Best musical advice you ever got

[Lammchop93]

"Play every show like it will be your last."

He told me to think that either the lights would fall on me or the stage would collapse.

It helps me.

 

[jmacfee]

I once met Tommy Tedesco, a well repected studio guitar player, at a seminar. He was asked if he practiced scales all day long to improve his style. His response, to paraphrase. was "Play what you hear and feel. If you play a wrong note, don't play that again!". I heard that about twenty years ago and lived by it since.
John

 

[ryco]

"Don't go to college." by Al Turay - an excellent guitarist was teaching me bass. I don't play guitar.

but did I listen? No. Maybe I should have. Did take two years of theory with Robert Panerio at CWU.
Dropped out after two years - didn't want to take two years of Music Hist.

Al really wanted me to start playing out. Was already in the union from playing in a high school dance bands (HS = Union).
He said "I'll teach you all the theory you want to know".
Maybe I could have kept my excellent day job, him and gone to Comm Coll.

With life I just couldn't forsee a lot of stuff. Was never good at planning and goal setting. Didn't spend a lot of time second guessing. YMMV
Wouldn't trade my path with anyone. I'm very fortunate!! w00t

 

[ganga]

Learn slow. Listen to yourself play (record it). Set goals and complete them. All from my old teacher.

And of course the quote in my sig.

 

[butchblack]

Take your music seriously but never take yourself too seriously

The purpose of each member in a band is to make the band sound it's best

A good band is a group of competent musicians. A great band is greater then the sum of it's parts.

I'm not sure where I heard these, but I've found them useful.

 

[Stumbo]

Always practice with a metronome. Even when warming up/noodling.
It can be one of the most depressing things you can do, to turn off the CD or drum machine and play a tune you think you have cold to a metronome. It lays your playing bare and if you have a weakness, it will show up.

And record it to see if what you played was the same as what you thought you played.

 

[bassandbeyond]

"Be honest with yourself. Honesty is an automatic self-correcting process."

-Anthony Jackson

 

[Stumbo]

"DYNAMICS" "dynamics"

Don't play every song and every part of every song at the same volume.
And teach your bandmates the same thing. Practice controlling your volume and the
band's volume.

Like have an orchestra conductor leading the group.

If you have a lead singer, maybe he/she can do it. It has to be someone who is aware of what's happening with the whole band. Or have a signal system worked out among the members. We had a guitar player who was good at that. He used to tilt his guitar up a bit for louder and down a bit for lower.

For example, play a bit softer when a lead is being played or when the vocals need to stand out. Learn to emphasize bits and pieces of a tune using individual and band dynamics.

The drummer can be the driving force for dynamics. Pounding on the drums all night, oblivious to the needs of the song, the band and the venue get old real quick. I've heard too many gigs where overbearing drums ruins the entire show. I recently heard a band where the drummer had his drums wired with small individual mikes and attached to a small mixer on a stand that he monitored. The drum mixer ran one cable to the P.A. He played at a medium low volume and let the sound guy put the drums in to the overall mix at the right level, just like the vocals. Best setup I've heard.

 

[Stumbo]

If I may point out and link: there's another thread similar to this in the Band Management forum: "If only I knew then what I know now..."
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=429034&page=3

imho, both should be considered for stickies.

 

[unclekebm]

"create a groove with your brain...feel the groove with your soul...dance to the groove with your body...

now play a note"

 

[alexei]

subscribed

 

[cheesemonkey]

So far the best advice as a musician not just a bassist would be from my bass teacher:

"The most important part of playing music isn't how or what you do but what the people around you do."

 

[Stumbo]

"The most important part of playing music isn't how or what you do but what the people around you do."

And how you react to what the people around you are doing. You really need to serve the song and the band.

 

[DanielleMuscato]

I haven't read this whole thread, but I thought you might appreciate a link to this thread:

What I Learned from a Week at Berklee [College of Music in Boston, MA]

 

[waseok]

Listen to the Drummer, so others don't screw up the song.

 

[SirNose]

"Learn to listen and listen to learn." - my jazz appreciation professor, Jim Carroll. What a champ.

 

[BlackLake]

Every good Idea I've ever had, I came up with by mistake, ...so my new motto is:

"Make Mistakes Faster!"

BlackLake

 

[artistanbul]

for personal progress, use metronome and record what you play.

 

[mishy1031]

"Remember you're the foundation the others in the band use to dance upon"

 

[Sneckumhaw]

Try using a pick.