What I Love About Billy Sheehan

[nocontrols]

In addition to being amazingly talented, he's very practical, down-to-earth and common sense when it comes to music, technique and gear.

Sheehan detractors accuse him of being too flashy and "wanking" on bass but if you listen, it's actually the opposite: Surprisingly tasteful and always in the pocket, only really busting loose and indulging his chops on solos. He's very much about serving the song. This probably comes from years and years playing in popular bands and gigging the working man's gigs, learning that people want to hear songs, not mile-a-minute bass solos.

Whenever he talks about theory, he admits he's not a theory expert, he knows just enough to know what he's playing and how to produce his music in a live setting and that's it. Which is a remarkably practical attitude. He's more concerned with just PLAYING... no nerd is he.

His attitude toward technique is also refreshingly simple and reasonable. He says "Guys who can play fast shouldn't look down their noses at guys who can't and vice versa" which is a great attitude because each side should learn something from the other. He knows when to reign it in and when to let loose.

Whenever he talks about gear, EVERYTHING he says is from a position of practicality, from a position of a gigging musician who knows what he needs and doesn't like to screw around. He learned how to set up, modify, repair and customize his bass himself before Yamaha came in and had one of their more successful models based on his preferences.

Seriously, listen to YouTube videos where he talks about any aspect of his playing or style and you'll see he's very much like any of us... a ton better but that's largely just due to hard work, by his own admission. He seems to eschew the BS mysticism that people accuse him of. And everything he says makes sense from a practical perspective. I remember hearing him explain why he wears his bass up high... it's because that's the level his bass is at when he's sitting down and if you wear it at a different level, you have to relearn that much of your technique. It's so simple and so true! And why does he curl his right-hand plucking fingers? Because when they're folded, they line up perfectly but when they're straight out, they're three different lengths. Again, it's just simple wisdom but everything he does has a REASON.

Billy Sheehan Video Interview Part 1 - YouTube

Fret level via trial by fire... this is totally DIY stuff that he learned the hard way. You gotta appreciate that.

[dmusic148]

I love Billy. Just wish he wasn't a member of 'That Which Shall Not Be Mentioned.' I just have a hard time with that.
But honestly a great guy, met him a couple of times. Much respect for him.

[coronado3]

Billy is awesome!!!!! His tone alone puts him in the gallery of greats for me!

[flyingfinbar]

Originally Posted by dmusic148

I love Billy. Just wish he wasn't a member of 'That Which Shall Not Be Mentioned.' I just have a hard time with that.
But honestly a great guy, met him a couple of times. Much respect for him.

Wow, he's in Valdemort's band? Learn something new every day!

[groooooove]

Originally Posted by nocontrols

Whenever he talks about theory, he admits he's not a theory expert, he knows just enough to know what he's playing and how to produce his music in a live setting and that's it. Which is a remarkably practical attitude. He's more concerned with just PLAYING... no nerd is he.

i see your point but disagree that this is a good thing.

who drew the line between theory and performing music anyway? they're as intertwined as speaking and having a large vocabulary. of course someone using big words out of context sounds dumb, or someone who uses too many "big words" will just sound confusing- but nonetheless they have more ways to word what they want to say, and can be more clear, and creative, in their language.

billy said in an interview (maybe in '09 or so?) that he does not understand the difference between major and minor. he relies 100% on his ear and fingerboard patterns. thats ridiculous.

[nocontrols]

Originally Posted by groooooove

i see your point but disagree that this is a good thing.

who drew the line between theory and performing music anyway? they're as intertwined as speaking and having a large vocabulary. of course someone using big words out of context sounds dumb, or someone who uses too many "big words" will just sound confusing- but nonetheless they have more ways to word what they want to say, and can be more clear, and creative, in their language.

billy said in an interview (maybe in '09 or so?) that he does not understand the difference between major and minor. he relies 100% on his ear and fingerboard patterns. thats ridiculous.

I see your point but no, it's not "ridiculous" because it's TOTALLY working for him. His playing is great, he's had an enviable career and his music is beloved around the world.

Now I'm not saying learning theory is the devil or anything like that. If you can make it work for you, go right ahead. But attending music school or keeping your nose buried in books isn't necessarily for everyone and it's not necessarily practical for everyone and I happen to think that there's something to be said for slugging it out in the world of hard-scrabble gigs for a few decades and that someone could be an accomplished composer and arranger just having gotten by on elbow grease is pretty impressive. Ditto Hendrix!

Here's the real kicker: Some people claim Billy Sheehan is too technical! No sir, he's very much a working musician, he's just endured about a million more blisters than you or I.

[nocontrols]

Also, while I'm on the topic... a lot of these bass wizards like their technique to be cloaked in secret but Billy wants you to know that whatever he's doing, you can do, too. That's a powerful message to send to younger players and I like it.

"Most of the things I do, it sounds like a lot of notes go by but it's the simplest, stupidest, most ridiculously easy stuff in the world, it's just that the number of times you go over it, the smoother it gets and it sounds like there's more than is actually there."

- Billy Sheehan

"I try to do what's necessary. When Paul's doing a thing, I lie back and hold it together for him and when I'm doing a thing, he holds it together for me. We cancel the bad parts out and hopefully, we don't get into a lot of the extended, grandiose, 'note-y' things. We can always go off and do a wacko bass or guitar record and have fun with it... and live and on record, we do fancy stuff... but we really want to bass things around songs."

- Billy Sheehan, on playing with Paul Gilbert

[FenderHotRod]

Yes. Big fan of Billy's too. I've been meaning to pick up Mr. Big's new CD.

[Barkless Dog]

Exellent Cd (MR Big)

I love Billy. Just wish he wasn't a member of 'That Which Shall Not Be Mentioned.' I just have a hard time with that.
But honestly a great guy, met him a couple of times. Much respect for him.

agreed, but love his music & seems like a great person.

[corinpills]

He so clearly knows how to hold it down when there's a singer or a guitar solo- for better or worse, Mr. Big functions as a pop band who happens to be virtuosos. A good friend of mine played with Billy for a long time and says that when he goes off it's like the sound of a jet landing right behind you- he just has that ability to get ridiculous from so many hours of playing and to dismiss it as mindless noodling is to really disrespect the amount of time he has put into his craft.- Just a little bit of critical listening reveals him to be very much a supportive bass player.

[bound'n'blocked]

The song "Undertow" on their last CD really made me like him as a bass player. I always thought that he was just a bass "wankerist", but he really plays a great groove on that one.

BnB

[xaxxat]

Originally Posted by dmusic148

I love Billy. Just wish he wasn't a member of 'That Which Shall Not Be Mentioned.' I just have a hard time with that.
But honestly a great guy, met him a couple of times. Much respect for him.

I'm an ex-member. Regardless of his talent, I can't support someone of his status who feigns ignorance of what goes on in that organization...

[Tupac]

Originally Posted by xaxxat

I'm an ex-member. Regardless of his talent, I can't support someone of his status who feigns ignorance of what goes on in that organization...

Say what? Now I'm curious. What is this organization?

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by Tupac

Say what? Now I'm curious. What is this organization?

Scientology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[coronado3]

Billy used to be on the infomercials for scientology... He's just so darn likable that I couldn't help but watch!!!!

[caligula]

I always loved his sound, absolutely unique and always cutting through.
However, to me his solos very often sound a bit like "let's put a million notes into every bar" - awfully nervous.
Plus, he seems to be a heavy coffee drinker.
Don't know what it is, but everytime I see an interview, I ask myself why is he so overexcited and hyped-up and why does he talk like a machine gun? Chill out man.

I admire him for his pocket, the tapping and high-speed stuff doesn't do it for me.

No love for the "organisation" here. Plain ridiculous.

[UnfortunateTony]

I remember him saying something along the lines of:

"I don't do the solos because I like hearing myself play, I do them because people enjoy them."

Which makes total sense to me. And, as has been said, if you listen to actual songs that he's been on, he plays tasty bass lines but never goes overboard. My reccomendation for really hearing this: Listen to Chameleon from his solo album Compression. He gets in some bass solo stuff but it's very melodic and musical. Yeah, he doesn't know a damn thing about theory, but it's worked pretty well for him so far!

As for the Scientology thing, I don't really care one way or the other. Believe in what you want to. He's a great musician, that's all I care about.

[Kwesi]

Billy Sheehan, a pocket player? I'm going to need proof of that... Hell, if he's a "pocket player" I suppose I'm a scientologist .

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by Kwesi

Billy Sheehan, a pocket player? I'm going to need proof of that... Hell, if he's a "pocket player" I suppose I'm a scientologist .

If "pocket" is a synonym of "minimalistic player", he definitely isn't. But if "pocket" means "playing what the song needs without losing the groove", he's truly a very capable player in that sense. That's precisely one of the things I admire from him the most. He's a "wanker", but he undoubtedly knows when it's time to "wank" and when it's time to serve the songs. BTW, I saw Mr. Big live on June 28th and they (specially Billy, of course) simply blew my mind. I couldn't take decent gig pictures, but a friend still owes me the buttload of pictures he took during the concert. I'll post the best ones as soon as I get them.

[cableguy]

Originally Posted by nocontrols

In addition to being amazingly talented, he's very practical, down-to-earth and common sense when it comes to music, technique and gear.

Whenever he talks about gear, EVERYTHING he says is from a position of practicality, from a position of a gigging musician who knows what he needs and doesn't like to screw around. He learned how to set up, modify, repair and customize his bass himself before Yamaha came in and had one of their more successful models based on his preferences.

I have always admired his skill and how he worked his way up through the ranks with hard work. I had a cassette tape of Talas to let you know how long he has been at it. It was Billy who led me to the hipshot D-tuner and my preference to passive basses. I met him at a music store in the 90's. Incredibly nice guy. He played a low end Yamaha through a small Peavey combo. Still sounded exactly like Billy. The tone is in the fingers. And yea, the guy can groove.