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Losing Interest
- Thread starter mikeluch
- Start date
I can sympathize with this. To be honest, this is how solo bass was born - an ensemble instrument without an ensemble just isn't much fun.
Thinking about buying an 88-key digital piano for this reason. I'm still playing bass, but it's a bit of a chore sometimes.
Thinking about buying an 88-key digital piano for this reason. I'm still playing bass, but it's a bit of a chore sometimes.
Laid off practicing for a week, hope to pick it up again soon and work on my reading—baby steps! Listening to lots of Neville Brothers and old r&b—shake off those blues!
OP, you are not nuts. These are hard times for tens of millions of people (soon to be hundreds of millions). I am in the UK and pretty much everything is shut down now, not by government order (yet) unlike Italy and France but because so many companies told their employees to WFH (or just go home and not get paid, for many), the schools and colleges have just shut down, international travel is effectively suspended for many, and, now, more and more people are getting sick and they and their families are self-isolating. I’m one of them... I have Covid-19 symptoms (trust me on this... they suck) but UK government currently will only test if you’re so ill you need to go to hospital so I don’t know if this is normal flu, something else, or the virus. I feel pretty rough but not so bad I need hospital care, and if I was really bad well I wouldn’t be on TB, would I
. Seriously, it is surreal, London in the weekday rush hour is like early morning on a Sunday, everyone I know is staying at home as much as possible, and we’re all checking up on each other’s symptoms on WhatsApp (two friends gone into hospital as acute cases so far, one just discharged but still pretty ill, other still there... both should be OK eventually I hope).I’ve worked in London through so much madness and turmoil over 40 years, from terrorist attacks and major riots to financial meltdown and four recessions, all of which seemed at the time to be enough to bring the city to a halt. But life just carried on like before. Not this time. This is.... extraordinary. I’m also finding it hard to be motivated to play/practice/woodshed/record etc because there isn’t much to aim for (like you, I won’t be able to get together with other musos for quite a while, not even for rehearsals I think, and forget playing out) but also because I'm worried about what this virus is going to do to my family, work colleagues, community and country before its course is done. And whether or not I will have a job at the end of it. It is all a little.... distracting.
So, OP I fully share your frustration but for me it’s only the tip of a very large and sh**y iceberg of frustration! Also, I wouldn’t count on anything being back to normal by May/June. This thing has a long way to run yet. All the events (work stuff, not gigs) I had in my diary have been pushed out to October at the earliest and the big ones have been rolled back by a full 12 months. Plenty of time for me to have yet another go (yet again!) at my book of Jaco transcriptions once I stop feeling ill, all my kids are back home safe from aborted travels/studies, my business finds a way to survive, and my family are hunkered down to get past this.
Stay safe and well, all.
Appreciate the response and as I said, I am in no way minimizing what is happening in the world today. We and others are experiencing many of the fears, concerns and uncertainty as others are. This was more of trying to get feelings of players just related to bass playing hiatus.OP, you are not nuts. These are hard times for tens of millions of people (soon to be hundreds of millions). I am in the UK and pretty much everything is shut down now, not by government order (yet) unlike Italy and France but because so many companies told their employees to WFH (or just go home and not get paid, for many), the schools and colleges have just shut down, international travel is effectively suspended for many, and, now, more and more people are getting sick and they and their families are self-isolating. I’m one of them... I have Covid-19 symptoms (trust me on this... they suck) but UK government currently will only test if you’re so ill you need to go to hospital so I don’t know if this is normal flu, something else, or the virus. I feel pretty rough but not so bad I need hospital care, and if I was really bad well I wouldn’t be on TB, would I
I’ve worked in London through so much madness and turmoil over 40 years, from terrorist attacks and major riots to financial meltdown and four recessions, all of which seemed at the time to be enough to bring the city to a halt. But life just carried on like before. Not this time. This is.... extraordinary. I’m also finding it hard to be motivated to play/practice/woodshed/record etc because there isn’t much to aim for (like you, I won’t be able to get together with other musos for quite a while, not even for rehearsals I think, and forget playing out) but also because I'm worried about what this virus is going to do to my family, work colleagues, community and country before its course is done. And whether or not I will have a job at the end of it. It is all a little.... distracting.
So, OP I fully share your frustration but for me it’s only the tip of a very large and sh**y iceberg of frustration! Also, I wouldn’t count on anything being back to normal by May/June. This thing has a long way to run yet. All the events (work stuff, not gigs) I had in my diary have been pushed out to October at the earliest and the big ones have been rolled back by a full 12 months. Plenty of time for me to have yet another go (yet again!) at my book of Jaco transcriptions once I stop feeling ill, all my kids are back home safe from aborted travels/studies, my business finds a way to survive, and my family are hunkered down to get past this.
Stay safe and well, all.
I hope that you and everyone you know stay safe and hope for a return to normalcy at some point
And I’ve been talking to a few old friends/colleagues in antiviral drug R&D. The effort has ramped up from vigorous to immense in a couple of weeks. A ton of first-class science is being thrown at this. Could it have started sooner? Sure. Did it? No. The people driving this forward aren’t wasting any time ruminating over this. There no reason to lose vigilance or relax behavior knowing that there are medicines being brought forward. We need every tool in the toolbox.
I'm gonna start a kit P bass build aimed specifically at being a slide bass (brass)....
Just waiting on a mountain of stuff to arrive to build the thing WITH.....
.....
Just waiting on a mountain of stuff to arrive to build the thing WITH.....
.....
I've been writing songs for the first time in many years. I can't really write lyrics anymore but my dad sent me some of his poems and i turned them into something.
It actually got played on the WJCU's local music show!
My dad turns 80 this year so it's pretty cool that he gets to feel like a rock star.
I'm really only bummed about losing the gig money.
It actually got played on the WJCU's local music show!
My dad turns 80 this year so it's pretty cool that he gets to feel like a rock star.
I'm really only bummed about losing the gig money.
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I feel this. I have plenty of stuff to do, studying, practicing, cleaning up the house. It's just hard to get motivated to do much of anything when the world is shutdown.
I’ve been working for weeks on the book for Newsies for a high school production. It’s delayed and might be cancelled. I’ll be super bummed if I don’t get to play it, but it’s been fun to learn (and keep my reading up) regardless.
Now that gave me a chuckle!!!Think of the poor ole house breakers....Everybody's at home!.....
I am on the opposite end, we are playing Sunday at a Bar. The owner is our friend and has been thru hard times so we want to support him. Even though we are in a state of emergency with all bars being asked to close this bar is staying open because he is getting all the alcoholics from the closed bars. So he is doing well right now and expects all bands to honor their commitments. I don't really want to.
- Jan 26, 2014
- 768
- 1,555
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist;DNA Amplification, GHS strings
My cover band is taking this time to add a couple new songs to the sets. My original band is writing and gonna record, so we're taking advantage of the time off the gigs.
That is interesting. The Governor here closed all bars for 30 days. There have been instances of a couple staying open, and they were shut down and face fines and/or loss of license.
It seems selfish and irresponsible to put others at risk and if I were concerned, I would not play.
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The bar is in Phoenix AZ. Even though all news agencies are reporting that bars are supposed to close the owner says that no one has personally contacted him. So until they do he is playing the Kid Rock game and staying open. His patrons have no problem with this. The other band members are all for it. Our guitar player is in the medical field and has no problem with it, in fact he applauds the bar owner.
Then don’t. That bar owner ought to be shamed into doing the responsible thing. And heavily fined. Selfish b@#$&*.
I have focused again on getting into a practicre routine of sorts. Focus on the same things for a while until sufficient improvement shows. It works in the gym.
One thing I enjoy working on now , is songs I'll never play with a band. Learning a Uriah Heep b-side called What Can I Do is tons of fun, and even though I am stuck on certain notes, who cares?? There's no rush to learn it. Worst case, I revisit it in a couple of days.
Now, trying to get the band to add some covers to our set, THAT is a challenge!
One thing I enjoy working on now , is songs I'll never play with a band. Learning a Uriah Heep b-side called What Can I Do is tons of fun, and even though I am stuck on certain notes, who cares?? There's no rush to learn it. Worst case, I revisit it in a couple of days.
Now, trying to get the band to add some covers to our set, THAT is a challenge!
