Man! I wish my college had had something like this. It looks like way too much fun.
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Should I join my colleges big band or avoid embarrassing myself?
- Thread starter salmon256
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Man! I wish my college had had something like this. It looks like way too much fun.
I did pretty much the exact same thing my Junior year of HS. I'd only been learning how to read for maybe a year or so, and was not very well versed in theory or…anything really. I joined the school's extracurricular non-credit jazz band, and I had a blast!
I grew a lot as a musician, and there's a truly wonderful feeling of being part of a big band, where everyone is doing what their supposed to and the result is greater than the sum of its parts.
After that, I started learning to play the upright bass, and got into the credit jazz band for my senior year.
I grew a lot as a musician, and there's a truly wonderful feeling of being part of a big band, where everyone is doing what their supposed to and the result is greater than the sum of its parts.
After that, I started learning to play the upright bass, and got into the credit jazz band for my senior year.
Oh hellyeah... As everyone else said, you're going to learn a lot and your skills will improve big time.
BUT, the real benefit is years down the road, you're going to confront something you have doubts about and you're going to look back on this and say, "Well if I did it then, I can do it now!!"
BUT, the real benefit is years down the road, you're going to confront something you have doubts about and you're going to look back on this and say, "Well if I did it then, I can do it now!!"
Here's how to not suck and embarrass yourself : prepare . Is this for fall semester ? If so , great. Spend the summer practicing . Learning how to get it right, not two-thirds ok, is key.
First, contact the leader and get any parts you can. Be prepared to go to the music dept. and make copies, they might not want to just hand out music they won't see again. Figure out how many other bass players there are and if at all possible, what songs you might play. If you play electric and the others play upright, you'll get those parts. If there are other electric players,find out what charts they want to play. Do the bass player thing and be social, make the connections with the others in your "section" if you can.
Next practice the music to practice how to learn.
Split the reading into two tasks and practice separately:Notes and rhythm. Learn how to find the best fingering and stick to that choice, edit your fingerings only when necessary. Ignore any rhythm at first. Play very very slowly until you can do it without mistakes, then sleep on it, maybe for a couple days. Sleep after learning is critical in the process. If you make mistakes, slow it down more until you don't. And locate each spot where you make the mistake,fix it. Don't gloss over 'I'll get it the next time'. This process is time consuming at first but you will learn how to learn, Nothing is as time consuming as repeating mistakes and getting stuck playing the wrong notes. This step informs your "motor planning" for the left hand.
Test for automaticity- whether your left hand motor planning has learned what it needs - by playing against a metronome, slowly at first. If you can't do that yet, stop! Go back and fix the mistakes . Sleep, rinse, repeat.
Next and separately , learn the rhythms. Mark the beats if needed, figure out where phrases start and where pickups and accents go. Get this right by itself.
Apart from learning how to learn your part by reading, listen to the piece in a recording whenever you can. You Tubes of student bands playing the simpler charts you describe, abound.
Now that you have a left hand plan and hopefully heard the tune and your part in your head, put them together. Play your part at 75-80% tempo against a metronome or Amazing Slow Downer (or your favorite alternative app). If your left hand is solid and the rhythm is right , it will all go together magically and make musical sense. If not, you know how and where to go after individual problems. Again, rinse,sleep,repeat- going doggedly after details is the way forward. Knowing how to do this process will shorten the time needed eventually, but anyone who is any good does this process, though practice at the process will make it a lot faster and eventually in parallel. Many of them learned how to do this long ago, and have forgotten what it was like at first, so really good players might not be the best teachers.
A bass player who also ballroom dances, and can feel it is worth their weight in gold whether they learn fancy licks or not. But fancy licks are only a matter of how much quality practice time (see above) you put in.
Those of us who worry about whether we suck , words only get in the way - that voice in your head 'Damn that's F#' is interfering with the process. Actually learning the task keeps your verbal centers OUT of it.
Some of the above is long and well - known, but music cognition research in the last twenty years - provides a lot of insight. This is a website of a program for banjo and some other instruments, but developed by a neurologist who started playing in medical school and realized that music instruction was way behind knowledge of how things work in the brain and there are better ways of learning. I found the book, while not immediately about learning charts or orchestral playing (my interest) , still really really useful for fundamental ways of approaching learning how to play. The Brainjo Academy – Better Brain Fitness.
Now get to work !
Good luck
First, contact the leader and get any parts you can. Be prepared to go to the music dept. and make copies, they might not want to just hand out music they won't see again. Figure out how many other bass players there are and if at all possible, what songs you might play. If you play electric and the others play upright, you'll get those parts. If there are other electric players,find out what charts they want to play. Do the bass player thing and be social, make the connections with the others in your "section" if you can.
Next practice the music to practice how to learn.
Split the reading into two tasks and practice separately:Notes and rhythm. Learn how to find the best fingering and stick to that choice, edit your fingerings only when necessary. Ignore any rhythm at first. Play very very slowly until you can do it without mistakes, then sleep on it, maybe for a couple days. Sleep after learning is critical in the process. If you make mistakes, slow it down more until you don't. And locate each spot where you make the mistake,fix it. Don't gloss over 'I'll get it the next time'. This process is time consuming at first but you will learn how to learn, Nothing is as time consuming as repeating mistakes and getting stuck playing the wrong notes. This step informs your "motor planning" for the left hand.
Test for automaticity- whether your left hand motor planning has learned what it needs - by playing against a metronome, slowly at first. If you can't do that yet, stop! Go back and fix the mistakes . Sleep, rinse, repeat.
Next and separately , learn the rhythms. Mark the beats if needed, figure out where phrases start and where pickups and accents go. Get this right by itself.
Apart from learning how to learn your part by reading, listen to the piece in a recording whenever you can. You Tubes of student bands playing the simpler charts you describe, abound.
Now that you have a left hand plan and hopefully heard the tune and your part in your head, put them together. Play your part at 75-80% tempo against a metronome or Amazing Slow Downer (or your favorite alternative app). If your left hand is solid and the rhythm is right , it will all go together magically and make musical sense. If not, you know how and where to go after individual problems. Again, rinse,sleep,repeat- going doggedly after details is the way forward. Knowing how to do this process will shorten the time needed eventually, but anyone who is any good does this process, though practice at the process will make it a lot faster and eventually in parallel. Many of them learned how to do this long ago, and have forgotten what it was like at first, so really good players might not be the best teachers.
A bass player who also ballroom dances, and can feel it is worth their weight in gold whether they learn fancy licks or not. But fancy licks are only a matter of how much quality practice time (see above) you put in.
Those of us who worry about whether we suck , words only get in the way - that voice in your head 'Damn that's F#' is interfering with the process. Actually learning the task keeps your verbal centers OUT of it.
Some of the above is long and well - known, but music cognition research in the last twenty years - provides a lot of insight. This is a website of a program for banjo and some other instruments, but developed by a neurologist who started playing in medical school and realized that music instruction was way behind knowledge of how things work in the brain and there are better ways of learning. I found the book, while not immediately about learning charts or orchestral playing (my interest) , still really really useful for fundamental ways of approaching learning how to play. The Brainjo Academy – Better Brain Fitness.
Now get to work !
Good luck
Nothing like diving in the deep end IME...
I've had occasion to sub with the local symphony a few times. That's a gig I am absolutely not qualified for! The standard audition passages are years - perhaps lifetimes - beyond my grasp. But sometimes they need that extra wam body in the section and I can always use a good kick in the @$$ (and some money).
I find the big catch in these situations is: you have to do a TON of extra homework. As much listening & shedding as you can possibly cram in, for weeks on end. That's not necessarily a bad thing - quite the opposite! But it's not one of things jobs one gets to skate through with minimal prep.
I've been on the other side of it as well. I've never minded sharing the stage with a newbie - as long as they learn & improve! (In fact, sometimes that's preferable to some grumpy old salt who's set in a bunch of bad habits.)
I've had occasion to sub with the local symphony a few times. That's a gig I am absolutely not qualified for! The standard audition passages are years - perhaps lifetimes - beyond my grasp. But sometimes they need that extra wam body in the section and I can always use a good kick in the @$$ (and some money).
I find the big catch in these situations is: you have to do a TON of extra homework. As much listening & shedding as you can possibly cram in, for weeks on end. That's not necessarily a bad thing - quite the opposite! But it's not one of things jobs one gets to skate through with minimal prep.
I've been on the other side of it as well. I've never minded sharing the stage with a newbie - as long as they learn & improve! (In fact, sometimes that's preferable to some grumpy old salt who's set in a bunch of bad habits.)
I was in your position last semester and I joined the band with close to zero reading experience. At first I kinda felt like I was the dumbest person in the room, but then it turned out that sometimes doing a ton of homework by me meant that I knew how to play some parts while the readers were struggling.
If it's a band worth spending time in, the director will show support as long as you show effort.
If it's a band worth spending time in, the director will show support as long as you show effort.
When you're in the last week of your life, looking back over all you've done over the decades, do you think you'll be glad you avoided embarrassing yourself?
I think most people will regret the extent to which they played it safe, and savor those moments where they took a chance & did something.
Playing with a big band is way safer than staffing a hospital in a war zone.
I think most people will regret the extent to which they played it safe, and savor those moments where they took a chance & did something.
Playing with a big band is way safer than staffing a hospital in a war zone.
First off... THANK YOU ALL!!!
Sorry for going MIA on this post, I gonna like ever post and give y'all some likes!
I appreciate so much, no matter what band I join etc I am gonna use this post as a reminding of the stories and positive words.
I am hoping to do it next semester, it is gonna be my last year, and some details real quick, the band is totally student run so the BL is a student, I am gonna email or write in their group chat some questions. I already restarted my bass method book am amazed by how much better I got just going slow...
Also the only crappy part is the time, they tend to practice at 7pm and it ends at 10pm, I commute to my college by train and somedays cars and I would get home at 11 or 12am... so sadly that may ruin it but if they have a coinvent or earlier time, you know my butt is going to do it don't worry!
If not, no matter what after graduation I am going to make it my goal to find another similar group like this or at least even a band!
Have an amazing summer and day everyone! For real!
Sorry for going MIA on this post, I gonna like ever post and give y'all some likes!
I appreciate so much, no matter what band I join etc I am gonna use this post as a reminding of the stories and positive words.
I am hoping to do it next semester, it is gonna be my last year, and some details real quick, the band is totally student run so the BL is a student, I am gonna email or write in their group chat some questions. I already restarted my bass method book am amazed by how much better I got just going slow...
Also the only crappy part is the time, they tend to practice at 7pm and it ends at 10pm, I commute to my college by train and somedays cars and I would get home at 11 or 12am... so sadly that may ruin it but if they have a coinvent or earlier time, you know my butt is going to do it don't worry!
If not, no matter what after graduation I am going to make it my goal to find another similar group like this or at least even a band!
Have an amazing summer and day everyone! For real!
Welcome to the world of big-band music. Pretty much every big-band I've ever been in rehearsed at that kind of time, usually on Tuesday or Thursday.
Not the pro organizations of course, in those we only rehearsed when there was a specific show with purpose-arranged music; but all the rehearsal bands.
I had a experience that was similar. I was part of a once a Monday afternoon blues/southern and classic rock jam. One day an older friend came over to sit on drums. During a break he mentioned that he loved it when rock came on the scene because drummers were able to do more. Jim Kirwan mentioned that he played once a week in a 12 piece jazz band and invited anyone to come and check them out. I was the only one interested and I became #13, guitarist. Like you, I was nervous, afraid to be embarrassed but, I showed up without my instrument because I wanted to get a look at the music charts. Fortunately, they didn't have the guitar carts there. They told be to come back the next week WITH my guitar.
I am glad i did. I had some experience with extended chords (not much) and very little other like 2 5 1 so I mostly played chord changes in the rhythm section, terrified that they would have me attempt to play a solo...they didn't.
I eventually was in two bands a week that introduced me to the Great American Song Book along with the weekly jam.
I say GO for it, it will expand your horizon! I believe you can do it! Don't beat yourself up!
After droping out of a chemistry major at Cal Poly, SLO I took introduction to music theory in 1972... I went back to the same local college for four semesters in 2016 and finished just ahead of covid. I have since taken up Double Bass.
In case you are not using the train time to do your homework, you can use it for practice - record the rehearsals and remember what you played. Visualize yourself playing what you are hearing. Bonus for closing your eyes and not moving your hands, but leaving them relaxed. This is very effective not just for learning the parts themselves but connecting the various parts needed to execute playing and make the music. It's improving your methods for the future. And it beats staring (more) at your phone.
Enjoy your summer, and this journey.
