A bassist's guilt confession

[AddSomeRiddim]

Tonight we played a decent set , got folk dancing and generally had a good time BUT....

Personally I think we played poor and weren't as "fluid" as I would have liked. Yet after the gig we were praised as "very talented" etc etc so I went along with it.

Don't get me wrong I like the positive feedback but only when it's just. The rest of the band don't seem to see it the issues without criticism, I'm 18 and after reading this back seem to be rather pessimistic am I right to think so after such generally really good reviews after each gig?

Also anyone else feel that they have gained unjust praise?

 

[kevteop]

It's always good to remain critical of your performances, but if your assessment is miles away from everyone else's it either means you're much more sensitive to what was working and what wasn't, or you're not sensitive enough to the needs of the audience, or you're basing your assessment on your own performance.

Bear in mind you play bass, and unless you're playing reggae 90% of the people in the room won't have noticed if you had a bad night, so long as the drummer played well.

 

[irishmonster100]

no matter who kisses your rear end (i assume that the a word will probably get in trouble) if your not happy with how your bands performance was then it wasnt a good gig the musician needs to get as much satisfaction out of it as the audience no matter the genre
i know the feeling man during a death metal gig i was hammered ,out of tune and falling around the whole bar (good thing i was on wirles that night) and broke the 135 and 105 gauge strings during the set and yet people were coming up to me saying i was great and the rest

 

[onosson]

I played in a band for years, where it almost never failed that I and the 2nd guitarist would always disagree on how well the show went. If I thought it was great, he thought it was horrible, and vice versa.

It can be very frustrating!

 

[iridiumrocks]

As a musician, you're always harder on yourself than the audience will ever judge you. We've had some rough nights and still received a lot of compliments from the crowd. Musicians notice every subtle problem that the crowd rarely notices. Other musicians may notice mistakes, but generally don't point them out from my experience. Like everything else in life, learn from your mistakes and don't repeat them.

 

[dave64o]

Agreed. We're always our own worst critics.

 

[Stumbo]

I suggest you record your rehearsals and gigs for analysis. Possibly go wireless so you can sometimes go FOH to get a better perspective on the band's overall sound.

 

[BayStateBass]

We are our own worst critics.

When someone tells you that you sounded great, say "Thank You". Then take notes and work on it in practice.

 

[BBox Bass]

My drummer and I quit our last band because of this issue. The two guitards, who regularly cancelled rehearsals and often sounded like they never practiced, seemed to believe that if the audience and bar owners (most of whom were their family members and friends) told them that we were awesome, then everything was fine. They would walk off stage and say "Wow, that was great," while the drummer and I sighed and rolled our eyes. We believed that most of our performances didn't rate above a C and by last month we realized it wasn't going to get any better, so we resigned and are currently looking for new guitarists.

The bottom line was that neither of us was happy with our performance, and we knew that things wouldn't change if we stuck with the half-assed guitards. If you're not satisfied, you should discuss it with the rest of your band, and there is still no improvement, you may want to consider playing with others whose standards are more consistent with your own.

Finally, if you think you're being too hard on yourself, try soliciting some feedback from a third party. The drummer and I knew it was time to bail when we were told on separate occasions by the drummer's wife (she knows what sounds good and bad and isn't afraid to share her opinions) and a mutual friend/talented guitarist that "You guys really need to ditch the guitarists." I tend to be very hard on myself, so hearing that was enough to convince me that it was time to move on.

 

[dbase]

I'm not the greatest bass player and I know it... but sometimes the guitarist is so bad it's embarrassing to be on the same stage. At the end of the set, the audience thinks we were great. Most of them cant detect the mistakes we made... It also depends on how many drinks they had.

 

[fraublugher]

tape your shows , and the band can argue with that