Hard to join a band?!

[lowfreqgeek]

I mean no offense at all, but counting "live blues jams" as gigs, knowing a dozen riffs, and having difficulty learning 2-4 songs in a week does not suggest a sufficient level of competence to be a hirable bassist.

When you attend the blues jams, how do you honestly feel you do? Do you get tripped up on forms, or have any trouble being on the 1 EVERY time? Do you get called up to play more than one song, or do they have you play one and then call up someone else? Generally speaking, a good indicator of how you're doing in most jams is that you are allowed to play at least a couple songs in a row. What about when a song is called that you don't really know? Maybe something with a m2 chord, or a m6, etc? Are you able to hear those changes and own them?

These are just some of the metrics that other people will use to decide if they want to ask you to play with them. Obviously, none of us on TB can accurately assess your skill level, so all we can do is read into what you've said.

 

[MD Stingray]

Agree on what is being said on learning 2 songs in a week. If not crazy jazz stuff that is a very low number.

 

[Remyd]

All of that because I wanted to uphold this vision I had since I rode in that taxi cab home from the Pepper concert. In turn, we could have played more shows and written more songs if we would have just picked one of our friends who had wanted to play with us. Sometimes a band that has been together with a missing piece for a long time gets used to it and they have made an image of what their ideal band mate is. It happens, and I wish I was less picky when I was at the prime of my college musician days (it is much easier to play shows when you're in college opposed to when you work a full-time job lol).

Just like my momma used to say - Finished is Better than Perfect, Every Time.

 

[sears]

I have nothing much that would be a credential other than how I play. Click it off and let's see what happens and don't be a jerk. That's the only credential I have.

/thread

 

[GnarwhalNick]

Just like my momma used to say - Finished is Better than Perfect, Every Time.

Amen

 

[Rip Van Dan]

I think anyone who "thinks" they are going to tell their guitarist, keyboardist, or drummer "how" to play may as well just leave the band now. You can tell them what you think the song needs such as "what about trying a more bluesy lead there" or "a Santana-style lead would sound cool there". Perhaps say something to the keyboardist like "why don't you try that one part with a Hammond B3 sound or that legato section with a violin or strings sound" or "a Calliope sound would set that part off great!". And then let them figure out what the notes are they want to play - they are musicians right?

You can tell me to play a part without syncopation, or to swing that part more, or come in on the two on this part, or do some walking down blues patterns there, and I'll be happy to oblige. You can suggest I play a particular part with a pick and I'll give it a shot. But if it doesn't make a significant difference, I'll tell you. Now of course there are some runs and bass patterns that define a song and you need to get those right - no question. But outside of that you need to let the musicians be musicians.

However, if you are paying me the current Union rate for a recording session I'm playing on and give me sheet music to follow, I'll have that ready for you. If you are giving me a chart to an original and need a certain run done in a certain place, I'll do that too. But that's a bit of a different situation where money is on the table now and not down the road a few months from now AND we're not a group doing cover songs where we are each invested in our parts. In a recording session, it's the songwriter's or artist's vision that we are trying to get across.

 

[lostreality]

Start learning Classic Rock, Pop tunes, all the hits.
Know about 40 tunes that people like, not the ones you like.
Blues is OK but it does not sell well and a lot of guys will
shut you out because they do not like Blues and associated with older Cats.
It is never easy.

I sneak the blues in by playing Black Sabbath and Hendrix

 

[Mr JJB]

(My main gear is a Lakland Skyline 55-02 (5 string with Jazz Bass and MM pick-ups), and a basic pedal train with a compressor, an overdrive and a tuner.)


Thank you so much everyone for your input. A lot of useful stuff.

Regarding starting a band, I have indeed tried but as raised by some on this board, it's arguably even harder - otherwise, I might as well just play solo, singing with a guitar... but unfortunately for me it happens that I prefer being with others.

I get the "hang" point and I had that at the back of my mind - the story given earlier about the three hour jam ending with "it's not a right fit as you will agree" resonates very much with my last audition experience (and with much less age difference, but arguably still a little(5-8 years I suspect)).

As to the technique, to answer the earlier comments, yes I am indeed UK based: what I wrote in my first post was definitely to give people general info about my level so as to pre-empt questions.

One of the reasons I go to blues jams to play a music style that I'm not particularly into (but it's the only type of open jam around, apart from jazz that leaves me even more cold and takes much much more time to prepare for) is indeed to train my ear and develop my stage skills so I can learn to adapt to others on the spot rather than after 1 or 2 goes (gos?). And I have indeed been recalled to play again 2 out of 3 times in recent months - based on this and the honest feedback I regular ask from people I can trust at the venues, I do OK (I mean literally, not trying to fake modesty here.).

- By the way, I personally find playing in live jams songs you don't know at all (though admittedly, it's easy to guess the changes with blues) with complete strangers of various levels and styles much harder than a rehearsed gig where you know your set and know the people you are playing with. -

I probably didn't mean to say earlier that I could not learn up to 4 songs in a week . What I meant to say was that it just wears you down when you put work in 1-2 songs that you do like and 2-3 that leave you lukewarm (but still do your best to act interested in these, while being careful not to go to far and look fake), time and time again, to get a no.

I guess it's now down to my mental endurance, seeing how much longer I can last trying to get auditions and subsequently get that elusive feedback (and apply it whenever I do get some).