You might have more control than you think

[bmc]

Originally Posted by Woodchuck

I told a fat female heckler to "shut up, and go have another canned ham."

[Selta]

Originally Posted by Woodchuck

...I told a fat female heckler to "shut up, and go have another canned ham."

You have no idea how much that made me laugh!


Ray

[bmc]

Ray..what are you taking at Embry Riddle?

[i like tictacs]

Originally Posted by 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

So who pissed in your cheerios this morning?

[TVD]

Originally Posted by i like tictacs

So who pissed in your cheerios this morning?

Nobody did. Why do you say that? Trent

[Selta]

Originally Posted by bmc

Ray..what are you taking at Embry Riddle?

I'm a dual major, Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Physics actually, with a Math minor.


Ray

[Gabu]

I think so long as my audience is having a good time at the show, I am doing my job and so long as I have fun doing the show, then I will keep my job.

I'm all about playing well and giving the audience something to enjoy. But at the same time, I am in this for fun. If that means changing the feel of the song, or screwing around with the band, or doing something between sets... so be it.

No rules!!

[jim primate]

i think you folks all need to lighten up.

silly me, i thought we did this sh*t for fun?

and as i recall there are no rules as to how to play a song, or how to behave onstage.

if it's a hobby treat it like a hobby. if it's a job treat it like a job. if it's a job you hate, act like you wanna get fired. seems simple enough.

p.s. matt, love the boxy brown avatar.

[Vox Populi]

Exactly jim. It's supposed to be fun! I don't see how messing around between songs is so bad. Or even changing the song a bit.

If it's going to be a tightly regimented thing, it's no fun.

[TVD]

Hey, it's just my opinion of what's unprofessional. I can't have fun if i'm embarrassed on stage. Sounding good, being tight, giving a strong performance, when it feels right, those are things that are fun for me. Being with guys who don't care, doing things half assed, goofing around onstage, noodling between songs, none of that is fun for me to be a part of. I don't think giving a subpar performance based on the venue or crowd size is acceptable, and i won't apologize for always giving an effort.
I mean i'll tell a quick story, a few months ago this year a guy hired me to put a band together for a one time show he was doing in his home town, and i did. Well, like nobody showed up for the gig, he expected like 200, maybe 20-30 people there, and half of that at least was his family. He took a few thousand dollar bath on the deal. I went out there and gave 100% cuz he hired me, and i thought it would be unprofessional to do anything less. The keyboard player asked me before the gig if i thought we'd get paid, and i said yeah i know the guy's good for the money, and he was. After the show the guy that hired me thanked me for still trying to put a good show on even though nobody was there, and we had fun playing it. Would have been real easy to do a half assed show in a case like that, but i think that's what being a professional is about. Even if there's nobody there, i'd rather just play songs then stand around with dead air or guys noodling around. I think that's boring as Hell, i mean since you're there, why not just play songs? It's a good time to try new songs out actually i think. Trent

[bmc]

Originally Posted by jim primate

i think you folks all need to lighten up.

silly me, i thought we did this sh*t for fun?

and as i recall there are no rules as to how to play a song, or how to behave onstage.

if it's a hobby treat it like a hobby. if it's a job treat it like a job. if it's a job you hate, act like you wanna get fired. seems simple enough.

p.s. matt, love the boxy brown avatar.

Well....a thread was started asking for opinions. The risk, of course, is that you will get opinions that may not match yours. I would guess most of the people on this forum do play bass for fun. Many of us play music for a hobby. I do it for the love of it and I get paid for it. I often equate getting paid to play music with getting paid to sit in a hot tub. I'm getting paid to do something I truly enjoy. It is my number 1 hobby.

You may find that good players, and hobby players, adopt an unwritten code rules. It covers a range of stuff like showing up to a gig on time with gear that's functional, spare cables, strings, batteries, pliers, tape, and showing up sober, knowing your parts, knowing volume to play at. It also includes stuff like not tuning up out loud, and playing your instrument between songs and between sets. Like it or not, that's just the way it is. AND we all still seam to have a lot of fun getting together and practicing our craft. I could be wrong.

You can disagree with all the comments posted here and do whatever you want. You may just find that if you do wish to pursue music more seriously, your phone won't be ringing as often as you would like. I could be wrong.

Being a little bit professional doesn't diminish from the fun factor in the least. Not at all. In fact, I would argue that it actually increases the fun factor as you develop a reputation for being somewhat professional, and if your chops are good, better players will want to play with you, and that my friend just adds more fuel to the fun factor. Trust me.

...and it is ALL about having fun. So go have fun.

rock on.

bmc

[TVD]

Excellent post BMC. Personally i derive over 50% of my income from playing bass, so i do approach it as a professional. At the same time, i have fun. I'd rather be onstage than anywhere, to me it's better than anything, Hell better than sex. Being a part of an unprofessional situation is not fun for me, just the opposite. Really, my main point from my first post in this thread is it's simply about choices. Even if you find yourself in an unprofessional gig situation, that does not mean you have to join in and act unprofessional yourself. You don't have to lower yourself to their level, it's your choice either way. Trent

[Matt Till]

First of all, meh

In a last attempt to get this across

- My reggae tone was my tone during the entire gig
- My messing around between songs was meant to be messing around between sets with my pa mic away and my volume down
- I was one of the most professional people in that band sadly, the guitarist had the least self control out of any musician I've ever met, ever song need a solo, even while the singer was singing, that would make Steve Vai say "where's the melody?"
- Everyone we play for were drunken idiots who thought we were the greatest band ever, but when you are drunk, anything with a simple enough beat is the greatest song ever.