Playing for enjoyment vs. becoming a virtuoso?

[gtmattz]

This is a really interesting thread...

I grew up in a very musical household, some of my earliest memories are of living in a schoolbus with my mother and father as my fathers band toured around western Canada. As a youngster I wanted to play drums, but by the time I was 8 or so I found that playing the bass guitar appealed to me more than anything else. As the years went by my dad (who was not the best teacher :\) taught me a few things, and by the time I was 17 my dad (guitar/vocals), younger brother(drums), and I were gigging around the small town we lived in. It was a really interesting time making my summer money playing music while my friends were working at gas stations and fast food joints to be sure. Well anyhow, as time went on we all went our seperate ways and, since I had always been using 'my dads' equipment, when I moved out and started a family I had no bass of my own or anything to play through. So I ended up spending quite a few years only playing once or twice a year when the family would get together and we would have a family jam. During the whole time when I had nothing to play I would, at times, feel like I was slacking off on something by not having a bass and not playing. A few years ago I picked up a cheap Squier P, but always seemed to have 'something better' to do and it sat around in the corner.

Now, when I started playing, my dad was always telling me that I had alot of untapped talent and that I needed to just practice more and I could become (in his words) "a virtuoso", but for me I just enjoyed playing simple and straight forward, as that was enough to be fun for me. I never really had the desire to be the next stanley clarke or james jamerson (I actually never really paid attention to bassists back then to be honest, I think the only bassist I could have named off hand was Jack Bruce)etc, I just enjoyed making music with the band and that was enough. It was actually during the years of not really playing that I ended up 'discovering' how many really awesome bassists are out there, and it was via a really roundabout means (I was starting to get into electronic music in about 98 and was introduced to Squarepusher by a co-worker and after listening to lots of Squarepusher ended up finding out that he is a bassist and it all started there I think ). Anyhow as the years went by and I spent alot of time listening to all these different kinds of music with all these extremely talented bassists I decided it was time I get back into playing bass. Right now I am not in any band or anything, I have just been writing some basic drum lines and melodies in Reason and jamming along with them while spending lots and lots of time on the web reading up on technique and working on learning all the fundamentals that I glossed over when I was young and was just playing to make music and not really paying attention to what was going on.

I hope this wasnt too long and that my story actually makes sense

 

[Michael Case]

It takes the regular slobs like us to make the virtuoso players stand out. I love and am inspired by players who have virtuoso abilities and use them to serve the music and not play a million notes. So to that end I strive for the skills of a virtuoso, but know that it's just the the thing that keeps me moving forward. I love music and want to be the best I can be at it and that doesn't mean being the next Wooten, Jaco, or Stanley Clark.

 

[ksandvik]

It takes the regular slobs like us to make the virtuoso players stand out. I love and am inspired by players who have virtuoso abilities and use them to serve the music and not play a million notes. So to that end I strive for the skills of a virtuoso, but know that it's just the the thing that keeps me moving forward. I love music and want to be the best I can be at it and that doesn't mean being the next Wooten, Jaco, or Stanley Clark.

I don't know if Miles Davis exactly played zillion notes a minute, quite the opposite, but his mastery of music and his instrument is out of this world.

In other words, there's raw technicality, anyone with good fingers could become super-fast players. But it's not clear such talent is the same as musical talent.

 

[Michael Case]

I don't know if Miles Davis exactly played zillion notes a minute, quite the opposite, but his mastery of music and his instrument is out of this world.

In other words, there's raw technicality, anyone with good fingers could become super-fast players. But it's not clear such talent is the same as musical talent.

Did you even read my post? We pretty much agree. It's like you're trying to flame me or something.

 

[ksandvik]

Did you even read my post? We pretty much agree. It's like you're trying to flame me or something.

Yes we do. I just wanted to clarify that to be a virtuoso does not mean to play zillion of notes, rather to develop the musicality within to high levels. I think anyone could do that, or that someone who feels they can't play so fast, or spend a lot of time trying to learn to play fast, maybe misses the goal of becoming great.

 

[HaVIC5]

virtuoso does not mean to play zillion of notes

In the classical sense of the word, that's exactly what a virtuoso means - having technical facility of the highest caliber. This implies flash, and lots of it. Paganini, the first "true" virtuoso, was basically the 18th century equivalent of a shred guitarist - all the theatrics in ways that people had never begun to fathom before, but in terms of musical substance, not much there.

Miles Davis could never be considered a "virtuoso" in this sense, and I think labeling him as "virtuoso" would diminished from his contribution to music. Being a musician of the highest caliber doesn't mean playing interpolated ditone patterns over six tonic systems.

 

[Michael Case]

Just a little food for thought. John Coltrane could play a million notes with more feeling and emotion then most of us will ever feel in our life. He was an instrumental virtuoso and a musician of deep expression. Expression doesn't need to be separate from virtuosity, it's just unfortunate that most players strive for one at the expense of the other.

 

[Ric5]

For me playing for fun and trying to become a virtuoso are pretty much on the same page ...

What is more fun than being a music virtuoso?

 

[Michael Case]

I don't think the two need to be exclusive, one can play for the joy of it and practice a great deal to play on a high level. To me practice and pushing myself is part of the fun, that's what kept me playing bass in high school when my buddies were with their girlfriends. I enjoyed it a great deal then and still do now maybe I'm a masochist.

 

[Feef3412]

This is probably the most refreshing thread - ever - in the history of talkbass threads.

 

[Billyzoom]

I started learning guitar 30 plus years ago, with the intention of accompanying myself as a singer...I lasted a couple months before I wanted to be a "guitar player", and I began trying to learn to solo, learning scales, etc. I accepted long ago that I don't have the talent to be a virtuoso...even when I've worked diligently for a sustained period of time, I seem to have a lower threshold of coordination in my fingers than many others. So I could never really play fast, at least compared to players who were truly fast. And that was back in the day, in my prime. The level of playing, technique and dexterity nowadays makes players seem like they're another species from me.

In a way, it was very freeing, realizing that I was left to simply do what I initially wanted to do all along, which was to enjoy playing music. Now I can be content just being a hobbyist, and if I go a several months without picking up a guitar, which is the case now, I can simply accept it and pick it up again when I feel like it. In the past I would get discouraged and wonder why I even played, since I wasn't "good".

Now that I've picked up bass, I am keeping the same mentality, and find myself learning songs and playing along, more than doing exercises and such to improve. I'm doing that too, but with the emphasis on playing rather than "practicing", I enjoy it more and am more motivated to pick up the bass.