The things you hate they say about your playing

[Punisher Bass]

I was asked once "What kind of bass is that?", I say "It's a Music Man Sterling", drummer says "Music Man? Never heard of it.", guitarist says "I have, Eddie Van Halen used a Music Man." drummer says "Do we want Eddie Van Halen on Bass?"

Sheesh.

You sure he didn't mean Wolfgang Van Halen?

Of all the ways to insult a bass player...

 

[von buck]

"I write the songs, you just follow"
love that one

If I'm playing somebodies origional song I'll play what ever they want me to play.

Andy

 

[andymcclure]

"Do you know so and so? He plays a 5-string."

+1. No pun intended.

 

[lowend219]

band "leader": "if you start adding fills and changes and stuff its not hip hop anymore"

me (to myself): "tell that to The Roots"

wish i would have actually said that...sigh

 

[PBass101]

You know, for everytime I read that somebody has been told that "real bass players play with their fingers, not picks", a logical response to follow would be that "I do play with my fingers, just look at my fretting hand..."

 

[andymcclure]

I was asked once "What kind of bass is that?", I say "It's a Music Man Sterling", drummer says "Music Man? Never heard of it.", guitarist says "I have, Eddie Van Halen used a Music Man." drummer says "Do we want Eddie Van Halen on Bass?"

Sheesh.

We might have a winner... reading that actually made my head hurt.

 

[debassr]

We might have a winner... reading that actually made my head hurt.

This is one title I wish I wasn't in the running to win. The band I was trying out for had warned me about the grumpy drummer in advance so I paid it no mind. I made a point of playing in the pocket and after we were done he was commenting on how good my playing and tone was and how well it fit in the mix. He also said that he "had doubts" when he saw the bass but felt better about it after hearing it. They offered me the gig but I turned it down since I had already received an offer from a band I liked more. Kinda glad it worked out that way.

Funny thing is, I'm also a drummer and at no point did I ever consider ripping on his really crappy sounding, poorly tuned, welfare style drum kit.

PS, this was the Sterling in question...

Not very inspiring, huh?

 

[andymcclure]

That doesn't look like Eddie's...

 

[LanEvo]

Punk needs the kind of aggressive tone that only playing with a pick can deliver.

Tell that to Mike Watt.

 

[MatticusMania]

Tell that to Mike Watt.

+1, Ive seen Mike play many a times, always very awesome & aggressively with his fingers. Check out Hellride!

 

[ghiadub]

I have been told my bass line was boring and I should mix it up a bit.

This from a band that gave me charts of exactly the bassline that were to be played and asked me not to change anything because it would not fit in with the other written parts.

***!!! That is not my bassline!!


Why not just say; "please write a better bass part, this was just a placeholder, thanks for playing it as you were asked".

 

[Joel S.]

"Hey would you play 5 minutes to shut that howling dog up?" (One of my neighbors has a dog who howls all day long and only stops when I start playing!)

Haha! Good dog.

 

[Joel S.]

"Your bass is too loud"
Author: female singer.
I was very insulted.

I got something like that once. "I can't hear the guitars clearly, can you turn down?"

Then I missed a night of practice, and her tune changed.

"Wow! Without you the band sounded terrible! Turn up!"

 

[Mr_Sore_Fingerz]

The second somebody tells me how to play my instrument who ISN'T a reputable bass player, i pack up and leave....mainly because I've yet to hear ANY decent advice come from people not in that category.

Lead Guitard: Woah woah woah, what was that?
Me: That was a root, a 5th, and a octave
Rhythm Guitard: Uhhh, dude you might wanna just follow what I play
Me: You mean 3 power chords that are a whole step apart from each other? No thanks, I think I'm done here.


Rhythm Guitard: Dude, you really need to get a 5-string, I think it will open up your playing a lot
Me: You mean so that I don't have to tune down to drop-C constantly? Buy me one then.

Singer: Hey man, why don't you try playing slap more like Flea from the RHCP?
Me: Like this? *plays Get Up and Jump*
Singer: Uhh not quite, try learning one of their songs or something
Me: ...I think I'm done here lol

 

[uglybassplayer]

I was asked once "What kind of bass is that?", I say "It's a Music Man Sterling", drummer says "Music Man? Never heard of it.", guitarist says "I have, Eddie Van Halen used a Music Man." drummer says "Do we want Eddie Van Halen on Bass?"

Sheesh.

Do we have to teach you everything here on TB?

Drummer says: "What kind of bass is that?"
You say: "It's a Music Man Sterling"
Drummer says: "Music Man? Never heard of it."
You say (sarcasticly): "Evidently you're not a bass player, are you?"

 

[cameltoe]

them "you need to mix it up abit more"
me "ok, what sort of thing you after"
them "i dunno, play a bit more like Flea"

we're in a folk band.

 

[rumblinbass]

Tell that to Mike Watt.

ok, so I made an over-generalized statement. I did play with a punk band and with out a pick. After listening to the cd we recorded I was not happy with the general tone of my bass in that genre...of course that can have a lot to do with how it was mixed.

I guess what I was trying to say is that generally, when I think about what a bass sounds like in a punk band it is a fender (p or jazz) played with a pick. Matt Freeman's tone to me is perfect. And, yes I realize that he does not play a pick on every song but not every Rancid song is really punk (...a lot of them are ska, ragae, or dub influenced).

 

[Calebmundy]

Nashville has it's own problems (I like that fancy bass playing is NOT a compliment), but I've never had anyone at any gig ever ask me to play like Flea.

 

[santacruzom]

This should be a sticky. Learning to accept a compliment gracefully should be required material for all musicians. I had to learn it slowly too. When someone says "you sounded great" and we respond with "oh, I was awful" we're either fishing for ANOTHER compliment (no really, you were great!) or insulting the other person (you don't know enough about music to know I played badly). Both are rude.

The polite response, as you said, is "Thank you".

I couldn't possibly agree more, and I'd even go so far as to say that it's a ridiculously vain sentiment. You're basically saying, "I don't care how much you liked our band's performance or if you think my playing was adequate and not a distraction... I think I sucked because I made some minute mistake that most people won't even notice because what I wanted to do wasn't entirely necessary in the first place."

My drummer does this, all the time. When our band competed at a battle of the bands in Chicago and wound up finishing 2nd place, our drummer put on what I consider to be his best performance I've heard from him. He was very solid and brought great energy and feel. But he screwed up when trying to execute one of his bullcrap sextuplets or whatever... and after the set tells me, "If we lose I'm taking full responsibility."

 

[jmaestro]

them "you need to mix it up abit more"
me "ok, what sort of thing you after"
them "i dunno, play a bit more like Flea"

we're in a folk band.

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!