What do you guys do for a living?

SottoVoce · #1 03-20-2001, 09:13 PM

Are most of you professional players? How many high school students? Why is it that I feel so different from everyone here? . . .

reedo35 · #2 03-21-2001, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by SottoVoce
Are most of you professional players? How many high school students? Why is it that I feel so different from everyone here? . . .

If we were all the same, how boring would that be?
If you want to know more about the posters (and Posers

) on this forum, check out the profiles.
And why don'tcha fill out your own while you're at it?

**john turner** · #3 03-21-2001, 09:00 AM

yes, let me second the invitation to fill out your profile. some of the participants over here in the DB side of things can sometimes tend to be a bit clannish when it comes to new guys, and if you fill out your profile with your relevant information, they will warm up to you more.

welcome to talkbass, btw, and don't mind me, i just clean up when one of the [BG] chimpanzees wanders over here and makes a mess.

Fretless Friday · #4 03-21-2001, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by john turner
yes, let me second the invitation to fill out your profile. some of the participants over here in the DB side of things can sometimes tend to be a bit clannish when it comes to new guys, and if you fill out your profile with your relevant information, they will warm up to you more.

welcome to talkbass, btw, and don't mind me, i just clean up when one of the [BG] chimpanzees wanders over here and makes a mess.

Hey now, I'm papertrained!

But anyway, fill out your profile. It's a very useful way to find out who you are responding to.

FF

dhosek · #5 03-21-2001, 10:39 AM

Well, there's not a day job field in the profile, so SV's query is still kinda relevant. Me, I'm a computer geek by day, musician by night and weekend. I think most of the high school kids are in the BG side of the forum (in fact, it sometimes seem like it's ONLY high school kids over there).

-dh

lermgalieu · #6 03-21-2001, 11:08 AM

I am also a computer geek by day. However, I am boycotting filling out my profile because all my info "magically" disappeared when they re-designed the site. Oh well, I guess I will go fill it back in again after all.

SottoVoce · #7 03-21-2001, 11:11 AM

Alright, I filled out the profile.

dhosek: re: high school students . . . Is that where the prejudice about "toy bass" and "real bass" comes from? Well anyway . . . I've set my eyes on the DB from the beginning and have always hated BG, but my band teacher is trying to get me to play both so that the band can play stuff like rock tunes. But I hate rock tunes, unfortunately.

lermgalieu · #8 03-21-2001, 11:18 AM

Just play the rock tunes on the DB and put some messed up chord changes all over them. Work it out secretly with the piano player. That'll put a stop to it!

rablack · #9 03-21-2001, 11:30 AM

Welcome to the dark side. I enjoy the "differentness" of the posters here.

A pro? No, but lots of the folks here are pro or semi-pro. I used to do a fairly active semi-pro thing but have always had a day job - presently practicing law until I hit the lottery. Still play out now and again. Haven't been in high school since '79

JT thinks we're clannish, Hmmm... we only get snippy when people post things demonstrating a lack of respect for the instrument or sheer lazy stupidity. Honest inquiries will find helpful responses. And unlike BG we don't treat this as an AOL chat room.

BTW one of the best jazz bassists gigging in Houston TX (where I am) is a lady in her late 20's named Erin Wright. Glad to hear you're set on the DB and dislike rock tunes - maybe there is hope after all.

lermgalieu · #10 03-21-2001, 11:45 AM

Glad to hear he dislikes rock tunes? Sigh. Why would that be a good thing? You are praising diversity and shunning it in the same breath.

reedo35 · #11 03-21-2001, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by rablack
Welcome to the dark side. I enjoy the "differentness" of the posters here.
JT thinks we're clannish, Hmmm... we only get snippy when people post things demonstrating a lack of respect for the instrument or sheer lazy stupidity. Honest inquiries will find helpful responses. And unlike BG we don't treat this as an AOL chat room.

Good point, RABBLE. IMO, I don't think we ever
verbally crucified anyone who didn't desperately
deserve it. From what I've seen,respect is treated reciprocally whether you're 16 or 60.

rablack · #12 03-21-2001, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lermgalieu
Glad to hear he dislikes rock tunes? Sigh. Why would that be a good thing? You are praising diversity and shunning it in the same breath.

Actually SottoVoce is a she. I listen to rock occasionally - have nothing against it if it demonstrates creativity and feeling. I admit I did not express my self clearly.

I guess what I meant was that it is refreshing to hear from someone in high school who is not knuckling under to peer pressure, listening only to rap or rock. Someone young who prefers classical (maybe some jazz can't tell). It's not a good or bad thing to dislike rock merely a brave stand on her part.

lermgalieu · #13 03-21-2001, 12:11 PM

Cool. And sorry SottoVoce for calling you a he. I am a dumb ass.

Thanks for the explanation, rablack, there's a lot of very interesting and unique "rock" out there.

dhosek · #14 03-21-2001, 12:11 PM

I think the "toy bass" stuff ultimately is a bit of good-natured snobbery. I'd say that it's a reaction to bass guitar players who figure that double bass is just like playing bass guitar (as someone who plays both, I will say that they are completely different instruments and best treated as such: I don't consider practice time on upright as contributing to my bg skills and vice versa). It's especially irritating to see the bg player who figures that he (I've yet to see a female player evince this sort of attitude) can take his half-baked bg skills and a cheap chinese plywood bass and be the next double bass virtuoso, luthiers and teachers un-needed.

The reverse journey, from upright to bg, by the way, is comparatively easy. Again, you'll find that you have to develop new skills and will play very different lines on bg than you would on urb. And there's a whole realm of very UNurb techniques waiting to be discovered.

Having visited your web site, I found it actually kind of interesting (nice to see that I'm not the only bass/flute doubler out there).

Enjoy the forum.

-dh

Monte · #15 03-21-2001, 02:01 PM

Hey Rablack, I play with a trumpeter in OKlahoma City (Stephen Fulton) that used Erin Wright on a recording he did with Jimmy Ford. Nice player, do you have any idea what she uses, bass and equipment wise. I'm always curious, since there aren't very many other jazz bassists here.

Monte

rablack · #16 03-21-2001, 02:03 PM

I don't get out to clubs like I used to. Last time I saw her she was using a GK MB150 and an Underwood. No idea on her bass.

SottoVoce · #17 03-21-2001, 02:32 PM

By the way, anyone heard of Kristin Korb? (not sure of spelling of her name) I saw her perform in last year's Banff Festival. She plays the bass and sings at the same time. Very cool.

Ed: I'm offended by your statement. But I forgive you.

rablack: yes I do like jazz, but that's a relatively new-found interest. Only since I started playing in jazz band a year ago. Clannish? I think so, at least a little bit. Over at Fingerboard (Maestronet) where the population is a lot bigger, you don't get that same feeling.

**Chris Fitzgerald** · #18 03-21-2001, 02:33 PM

Just got back from an out of town gig and thought I'd answer the question on the late side of things. I'm a college music teacher by morning, private music instructor by afternoon, and bassist and pianist by night. And no, I don't have too much trouble fitting all those hats on, mainly because there ain't much hair left upstairs. Slide the old one off, pop the new one on...

I would also like to extend a welcome to Sotto. In my years of experience as a music teacher, I have been consistently disgusted with the way our education system seems to discourage young females from taking up certain instruments (like the DB), and certain styles (like jazz). Also, I'm impressed with any young person who comes to the board and asks intelligent questions instead of questions about Fieldy and what we all name our straps.

Also, I'd like to thank dhosek for the term "good natured snobbery" when it comes to describing the borderline ironic/sarcastic tone of many members of this board, myself included. I'd never found a good term for it until now.

Monte · #19 03-21-2001, 02:59 PM

Yep, I like Kristen Korb. Apparently she was a student of Ray Brown's when he heard her sing after several lessons, and he recorded her with his trio. Never heard her play bass though.

dhosek · #20 03-21-2001, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SottoVoce
yes I do like jazz, but that's a relatively new-found interest. Only since I started playing in jazz band a year ago.

Let that be a lesson against declarations that one doesn't like genre X. In all genres, you'll find stuff that you dislike and stuff that you like, especially if you listen with open ears and mind (case in point, I've lately begun to get into the music of the Mexican Hip Hop (!) group Control Machete... readers who frequent art house movie theatres might hear their De Perros Amores in the trailer for the film Amores Perros, which is the Mexican nominee for the foreign film academy award).

-dh (who's wondering just how many posts I need to make before I finally stop being labelled as a "new" member)