How Did You Start Out Gigging

[Beej]

I did theatre in high school so already had stage experience by the time I played an instrument live. I was in several 'bands' as a teen that didn't play anywhere or even develop rosters of songs, but it gave me the bug. My first real show live was with a punk/hard rock band that somehow got a first band opening slot for some touring hard rock band from the west coast, so it was at a pretty large local venue and had a lot of people come. I was so nervous I was sick. It ended up a disaster performance with lots of stops and starts, and then the singer, too drunk, physically fought with the guitarist on stage, and then barfed into his beer jug and passed out on stage. Someone from the venue came and unplugged me from the amp and told us to get off the stage, so we did, but the audience was going crazy. I couldn't tell on stage if they were mad or appreciative of our 'show'. The drummer and guitarist ended up with fisticuffs backstage too.

I remember loading out while the headliners were about to go on, and the bassist of their band came over and was gushing over our 'show', so I guessed it wasn't too bad. I then started hearing from people how it was 'the punkest show' they have ever seen, etc. I heard that for years, so it must have made a mark on our scene. I learned later that the singer had worked it out so that we'd get 400 for the show, but I guess had been paid and kept the money, moving away afterwards.

The big lesson for me though, was that a spectacle will always be more memorable than a great performance.

 

[Deleted member 409896]

I can't answer the poll, as I'm not yet gigging in any sense, but I had a brush with opportunity, and it got me thinking about this.

A local cover band is looking for a new bass player. One of them responded to my Bandmix profile in the last week. After giving it some thought, I politely declined, because I have zero confidence I am at the level they need me to be. They stated that their current bass player was "holding them back," and I'm sure I would not help with that.

I watched some play-along videos of some of their cover material. All popular songs you've probably heard of, especially if you play bar gigs. I knew how to play zero of it.

Something I super don't get about "gigging" is: how on earth do you memorize basslines for dozens or hundreds of popular songs? This feels like too big of a problem.

I know by now, more or less what a bassline should include: rhythmic and harmonic, occasionally even melodic, elements. Got it. But, that isn't the same thing as being able to crank out "Three Steps" or "Black Velvet" etc. on demand. Especially without so much as a set of chord changes.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

I started on bass in 1963. I didn't intend to start out on bass. It just happened.
I began piano lessons when I was about 7 years old and picked up trombone in elemetary school and continues through high school. I learned a little guitar (emphasis on little) from my aunt who had traveled with Roy Acoff in the 1950s. My dad played trombone and upright bass and was a high school band director, so all my musical experience, until I joined the Navy, was classical or jazz. Rock and Roll was not allowed in my house.

After Navy boot camp, I went to technical training near Memphis. It was a large technical school with about 10,000 students. They has a student band. If you joined the band, you didn't have to stand watches or do any S*** details. I found I preferred playing trombone in the band preferable to washing dishes, so I joined up.

One Saturday I went to the band hall and there were four guys there playing Rock - two guitars, drums, and tenor sax. I stopped to listen and ended up talking to the bandleader (Big Chuck Monroe). He was bemoaning his inability to find an electric bass player. Given my musical experience, I didn't know what an electric bass was. Remember, this was 1963 and the electric bass was still fairly new on the scene.

I told BC, the bandleader, it sounded interesting and asked if I could come up with a bass, would he help me learn it and if I could get good enought, could I be the bass player. He said, "If you come up with a bass, you're the bass player." I located the only bass I could afford, a Danelectro Short Horn. It cost me a month's Navy pay - Forty Five dollars. BC found an amp for me to borrow until I could afford a Silvertone 2x12 bass amp.

After abour three weeks, I played my first gig on bass. What I realized was I had found my instrument. Of all the other instruments I'd ever played I got the most satisfaction playing bass. I'm now eighty one years old and still gigging. I have been blessed with good health so I can still schlep my equipment and play a four hour gig.

 

[brianrost]

Something I super don't get about "gigging" is: how on earth do you memorize basslines for dozens or hundreds of popular songs? This feels like too big of a problem.

It just seems that way at first. The fact that in many genres there are numerous cliche lines found in lots of songs helps. Not every song has to be played note by note like the record. I certainly don’t do that and in many genres improvised bass lines are expected. I hear bassists taking liberties with the lines from recordings of songs that I play all the time , but if they keep the feel and sound great so who cares?

 

[stinkfoot60]

I chose B.
Way late bloomer (boomer?) here, I didn’t start playing music until after I retired 8 years ago. First guitar, then bass. My guitar teacher started an ensemble to get his students playing out, I did some recitals on guitar and bass. A local folk duo saw me at a recital and asked if I’d play bass with them. I reluctantly agreed, figuring that I’d learn something even if they fired me later. 3 years later, I’m still with them. We only play out once a month or so, but I’m getting to know people in the local music community and learning as I go.

 

[Pocket Dave]

I can't answer the poll, as I'm not yet gigging in any sense, but I had a brush with opportunity, and it got me thinking about this.

A local cover band is looking for a new bass player. One of them responded to my Bandmix profile in the last week. After giving it some thought, I politely declined, because I have zero confidence I am at the level they need me to be. They stated that their current bass player was "holding them back," and I'm sure I would not help with that.

I watched some play-along videos of some of their cover material. All popular songs you've probably heard of, especially if you play bar gigs. I knew how to play zero of it.

Something I super don't get about "gigging" is: how on earth do you memorize basslines for dozens or hundreds of popular songs? This feels like too big of a problem.

I know by now, more or less what a bassline should include: rhythmic and harmonic, occasionally even melodic, elements. Got it. But, that isn't the same thing as being able to crank out "Three Steps" or "Black Velvet" etc. on demand. Especially without so much as a set of chord changes.

This would be a great topic thread on its own; It would probably get a ton of helpful responses.

From my own experience getting tossed in the deep end, I learned to "fake it 'til you make it" early; We got through it well enough to give me some measure of comfort with the process. At least enough that fear of failure wasn't overwhelming - I didn't avoid it, and actually looked forward to it.

It got better over time by just practicing the material until it became muscle memory. It now takes about 2-3 hours to learn a dozen new tunes well enough for me to root-5 them, 4 hours to get the nuances. In extreme cases with a lot of complex-arrangements that I need to memorize without charting or having charts available, 5-6 hours. Chord and number charts reduce this time significantly.

 

[Deleted member 409896]

If I can get a complete set list, maybe it would be possible to look up chord charts for all the pieces. Or write my own best guesses, if req'd.

 

[DCErik]

I picked up the bass in '79 once I was finally allowed to ditch my 3x weekly piano lessons with the local octogenarian. In the Summer of '80 I answered an ad from the board at the local music shop. They were all 2-3 years older than me (13), and lived out in Rockville, MD. which was a Metro bus, two Metro trains, and a RideOn away and took about two hours while hauling my bass, 15W head, and 15" cab. We learned some Cream, Yardbirds, and a Zeppelin song and signed up for the DC101 Battle of the Bands.

When we rolled up to the first round in the drummer's dad's van we were met by two bands of guys in their mid-20s with full PA, lights, etc. Scared but determined, we unloaded the drums and our little practice amps, and asked one of the bands if we could use their PA for our singer. Came in 3rd out of 3!

 

[Pocket Dave]

If I can get a complete set list, maybe it would be possible to look up chord charts for all the pieces. Or write my own best guesses, if req'd.

Charting by ear is a good skill to develop.

These days you can find most popular song charts on-line. Even so, the skill comes in handy making corrections - a lot of on-line charts are wrong. Some are ridiculously wrong.

 

[Salicete]

I was 14 and had a brand new Fender Precision, all black with a maple neck. I also had a silver sparkle Kustom 100 head and this behemoth Road cab with two 18-inch speakers.

The kid next door had a set of those Fibes drums that looked like the bell end of a tuba, curved and flared. Dave my buddy from school had a junkyard guitar that he got working; I forget what kind of amp he used. Another friend from school had money; he had a nice Fender Strat and a VOX combo amp.

The hot-rich girl down the street was having a birthday/pool party and we got the gig. We ~sucked~ with bells on, but everyone had fun. That is how it all started. I stayed with those guys for years, until differing college choices broke up the band.

 

[turf3]

Started playing gigs at 16, anywhere we could play. Rock and roll, I was playing saxophone and flute.

During college I more or less started a pivot to jazz, ended up playing in multiple society bands through my 30s and 40s. At about 50 I took up upright bass; but of course I already had a long history on the bandstand, and I knew how I wanted the bass to sound, I just had to figure out how to make it do that.

 

[MtManiac]

I voted B to reflect my first gigging band 35 years ago, but I played in bands before that with people who were as clueless as me, and jumped into gigging after that with people who were more clueless than me. Current band we practiced until very tight before booking gigs.

 

[pepj]

My school mates had the gtrs, i knew they needed bass, and I was hearing the bass already.
Fast forward through all the other guys we meet at school age and I don't see anyone, bar one still doing it on our circuit. I think a fair few never got out the bedroom.

 

[Jefenator]

I voted B. AFAIC jumping in the deep end with people who are better than you is the ONLY way to do it.
That approach may be easier to line up for bass than other instruments because the demand is often greater than the supply.
I've been well suited to it with perfect pitch and a high comfort level for improvising.
Also, the way I'm wired, I might be on the ADHD scale. I have a terrible time, doing scales & exercises or working up some etude just to get better for no immediate reason. But, set me up for a challenging occasion and I will shed like crazy & rise to it.
YMMV

 

[Deleted member 409896]

I voted B. AFAIC jumping in the deep end with people who are better than you is the ONLY way to do it.

I suspect this is correct, but I also don't want to waste anyone's time if I simply can't do what they're looking for. Which I probably can't, as I'm really not very good yet.

I need the right opportunity to come along. So far the only interest I got would have had me spend too much time driving back and forth for practice sessions.

 

[J Wilson]

It was the mid 70's when it finally dawned on me I didn't want to go to school on a piano scholarship. I wanted to rock, but it also dawned on me I couldn't afford a B3/Leslie and a Rhodes or a Wurlitzer and a van to move all that. I'd always wanted to play bass (more than keys) so I'd bought a new Ripper and a Peavey BASS 215 stack.

I thought 'well, I already know music, I just got to learn to play this thing. I thought it would be like a typewriter: I knew how to read, spell, and write, I just had to learn how to use a typewriter'. The crazy ideas when you don't know what you don't know.

So I started playing along to my favorite records and I got a little better than I though I would over the following year. Then a friend calls, they've got a great band together with solid dates booked, they're in a sweat for a bass player, any bass player. These were all really experienced players, but all of their buds weren't available, so what about you?

I go to practice with them and I made the gig, with no pretension on my part: I was JUST making it, but it worked.

So this is '77, playing cover tunes in clubs . . . . at the height of disco. So my green-as-new-money self got worked over five hours a night. They had Stewart's 'D'Ya Think I'm Sexy' on their set list (which they would stretch out with solos to keep 'em dancing), and this is where I learned to hate the late Phil Chen: Those bouncing octave figures all the way through it, my plucking hand would almost cramp shut after 7 or 8 minutes of it ! ! ! Anyway, I grew into the gig, played with them for about 8 months, and when the guy they'd really wanted came free, I got kicked to the curb just that fast.

Every job/gig/band after that, I was never afraid of getting thrown in the deep end with no warning and told to swim. And I became utterly convinced that playing 4 or 5 sets a night for many nights over many weeks I grew WAY faster than practicing at home. OJT was just far more intense and binding.

 

[Wyrdlow]

If I can get a complete set list, maybe it would be possible to look up chord charts for all the pieces. Or write my own best guesses, if req'd.

I use Ultimate Guitar for this very thing. It essentially gives you lyrics with the chords above them. Some songs have tab and backing tracks. and it lets you change the key too.

 

[klokker]

I never picked up a bass until I was 50. But I was a music major ( among other things) in college with an extensive keyboard and some guitar experience, mostly classical. Picked up a bass when a guy needed a bass player for this community event he had planned. Liked it, got going on getting my chops up and tried out for a couple of bands through Craigslist. Met people, and one thing led to another. Now I'm playing out a lot.

Most of the people I gig with have slightly better chops than I do, sing better, and just seem to know every song and artist, through about 1885. Most of them grew up playing in bands, back when cover bands were everywhere and even a crappy band would probably have an "agent". The drummer I play with has been gigging for 50 years, guitar player for about the same. So they have more experience with what works in terms of set list, and overall better chops and vocals (if they practice). They work a crowd better. I however, usually have better theory, ear training, and over all am just "pickier" about things.

My first gig I ever played on bass in public, I wrote all the notation for and played the notes. But that was my history. Laugh about that now. I don't play with anyone who has a story like that at all.

 

[Low End Scum]

I can't say I can pick any of those options. I guess the closest is that I thought we were ready. We went and played an open mic Sunday and the organizer was a local booking agent and started putting us on shows. After 3 or so shows the band disintegrated, but I got bit by the bug. From that band, the next band, the next band, and the next band I'm the only one that still plays music.

After that first band though I could be described by B. I've endeavored whenever possible to be the least skilled member of the band because selfishly it means I have the most I can potentially learn and the situation means I'll likely learn it faster.

 

[frankie5string]

Basically, very very first gig was with friends from high school at a place in Toronto called Baycrest. They kept asking us to play Good Night Irene and Shein Vi Di Levone. We thought they were clapping but they were taking their teeth out for their jello desert... As you can probably tell, it wasn't a pub/bar/club.

Then I played a tiny bar in the north end of Toronto called "Fergs" - the cook was our guitar player so we became the house band for a few shows - then the chef disappeared.

After that, I began networking and playing with as many people as I could while maintaining my studies and I was pretty physically unwell.