Playing with others for the first time is like having sex for the first time. It's going to be awkward, you'll make a lot of mistakes but you'll probably still enjoy it.
Use a condom.
Use a condom.
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Playing with actual people!
- Thread starter Forty-Thirty
- Start date
It has been a while since I started this thread, and my friend and I have gotten to play together several times. I can feel myself getting better, and playing with other instruments in real time is just so, so, so moving for me. But I have an update! Another milestone: my first jam!
I'm at home for Thanksgiving, and I brought my bass with me. My dad is a fabulous pianist (former professional), so I have been wanting to play with him. Now, I've played with my one friend on a couple of pre-established songs, but we have never just jammed, so this was very new. It took me a little bit to get my jam-legs, but once I did, it was REALLY FUN and went really well! He played a piano bit he wrote many years ago and I came up with my own part, and then I played a bass riff I've been playing with and he created a piano part. We ended up with two very different songs--a kind of bluesy, upbeat song and a slow, groovy, minor-keyed song. The upbeat one is a lot cleaner, but the slower one is really hauntingly beautiful and we have plans to work on it more the next time we see each other and get it sounding really nice.
Here is what we came up with! I welcome constructive criticism, but keep in mind that I am a beginner and this was my first jam.
Upbeat tune:
Slower tune (which has a lot of mistakes on my part, I know):
Great! You don't need to apologize for mistakes. They happen, and at any rate I couldn't hear any mistakes. A little hesitation at times, maybe. You're definitely doing well.
Actually, as far as critique goes, I wasn't going to direct it at you but at your father. He clearly is a very good pianist. On the first tune, though, he's got a bit of Pianist's Syndrome. Most pianists are used to playing solo, which means they play a bass line with their left hand, and that's what he does in the first recording (like the old joke - How many bassists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None - the pianist can do it with his left hand). He does it well, but it doesn't leave room for you to add anything to the piece - your playing sounds good, what I can hear of it, but you're basically buried under his playing. In the second piece, he did MUCH better at opening up room for you at the low end and it was much more pleasant to listen to.
Just to pick a random example of what I'm talking about, here's Thelonius Monk playing "Round Midnight" in his quartet. You can hear how he finds plenty to play but leaves lots of room for the other players, including letting the bassist play the bass line. Occasionally he'll play some low notes in the unison with the bass, but only occasionally.
Thank you. Recording the piano is a great idea. We talked about doing that before I left yesterday. I'd love for us to make the second one into something more, but we won't get to practice together much because we live about 7 hours apart, so that's how we'll do it. I think getting to play together was a great Christmas present for us both.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Thank you. Recording the piano is a great idea. We talked about doing that before I left yesterday. I'd love for us to make the second one into something more, but we won't get to practice together much because we live about 7 hours apart, so that's how we'll do it. I think getting to play together was a great Christmas present for us both.
Do you have the ability to record your part on top of his after he sends it to you (after you have it ready?)? Even better.
Thank you for the perspective. I tend to apologize for my playing in advance ("pardon me, I'm a beginner") in case I stink it up, but you're right that I should quit doing that. Looking back, I can see that I really have gotten a lot better and I need to embrace that.
Thank you so much!
Haaaa, I love that joke.
Yeah, I could tell as I was playing that there wasn't much room for me. That's the one where he already had a piano part and I just jumped in. It was fun, but a little frustrating because I feel like I was doing some cool stuff but I couldn't hear it much. For the second one, I brought the bass line and he followed me, and for that one, he let me stand out more. Maybe me being in the lead will work out better for us so he doesn't have something he's written beforehand that is perfectly complete without me. It's something we will have to work on!
Maybe. I don't have a recording device other than my phone, so I might need to invest in one. It's probably a good idea to have one for other stuff as well, so why not?
There are phone apps that do multitrack recording. Haven't spent much time with any myself so can't offer useful advice. But that might be worth some experimenting as a stopgap or to help figure out what you really need.
In the first track, you got buried by your Dad's left hand, so you held down the bottom, which is exactly what you should do.
In the second track, you should try to take a chance, and climb up the register. He gave you lots of room to play around with your note choices, and the best way to learn, is to experiment a little.
Wonderful first efforts though.
In the second track, you should try to take a chance, and climb up the register. He gave you lots of room to play around with your note choices, and the best way to learn, is to experiment a little.
Wonderful first efforts though.
Download a Equaliser for your PC or phone. You can cut all the frequencies from 500 MHz and below it will remove most of the bass and keep the piano intact allowing you to play along with the soundcloud tracks you posted.
