I love this.
Also, what you don’t see is all the bad takes those YouTube stars made before getting the perfect shot. As they say, you can be anyone you want online.
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Making Peace with My Mediocrity
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
I love this.
Also, what you don’t see is all the bad takes those YouTube stars made before getting the perfect shot. As they say, you can be anyone you want online.
I have been playing bass longer than many who post here have been alive. For years, I was mainly self taught, and was mostly a bedroom bassist. I have played in bands, and I have gigged a little. Mostly, I have played with choirs since the 1990’s. About five years ago, I started taking lessons, and I have really been consistent for the last three years. I can see the improvement, but it has become obvious to me that I have some ingrained habits that are very hard to stop at sixty. To be blunt, I do not think I will ever come close to what I might have been if I had started serious study at least thirty years ago. Ideally, I should have stuck to string bass in college. That would have given me a very strong foundation. I do not plan to quit lessons or serious practice. I just know that it is more for personal enrichment at this point in life.
I'm right there with you. See my handle?
I was lazy most of the time and didn't put my all into it when I should have. I'm decent but it takes a long time to learn stuff and sometimes I don't even get everything. I always preferred originals because it's easier to write a part then learn someone else's. Go figure. But at least I've been out there having fun and I've never been fired.
I'm around the same age and I'm a pretty good player, but I've reached a point where I can play well enough to do what I want and old enough to realize that it's perfectly fine. Musically, the only people I have to please are myself and the other people I might collaborate with online. Someone once said to me, or maybe I read it somewhere that there will always be players better and worse than you. I just strive to be the best me I can be.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
I started at 13 and I became a good player, then I realized that I needed a real job to make money. I got a degree and a professional job, in the process I took a few years off, then I got back into playing. I was a little rusty at first, but now I am better than I ever was.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,042
- 45,890
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- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
I have been playing bass longer than many who post here have been alive. For years, I was mainly self taught, and was mostly a bedroom bassist. I have played in bands, and I have gigged a little. Mostly, I have played with choirs since the 1990’s. About five years ago, I started taking lessons, and I have really been consistent for the last three years. I can see the improvement, but it has become obvious to me that I have some ingrained habits that are very hard to stop at sixty. To be blunt, I do not think I will ever come close to what I might have been if I had started serious study at least thirty years ago. Ideally, I should have stuck to string bass in college. That would have given me a very strong foundation. I do not plan to quit lessons or serious practice. I just know that it is more for personal enrichment at this point in life.
It’s always been a hobby for me and as such I try not to get too wound up about my proficiency or lack thereof. When I was gigging plenty of people seemed to enjoy it, or I would’ve stopped. Sometimes I worked harder at it than other times, no regrets.
BTW, you could always go back to playing upright, I had a couple of really great years pursuing that casually again after having only done it briefly back in the mid seventies.
Chef
In Memoriam
One can be a pretty mediocre player and still get a lot of work; I’m proof of that!
Always great mind-candy Dr. Cheese! I have to admit...I read your posts all the time because you are one of the few primarily fretless posters. So, after 4+ decades playing bass, I sometimes find myself wanting to be a better player than I am. I've gigged since almost day one and I got hooked on the fretless early on in my "career". My very first gig, the guitar player bailed (he was at college and "sick", aka hungover) so the drummer and I improved 40 minutes of fretless and beats...the crowd loved it! Too many great gigs to count over the years...so WHY??? why do we desire to be better players? For the LOVE of it...some days are better than other, but we have the privilege of being BASS players...the best gig there is.
Alright Chef, I read somewhere that you got an award for best Jazz soloist when you were a younger man.
I agree that being a bassist is great!
Chef
In Memoriam
Making Peace with My Mediocrity
I am an adequate bassist for several types of music (rock, R&B/ Soul, etc. I can even fake a good 4/4 jazz comp) and have gotten my fair share of compliments from listeners and fellow musicians. However, it seems whenever my head starts to grow I invariably hear one of the top local bassists playing at some venue and I quickly get deflated. Seems that I can't outgrow the childish view that there is a competitive element to playing the bass.
So for me at least, I cannot find peace with my mediocrity.
I am an adequate bassist for several types of music (rock, R&B/ Soul, etc. I can even fake a good 4/4 jazz comp) and have gotten my fair share of compliments from listeners and fellow musicians. However, it seems whenever my head starts to grow I invariably hear one of the top local bassists playing at some venue and I quickly get deflated. Seems that I can't outgrow the childish view that there is a competitive element to playing the bass.
So for me at least, I cannot find peace with my mediocrity.Dr. Cheese, I think you are a fine bass player.... but you are an awesome talkbass member! I might not post a response but I am always reading your threads.
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Dr Cheese, I wouldn't let it get to you too much; a handful of us will become amazing, a lot of us very good, some not bad, and a few not great; it's just the way the ol' bell-graph curve operates. If you are enjoying yourself, and having fun, that's 90% of it right there. I describe myself (honestly) as "not amazing at any one thing musically, but having just enough skills in enough departments, to make something (song) that is reasonable." And I'm having fun with that, so I'm happy.
My post was about Dr. Cheese! You know the guy that started the thread.....
(I edited my post so hopefully it is easier to understand)
I'm in the happy? position of barely being able to get worse.....I have been playing bass longer than many who post here have been alive. For years, I was mainly self taught, and was mostly a bedroom bassist. I have played in bands, and I have gigged a little. Mostly, I have played with choirs since the 1990’s. About five years ago, I started taking lessons, and I have really been consistent for the last three years. I can see the improvement, but it has become obvious to me that I have some ingrained habits that are very hard to stop at sixty. To be blunt, I do not think I will ever come close to what I might have been if I had started serious study at least thirty years ago. Ideally, I should have stuck to string bass in college. That would have given me a very strong foundation. I do not plan to quit lessons or serious practice. I just know that it is more for personal enrichment at this point in life.
Every new song that I learn is a personal triumph.....
.....I'm 63.....started playing 3 years back.......Didn't take me long to realize that my fingers were having trouble keeping up.......Don't care now......just enjoying what I CAN play.....
I occasionally suffer from delusions of adequacy.
Doc I think you're being too hard on yourself. If you have a family and career naturally that would come first, that's logical.
On playing River People 75% of Jaco's tempo is pretty good going already. Unless you intend to play this as a performance piece why worry. I know that I don't alternate 100% either but to be honest it kind of works for me the way I do it and sometimes that just means one finger, I think Jamerson used one finger also.
Now over the last 45 years I think I can remember a few times that I had to play some fast lines that were beyond my skill level, a bit of slow deliberate practice got me there and in performance I could pull it off however 99.99% of the time the lines were relatively simple, just bass lines that required a good feel more than anything else.
As bass players we tend to beat ourselves up over what we can't do but rarely acknowledge what we can do and how far we've progressed. Like you I had a professional career, that and my family came first. My suggestion is continue with your lessons and enjoy the learning and playing experience, we don't have to be the best at it we only need to accept the joy that it brings. In essence we are all still just learning... the journey continues.
