Fine touch?

[bassplayer48]

i'm 48 and just got back into playing recently and went to a tryout with a cover band doing 60's and 70's blues based covers.

They had a gig coming up so the bass player who is leaving was there, so i watched and listened for about 20 mins or so.

Anyway my first impression was how can i leave politely! Them i started to listen to each player 2 guitars, blues harp, singer bass and drums. So had a listen to the guitars harp and drums and all seemd to be fine, but still something sounded off.

after a few more minutes i recognised it was the bass player. He had what i would call an attacking style of play, and kind of messy and also playing way to many notes for this genre of music, i mean for goodness sake it's simple music so keep it simple! and get a nice groove going with the drummer then when the opportunity arises you can add some colour.

Anyway when i got up and had a go and the band sounded completely different it was tight and had a nice flow, i'm not trying to build myself up here but it really drove home the point that while anyone can play the notes it takes that fine touch and "feel" to make it music, also i really dislike overplaying for the sake of it as Ken Gradney from Little Feat said once "What you leave out is as important as what you play"

Has anyone else had this experience?

[jwl]

Originally Posted by bassplayer48

i'm 48 and just got back into playing recently and went to a tryout with a cover band doing 60's and 70's blues based covers.

They had a gig coming up so the bass player who is leaving was there, so i watched and listened for about 20 mins or so.

Anyway my first impression was how can i leave politely! Them i started to listen to each player 2 guitars, blues harp, singer bass and drums. So had a listen to the guitars harp and drums and all seemd to be fine, but still something sounded off.

after a few more minutes i recognised it was the bass player. He had what i would call an attacking style of play, and kind of messy and also playing way to many notes for this genre of music, i mean for goodness sake it's simple music so keep it simple! and get a nice groove going with the drummer then when the opportunity arises you can add some colour.

Anyway when i got up and had a go and the band sounded completely different it was tight and had a nice flow, i'm not trying to build myself up here but it really drove home the point that while anyone can play the notes it takes that fine touch and "feel" to make it music, also i really dislike overplaying for the sake of it as Ken Gradney from Little Feat said once "What you leave out is as important as what you play"

Has anyone else had this experience?

yes. daily. jeff

[jsbachonbass]

I know exactly what you mean. I have won many auditions for cover bands against several players who were more creative & more technically proficient , but who were also too busy for the style(in most cases, country standards). I simply played the song like it was recorded, while they showed off and tried to hit every fret on every string during a song like "Empty Glass"(which is mostly halfnote root fifths).

Despite the negative comments about playing covers exact (mostly from lazy musicians), the fact is cover songs sound the best when they are played exact. If a rhythm section can lock into the exact groove from the recording, it tends to pull the rest of the band into playing the correct parts also.

[bassplayer48]

Tnansk for the comments guys after a break from playing for so long you wonder if you have lost touch, but i guess some things just don't change ie: listen the song, have some respect for how it was written and while you can add your own stamp dont try to be Jaco on every tune! And i totally agree that when you are playing the tune as it should be it can and does pull the band together and start to get some pretty nice sounds.

Which if i'm not mistaken is the point of playing in the first place.

[ManuelJG]

It's all about groove, even if you're playing covers