So... have to hash this out somewhere with some music people. Maybe you agree with me, maybe you think I'm ignorant, I just like to have fun, play music and be good to people, and apparently others don't share my values.
So I was at a local open mic night last night with my girlfriend and some of her friends. I played the stage with my guitarist once, but generally just watch. So a group of guys go up, none of them ever played together before, typical random funk jam... guitarist calls for a bassist, and since no one else stood up I figured I'd volunteer.
So I get up and plug in the house 5 stringer, and guitarist tells me we're just jamming between B and F# and he'll call out changes. All good, I've done this before. We're jamming and all in a groove, switch to F#, no problem. Guitarist, while playing, turns to me and yells F# again. I nod my head.... he yells louder "F# man!" holding his guitar neck up like he's showing me something new. I keep playing in F#, watching him in bewilderment, and we switch to B. Jam a bit, switch back to F#. Same deal, dude keeps screaming F#!!! at me. I know the audience can see this pretty obviously... however where I'm standing, I can hear a good mix, I dig in alittle harder and yes, indeed, I am playing in F# still. This repeats 1 or 2 more times, we end it with an epic buildup, and get a standing ovation from the crowd.
The violinist gives me a nod and says "good jam dude." Drummer, who I knew, also throwing me an approving nod. Then guitar player turns to me and says "hey, I understand you're new at this, but you should know what an F# is if you're gonna jam."
At this point, I assume I must be in the wrong. After all, I've watched this guy improv a few times and he's pretty good, and he had played bass with the previous band that played. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure he was one of the music school guys who commonly attend to show off their new ub3r-skillz. So I just kinda shrug and go back to my table, feeling kinda crappy. I keep running it through my head, and yes, I was playing just fine. Ask my girlfriend and another musician at our table, they both say "yeah, sounded fine from here, why was he yelling at you?"
I realized a minute later he must have never played a 5 string before. I was bouncing between the open B and the 7th fret of B and E strings, so low B to F# to high B. Every time he saw my hand at the 7th fret position, he'd throw a fit. After all, why bother LISTENING to whats going on in a improvised jam session, when you could just watch people's hands?
Idiots. The more I go to this open mic, the more I notice alot of pretentious d-bags and music snobs sharing the stage. I'm also making a connection with how often we hear announcements of "congradulations to our bassist XXXX for getting into Berklee!" or "congradulations to our violinist YYYY for graduating from xyz music school!" Heck I'm gonna go take some guitar lessons at the local shop and publicly congratulate myself, clearly I'm not accruing enough douche points to hold weight at this venue.
Thanks for letting me rant guys. Really hate when the local music scene discourages me from playing, but last night was definitely one of those nights. I need to get into another band where we play bars for free and no one gives a #$%^.
So I was at a local open mic night last night with my girlfriend and some of her friends. I played the stage with my guitarist once, but generally just watch. So a group of guys go up, none of them ever played together before, typical random funk jam... guitarist calls for a bassist, and since no one else stood up I figured I'd volunteer.
So I get up and plug in the house 5 stringer, and guitarist tells me we're just jamming between B and F# and he'll call out changes. All good, I've done this before. We're jamming and all in a groove, switch to F#, no problem. Guitarist, while playing, turns to me and yells F# again. I nod my head.... he yells louder "F# man!" holding his guitar neck up like he's showing me something new. I keep playing in F#, watching him in bewilderment, and we switch to B. Jam a bit, switch back to F#. Same deal, dude keeps screaming F#!!! at me. I know the audience can see this pretty obviously... however where I'm standing, I can hear a good mix, I dig in alittle harder and yes, indeed, I am playing in F# still. This repeats 1 or 2 more times, we end it with an epic buildup, and get a standing ovation from the crowd.
The violinist gives me a nod and says "good jam dude." Drummer, who I knew, also throwing me an approving nod. Then guitar player turns to me and says "hey, I understand you're new at this, but you should know what an F# is if you're gonna jam."
At this point, I assume I must be in the wrong. After all, I've watched this guy improv a few times and he's pretty good, and he had played bass with the previous band that played. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure he was one of the music school guys who commonly attend to show off their new ub3r-skillz. So I just kinda shrug and go back to my table, feeling kinda crappy. I keep running it through my head, and yes, I was playing just fine. Ask my girlfriend and another musician at our table, they both say "yeah, sounded fine from here, why was he yelling at you?"
I realized a minute later he must have never played a 5 string before. I was bouncing between the open B and the 7th fret of B and E strings, so low B to F# to high B. Every time he saw my hand at the 7th fret position, he'd throw a fit. After all, why bother LISTENING to whats going on in a improvised jam session, when you could just watch people's hands?
Idiots. The more I go to this open mic, the more I notice alot of pretentious d-bags and music snobs sharing the stage. I'm also making a connection with how often we hear announcements of "congradulations to our bassist XXXX for getting into Berklee!" or "congradulations to our violinist YYYY for graduating from xyz music school!" Heck I'm gonna go take some guitar lessons at the local shop and publicly congratulate myself, clearly I'm not accruing enough douche points to hold weight at this venue.
Thanks for letting me rant guys. Really hate when the local music scene discourages me from playing, but last night was definitely one of those nights. I need to get into another band where we play bars for free and no one gives a #$%^.
