Dare to Suc#

Judging from the "talent" at an open mic I hosted recently I'd say there are a lot of people who agree with you.

 

you can say the word "suck" if you want to

 

I'm confused.

Dare to suc-hashtag?
Dare to suc-sharp?
Dare to suc-poundsign?

I just can't get it.

 

I was once told by a fellow bassist that overcoming your fear of making mistakes is the point where your musicianship will start improving.

 

OK. I don't think "suck" or "sucks" constitute profanity anymore.

I do remember when they did!

 

Sometimes you just have to try something to see if you can do it.
There have been times when our gui****/bandleader would have a few
drinks and launch off into something we had never tried to play before...
on stage!
It amazed me that it worked, sometimes quite well.

 

True enough, heck we can always fall back on the roots and let the guitar player suck!

 

My original project's motto "suck and be happy". As in even if you suck it up, have fun with it. Be happy, be grateful that you're doing something you love, and enjoy it. The audience will often pick up on it and even a bad song can go over really well.

 

What happens if you 'dare to suck' and then succeed?

 

Either you don't suck, or you achieve your goal. Win/win situation.

 

I spend a fair bit of time pushing faders. In my efforts to make a band sound their best, I would often under-mix a player who was "succeeding" only to have said player's girlfriend/wife/self appointed manager bee line it to me and complain that they couldn't hear them enough, apparently not aware how truly awful they were playing. After years of this, I adopted a new motto: "Let them suck out loud". And often they do...

 

A few months ago I was at an open mic I attend off and on. Getting later Geezer shows up. Now Geezer has an epic talent for being musically brilliant and clearing a room at the same time, with or without a skinful of bourbon.

Geezer plays only original blues, of no recognisable chord progression, with impeccable timing but extra beats and missing beats, in a modern vertical dance style. A rolling trainwreck to jam with.

What I do is either leave him to it for a couple of progressions, or abandon it altogether if it's too much guaranteed suckage. Dare to suck not so much as dare to suck so bad they blame me.

This night was pretty dead so the dare to suck factor was fairly low. Geezer breaks out this strange new thing that the guitar player bops to without playing. I get it, it's fusion jazz blues infusion.

Now it's important to realise I am the lint under a fusion bassist's toenail. But I dive in with my best impersonation. I dared to SUCK.

The host guitar man knows all the chords. He got it in two measures. Geezer looks over, it wasn't what he was expecting but he digs it.

The barflys got it.

Awesome.

It may be ten years until the next fusion jazz gets played there.

 

practice hard, play easy?

 

Hi,

It's been said to me often, one of my favorite compliments for the band is "Ya know, y'all don't suck too bad."


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

It's important to have fun, but I have never met a great musician (and I've worked with many) who were not dead serious about it at some point in their life.

Now for three guys in their 50s playing bluegrass, I suppose I wouldn't get too serious either

 

Most Excellent!

 

I will appreciate a musician who takes chances and maybe doesn't quite pull it off more than a musician who simply plays it safe.When I taught I tried to get students to develop their own style and acknowledged sometimes that means they fail--but they can learn from it, and the experiences is invaluable.

 

I play covers with a bunch of friends, and our rules for playing out are:

1. Don't suck.
2. See rule #1.

Mostly, though, we have a good time.