"YOU'RE LATE!"

[stagebanter]

My drummer's kick drum is tuned to a very low D, so when we play songs in, say, E flat, I always second-guess my intonation.

[redname]

Originally Posted by Craig630

"Dammit man, you're late on every change and it's f-ing me up. Get with it already."

Nah man, I'm good. *look at drummer, get approving nod* I think you're a bit off.

"I graduated from Berkley (improvisational jazz)... I think I know a but more about being on time than a self taught bassist."

Nah dude, you're off.

[5 minutes of arguing]

You know what, this arguing is pointless, let's just try it again.

[at this point I turn my volume knob off]

A minute into the song the guitarist throws his hands in the air and stops everyone. "Dammit, your timing is off and it's screwing me up. You're hitting the change too early and it's rushing me to catch up."

Really? I'm pretty sure you were off that time. In fact I'm positive that my playing had nothing to do with you f-ing up.

"That's ********. I'm trained to follow my bassist. I can't help that you don't know what you're doing."

Nah man, it was all you, 100%.

"When a musician speaks, you listen. I know I'm not f-ing up here."

Nah, I'm sure it's you, I can prove it.

[strum all strings, no sound comes out]

See? I wasn't even turned on for that last run through.



TLDR; I'm no longer in this band. Anyone looking for a mediocre bassist in Portland, OR?

way cool dude.

dam you owned him big time.

respect dude

[redname]

Originally Posted by Craig630

Yeah, it wasn't the first time he pulled that "let the musicians blah blah blah" isht. But I'll tell you about the last time ha did

We were going over a new song he wrote. Real simple number, just bouncing between C and G in an alternating bouncy feel. I got bored and walked up G, B, C in time. He stopped everyone right there (something he did at least twice per practice), throwing his hands up and screaming "*** are you doing??? That's not how I told you to play the song!"

Yeah, but bouncing between two notes is boring as hell, I just want to spice it up a little.

"That's not what I wrote. Play what the musicians tell you to play, you don't know what you're doing."

You're playing a Gmaj, right?

"Yeah"

Tell me why walking to a C, using a B is wrong here.

"I'm here to play, not teach you how to play, it sounds like ****."

I think it sounds good, tell me why it's wrong.

"Listen, unless you can name the 5th of C you need to just shut the f up."

-At this point I turn everything up to full blast, hammer the G in 6 different octaves, flip him off with both hands and scream into the mic "there's your 5th you f-ing c-nt! Get over yourself" put my stuff in my bag and walk out, never to be seen again.

I saw an ad for a bassist the next day on craigslist from them. 3 months later and they still haven't played a show.

Ths was my first experience with a band... Tell me it gets better.

what's their f*cking problem man?

we bassist are so under-rated, so many pple think we dnt know our stuff

[redname]

i've got a couple of stories to tell, both good and bad

the bad:

1) there's a really bad low freq feedback hum and everyone thinks it's the bassist, so i tld them i'll turn off everything to proof to them it's not me.

The hum came back

2) i play in church and there's another bassist on roster too. He always complains about my playing on how bad my timing is and i keep playing the wrong notes.

I always ate the humble pie and just said i'll try to play better. This went on for months until the BL, who's a real musician if there's such a term, stood up for me 1 fine day and told him off saying that i'm a much better bassist than he is.

3) The guitarist in my church band keeps complaining that my bass has too much boom but i knew something was wrong with the acoustics of the room and that's why he's hearing so much bottom end but he doesn't believe in it.

1 fine day, i shifted the bass amp during the rehearsal to a different position (still using the same EQ), without telling him.After the rehearsal, he told me i sounded so good today. I just smiled back and laughing inside at what an idiot he is

The good:

1) there was a band i was auditioning for and apparently the BL (who plays the lead guitar) is a major bass head and loves my playing.

He keeps asking me to raise my volume through out the rehearsal (i was nearly on full at the end of it) and he gets a kick out of hearing those bottom notes.

I didn't turn the band thou cause i thought he was kind of weird.

2) I'm so grateful for my current band. I realized that they love it when i really turn the bass up and dig in, it gives their songs a whole new dimension and so much energy (that's what they say)

during our recent gig, we were playing our last song which was an encore and things went bad. 1 of the guitarist got a string broken and his guitar was way out of tune and the other had power issues for his pedals. both of them couldn't play.

at the end of it they thanked me and said "thank goodness that you carried on the rest of the song"

[vsmith1]

Originally Posted by Mike in Chicago

...and then later walks over to me and taps what he wants on my neck. I didn't know how to react. Nobody touches my stuff. I knew how I USED to react...I would grabbed him by the throat.

I don't know how this will work tonite...

The first time I read this I thought you meant that he tapped you on your neck - ie on your body! I'd be well wary and would have ran away from that.

But then I re-read and you mean the neck of your bass - I also agree that I would not countenance such behaviour. If he means to direct then either play it on his guitar or explain what he wants.

[bassybill]

Originally Posted by Craig630

"Dammit man, you're late on every change and it's f-ing me up. Get with it already."

Nah man, I'm good. *look at drummer, get approving nod* I think you're a bit off.

"I graduated from Berkley (improvisational jazz)... I think I know a but more about being on time than a self taught bassist."

Nah dude, you're off.

[5 minutes of arguing]

You know what, this arguing is pointless, let's just try it again.

[at this point I turn my volume knob off]

A minute into the song the guitarist throws his hands in the air and stops everyone. "Dammit, your timing is off and it's screwing me up. You're hitting the change too early and it's rushing me to catch up."

Really? I'm pretty sure you were off that time. In fact I'm positive that my playing had nothing to do with you f-ing up.

"That's ********. I'm trained to follow my bassist. I can't help that you don't know what you're doing."

Nah man, it was all you, 100%.

"When a musician speaks, you listen. I know I'm not f-ing up here."

Nah, I'm sure it's you, I can prove it.

[strum all strings, no sound comes out]

See? I wasn't even turned on for that last run through.



TLDR; I'm no longer in this band. Anyone looking for a mediocre bassist in Portland, OR?

I love how you communciated your half of the conversation telepathically.