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Rant about music snobs, open mic nite content

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#61
BayStateBass said:
Gigslut-

I actually used a very similar "claw" playing style for quite a while. I had to learn to play differently when I started having a lot of pain in my right wrist and tingling in my fingers.

I now use a "modified claw" where my hand is flatter so my wrist isn't bent as much, but I still make most of my movements with by bending my knuckles instead of dragging my fingers.

Actually, it looks a lot like the pictures you posted. I've tried other things, but this works best for me.

It's gotten the same responses from those who claim to be better trained than I am.

Everyone's a critic.
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I used to really curl up the hand, and I did get cramping if I played a lot of consecutive gigs. I suppose I've flattened out the hand a bit to alleviate that. It must have been subconscious, but I can see it after comparing older pics to my current technique. I still get comments from the experts, though. It works for me because the right hand doesn't have to move so much. It can pretty much stay put and I can reach any string from where it sits. It's actually similar to a classical guitar hand position, and even use my thumb occasionally for the E string.

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I've recently become acquainted with some well regarded jazz bassists who are faculty members at a couple prestigious Universities here. While they have observed and commented on it, they are not nearly as judgmental. as one of them put it, "whatever works ..."
 
#62
That guy would have gotten his ass kicked out at the open mic I go to occasionally. That sort of attitude is just not tolerated. Its all about fun. I usually bring my unlined fretless and comments like " dude you dropped your frets!" are common but are just for fun. Funny story about key signatures: my band was playing some originals and having people sit in. The house harmonica player asked to sit in on a song and asked key the song was in. I say "you might wanna wait till the next song..." "nah I can play in any key! What's the key?" "D Phrygian Dominant Mode" " Yeah I'll wait...that sax lady over there can do it!" That sax lady tore a mean solo in D Phrygian Dominant!
 
#63
gigslut said:
I used to really curl up the hand, and I did get cramping if I played a lot of consecutive gigs. I suppose I've flattened out the hand a bit to alleviate that. It must have been subconscious, but I can see it after comparing older pics to my current technique. I still get comments from the experts, though. It works for me because the right hand doesn't have to move so much. It can pretty much stay put and I can reach any string from where it sits. It's actually similar to a classical guitar hand position, and even use my thumb occasionally for the E string.

0.jpg


I've recently become acquainted with some well regarded jazz bassists who are faculty members at a couple prestigious Universities here. While they have observed and commented on it, they are not nearly as judgmental. as one of them put it, "whatever works ..."
Click to expand...

I took classical guitar for a few years and play a lot of fingerstyle folk guitar and I've found this way of playing on bass very good for a lot of approaches in addition to the usual ways (pick, slap, whatever). As I use a lot of nail in my sound I've found I can also use both sides of my playing fingers like clawhammer banjo. Yup, whatever works ;)

And props for being able to back up Tom Jones, how cool is that? :cool:
 
#64
I also find it strange when players who think they know it all and talk down to those of us who have chops in our own right. I have had about a year's worth of bass lessons when I was 13, I'm mostly self taught, but have been playing out semi pro since 1979 weekends mostly. I can read music, but not sight read. I've played in wroship service and rock, country,and blues bands. Three years ago my old chorus teacher asked me to play bass for a musicial and I worked very hard and did a good job and have done the last one he put together. This led to me being asked to play bass for Rent 2 years ago and it went great. This all leads up to the point of this story. This year I was again asked to play for RENT in a city 30 miles south of where I live and did not have to audition because the pit leader had seen the show I did a year before. There is a song called Santa Fa and the bass part is written for left hand piano and I could not play that, so I came up with a bassline that worked in the first show and was asked to use it in this one. Ok now comes the point of this post, after one of the shows a guy comes up and askes about the pit band and everone else is a music teacher, when he gets to me he says that the bass drives most of the songs in the show and I did a great job, and where did you study music cause that bass line in Sants Fa was killer, and I say I'm mostly self taught and don't sight read, the guy comes unglued calls me a liar, that there is no way an untrained player could pull that off, at which the pit leader, says oh and he plays the most show from memory! So I hear what you are saying. Sorry for the book length post! some players need to feel good by putting others down! BTW I turned 60 yesterday!
Love & Peace
 
#65
gigslut said:
He was just sitting in at our local jam. He had just played a concert in town the night before and was slumming. I don't play in his band or anything. He was an amazingly humble and down to earth guy who just wanted jam some blues and R&B with us.
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Get the hell outta here!!! For real?! I was kidding!!! Thought it was just some guy that looked like him!!! Awesome!!!
 
#68
I had a guy at an audition tell me to jam with them in the key of E min and then go up to C. So I broke out my 6 string and was jamming along. The keyboard player and acoustic player really enjoyed what they were hearing but the the electric guitarist stopped me in the middle of the song and said, "No, E minor. You're playing up there by A." (I was actually playing E on the B string on the 5th fret.) I told him no, this is a 6 string, I have a low B. He looked at me with a bewildered look in his eye like he's never heard of that before. Then the keyboard player had to explain to him what I meant.

I didn't get the gig but I'm kind of glad I didn't. I think I scared the guy. He was kind of an egotistic band leader anyway.
 
#71
gigslut said:
I used to really curl up the hand, and I did get cramping if I played a lot of consecutive gigs. I suppose I've flattened out the hand a bit to alleviate that. It must have been subconscious, but I can see it after comparing older pics to my current technique. I still get comments from the experts, though. It works for me because the right hand doesn't have to move so much. It can pretty much stay put and I can reach any string from where it sits. It's actually similar to a classical guitar hand position, and even use my thumb occasionally for the E string.

0.jpg


I've recently become acquainted with some well regarded jazz bassists who are faculty members at a couple prestigious Universities here. While they have observed and commented on it, they are not nearly as judgmental. as one of them put it, "whatever works ..."
Click to expand...

euh ... it is like the floating thumb ... nothing wrong with that ... I think it is better to play like that.
 
#73
I see that the conversation has passed on to other things, but I'll just add this. If this guitarist at the OP's open mic had a degree from any music school worth going to, they could have been able to hear that you were playing in F#.
 
#74
The ear trumps everything else (said the bassist with perfect pitch). Not everyone has the gift/curse, but if you do, then you can really fit in, just about anywhere. Master the fretboard, and a few modes, and everyone thinks that you went to music school.

Obviously, there are a lot of tone-deaf players out there who cannot tell the difference between something sounding "right," or "wrong." I use quotes, because sometimes, more than one note will work (like playing the 3rd, in some instances, or the 5th).

Some people are elitists because of overexposure to douchebaggery. It thus really boils down to diplomacy. My strategy, in the OP situation, is simple: I would ask the guitard to play his F# on his low E string. I would then match the pitch, on my instrument, whatever it might be. If his eyes tell him it's wrong, but everyone else's ears are agreeing that it's right (happens every time), I simply retort, "any questions?" and we move on from there. Yes, I realize that intellectual violence is cruel, but it is sometimes the only thing that will break a bad musical habit, like listening with your eyes. The only time that the eyes help is when the mix and tonality cause the ear to be unsure.

There's always the time-honored move of not saying a word, and taking off your instrument, offering it to the 'tard, implying, "here, you play it." Works every time.
 
#79
I really got into serious playing after backing a friend of mine who was WAY TOO into James Taylor and Dave Wilcox. What's more confusing than a guitarist in a tuning that makes no #$%@ sense to begin with?...slapping on a capo. For this reason, and I play a 5 as well, I've become accustomed to moving or hiding my hands from guitarists for that very reason you described.

I do applaude your exercised restraint. Headstock to the skull would have only been fun for one of you.
 
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