Hi everyone! I have no clue how I JUST found this website today. I guess some background on me and my playing journey. My name is Zach and I am 25 and from Houston, Texas. I'm engaged to my fiancé, Monica, and we'll be getting married on Valentine's Day of 2025!
ANYWAY - I had always grown up around my dad who was a bass player but never really cared to much about until I was around the age of 10 and he showed me a video of Victor Wooten playing that Amazing Grace solo - Live at the Quick with Bela Fleck the Flecktones. From that moment on I knew I wanted to be a bass player.
Fast forward to the age of 12 and I started going to a private school and they had a school chapel band that you could take as an elective course. I took the opportunity and asked my dad if he'd help me learn a song for the audition and I learned How Great is our God by Chris Tomlin. I went and did the audition and got the bass player spot! (It probably helped that I was the only bass player who auditioned). That class was a huge help to my growth as a beginner bass player because I was able to learn from the very beginning how to play in a live setting with a band AND played with click and tracks from the very beginning. I didn't start with scales or theory, just playing with other musicians.
After about a year or so, the same teacher who taught the praise band class asked me if I wanted to start rotating in on Sunday mornings for the main church services. Each service probably had close to 600-800 people. I think starting off at a younger age helped me get used to playing in front of "bigger" crowds. All throughout high school I would play for my high school worship band and the same church I was going to and in my early college years I played for whichever church I was a part of at the time and even played for a few solo worship leaders for various camps and "D-Now" weekends. I had a blast playing.
Around late 2020, the church I was attending got a new worship leader and at the time I was helping out the church's youth band on Wednesday evenings. One Wednesday, the worship leader came and watched the band and somewhat plucked me from the youth band and had me as his bass player. This is where things changed for me as a bassist. The new worship pastor had a background in jazz music and had his master's in music specializing in jazz music. Him and the keys player who is just a beast of a musician had really great chemistry. They used the numbers system which I was not accustomed to. So, after just a few weeks of playing with them I was able to pick up on this system and it was a game changer.
However, I started to feel myself plateau after a few years and then my old worship pastor left to plant a church in his hometown and the new guy that came in had a different vision for the worship team. Additionally, I was feeling called to leave the church and find a new church home. Luckily, I did and have found myself playing nearly every Sunday at the new church but I am still in the skill plateau. I have thought of a few ways to get out of it and exploring options which is why I am on this forum.
I am thinking of trying to join a wedding band. I know I need to have a reel of myself so I can show people my stuff. I don't have one out yet but just got an audio interface (whole new rabbit hole of home studio recording that I'm exploring now too) and I am also trying to just challenge myself with harder songs that are out of my comfort zone. I would love to hear y'all's thoughts! Let me know any threads I should read or anything. I appreciate you guys reading all of this!
ANYWAY - I had always grown up around my dad who was a bass player but never really cared to much about until I was around the age of 10 and he showed me a video of Victor Wooten playing that Amazing Grace solo - Live at the Quick with Bela Fleck the Flecktones. From that moment on I knew I wanted to be a bass player.
Fast forward to the age of 12 and I started going to a private school and they had a school chapel band that you could take as an elective course. I took the opportunity and asked my dad if he'd help me learn a song for the audition and I learned How Great is our God by Chris Tomlin. I went and did the audition and got the bass player spot! (It probably helped that I was the only bass player who auditioned). That class was a huge help to my growth as a beginner bass player because I was able to learn from the very beginning how to play in a live setting with a band AND played with click and tracks from the very beginning. I didn't start with scales or theory, just playing with other musicians.
After about a year or so, the same teacher who taught the praise band class asked me if I wanted to start rotating in on Sunday mornings for the main church services. Each service probably had close to 600-800 people. I think starting off at a younger age helped me get used to playing in front of "bigger" crowds. All throughout high school I would play for my high school worship band and the same church I was going to and in my early college years I played for whichever church I was a part of at the time and even played for a few solo worship leaders for various camps and "D-Now" weekends. I had a blast playing.
Around late 2020, the church I was attending got a new worship leader and at the time I was helping out the church's youth band on Wednesday evenings. One Wednesday, the worship leader came and watched the band and somewhat plucked me from the youth band and had me as his bass player. This is where things changed for me as a bassist. The new worship pastor had a background in jazz music and had his master's in music specializing in jazz music. Him and the keys player who is just a beast of a musician had really great chemistry. They used the numbers system which I was not accustomed to. So, after just a few weeks of playing with them I was able to pick up on this system and it was a game changer.
However, I started to feel myself plateau after a few years and then my old worship pastor left to plant a church in his hometown and the new guy that came in had a different vision for the worship team. Additionally, I was feeling called to leave the church and find a new church home. Luckily, I did and have found myself playing nearly every Sunday at the new church but I am still in the skill plateau. I have thought of a few ways to get out of it and exploring options which is why I am on this forum.
I am thinking of trying to join a wedding band. I know I need to have a reel of myself so I can show people my stuff. I don't have one out yet but just got an audio interface (whole new rabbit hole of home studio recording that I'm exploring now too) and I am also trying to just challenge myself with harder songs that are out of my comfort zone. I would love to hear y'all's thoughts! Let me know any threads I should read or anything. I appreciate you guys reading all of this!
