Let me assume you are not a newbie on bass.
Let me assume you are pretty damn competent.
Let me assume you have even made a living at some part of your life with your instrument.
What would your minimum standard of competence be for other players for you to want to play with them, even just jamming ?
Example: Lets say you said, "Lets jam around in Dm.". And then it was evident, that say perhaps the guitarist, did not really know what Dm was. In fact all you got was, "Oh, I just play by ear." And then you realize he just ain't cuttin' it. Would that hack you off?
I mean, I understand playing with someone just to improve their prowess on their instrument may be charitable for a while, but I think that will wear very thin (probably pretty quickly) unless you are there as an instructor of some sort.
What do you think?
I think I understand exactly what you're getting at. My answer is that I agree with you. Yes, that gets old, fast.
I'm to the point in my playing where if someone is that incompetent on their instrument, it's not even fun to try jamming with them. Even if they can play in time, and keep a solid riff going, they essentially don't have a sense of structure. In order to communicate musically with others, even jamming, you have to be speaking the same language (literally). And playing with someone who is THAT novice at their instrument is like trying to have a deep, meaningful conversation with a child that's just learning how to make sentences. You find yourself asking "why the hell am I even doing this?"
It's much like communicating with people in regular life; if they don't even know how to speak the same language it's going to be very difficult and frustrating to try getting your points across. In the exact same way, understanding at least BASIC musical conventions and theory is crucial, once you're at a certain point. That's why musical conventions exist in the first place, so that people can play together without ending up on completely different chords/keys/rhythms. It has to be organized. If someone doesn't understand that, or even know how to navigate a chord progression, in rhythm, there's basically nothing I can do with that person. They are a musical child and I'm an adult.
The sad part is that most people who "play guitar" are like this. They often don't know what key they're in, if you were to quiz them. They know a few chords, maybe they have decent rhythm and they can chop out some basic leads, but they are completely lost when you throw anything besides a blues progression at them. Playing with people like that gets really boring, really fast. The sad part is that's MOST guitar players.
The nature of things is: the better you get at your instrument, the less people exist that are going to be on your level. This makes finding a band of great musicians all the more valuable. It's a rare commodity.
I'm still searching for people to start a new band with. It's been about 2 years. If I was half the musician that I currently am, it would be a lot easier to find a group.
Heavy lies the burden of being highly skilled.
I'm not above anyone musically and feel below average and mediocre at best.
