1st SOLO HORROR STORIES

Fire-Starter · #1 07-11-2004, 12:23 AM

Anyone else ever had a bass solo that just went TOTALLY WRONG??

Heres mine from years ago, I had NEVER solo'd before, ever! So we had stopped during our praise and worship service to let the praise dancers dance. After about five minuets of them doing a Fantastic dance to a Richard Smallwood worship song. The Pastor and the congregation are all standing up applauding the dancers, then the pastor tells the congregation to be quiet, he wants to here the BASS PLAYER play, adding to the flow of what the dancers just did

ALL EYS on me now, to make a long story short, I froze up and fumbled through it, but I think I shrunk about 4 feet that day

although I am one of those bass players who just likes to lay down the grove and play,rather than solo, I did learn the following,

1:always be prepared for anything, this happens in churches quite a bit, where the praise leader or Pastor or who-ever will point to an instrument and say, "Minister through your instrument"

2:if you dont have a clue of what to play, dont play anything,
its not a sin to be quiet once in a while.

Aaron Saunders · #2 07-11-2004, 03:36 AM

Hehe, I was jamming alone with a drummer and he stopped all of a sudden, thrust a stick at me and yelled "BASS SOLO!". That caught me off guard!

First time I ever performed was solo. I was so nervous I couldn't get the tapped harmonics out of my bass -- my right hand was shaking like crazy. Apparently no one noticed anything bad and my friend (before I said anything about being nervous) said my hand looked "cool". Phew.

VinceLovesF · #3 07-11-2004, 03:41 AM

That's true, 1st solo was pooooooooooooor..........
Bad Bad Bad and Bad, never retried, but I must do it a day!

Vince

The Bassmaniac · #4 07-11-2004, 06:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Govithoy

First time I ever performed was solo. I was so nervous I couldn't get the tapped harmonics out of my bass -- my right hand was shaking like crazy. Apparently no one noticed anything bad and my friend (before I said anything about being nervous) said my hand looked "cool". Phew.

Ha ha I feel your terror! That happened to me too; 1st time I played with these guys in a new church!
The keyboard player ( who was pretty pro-efficient ) turned a song we were doing into an extended solo then tuned just to me and said BASS SOLO!

I was totally unprepared for this so I just banged out about 8 bars of funked up two octave riffs throwing in whatever I thought would fit and sound good.
I thought to myself "how totally short and pathetic" but amazingly the crowd thought it was great and gave me a big hand!

The power of Bass

Joey3313 · #5 07-11-2004, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fire-Starter

2:if you dont have a clue of what to play, dont play anything,
its not a sin to be quiet once in a while.

Punny guy, punny guy.

It's church though...it's not like people are gonna make fun of you...and if they do, they'll go to hell.

Fire-Starter · #6 07-11-2004, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joey3313

Punny guy, punny guy.

It's church though...it's not like people are gonna make fun of you...and if they do, they'll go to hell.

LOL............

That was funny!

OldManBass · #7 07-11-2004, 11:57 AM

Tony Levin has a book out titled "Beyond the Bass Clef" In it he writes about his first 2 solo experiences / disasters. If that's what happended to him .... don't feel too bad ....

bryan bailey · #8 07-11-2004, 12:17 PM

1st solo? Pentatonics off of roots.

My solo's still pretty much consist of these.

Wrong Robot · #9 07-11-2004, 02:10 PM

I figured out really early on, that the notes are secondary to presentation.

No, of course I'm not telling you to disregard the notes entirely, but, all things considered. You can make a "wrong" note sound "right", and it's important to keep that in consideration when playing.

So, that was always my approach from a pretty early stage in my bass playing life, Even if I hit wrong notes, I'd still back it up with a lot of charisma and energy, the crowd still cheered, and all was well in the cosmos.

Joe Nerve · #10 07-11-2004, 02:24 PM

i second what WR just said.

not that long ago i was doing an acoustic gig with a french singer, reading from charts - and she said, "Take it, Joe!" take what?

i was lucky I could follow the charts without any solo. i fumbled horrifically through a barrage of notes that weren't even minutely related to what anyone else was playing. she concluded with "mr. joe B. on the bass." they clapped. I smiled and nodded. on the outside i'm quite sure all looked fine. on the inside i was a heartbeat away from death. that stuff sucks bigtime, but it's the best practice you can get at looking as if all is well, well you know it ain't. the audience i've learned will question their own ears before they'll question your playing, so long as you look totally confident while yer destroying the song.

bryan bailey · #11 07-11-2004, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Nerve

so long as you look totally confident while yer destroying the song.

"Like they say 70% how you look 20% how you sound and 10% what you say" - Eddie Izzard

Aaron Saunders · #12 07-11-2004, 04:11 PM

If you hit the wrong note, hit it two more times with specific emphasis and charismatic flair, and it'll seem like the perfect choice.

Pause · #13 07-11-2004, 04:23 PM

I hate solos. I just like to play scales at different rhythms with some chromatic garbage... and usually it's for people who don't know what we're playing so it's not so bad

sargebaker · #14 07-11-2004, 06:05 PM

hey, I have nothign but baDNEss to say bout my first few gigs. First one I was just supposed to open for a friends band with a bass solo. I had all planned and perfect, I was gonna bust out the NV43345 but more different and slower, in short, it was a pretty good tapping solo.... I had giant bubbly blisters the size of my eyeballs on my right index and middle finger...I don't like needles so I couldn'T POP EM EITHER. So I sorta just sat there and messed up, but whatever, no one really noticed I was even playing so it's all good :P My second gig was when I was helping out some friends metal band, their guitarist was like in some tard tuning like dropped C or somehtign, and my bass was in something weird but it might have been D or C but anyways, the guitarists string broke and he had to pick up a guitar in standard tuning so he made me play everything in a different position and I didnt really know what to do, and I'm pretty sure my bass wasn't even in tune anymore.... ahh good times. To make matters worse on account of it was a metal band I thought it would be cool to wear my girl friends pants and fishnets on my arms, it was pretty hardcore, ever see a skinny 100 pound long haired kid rolling around on the floor trying to play bass in fishnets and girl pants? it was pretty funny I have to admit. I dont really care now though, The whole thing sorta turned me off playing anythign other than standard tuning thouhg

Wrong Robot · #15 07-11-2004, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Nerve

so long as you look totally confident while yer destroying the song.

exactly, Confidence goes A LONG way when performing.

Fire-Starter · #16 07-11-2004, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Nerve

i second what WR just said.

not that long ago i was doing an acoustic gig with a french singer, reading from charts - and she said, "Take it, Joe!" take what?

i was lucky I could follow the charts without any solo. i fumbled horrifically through a barrage of notes that weren't even minutely related to what anyone else was playing. she concluded with "mr. joe B. on the bass." they clapped. I smiled and nodded. on the outside i'm quite sure all looked fine. on the inside i was a heartbeat away from death. that stuff sucks bigtime, but it's the best practice you can get at looking as if all is well, well you know it ain't. the audience i've learned will question their own ears before they'll question your playing, so long as you look totally confident while yer destroying the song.

LOL

Sounds like you and I were playing on the same day! I feel ya!

Pause · #17 07-11-2004, 08:41 PM

definitely. i remember a show with this one band that i played and i seriously only knew a few songs, but i just turned my volume down and kept rocking out. it was against 2 marshall half stacks, so even when i was turned up it wasn't too loud...

but yea, i got plenty of compliments that night. it was good.

sargebaker · #18 07-11-2004, 08:52 PM

yeah, the sound guy was being a jerk and kept telling my guitarist to turn his volume down (like to the point where i couldnt hear it !) and he wouldnt allow any guitar on the monitors... and i didnt soundcheck my OD pedal and i dunno it like amplified my bass so much so all i could hear was myself F-ing up, it was pretty brutal...

Don't_Fret · #19 07-11-2004, 09:22 PM

Nope, all my solos are perfect.

Actually, I've found that if you have this attitude while you're soloing you can play however you want, and people will start believing that the way you're playing is "right" and good. If you believe that every note you play is great then you'll project that to your audience. Again, charisma.

The Antipop · #20 07-11-2004, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Govithoy

If you hit the wrong note, hit it two more times with specific emphasis and charismatic flair, and it'll seem like the perfect choice.

must be a Canadian thing...
I agree 100%

if I am just jamming an go out on a solo, when I hit a solo killing note, I add it into the groove and use it on a timely basis, making it sound like it should be there