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Do "Pro-Bassists" Ever Mess Up?

#121
organworthyplayer337 said:
I was just thinking as I was wastching some live performances (on SNL, Late Night... etc) and listening to the bass lines closely and it all sounds pretty darn perfect to me.... it makes me wonder, is there some sort of magic potion out there that allows a player to play a song perfectly? o_O

If so, I sure need some! :roflmao: Cause it's never happened to me before!!!
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As an artist, either musically or with the stroke of a brush, we all try to reach that unattainable peak of perfection, every time we participate...

... regarding my heroes live, I think I've seen Alex go off in a different direction, mid-song, more
than Geddy. Hey, we're all human... as long as we learn from our mistakes, I'm good...

... and Neil? Now there's perfection...
 
#125
matt holt said:
Obviously practicing more generally means fewer mistakes, but I think there is an element of brain wiring/personality type involved as well. There are some players who are just machines
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This ^^ can also make up a big part of it. Some pro's are pro's because they practice so much to ensure that any mistakes are few and far between. Some people just have the natural brain wiring and muscle memory that allows them to remember songs after only playing them a few times.

My eldest daughter in in this latter group. She plays a song four or five times are will rarely forget a lyric or chord. So far, at only 16 years old, we've got over 80 songs in our repertoire of which she sings and plays guitar on nearly all of them. It is extremely rare that she makes a mistake.

I on the other hand, can make mistakes on songs that i've known for 20 years and which she has only learnt in the last year.
 
#126
JimmyM said:
That's just wasting the client's money. If the person in charge of the project says it's fine, it's fine. I don't get why Anthony does things like that. All that does is make people not want to hire you. But then again, that seems to not be such a high priority for him. If he's willing to walk away from money over insisting he uses his 6-string and only his 6-string, I guess he's willing to walk away from it for just about any reason.
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I know people have talked to him about that, and he also told me the time that I met him that there's many many recordings out there that you never knew were him because he just had to shut up and do what he was told. I think as he got older he was able to be more selective, as well as the people hiring him doing so just for that reason (less jingle and pop session work as time went on for sure). And of course, having a writing credit on "For the Love of Money" didn't hurt the financial situation any...

odin70 said:
Miles Davis said: if you play a wrong note..play it again.
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Miles also said he would fire someone who never made mistakes because it meant they weren't trying anything new. I love that quote too
 
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#127
organworthyplayer337 said:
That was actually the band I was mostly referencing (more specifically their performance on SNL last Saturday)

The bassist is a friend of mine so I started listening to the live performances and I can't hear anything wrong in 99% of it. So it made me wonder...
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The performance of 24k Magic? Jamareo is a friend of yours? Wooooo they are so nasty. I love listening to them and Jamareo is quickly becoming one of my favorite players.
 
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#128
BassByBaldSteve said:
2. No, they don't usually make mistakes. If they do, you'd never know it because they'd cover up. But if they kept on making mistakes they ain't gonna have the gig for long, at least if it's high profile or one where the MD takes his gig seriously. Go to a Rickey Minor clinic and he's got no problem telling you he fires players constantly.
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I've heard a few stories about how ruthless that dude is, like him firing the drummer who helped him get the MD job on American Idol, and it makes me understand more and more why they didn't even mention him leaving the show. Working with him sounds like a misery.
 
#129
When Tom Brady makes a mistake it's called an interception. Jack Nicklaus once said that he makes mistakes all the time, but that his mistakes aren't as bad as an amateur's. Pros put their pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us. We're all human.

One thing I have noticed from playing with my band is that note mistakes are not as bad as time mistakes. Someone hits a bad note, it doesn't matter. Someone doesn't come in on time or misses a cue, and the potential for a trainwreck is there.
 
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#130
beaglesandbass said:
The performance of 24k Magic? Jamareo is a friend of yours? Wooooo they are so nasty. I love listening to them and Jamareo is quickly becoming one of my favorite players.
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Yeah that performance was amazing. When I heard his bass parts, I was like 1) His tone sounds really good for a live performance and 2) I literally couldn't find a flaw in his performance
 
#131
JimmyM said:
I've heard a few stories about how ruthless that dude is, like him firing the drummer who helped him get the MD job on American Idol, and it makes me understand more and more why they didn't even mention him leaving the show. Working with him sounds like a misery.
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A guy I know who does Pro-Tools / sequencing management for touring acts during road prep, like resetting, editing, and starting/stopping all the stems and whatnot during rehearsals. He'd always say how on gigs where RM was the MD, he rarely saw the same exact bands twice from week to week. Someone was always getting switched out. He saw dudes get fired constantly. One guy said "hi" to a pop artist (won't say who publicly) he was working for one time before they started playing and got fired for it (at the artist's request - it was despicable) right then and there. My bud heard the speech RM had to give the band afterwards, about how "You aren't here to be the artist's friend. He already has friends. You're here to make them sound and look good" and etc, etc, etc - stuff like that. Tough scene right now. So many of these pop stars are absolute monsters.
 
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#132
BassByBaldSteve said:
A guy I know who does Pro-Tools / sequencing management for touring acts during road prep, like resetting, editing, and starting/stopping all the stems and whatnot during rehearsals. He'd always say how on gigs where RM was the MD, he rarely saw the same exact bands twice from week to week. Someone was always getting switched out. He saw dudes get fired constantly. One guy said "hi" to a pop artist (won't say who publicly) he was working for one time before they started playing and got fired for it (at the artist's request - it was despicable) right then and there. My bud heard the speech RM had to give the band afterwards, about how "You aren't here to be the artist's friend. He already has friends. You're here to make them sound and look good" and etc, etc, etc - stuff like that. Tough scene right now. So many of these pop stars are absolute monsters.
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Absolutely vile. And quite frankly, he's an above average bass player, but that's it, so it appears obvious to me that his skills that got him to where he's at lie in networking, organization and obsequiousness. And what's even sadder is most musicians backing pop acts get a living wage but don't make any real money. Many get paid as bad as local musicians on above average local gigs.
 
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#134
BassByBaldSteve said:
A guy I know who does Pro-Tools / sequencing management for touring acts during road prep, like resetting, editing, and starting/stopping all the stems and whatnot during rehearsals. He'd always say how on gigs where RM was the MD, he rarely saw the same exact bands twice from week to week. Someone was always getting switched out. He saw dudes get fired constantly. One guy said "hi" to a pop artist (won't say who publicly) he was working for one time before they started playing and got fired for it (at the artist's request - it was despicable) right then and there. My bud heard the speech RM had to give the band afterwards, about how "You aren't here to be the artist's friend. He already has friends. You're here to make them sound and look good" and etc, etc, etc - stuff like that. Tough scene right now. So many of these pop stars are absolute monsters.
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You should say who it is so we can make an effort not to support them
 
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#135
Whousedtoplay said:
I've heard from $400 to $800 a concert.
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Probably in the ballpark. Stevie Ray Vaughan left David Bowie's tour in 83 because his first album started taking off and Bowie was only paying $250 a night. The whole reason people do solo acts is to be able to make all the money themselves.
 
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#136
JimmyM said:
And what's even sadder is most musicians backing pop acts get a living wage but don't make any real money. Many get paid as bad as local musicians on above average local gigs.
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Yup. What sidemen were making in the year 2000 vs. what they make now? It's comedy. Check this out: There was a gig I missed out on in 2002 that paid, no joke, $5000/week. Only audition I ever had where I played spotless. Bro, I knew I had it, and so did the band. It was a home run, obvious to everyone in the room. About a week later the contractor calls. I think I'm about to sign contracts, but instead I'm told the original bassist had a change of heart and decided to take the gig back. Not surprising, given this band was about to do a tour of Japan and southeast Asia opening for Kravitz. But that money? Long gone. Heck, half the backing bands, at least in LA for new artists, nowadays come straight out of MI - kids with no experience that they can pay peanuts (EDIT: Should add that I'm not dissing the players - they're obviously all on-point or they wouldn't get hired). It is VERY hard out there now.

But, yeah - that incident I mentioned made my blood boil, too. I was like, "You make like $100,000 a week, literally, and you want to get a guy fired who is making $500 because he's just trying to be nice? You're a legit evil human being"

Yeah...I live in NC now and am very happy to not be a part of that whole thing.
 
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#138
I can proudly say I never messed up on National TV. The reasons:

By that point I had played the songs hundreds of times in front of an audience.
Hyper focus - You are really dialed in when you know you are going to watch your own performance and hear any tiny mistake
Comfort - Great TV producers give you lighting customized for you, your monitors are perfect, the setting is top notch. It really can set the vibe for a good performance.
 
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