Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Only when I have a serious problem will you hear me noodle. And it's only to check if I've fixed it.
Heck no. It bothers me when other guys in the band noodle in between songs at rehearsal. At a gig? Where you're there to entertain the audience by playing full songs? No way, man.
The most honest answer in the thread, but axiomatically not noodling. You are quickly testing to ensure a repair worked. Noodling serves no legitimate function and is just to hear yourself play for a few more seconds.
Never.
There's a really good guitarist goes to my church and a few times a year we get called up to support a service. He's gotten better, but I used to clench my teeth because he would reliably play some inappropriately timed wanky wanky lick .
There's a really good guitarist goes to my church and a few times a year we get called up to support a service. He's gotten better, but I used to clench my teeth because he would reliably play some inappropriately timed wanky wanky lick .
I do not noodle onstage. I will at rehearsal as a signal that we are wasting time...
Most drummers think that warming up and hitting the drums for thirty seconds before each set, especially the first is a required thing. They also think that the audience and bar staff appreciate it. They don't.
i've played in a lot of jam bands over the years, and it is a constant theme across the board in the scene. in my current band, the keys player and drummer are constantly noodling, checking their tone/volume on stage, both during setup and during our sets. as a drummer, i used to do some noodling as well, usually if/when i had to re-tune anything, and i was always self-conscious about it. As a bass player, i am finding it much more annoying to hear all of the noodling going on between tunes. for some, it seems like a nervous tick, almost a way to deal with some sort of anxiety or something. if not that, it's just being annoying and turning off folks in the audience who probably don't care to hear the keys player cycling though the 15 different Hammond tones he has on his keyboard.
maybe i'm just getting older and have less tolerance for it.
maybe i'm just getting older and have less tolerance for it.
I play in a live band karaoke project and there is a bit of downtime between songs (minutes) as we call up new singers. I usually play some funky parts or a familiar tune (softly but with solid rhythm) to fill the dead air, I continue to incorporate it because the audience responds positively (usually clapping along). I wouldn't consider this noodling in the traditional sense but with too much dead air the audiences we play for get restless; in other projects there usually isn't much time between songs but if there is I will do the same as previously mentioned. I suppose I grew tired of hearing "play another f@!ing song" so much
Really? You’re definitely a lot nicer and more patient person than I am. I’d have no qualms or hesitation whatsoever ripping him a new orifice after a polite warning - or maybe two since he’s so young and exuberant.
Like the TV sitcom title says: “Curb your enthusiasm.”
I’ll be honest, these shows were utter chaos to begin with and everyone there was a good friend of the band, so it basically just became a big tapestry of sound, where the songs were all connected with non-stop guitar solos.
On the other hand, I later played with a guy who liked to tune his guitar by ear onstage as a sort of old-school affection, and after my experience playing with the shredder, I was quick to put the tuning issue to bed.
Good man!
Tuning is another one of those things that bug me.
Ages ago I attended a coffeehouse club sort of performance by Cat Stevens before he got really big. It was just him and another guitarist. They were both playing Ovation roundbacks if memory serves. And they were spending long minutes retuning (by ear back then) between every other song.
After about six numbers you could see hear the audience groan each time the tuning dance started up again.
Despite the excellence of the songs and Cat’s performance of them, the repeated delays and distractions between numbers really took a lot away from the show. Most people left pretty unhappy with the evening overall.
That evening stuck in my mind. Lesson learned: Anything that disrupts the flow kills the mood.
I had the very good fortune about 20 years ago of taking an introductory jazz performance course from a great jazz pianist/instructor. He taught a lot of things about musical professionalism as well as jazz performance which I use to this day..
He required absolute silence on the stage when not performing. You didn't make the mistake twice.
He required absolute silence on the stage when not performing. You didn't make the mistake twice.
Couldn't agree with you more. No one wants to hear it, including patrons, bar owners, other band members, etc. Totally unprofessional.
I auditioned a bass player who tuned by ear. He got the job and bought a tuner. Bars can be (and usually are) loud, chaotic places; there's no excuse for not using a tuner. IMHO anyway.
