Hey folks, for those new to the diary, I am a middle aged musician enjoying somewhat of a musical renaissance, including finally picking up the bass as a secondary instrument. I have been learning mostly on the fly gigging with 2-3 others, & documenting my gigs with brief writeups. See the links to past entries below!
Sunday jam again. The group seems to be becoming a going concern, for what it's worth. Still playing for peanuts, but it is what it is! Frank seems to think there is potential at the venue as a regular summer act; we shall see. I am just enjoying being able to make music with friends!
I had *one of those* weeks. Life has been throwing a few rough pitches at me. Not even curveballs, which I could handle, more like these kind of pitches:
But we carry on! We did a mix of songs tonight, from Tom Petty to Elvis to Manu Chaos, to folk songs, and everything in between! Matt was on the cajon tonight, which lent a more subdued feel to things for sure. I went straight in with the Stingray 5, and I must say,I think I am becoming one of those "no effect" purists!
Tonight a lot of things went right. The mixups were fewer and recovery tended to happen fast. The couple of times that Matt wasn't exactly playing the style of beat we expected (mainly on reggae or songs he wasn't familiar with), we went with whatever beat he came up with, and kept the song on two wheels at least!
I used a pick about 15% of the time, fingers the rest. I find my instincts here have gotten pretty good. I must say, the Stingray sounds *glorious* with a pick on the more upbeat tunes. In fact, it just sounds glorious period, lol. I truly don't get how they can sell them for what they do!
I got into a groove tonight, doing *way* more elaborate lines, both in terms of variety of notes and in rhythm. It didn't always work, but I found I was laying in to scale runs and walkups and downs to notes. I also found my ability to sing while playing has *dramatically* improved to the point that I think I could try lead vocals while playing bass finally!
We had a receptive crowd that kept the energy up, and halfway in, they requested "Fast Car". We quickly conferred, and worked it out for about a minute, and launched into it. The young woman that requested it remarked right before the first verse "you guys learned it just now?!", clearly impressed with our ability to think on the fly. It didn't go *perfect*, as we weren't as sure about the second part, so had to sort of fake it. Luckily, Frank knew it, and the "arrangement" worked out well enough for 9pm on a Spring Sunday.
Another Brick in the Wall Pt2 let me lock in to the groove, and had the heads bobbing. "Can't You See" always works well, and went well again. Drunken Sailor was another standout that definitely landed mainly due to the punchy 1-2 bassline.
Jim really opened up, He was become a bit of a "Gretsch guy" in 2025, and was playing his fancy new orange flame maple Chet Atkins. He was feeling it tonight, and it showed. He busted out the wah for the first time live, and it *worked* very well, particularly on "Aeroplane".
All in all, this had to be the most cohesive group effort I have been a part of. I have a lot of basics to work on, but I think my scale knowledge and instincts for playing by feel are paying off, as is my new dedicated practice setup, and just familiarity with the material and each other.
Definitely a great shot of adrenaline and positive reinforcement after a tough few weeks, looking forward to the next one!
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5
#6 #7 #8 #9 #10
#11 #12 #13 #14 #15
#16 #17 #18 #19 #20
#21 #22 #23
Sunday jam again. The group seems to be becoming a going concern, for what it's worth. Still playing for peanuts, but it is what it is! Frank seems to think there is potential at the venue as a regular summer act; we shall see. I am just enjoying being able to make music with friends!
I had *one of those* weeks. Life has been throwing a few rough pitches at me. Not even curveballs, which I could handle, more like these kind of pitches:
But we carry on! We did a mix of songs tonight, from Tom Petty to Elvis to Manu Chaos, to folk songs, and everything in between! Matt was on the cajon tonight, which lent a more subdued feel to things for sure. I went straight in with the Stingray 5, and I must say,I think I am becoming one of those "no effect" purists!
Tonight a lot of things went right. The mixups were fewer and recovery tended to happen fast. The couple of times that Matt wasn't exactly playing the style of beat we expected (mainly on reggae or songs he wasn't familiar with), we went with whatever beat he came up with, and kept the song on two wheels at least!
I used a pick about 15% of the time, fingers the rest. I find my instincts here have gotten pretty good. I must say, the Stingray sounds *glorious* with a pick on the more upbeat tunes. In fact, it just sounds glorious period, lol. I truly don't get how they can sell them for what they do!
I got into a groove tonight, doing *way* more elaborate lines, both in terms of variety of notes and in rhythm. It didn't always work, but I found I was laying in to scale runs and walkups and downs to notes. I also found my ability to sing while playing has *dramatically* improved to the point that I think I could try lead vocals while playing bass finally!
We had a receptive crowd that kept the energy up, and halfway in, they requested "Fast Car". We quickly conferred, and worked it out for about a minute, and launched into it. The young woman that requested it remarked right before the first verse "you guys learned it just now?!", clearly impressed with our ability to think on the fly. It didn't go *perfect*, as we weren't as sure about the second part, so had to sort of fake it. Luckily, Frank knew it, and the "arrangement" worked out well enough for 9pm on a Spring Sunday.
Another Brick in the Wall Pt2 let me lock in to the groove, and had the heads bobbing. "Can't You See" always works well, and went well again. Drunken Sailor was another standout that definitely landed mainly due to the punchy 1-2 bassline.
Jim really opened up, He was become a bit of a "Gretsch guy" in 2025, and was playing his fancy new orange flame maple Chet Atkins. He was feeling it tonight, and it showed. He busted out the wah for the first time live, and it *worked* very well, particularly on "Aeroplane".
All in all, this had to be the most cohesive group effort I have been a part of. I have a lot of basics to work on, but I think my scale knowledge and instincts for playing by feel are paying off, as is my new dedicated practice setup, and just familiarity with the material and each other.
Definitely a great shot of adrenaline and positive reinforcement after a tough few weeks, looking forward to the next one!
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5
#6 #7 #8 #9 #10
#11 #12 #13 #14 #15
#16 #17 #18 #19 #20
#21 #22 #23
