NEED HELP: I'm ready to confess after 25 years

[DigitalMan]

Not every player needs to be a writer. Do your thing. If you want to learn theory and stuff, great. If not, equally great. Nobody will know the difference. They'll just know if the music sounds good.

 

[roccobass]

I wouldn't sweat it. As previously stated by others, we're all pretty much derivative. The key is "how" you're doing it. The old adage of "it's in the delivery". How many times have the 3 same chords been used in rock and roll? It's like the telling of a joke. Sometimes a pause here, a breath there, a double stop where the original didn't have one. Some guys have a quirk in their technique or how they heard the original. I can't tell how many times I mis-heard the original because my stereo was inadequate. I just put my own chomp on it. I still got calls to play.

Don't knock yourself out on what you feel is copying. I can't tell you how times Chris Squire or Geddy Lee have invaded some the R&B tunes I've done. That and all the Rocco Prestia that is part of my soul is just about everything I do. Just relax and do it. After awhile you'll realize you've been doing your own take on this. Enjoy and keep on playing.

 

[pholli00]

>I turn down opportunities, shy away from certain settings or jams, beacuse I'm absolutely terrified of being exposed.

I'd quit turning them down. Lean into the fear. Besides, you already exposed yourself here. Now go expose yourself at a jam.

 

[tpaul]

Classical musicians - the people who play in big fancy symphony orchestras - are all playing derivative music all the time. It's all written out for them, they're expected to play it exactly the same way every time they perform, even the timing and dynamics are controlled by the conductor. And many of them would be just as lost as you are if asked to improvise in a jam session. Think about it this way: you're doing essentially the same thing they're doing, but without the benefit of a score and conductor.

Nothing wrong with playing notes that were previously played by someone else. If you're good at it, own it.

"And now, folks, we'd like to play an original. It was originally written by Leiber and Stoller."

 

[micguy]

I do church gigs - every weekend when I'm not on vacation. That means I have to learn new songs all the time. I don't notice it all the time, but once in a while, I play something, and go: what was that? Where did I learn that? Constantly learning and doing different stuff is what gets you out of ruts. I can play a lot better than I could a decade ago, and over that time, I have been booked to play bigger and bigger gigs. Progress doesn't happen in leaps and bounds, it happens in small steps that, while they are happening, you often don't notice.

It's OK to be derivative, but the more stuff you learn, the tougher it is to figure out where you got your 'licks" (even for the player), and they start to SEEM original. There are only 12 notes, and all the combinations of 2, 3, or 4 notes have been played. Yet, there are frontiers still out there for those that plug at it long enough.

 

[Hectobar]

All is not lost. All of the licks and patterns become the foundation of your musical vocabulary. The next step is to take chunks or pieces that you like and apply them somewhere else. Use these musical words and make your own musical sentences. If you learned a slap thing in G, try it in Bb. Try it but leave out some notes. Try it with your fingers. Try it in different styles.

Do not be afraid of trying things. You got this!

And take that gig.

 

[micguy]

Now go expose yourself at a jam.

i suggest you do church gigs. Both good pieces of advice, but don't combine them.

 

[SteveBlair]

Take Joe Hubbards 2 year Bass Mastery Course online. Beyond legit curriculum.

 

[KidAmnesia]

I guess you have a classic musician approach to the instrument. Most classical trained musicians are very technically proficient when following a writen part but can't compose or improvise at all; but no one would question their musicianship because of that "weakness". Those simply are skills they never needed to have and therefore never practiced.

If you feel like a fraud because of not having a skill no one ever taught you and you never practiced but you think you are expected to have anyway... Therapy would be my best advice.

If you can come to terms with the idea that you can play bass but can't improvise, a good bass teacher can get you started. You just need to be willing to learn and practice like you practiced your technical chops.


I'm kind of the polar opposite. Technically mediocre bass player, I can't slap at all and I can't remeber any bass line that is not mine.

 

[Doctor Morbius]

You're not alone. Trust me. There is an army of us that lack original thought. Not just on basses, but on any topic one might randomly pick. We simply parrot what we see or hear. Monkey see, monkey do.

 

[faulknersj]

That's how some of the best players I know became the best players I know though

 

[Sparkl]

I'm not trolling. I have a confession to make that I've been secretly hiding for over 25 years and I'm ready to come clean and I need help. I am a very physically proficient bass player. I can play complicated things, have a good sense of rhythm and groove, and am a very advanced slap player. But, I have a huge problem: everything I play is a stolen lick, fill, bassline, solo etc. I have next to zero original ideas. I don't know any theory, scales or how to apply them, I don't know the fretboard well at all, and I can't solo or create unique bass lines to save my life. My brain goes completely dead - there is nothing happening inside if I'm not playing something already scripted out by someone else. Once in a while I can come up with something if I really work at it, but it definitely is not great, and again....scripted. Because of this, I limit my own playing. I turn down opportunities, shy away from certain settings or jams, beacuse I'm absolutely terrified of being exposed. The most recent controversy surrounding Giacomo Turra - the Instagram guitar sensation - was the last straw for me. It turns out he rips off much if not all of everything he plays, records things slowly then speeds it up for the video, looks completely lost when he's on his own etc.. It's all just a shiny exterior. Someone's comment on one of his recent videos hit home for me - and it hurt: "Without a stolen lick, this guy sounds like a beginner and is completely lost". I realized then and there, my God - that's me. Even early on when I first started, I remember just wanting my bass teachers to show me how to play cool songs and bass lines. I never got much of any actual training. Another similar skill I've always had since I was young: I can look at something and draw it very well, almost exactly the same. But as soon as the picture is removed, it turns into a stick figure. So I think there's something in my DNA about being an expert copy-cat, but pointless when left to my own devices in the creativity department. I feel like a fraud. How do I get better? Where do I start? I need to be in Kindergarten and moved through the different grades, from the ground up.

Thanks for reading and any advice - I needed to get this off my chest.

Fellow Bass Lover

The way I'm trying to do it is, after having practiced and transcribing all kinds of stuff, learning music theory, practicing established patterns... I simply stopped.

I don't even try to listen to original bass line grooves anymore, unless absolutely necessary. This way I can treat every song, even a simple cover as a blank slate. For me personally this has proven to be the best way of sounding/playing like myself, unhindered by the influence of bass players tackling the piece in question before me.

Saying that, you need to master certain vocabulary in order to "shoot yourself" up there in the generally accepted vibes. But even that is not a given if you happen to have a very creative mind. It certainly helps though. Bob Mintzer once told me that the road to the top in music is like a big mountain with a long road spiraling to the top. You will probably never get there by just walking the road but can absolutely reach the top if you manage to climb that mountain instead.

What he really meant is absorbing as much vocabulary as you can and naturally it will likely occur that you will remember certain scraps of licks you liked the most along the journey, slowly forming them into your own thing. It's supposed to be, or at least is commonly perceived as, the natural way of studying and progressing in music.

 

[DaveParker39]

Things don't just come out of nowhere.

Just listen to Guy Pratt talk about bass playing. He'll be the first to tell you the stuff he's "borrowed" from other players and yet he has his own style which is... a conglomeration of all of those things. And that's what great musicians are... a big pile of influences mashed together... the ones who are successful are the ones who do it creatively.

 

[Joebone]

Everyone steals. Sounds like you have an excellent toolbox! Yes, theory helps...but here's an approach that might get you cookng. Think melodies. Play along with a song you know, and cop the melody rather than the bassline. When you start to have it down, but don't yet have it nailed, start playing along with your own improvised melody. It might be super simple - or you might surprise yourself. Also sing along - even to stuff you hear in the car or wherever, and try to stay with the basic idea of the melody, but sing different notes. Can you harmonize? Can you come up with countermelodies (And in this vein, alternative bass lines could be fun)? Can you come up with your own melodies? All of this goes toward listening skills, which are the ultimate tool in improvising with others, on many, many levels.

 

[EliasA]

Know it's crazy to say, but I got better at writing basslines by:
1. Listening to jazz and related to get a feel for what a good walking bassline does until I could sing a walking bassline to any tune.
2. Playing over randomness with the chords in front of me, trying to imitate what I was hearing from the original bass, but on the fly so I have to make up stuff. I hear fill starting, okay I gotta play something. It's fun.

 

[Dlew919]

Talent invents. Genius steals: Paul McCartney after an original quote by Pablo Picasso. Who probably stole it.

 

[Podgorny]

There's no fraud here. Most classical musicians go their entire lives without composing any symphonies. I know many songwriters who are pretty mediocre musicians, and improvisation is a skill that needs to be practiced. All of this is to say that the only thing that is a prerequisite is the willingness to go out there and risk making a fool of yourself.

 

[kesslari]

I remember an interview with a successful guitarist (many years ago, so I don't remember who) and he said something much like.
"I only have 3 licks.
I have my "Chuck Berry" lick.
I have my "Keith Richards ripping off Chuck Berry" lick.
And I have my "my take on Keith Richards ripping of Chuck Berry" lick.

Worked for him.

My own confession (cue up the old song "Midnight Confession") is that I'm a couple of weeks past a case of Covid and have had no energy or inspiration to play a lick for weeks now. I feel empty of anything but fog.
This too shall pass. But it feels far from great.

 

[HolmeBass]

Take the parts you know, and break them up into small chunks. Then mix and match, re-arrange the order, start them on different beats in the measure. You will find some cool stuff!

 

[Pings Bass]

The only lick I know is The Lick