a local college! scary !!!!the topic is around being a working bass player in the industry. where do i even start with this! i have decided not to go into technique and reading and all of that , they have a great bass lecturer who i am sure has all of the aspects of of playing ones instrument well covered with his students!

i am basically looking at giving them small tips and concepts i have had to learn the hard way , things that i feel someone should have told me when i was starting out which would have perhaps saved me alot frustration and even more humiliation at certain times!

i wont have much time with the students so i will take five points and work. those. with them.

Do any of you have that one thing that you wish someone had told you years ago which would have made your life as a working bass player a little easier !

any little contribution would be greatly appreciated by myself and i am sure the students!

dont worry i will be discussing the perils of working with Vocalists with them and will be handing out packs of garlic, silver bullets and a cross! so anything else you may have for me go for it.

many thanks!

yep tell em how it is the real world, dont teach em how to play bass but teach em how to actually play bass for people :)

exactly! i remember slogging my guts out at college learning donna lee , charlie parker solos bill evans compositions !which were all good for me and extremely valuable ,

but guess what my current practise schedule is ! metronome on 57 @ the moment playing eighth notes ( enough to make a grown man cry) and transcribing and learning aston barret and jamerson lines and approaches!

Check with the bass teacher at the school and see if there are any point that he would like to have re-enforced by your master class. Sometimes it takes the off campus pro to get through to the kids.

Great advice above. Some reinforcement from you on any point the bass teacher is trying to make would likely go a very long way. (You know, like kids....if Dad says something it must be stupid, but if one of Dad's friends says it, it's got to be right!)

What a great opportunity for you and the students - enjoy! Be true to yourself and share what does it for you. The only thing I try to reinforce is there are bass players...and there are musicians who play bass. Try to be the latter, not the former.

Last quarter we had a clinic exactly like that and it was great. The guys name is Andre Berry and has a webside andreberry.com. He covered his back ground, how he was into loud rock, but got work in R&B, and now is big in the Smooth Jazz. But as a musicians you go where the work is. He talked about he does read, but not his strong suit. His reputation is busts his ass to learn songs fast and all the work involved really learning the tunes. If pays off in playing gigs like he's been in playing the tunes for years, that gets him callbacks. He talked about his gear a little, he play a little, and some about working with some of the people. His talk about prep'ing for gigs was really good.

He was real cool guy I would say email him and maybe he can outline the topic he covered. His email address is on his website.

I'd toss in as a last thought to always try and play with musicians who are more experienced than yourself.
My .02 which I have always found to be valuable.
~Mark

I am not a music major but I take a music class here and there. I would have the instructor listen to my bass pieces for feedback and so on, one day he asked me to come into one of his Jazz classes to talk about bass player and band dynamics. Basically how to play with a band, and how a band can use their bass player.

I went in there and went totally blank, did not know how to start. So we opened with some Q and A, and that just kinda started getting to pace rolling for what I ended up talking about. I ended up picking up three of the bass students in there as private students from that.

Personally, id do a nice powerpoint showing what the working bassist does on a day to day basis. What its like and what is involved in playing bass as a career...

If I were talking such a class, I'd like to hear about the different opportunities for a working bass player (session work, tour in a backup band, house band, broadway, etc), whats involved in each, and how you get started.

tell them how to get their foot in the door with places, how to find a job. tell them what to expect and how to deal with people. give them life experience. tell them about your experiences, good and bad.

Be yourself, dude. excite them.