Sitting in on my first "real" gig!

[Fwarginator]

My dad plays bass in a local rock/blues band, and they will be playing at a town fair. Well the other day I asked my dad if I could have a copy of his setlist to work on and if I could sit in on a gig sometime. He tells me "Sure, you can play some songs at the fair!" without telling me when the fair is or what songs to learn for it. Then today, he tells me "You can play Gimme Three Steps and Sweet Home Alabama, and I'll find a few more for you." I ask when the fair is. "Thursday." So now I've got three days to learn those two plus any others he gives me well enough to play live. I'm sure I'll be able to do it, but I am rather nervous. And freaking excited at the same time.

Just sayin'

[tZer]

Go for it! You'll do fine.

Just go ahead and spend some quality time with those recordings and practice hard!

One tip I'll offer - LISTEN to the recordings a lot without your bass. Put the bass down - and just listen - listen very closely and visualize what's going on. Get to know the song inside and out that way. If you know the songs in your head, getting your fingers to do their thing is that much easier.

The parts for those songs are not that complicated so you shouldn't have too much difficulty getting them under your fingers and if you KNOW the songs like you know your name, then you'll be able to relax and enjoy the gig!

OK - one more tip! Be sure to relax and enjoy the gig!

Have a great time!

[Fwarginator]

Thanks! Those two songs are two of the best he could have given me, just because I know them so well. I just need to, like you said, listen to them a bunch and get down the little parts that aren't as easy to hear.

[kesslari]

Rock hard and have fun!

[LilRay]

MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!!















Have a blast playing and don't sweat the tiny details. Give it your best and make sure everyone there knows you're having fun. That will make them have fun as well.

Definately give a post Gig report here.

God Bless, Ray

[Fwarginator]

Oh, I will! Hopefully I'll be able to snag some photos/video from it too. And considering its a town fair, I should have some contributions to the "Chicks at shows" thread too!

[Fwarginator]

I have an AAR for you guys!

As I said in my first post, I was told I would play Sweet Home Alabama, Gimme Three Steps, and a few songs that he would give me later. Well he finally gave them to me at about midnight the night before the gig. My mother was already asleep, so I couldn't go learn them that night (she is a VERY light sleeper). They were My Girl and Cold Shot, no problem.

The next day, I get to work on them. After playing around with them a little bit, I get both of them down. Just as I am playing through My Girl just to make sure I have it, my dad walks downstairs and says "Uh, Ben, did I tell you My Girl? We don't play that, I must have meant Brown Eyed Girl." D'oh! This was about 45 minutes before we were to leave. I rushed through Brown Eyed Girl, learning it as best I could with such short notice, and we left.

Anyway, Cold Shot and Brown Eyed Girl were in the first set last night. Cold shot went well, though I was a little nervous and my dad told me he could tell, with the only real mistake being at one point I forgot they were playing a half step up. I fixed it quickly though, so that was fine. Brown Eyed Girl though..... well I wish I had had a little more time with it. It took me a few bars to fully get the rhythm of it going. After that it was great though. My dad told me it sounded better than Cold Shot, but it sure didn't at the beginning Luckily these were early, before we really had many people listening.

Sweet Home and Gimme Three Steps were two of the last songs of the night. These ones went nearly perfectly, and were a great time. The whole night was great, and hopefully I'll be playing with these guys again soon.

The moral of the story is: Whenever possible, I need to sleep on a song before I do it live. It sure helped with the two Skynyrd tunes, and I definitely think it would have with the other two.

[tZer]

That's GREAT! And pretty much as good as it gets for a first gig - sit-in situation. You should be very pleased with yourself.

Also - you'd be amazed at how many 'mistakes' go completely unnoticed by the crowd. That's why one rule of thumb is that if you make a mistake not to put a screwed up look on your face - just smile and keep on plowing along. Most of the time, unless you show it on your face and in your body language, no one but you will know.

Also - and I know this is easier said than done, but once your in the gig there's very little that you can do to fix anything that's not quite perfect already. It is what it is and it will be what it will be. So the best thing you can do is enjoy the ride! When the inevitable flub or minor hiccup happens, laugh and enjoy yourself even MORE! The more fun you have, the more fun the crowd will have! Stressing and sweating the little mistakes that EVERY player makes only sucks your energy. So if you can learn to take the little things in stride and let 'em roll off your back without making you bum out, you're gonna have great gigs all the time! Even seasoned pros have their off days. But you should ALWAYS enjoy yourself when you have your bass on and you are playing! Otherwise, what's the point, right?

It sounds to me like you've got a good head on your shoulders and a great work ethic! Keep it up and you'll be in HUGE demand!

[wildhorse]

Originally Posted by Fwarginator

Thanks! Those two songs are two of the best he could have given me, just because I know them so well. I just need to, like you said, listen to them a bunch and get down the little parts that aren't as easy to hear.

Relax IS the key. The parts that aren't so easy to hear no one will hear anyway.
Have fun and break a leg.

[wildhorse]

Hey sounds like the gig went well. Congratulations.
Although you had My Girl down, Brown Eyed Girl is an easier songs to play.
Very distinct line on My Girl that's for sure.
Hope you had fun and get the chance again real soon.

[wildhorse]

Originally Posted by tZer

That's GREAT! And pretty much as good as it gets for a first gig - sit-in situation. You should be very pleased with yourself.

Also - you'd be amazed at how many 'mistakes' go completely unnoticed by the crowd. That's why one rule of thumb is that if you make a mistake not to put a screwed up look on your face - just smile and keep on plowing along. Most of the time, unless you show it on your face and in your body language, no one but you will know.

Also - and I know this is easier said than done, but once your in the gig there's very little that you can do to fix anything that's not quite perfect already. It is what it is and it will be what it will be. So the best thing you can do is enjoy the ride! When the inevitable flub or minor hiccup happens, laugh and enjoy yourself even MORE! The more fun you have, the more fun the crowd will have! Stressing and sweating the little mistakes that EVERY player makes only sucks your energy. So if you can learn to take the little things in stride and let 'em roll off your back without making you bum out, you're gonna have great gigs all the time! Even seasoned pros have their off days. But you should ALWAYS enjoy yourself when you have your bass on and you are playing! Otherwise, what's the point, right?

It sounds to me like you've got a good head on your shoulders and a great work ethic! Keep it up and you'll be in HUGE demand!

Funny you should mention this. My bass instructor once told me "When you make a mistake do it again, the crowd will think it's part of the song" Not sure I buy that but his point was to relax, it's not that big of a deal. And yes plenty of times I've screwed up and the crowd tells me what a wonderful job I did.

[tZer]

Originally Posted by wildhorse

Funny you should mention this. My bass instructor once told me "When you make a mistake do it again, the crowd will think it's part of the song" Not sure I buy that but his point was to relax, it's not that big of a deal. And yes plenty of times I've screwed up and the crowd tells me what a wonderful job I did.

In general, that's 100% correct! But it obviously depends on the mistake.

If you are improvising and you find your way to an "out" note, do THAT again - and then again - and then one more time and people will start to crave it!

Like Victor Wooten says (I am paraphrasing) - "You are always 1/2 step from a 'good' note - and really, there are no 'bad' notes so sweating things like 'notes' is a bad use of energy!"

It's all about the GROOVE! If you got groove, the rest is gravy!

[Fwarginator]

Thanks for the advice guys! And I think I know what you mean about mistakes going unnoticed. At the end of Brown Eyed girl, some of the (quite possibly somewhat drunk) folks in the audience started chanting "We want Ben!" as I left the stage. They threw these chants in between songs now and then until I finally did come up near the end for my other two songs.

It looks like I'll be playing with these guys again on August first, I can't wait!

[Phalex]

Originally Posted by tZer

Also - you'd be amazed at how many 'mistakes' go completely unnoticed by the crowd. That's why one rule of thumb is that if you make a mistake not to put a screwed up look on your face - just smile and keep on plowing along. Most of the time, unless you show it on your face and in your body language, no one but you will know.

This describes every gig I ever played! I make my first mistake about 9:30 and I make my last one right around 1:30. Then I go back and do it again.

[RONQUITO]

Congratulations! Not everyone gets to have a blast alternating whith his dad on a blues/rock setting. I mean what a sub.

[Fwarginator]

Yeah, it was really great. I've been given a great gift in having a bass playing father, especially one with such a fun band!

[geeza]

Where "near Pittsburgh" are you? I lived in Canonsburg for many years and I was just at my brother's in Wexford this past weekend.

[Fwarginator]

I'm in Greensburg, if you know where that is.

[billjr]

Originally Posted by tZer

Go for it! You'll do fine.

One tip I'll offer - LISTEN to the recordings a lot without your bass. Put the bass down - and just listen - listen very closely and visualize what's going on. Get to know the song inside and out that way. If you know the songs in your head, getting your fingers to do their thing is that much easier.

+1. But I can't for the life of me understand how to convince the guitards in my band how to do this. It's like they think the song will just automatically downlod into their brains if they have it playing in the background while totally ignoring it, or noodling all over it trying to figure it out before they hear it. I keep trying to get them to listen to new songs, and then really get to know it before we start playing it, but within the first two bars, their fingers are all over the guitars making it impossible to hear the thing. There must some power of guitar that gives them the ability to play a song perfectly when they haven't heard it for 30 years. And then they question me when I try to correct them. Excuuuuuuuse me!! I guess I need to listen to the song 51 times this week instead of 50 to get up to your greatness.

Hey, sorry for the rant. That felt good though.

[geeza]

Originally Posted by Fwarginator

I'm in Greensburg, if you know where that is.

Sure do. My younger brother went to Pitt - his first 2 years were in Greensburg.