You might have more control than you think

[Matt Till]

Meh, I guess this is where this belongs. I had a gig for a band as many of you know, I could care less about. A cover band playing the same tunes you hear on classic rock radio every day. If you hate a band, and you play with it for 4 hour gigs, you find ways to entertain yourself. Usually I mess around between songs and during breaks, playing stupid funk licks and stuff.

One night I decided to make my tone almost all low end to see the effect it would have on the gig. No crunch, no punch, just lowwwwww. It sounded pretty cool at times, but almost all the agressive tunes had no edge. It was weird, that made me smile.

We started "You don't know how it feels" by Tom Petty, and since my tone was very reggae... I randomly decided to play reggae style bass. Everyone else played the normal version, but I was rasta man all of a sudden. The strangest thing was this was a hicky kinda bar, and everyone was hootin' and hollerin' and jiggin' and docie doing or whatever... but for that one song it looked like they had been possessed by Reggae dancehall patrons. They were doin' the slow wavey swing your hips kind of dance you see in Reggae clubs. It was cracking me up. No one else in the band really knew what was different in the song, the drummer had a clue, he changed the beat a little. But it was kinda my own little inside joke.

[Freaky Fender]

That's a great song though. Kudos for being daring and trying something new! Are you gonna try that tone for the song from now on?

[nicoli]

I like to reggae up 'Knockin on Heaven's Door'... not sure if it has quite as good effect as you got though. We too play a lot of hick bars.

[TVD]

Yes but with control and power comes responsibility and it sounds like you're abusing it. I know i'm going to come off as a total killjoy here. But your post pissed me off. I think your attitude sucks, maybe it's just the grumpy "old man" in me, i don't know. Why are you in a band you hate? If you hate it that much, and are that bored with it, why are you wasting your time and theirs? Just for the work? If it's for the work my opinion is you still need to be a professional. That's at the top of the priority list in my book. It's a pet peeve of mine anyhow guys who noodle around between songs. But hey you do your thing and i'll do mine, i've only been gigging professionally since 1989, and locally before that since 1980. Trent

[Matt Till]

Don't worry TVD. That was one of our last gigs. And I don't consider it an abuse of power. Slamming my bass on the ground with distortion on is an abuse of power. But yeah, the band's about done, finally. It was a band where noone enjoyed themselves.

[Ray Salamon]

And obviously the people (audience) didn't care, and the other band members didn't notice ( ), so what's it matter? If I'm bored with a song I'll throw little fills in and what not just to make it a bit more interesting...

Ray

[buzzbass]

Originally Posted by TVD

Yes but with control and power comes responsibility and it sounds like you're abusing it. I know i'm going to come off as a total killjoy here. But your post pissed me off. I think your attitude sucks, maybe it's just the grumpy "old man" in me, i don't know. Why are you in a band you hate? If you hate it that much, and are that bored with it, why are you wasting your time and theirs? Just for the work? If it's for the work my opinion is you still need to be a professional. That's at the top of the priority list in my book. It's a pet peeve of mine anyhow guys who noodle around between songs. But hey you do your thing and i'll do mine, i've only been gigging professionally since 1989, and locally before that since 1980. Trent

That's hilarious. It's the 1st time I've ever seen a bass player get bitched at for playing "LESS". LOL !

[TVD]

Originally Posted by Bad_Habit_Bassist

And obviously the people (audience) didn't care, and the other band members didn't notice ( ), so what's it matter? If I'm bored with a song I'll throw little fills in and what not just to make it a bit more interesting...

Ray

This is just my opinion, but i think it's important to still be a professional even in the worst dive in the world with nobody there. Now common sense comes into play sure, and don't think i don't have fun, cuz i do, but i've played with guys who when the place is crappy or there's nobody there, they go into completely halfassed mode. I simply don't agree with that, to me remaining professional in a situation like that is what being a professional is about. I get seriously annoyed when others are not professional onstage at these times. Trent

[Ray Salamon]

I agree with you Trent, being professional is paramount in all cases, but I don't see how he was that unprofessional, a bit yes, but we all have our moments really. Think back to 1980, your first few gigs, did you remain 100% professional the entire time? Not to offend, but I would doubt such is true (but if it is, congrats ). I think we all put the "professional" side away every now and then, and let the, in Matt's case, the expiremental side come out, others may put out a half assed side, or a wank fest, depends on the person mostly I do think. I don't mean to insult or argue one way or the other, I just really don't see how Matt did something that wrong. I see where you're coming from, but I don't think it's to the extent where we need to call him unprofessional...

Ray

[andruca]

I make these "just for the money" gigs with bands that I don't like at all. Some are very boring. I keep "professional" all the time (I mean, no "out of the program behaviour" at all), but try to imprint something inspiring (for me) to every song. I mean, to modify my lines so they are enjoyable for me to play. Because if not, some musician-for-hire work becomes a real pain in the a$$ (and I prefer my day job rather than playing music I don't find a minimal joy in). Although I think this has to be made at rehearsal, I don't see why this can be considered so "unprofessional".

ANDRUCA

[nicoli]

Originally Posted by Matt Till

Usually I mess around between songs and during breaks, playing stupid funk licks and stuff.

I would consider this to be pretty unprofessional... messing around with lines in a song to make them more interesting isn't too big a deal though as long as nobody complains and it still sounds good.

[TVD]

Originally Posted by Bad_Habit_Bassist

I agree with you Trent, being professional is paramount in all cases, but I don't see how he was that unprofessional, a bit yes, but we all have our moments really. Think back to 1980, your first few gigs, did you remain 100% professional the entire time? Not to offend, but I would doubt such is true (but if it is, congrats ). I think we all put the "professional" side away every now and then, and let the, in Matt's case, the expiremental side come out, others may put out a half assed side, or a wank fest, depends on the person mostly I do think. I don't mean to insult or argue one way or the other, I just really don't see how Matt did something that wrong. I see where you're coming from, but I don't think it's to the extent where we need to call him unprofessional...

Ray

Well, i certainly don't think it's the end of the world, or even a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but Matts post did irritate me, which is why i responded. He admits to noodling around between wongs, totally changing his tone onstage, and totally changing the feel of a song. To me, these things fall under the catagorey of being "unprofessional". Now he's since posted and said the band is about done, so it almost comes off as a "last day of school" mentality. But if i was in a band where a guy was doing all of these things Matt was doing, i'd be seriously annoyed, and i'd probably say something about it to the person. In this case where nobody noticed, i guess it's like a tree falling in the woods.
I'm not putting myself over as perfect or a saint by any stretch, but being professional on stage has always been important to me. Maybe partically cuz the first band i played out with at age 15 was my dads band, it was me and the rest of the guys were in their 30's to their 50's. They just didn't do stuff like that, and trust me we played some real dives. Now some of these guys drank way too much, which is unprofessional in itself for sure, but they still had a certain way they acted on stage. A few years after that, around '83, i played in a band with guys my then young age, and they about drove me nuts. So i guess i always have been anal about some things. In that case it wasn't so much being unprofessional on stage, which they were at times, but really none of these guys belonged on any stage let the truth be known. All these guys cared about was getting drunk and getting laid. I mean their "musicianship"(?), if you want to call it that, was non-exsistant. I spent a great deal of time b!tching just to get them to do the most basic chord changes in songs, and it was still a constant train wreck even on basic 3 chord songs. I used to tell them that if we played better, we could get better quality women(heh). But they didn't even care about the quality, these jokers had no standards trust me. In a left handed way, that band helped me cuz one guy in that band, who i remanined good friends with for years after that, used to yell and berate me constantly about why am i wasting myself here, that i need to be in Nashville. If not for his always being on me for years, i may have never moved away, so things have a weird way of working out. Ironically, that guy is now in prison. Playing with older, more in control, guys first made it really hard for me to play with out of control idiots my age even when i was 18. Plus that's just my "award winning" personality...... Another thing that really stunned me later after playing with experienced guys first was how few songs some singers know. Those guys knew 100's and probably even thousands of songs, so later when i dealt with so called singers who literally maybe knew 20 songs tops....Well suffice to say i was less than impressed with them. lol Trent

[Thee]

Man, no love for Matt today.

Trent, changing a the way a cover sounds is not unprofessional. There is no respected band leader's orders he is defying. I think contextually you and him are thinking of two completely different bands and situations.

[Matt Till]

Originally Posted by TVD

Well, i certainly don't think it's the end of the world, or even a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but Matts post did irritate me, which is why i responded. He admits to noodling around between wongs, totally changing his tone onstage, and totally changing the feel of a song. To me, these things fall under the catagorey of being "unprofessional".

What's a wongs?



Uh, I changed my tone at the begining of the gig. I mess around between songs to kill the deafing silence. The band never used set lists, and the guy who called off songs, never knew song titles. So he'd be like, "that' ol' John Fogerty tune" and then hum a little... that meant CCR's "Fortunate Son."

I was only unprofessional to blend in...

Also... chill.

Also... no love for the Matt bone... matt grows depressed... :emo:

[Ray Salamon]

Originally Posted by Matt Till

What's a wongs?



Uh, I changed my tone at the begining of the gig. I mess around between songs to kill the deafing silence. The band never used set lists, and the guy who called off songs, never knew song titles. So he'd be like, "that' ol' John Fogerty tune" and then hum a little... that meant CCR's "Fortunate Son."

I was only unprofessional to blend in...

Also... chill.

Also... no love for the Matt bone... matt grows depressed... :emo:

Oh no, Matt Till's gone emo. Somebody call the medics!


Ray

[TVD]

What's a wongs?


Just one of my many typos is all. I stumbled across a few of your threads about your girlfriend, and your dealings with "rednecks". You're an interesting character. Trent

[RLT]

Is not a wong a wittle bong?

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by TVD

Just for the work? If it's for the work my opinion is you still need to be a professional. That's at the top of the priority list in my book. It's a pet peeve of mine anyhow guys who noodle around between songs. But hey you do your thing and i'll do mine, i've only been gigging professionally since 1989, and locally before that since 1980. Trent

I must say that I agree - it's the same with me, that people "noodling around" between songs, is one of the most irritating things and to me the ultimate sign of a "bad band" !

I also agree that this almost defines "professionalism" - so I know a lot of Jazz pros who are great musicians but will often play gigs for money,where they don't really like the music - but you wouldn't know - they play as well and as seriously as they can, at every gig!

[bmc]

My $.02

1. Noodling between songs/sets sounds amateur. Right up their with tuning out loud.

2. Experimenting with your gear is best done in a practice room.

3. Playing a song differently, on the fly, if you and the other players have the skill and competency to pull it off, is a whole lot of fun and very rewarding.

We do the latter fairly often. It keeps you on your toes and it keeps it fresh.

[Woodchuck]

Originally Posted by bmc

My $.02

1. Noodling between songs/sets sounds amateur. Right up their with tuning out loud.

2. Experimenting with your gear is best done in a practice room.

3. Playing a song differently, on the fly, if you and the other players have the skill and competency to pull it off, is a whole lot of fun and very rewarding.

We do the latter fairly often. It keeps you on your toes and it keeps it fresh.

My feelings in a nutshell. Soup for you!

Matt, don't feel bad. I got jumped on pretty bad because I told a fat female heckler to "shut up, and go have another canned ham." I was told by a few on this site that I'd been fired on the spot if they were the band leader. Hey, everyone's different. I just try to respect the differences.