Is this amazing or am I just easily impressed?

[Mr_Krinkle]

Alright, so I'm at a party with a couple buddies and some other bassists, one of whom I had seen play a year previous at a party on his acoustic bass, and know him to be very good. As of this party he had been playing for two years. It's at his house, so sure enough he goes and grabs his acoustic bass. He comes out with it, and lo and behold, the guy got A LOT better. So he starts playing some Primus, and then he pipes up "Anybody like Master of Puppets". My first thought is naturally "No F---ing way!" But, yes, he played Les Claypool's Master of Puppets near flawlessly, and he could play any Primus song I threw at him. And of course, It's all done with Claypools signature slap-pop and flamenco style playing.
The guy's been playing for TWO YEARS! That's still one more year than me, so it's given me something to shoot for, but still... Holy Crap. I know this isn't the most interesting thread topic, but I just want to hear some other peoples' opinions on this.

[ShirazBop]

So, does he have a day job and just genetically gifter or not a demanding day job and just perpetually woodshedding???? I often think about how much I could raise my level if I had the luxury to practice +5 hrs a day or so... I would not be discouraged though. Everyone develops at thier own pace and develop thier own "voice". Sure, he can be an inpiration, but work on your game as priority #1!

[Siegy]

The downside of this though, is that instead of developing his own sound and technique, he's just copied someone else's. I'd rather be at the point I'm at now with my own style than be able to play like Jaco and have no other skills.

[Mark Wilson]

you're just easily impressed.

So he can slap like claypool, but can he groove?

[capnsandwich]

Originally Posted by Mark Wilson

you're just easily impressed.

So he can slap like claypool, but can he groove?

+1

It's easy to listen to a cd or watch a DVD of someone famous and copy their tricks but does he know where to put the notes at on the fly and can he play with other musicians easily?

[fretlessman71]

Let's keep in mind, folks, that when WE had been playing for 2 years total, most of us cared less about the groove than we did figuring out our favorite bass player's licks.

Who knows if he can groove. Probably not just yet, but if that's the case he can learn like we did.

Is it amazing? No, not really. A wise man once said that "anything is possible if you simply do all you need to do". Is it cool? I think so. Good for him!

Are you easily impressed? That, of course, is totally up to you. Find out what ELSE he can do, and maybe some things he can't; maybe you can do them already, and HE'LL be the one who's impressed.

No one can do everything, and it's better that way. I love it when a student comes in having mastered an exercise, technique, groove, or what-have-you that I didn't have to show them. It also lights a fire under me to make sure my students don't overtake me and put me out of a job.

[Step]

it all depends on what he's doing in addition to playing bass

if he's holding down a 9 to 5 job and raising 2 kids, while becoming this good, impressive

if he's just living off his parents money and failing all his classes in school because he's too busy mimicking claypool, not so much

it all depends on perspective, I've been playing for 2 years, and Im pretty good, not at mimicking claypool, but jamming

so I met this jazz bassist, 15 years old, was playing for 1 year, and was really awesome, he was better than me, I had alot of respect for him, until he told me he stopped going to school to play bass

see? perspective

[Arpeggiator]

he is obviously good but saying that, i new a palyer who could play any muse song you threw at him hysteria, you name but he couldnt paly nout else apart from muse. so can he paly anything other than primus?

[mikeboth]

Originally Posted by Arpeggiator

palyer ... play ... paly ... paly

Mate ... that's a score of 1 out of 4.

Sounds like that guy has made a lot of progress, but for me at least where it's at playing bass is in a band context. Learning to play tastefully and appopriately with others is way more important than having flashy solo chops, plus it's more fun too (IMHO, of course, I'm not really into solo bass).

[Bardley]

Originally Posted by unbeliever

Mate ... that's a score of 1 out of 4.

[fenderbassabuse]

Originally Posted by Arpeggiator

he is obviously good but saying that, i new a palyer who could play any muse song you threw at him hysteria, you name but he couldnt paly nout else apart from muse. so can he paly anything other than primus?

Who be that, Sam?

[namraj]

can he do anything other than play like les claypool, because thats already been done?

[Sahm]

Well, your handle is Mr. Krinkle, so there's a chance that you're easily impressed by anything Primus related! As has been said before, mimicking an already established musician is not impressive, especially if he was working on it for two years.

What would be impressive is if in two years time he developed his own style and presence that's as unique as Les'.

[CapnSev]

You can match his Primus-playing abilities in just days with my 5-step easy and fun course!

1. Write a song using using a bass chord that consists of the root and the tritone. Keep coming back to that chord at the start of the riff again. For the second part of the riff, thump some notes like the root, VII, IV, and so on, until you get to the one count again, then go back to the gross tritone/root chord.

2. Play lots and lots so that the guitar player has nothing to work with, so he just wanks.

3. Get a really cool drummer.

4. Write the song about some guy with a plain name, and his occupation (Bill the garbageman, Ron the zookeeper, Uncle Bob worked for the Post Office, etc...)

5. Sing the song like Lakta from the TV show Taxi.

[Sahm]

Originally Posted by CapnSev

5. Sing the song like Lakta from the TV show Taxi.

LOL!

"My name is Lakta .... thanguveddymuch."

[Stumbo]

365 days in a year x 2 years x 3 hours a day practice = 2190 hours.

If he practiced like that, he probably should be further along.

If the OP practiced/practices like that, he'd be further along as well.

It's called "payin' your dues". "No pain, no gain" , blah, blah, blah.

[JustOpenYourMind]

Like everyone said, learning cover is easy, anybody can play any songs, it just takes the time to practice them.

For a guy that has been playing only two years, if he can nail those songs, then yes he's pretty good.

However if he sat in his bedroom for hours just to learn primus songs to show off to people, he should have spent his time learning to play bass and develop his style.

Once you have a good musical ear, learning cover is only physical, you just have to practice untill your fingers can move fast enough and with accuracy to play what you ear. I'm much more impressed with someone who can make music with an instrument, for that you don't need crazy technique just soul and feel.

[CapnSev]

Originally Posted by Sahm

LOL!

"My name is Lakta .... thanguveddymuch."

You know it's true!

[DWBass]

Some folks just advance faster than others! I've been playing 35+ years and I feel I still suck at times! Then I see some young kid running through fast arpeggios, slapping & tapping like Victa and have only been playing a year or 2! In fact my son seems to be progressing pretty quickly. I think I was still playing on one string for at least 6 months before slowly moving on to other strings! He's using all the strings and has only been playing a month or so!

[rappa29]

Learning covers and chops note for note is but one stop in the endless journey of learning how to play ANY instrument. If he can make a living doing Primus covers, more power to him. But as stated above, he's not really learning anything about how to be a complete bass player.

Actually, what's more impressive to me are people that can convey their original ideas through their respective instrument. I'd be more impressed if the dude played me a song he wrote or a groove he came up with instead of showing me his best Claypool imitation.

I've been playing for almost 3 years. I can't play a lick of Primus, RHCP, Wooten, Clarke, Jaco, etc., etc. But I keep good time, am tightening up my groove and could easily play in any standard rock\top 40\pop cover\original band. Was playing in a gigging rock cover band after my first year.

From what I'm reading that dude's chops are far and away better than I'll ever have, but then again, can the dude lock in with a drummer well enough to make women want to shake their booties at the front of the stage?

Ps - To answer your question. You're easily impressed. If you go a different route in your learning, you'll be playing covers\originals IN A WORKING BAND. Meanwhile, he'll probably have learned a bunch of Dream Theatre songs that he can impress people at parties with! Not that there's anything wrong with that it's just a matter of where you want to be as not only a bass player but as a musician in general.