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Best musical advice you ever got

#541
"Success" begins with "Sucks" for a reason.

Wooten sounded like ass when he started. Anybody can learn whatever they set their mind to and put the time into.

Don't be sad that you suck. Be happy that you can tell. If you know what you can't do, you can fix it. If you can't tell, you go on American Idol outtakes.

Slow down and work on what you suck at until you can do it. Don't practice what you can already do to get an ego boost.

Randy
 
#547
This is an easy one for me. I got this advice from Toddzilla of The Jones (aka Jonesworld) in Nashville, TN, during a rehearsal long ago where I was playing too many notes:

"The funk is in the space!!"

Advice like this, particularly when it comes from the leader of a funk band with 16+ members, a horn section, dancing girls, a crossdressing keyboardists, a pole dancer, and a girl on a trapeze should be heeded.

Here's a pic of ToddZ as Dreadzilla:

l_91af0c7afb6381b7187256b4be819320.png


Peace!
 
#552
"The audience doesn't care if you've been working on it for years or are seeing it for the first time. If you can't play it you can't play it."


Piano prof in college. Piano was not my main instrument, but I was shedding 6 hours a day on it.

I approach every gig with this attitude and have never been fired, though I have left groups that didn't have this attitude.
 
#555
"**** everyone else and what they think. Just play and do what you want."

That advice put things in perspective for me. You have to remember that although there are those of us who cry out for reason and structure, freedom is only poison for those too scared to take advantage of it. Sometimes safety hurts you more than the risks themselves.
 
#557
pick your spots- less is more.
the hardest thing for most bass players would be to play back in black straight through just laying down quarter notes like cliff does. it is a challenge to play simple, but yet so effective and foundational for the instrument of choice here.
and that is coming from a dude from the steve harris school of thinking.
 
#560
There are two, for me. Each at different stages of learning.

First was "record your practice". Its amazing all the mistakes you hear when you dont have to think of what to play at the time.

Second was told to me only recently, and by a classical guitarist at a buddies wedding.
"Any flat 5 chord, can essentially be substituted for any OTHER flat 5 chord. Subsequently, any chord WITHOUT a tritone in it, can be substituted for any other."

Interesting to ponder...
 

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