I can't smile and play at the same time

[EdwardofHuncote]

...A woman came up to me during a break and told me I needed to smile more. "Aren't you having fun?" <snip>

If we weren't bass players, I would say she was totally flirting with you.

Supposing for a moment it's possible she didn't know that was a *bass* guitar, the correct response was: "I'm smiling now!"... shoot, Ida' run with it.

I gotta' go work on my scowl now, for tonight's gig.

 

[ariwax]

I usually do a head-bob with a bit of stank-face. Less challenging than keeping a smile pasted on there.

 

[Bodeanly]

Practice some of these:
guitar face - Google Search

Smile because you'll never look that stupid.

 

[john_g]

Im the same way...im not a big smiler to begin with, and when Im playing I am in the zone. I get people telling me I need to smile but its hard for me. It breaks my concentration IMO but its something I am trying to work on.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

Just wait till the guitar player knocks his beer over while he's bending down adjusting his delay pedal in the middle of a song right before a solo and just start laughing. Then fart. That makes me smile.

 

[petrus61]

Im the same way...im not a big smiler to begin with, and when Im playing I am in the zone. I get people telling me I need to smile but its hard for me. It breaks my concentration IMO but its something I am trying to work on.

There really is an art to it and I think most people and even other musicians underestimate how busy a bass player is when they're playing. We have to be the glue that holds the rhythm and melody in place and it takes time and practice to learn how to do anything simultaneous to being anything but a "root" note player. For some guys, it's easy. For others, it's difficult.

 

[DreadyDiggs]

Drummer and I are now backing singers, and I even step forward and sing one song lead. But ever since I've been playing I've been able to just dance and engage the audience.

I love the diversity, some of us are statues, some of us headbang during the entire song, some of us sing.

Singing is coming pretty quickly, my new challenge is I want to be able to just talk to the audience while playing, at that point I know I could be a competent front man.

At the end of the day, I say do you. We don't all have to be able to do the same things.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Sometimes it does take a little bit of acting, sometimes we have to exaggerate our movements a little bit so the audience will pick up on them. If I know the songs inside and out, though, I can set my mind and hands on "cruise control" sometimes, allowing me to smile, interact with the other band members, check out the hot women on the dance floor, see what the score is on the football game that's playing on the TV behind the bar, then come back to reality and wonder hey are are we on the second verse or the third, and where's that confounded bridge, or did we just play the bridge... The important thing is to know the songs so that I'm not having to spend every second concentrating on what I'm playing. Gets back to the adage, "Amateurs practice until they play it right. Professionals practice until they never play it wrong."

Exactly. I like to say that playing rock'n'roll is in some respects a lot like professional wrestling. Yeah, you're there to play, but you're also putting on a show. I am fortunate enough to work with people who actually enjoy this part--our drummer is a natural ham, and he cracks the rest of us up. If you think this is foolish, and probably "unprofessional," wait until you've logged your 200th performance of "Stairway To Heaven."

 

[squirefan]

Get your other band mates to think of funny things to tell you spontaneously during the show.

I do that to my guitarists. It's especially funny when they're soloing. I walked up behind one of them once, got in a jam pose with him, leaned in towards him and said "You complete me." He about lost it laughing!

 

[s0c9]

There really is an art to it and I think most people and even other musicians underestimate how busy a bass player is when they're playing. We have to be the glue that holds the rhythm and melody in place and it takes time and practice to learn how to do anything simultaneous to being anything but a "root" note player. For some guys, it's easy. For others, it's difficult.

^^^ Yikes.. ^^^^
that REALLY hits home for me.... I'm relatively new to playing bass (4 yrs) compared to many here, having got here via 15+ yrs of playing guitar, the last 7 - before the switch - as lead in my own rock/variety band. I'm not a novice and know my way around the neck, but guitar is VERY different from bass. With guitar I could lay out and noodle, if I want, play chords while doing harmonies and smiling hard. Relatively easy.
As a guitar player, the best compliment I could give about bass was I never really noticed them.. they were just there.. BTW - I had an AWESOME bassist in that band... I now fully realize how GOOD he REALLY was!!

The first thing that hit home about playing bass is - we NEVER stop. Constantly busy.. except for here and there. In comparison, playing guitar is like being on vacation!! Playing walking lines + singing harmonies and smiling while doing so, IS hard work.
Still learning.. but having a blast.. should have switched to bass much much earlier!

 

[Kjell]

To OP: I would suggest practicing smiling White playing. I do, and IMHO a fake smile is as important as spare cabels extra batteries. Its part of toolbox for certain gigs. My rule of thumb: The worse the gig, he broader the smile. My record is 7 minutes of straight smiling while clueless singer /songwriter tried to introduce the song.

 

[hobosong]

You don't need to smile, you need to take a lesson from this lady:

 

[Old Blastard]

I was having a great time playing my $30 beater bass at a blues jam with some great musicians. Looks like it, doesn't it? Something to work on, I guess

 

[DWBass]

My mother tells me this all the time. She always asks me why do I look so serious! I think it's because I play with sucky musicians! LOL

 

[Fxpmusic]

I go between smiling and having a stinky funky face. I also don't think to much about what's going on or give to much importance to playing "perfectly".

 

[PortlandBass77]

It's called 'the bass face'... it's a well known fact bassists don't smile:

As a side note, what's the best 'bass face' for metal?

 

[Plutonium244]

I kind of flip back and forth between concentrating on the playing-- thinking about things I am going to play differently, or would it sound better if I played this line more over the bridge pickup, playing things differently every time if I can, which keeps every gig and song interesting to me-- and then putting it on auto pilot and watching the crowd, smiling, engaging... but I don't always flip back and forth seemlessly and sometimes I get lost in my instrument. It's true that guitar players, and all other instrumentalists (besides drummers) get to just stop, or ride on top... if they falter on the groove, nothing falls apart. Bass players are constantly bailing out the lower decks and keeping the ship of groove afloat. Even a momentary lapse is discernible. So it's natural to concentrate on making the one thing we have to do perfectly-- groove-- perfect/

 

[Joe Nerve]

Forgot to mention in my previous post that my new avatar is representative of my current most common bass face.

 

[tinman 1967]

Your the bass player, you don't have to smile , just groove ...

 

[Plutonium244]

"Your beautiful face makes me smile, darlin', howzabout you and me have a little drink?" usually works for me in response to the "you should smile more" thing. It helps that I am devastatingly handsome.

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