Do professional musicians intimidate you?

[4001]

I've never played alongside, nor do I ever expect to play with "professional" musicians.
I once had a job as a beer truck helper though....

 

[gumbynotpokey]

I've played 3 services a week with the same band mates for the last 10 years. We use lead sheets. We're volunteers. The book is hundreds of songs. One of us can play by ear and do so with unfamiliar material. We've taken the stage many times with an old tent style gospel tune our pastor (a former pro player who still plays an old, old Hammond through a Leslie and it sounds SICK) pulls that none of us have literally never heard - but we have the lead sheet when he does. The guitarist had lessons as a youngster and has the ear to fall in effortlessly under all circumstances.

On a gig like the OP describes I just wouldn't be able to keep up.

But I will say this - intimidated by professional musicians? Nope. Why? IME the more years a pro player has (and tons have sat in with us and we've backed a lot of them too) the more flexible, gracious, understanding and easy they are to be with. The ones that won't let you relax are not full time pro players - they are ambitious wannabe's that wish they were full time pros.

Pros are pros IME.

YMMV.

 

[JimmyM]

The other worldly musicians do intimidate me a little. There's a guitarist in the town I live in that is legitimately one of the best players in the country. He gives video guitar lessons for a living, kind of like the way Scott does at Scotts Bass Lessons and his resume includes playing with some of the best musicians on the planet. Watching him play with a local cover band is like watching LeBron James play a game of pickup basketball on a local playground with a bunch of high school kids. I would definitely be intimidated to play with musicians of that caliber. In fact, I usually don't even admit I play anything. I met Victor Wooten once and he asked me if I play bass, I told him "not around you I don't".

LOL! Yeah, we've got a few guys in this area like that. Did a gig with one of them earlier this year...a guitarist who can play anything from free jazz to death metal. I'm certainly not that versatile, but he liked my playing, so while I'm in awe of what he can do, I'm not intimidated by him...anymore

 

[Cutter8]

No.

Why would I feel intimidated? I do stuff in my day job that most of the musicians I meet don't know how to do, everybody's good at different things.

I definitely understand your point, but I’ve never seen a truly analogous scenario at my “day job” (i.e., professional musicians don’t show up in my office to negotiate offshore hedge fund investments or draft documents for international software licensing and development deals, etc.). If they ever do, it will be kind of bizarre if they don’t feel at least a little intimidated!

 

[2F/2F]

No; I intimidate them!

 

[JRA]

Its a show up and play job for a eating establishment outdoors and most of the folks are pro and do music for a living. Just call tunes at random. Country to jazz. No set list. How do you feel about that?

what's does it pay?

 

[IamGroot]

what's does it pay?

Not much, but its fun.

 

[CallMeAl]

Not intimidated, but inspired! Though I’m not at that “play anything they throw at you” level (yet.) I like to do my homework and look at a chart if it’s tricky. Especially for jazz. Getting pretty good at “winging it” with country.

 

[Spectrum]

I definitely understand your point, but I’ve never seen a truly analogous scenario at my “day job” (i.e., professional musicians don’t show up in my office to negotiate offshore hedge fund investments or draft documents for international software licensing and development deals, etc.). If they ever do, it will be kind of bizarre if they don’t feel at least a little intimidated!

I am an electrical engineer and former electronics tech. One time my bandmates asked me why my bass was buzzing in this one venue, and I tried to explain to them a bunch of stuff about single coil pickups, antennas, and EM waves, basic radio stuff, and their eyes glazed right over and they apologized for asking. I didn't think it was that hard to understand but whatever...

 

[Tom Gallo]

I'm human and I have doubts sometimes when I'm in situations with people who are better players than I am. Pro or not. But over the years I've come to understand that playing with better players is a chance to stretch myself and learn. But yeah, I still have doubts.

 

[matthewbrown]

I love it. Around here I know most of them. Heck, I played with most of them. So they'll try to pop quiz me for fun.

As for famous musicians, it seems that bass players just seem to be nice people. The only famous bass player I ever met who was a jerk to everyone around him was Stu Hamm. The rest may have intimidated me until THEY made me comfortable.

I always wondered by Stu Hamm was so keen on playing solo bass...

 

[4001]

 

[Sparkl]

I dont know any covers, so it wouldn't be any fun for me. It may be fun to watch, but it wouldn't be any fun trying to struggle through some steeley Dan deep cut that everyone else knew.
So not intimidated, just mildly bored!

If this was your daily job you would feel intimidated since not knowing the tunes would mean you getting shown your way out.

 

[mindwell]

Many years ago I was an unpaid volunteer bassist at a contemporary worship service and once had a guest worship leader make me feel very small after having talked me up the week before as to how great it was going to be for us to play together. I showed up and he had his paid pros there for the offertory, who let me know very quickly that I wasn't included. To this day, I always feel some weirdness as a congregation member playing with hired local professional musicians. Though I will say that the last time this was the situation I did well enough that the sax player got my contact info after the service.

 

[bikeplate]

Did a gig exactly like that last night. 6 of us and i knew the drummer only. 3 sets and sounded killer. No, I don’t intimidate myself

 

[Eric Swaim]

Done this for a good portion of my 40 years of playing. Although I do love the big band gigs that we read everything. I do not get intimidated that's what being a musician calls for at times or all the time depending on the situation(s).

 

[Robin Ruscio]

No, because I'm a professional musician and educator.

 

[flojob]

If this was your daily job you would feel intimidated since not knowing the tunes would mean you getting shown your way out.

I see your point. But also, if your daily job is showing up at an eating place to play random tunes for not much money, the bass player not knowing those tunes is the least of your problems.

 

[Sparkl]

I see your point. But also, if your daily job is showing up at an eating place to play random tunes for not much money, the bass player not knowing those tunes is the least of your problems.

Indeed, yet the music business is a tough one. Not everyone is keen on playing the current radio hip stuff and to make it in other genres, you have to improvise a bit. And knowing lots of tunes and being able to rotate with musicians is one of them.

Ok, an eating place might not be the ideal situation but you can definitely see these things a lot in clubs, especially when considering jazz music.

 

[Daniel Piper]

Same here. Most of the "professional musicians" I know wouldn't last for a day in an industrial or office job.
Good musicians for sure, professional attitude is very poor.

Yeah it’s such a shame, because their music can be so beautiful, healing even, but not for them.

And I feel like one of them just talking like this...