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What makes a bassist a "hack"?

#23
friendlybass said:
I dunno, a guy who talks a great game and can play all the licks solo mode but when the time comes they can't actually play.
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I saw this guy once at an open jam. Listening to him warm up, I thought I might be witnessing the coming of a new bass genius. Once the real playing began, he needed directions to every downbeat. IMO, he wasn't even a hack.

A hack is someone who is competent but not ridiculously talented—someone who can do his job, just not headline the show.
 
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#24
Rockin Mike said:
No matter who you are, there's somebody better. And somebody worse.

You should be the judge of your own playing. Set your own goals and run your own race to your own satisfaction.

Hack is a word people use to put down others and make themselves feel superior. If they want to get competitive they should go play sports. Music is art.
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Agree. Although, sometimes it helps to embrace and reclaim a derogatory word, as African Americans have done. To me hack means untrained and unsophisticated...but it also means positive things like self-taught, by-ear, unpretentious. And anyway, music isn't lines on paper and its essence cannot be captured in books. It is played. The other stuff is secondary.
 
#25
when I think of the word hack-
I think of a guy who cannot land his notes well and /or hit the wrong notes without being able to make a save.
good players can fudge notes but make them work.
 
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#26
scottfeldstein said:
Agree. Although, sometimes it helps to embrace and reclaim a derogatory word, as African Americans have done. To me hack means untrained and unsophisticated...but it also means positive things like self-taught, by-ear, unpretentious. And anyway, music isn't lines on paper and its essence cannot be captured in books. It is played. The other stuff is secondary.
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Last time I got called a hack was by somebody that played only originals (I play covers in dive bars). I told him I play originals too... they are just somebody else's originals. The world is big enough for both.
 
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#28
I'm a hack. For sure.

My musical training is a few years of piano when I was kid, a few years of classical (think Segovia) guitar when I was a teenager, and ten years of off and on bedroom playing with crappy electric bass guitar equipment; I took a few music classes too that I barely attended or paid much attention to.

I can read music at the 2nd grade level, at best.
I have no idea what chords or scales I'm playing when I improvise something that works.
But I know what sounds good to me (I'm partially comparing the bassists I love listening to to the 'original' stuff I come up with coupled with the 'copy cat' stuff I practice to build up my chops to sound as good as those guys/gals).

Over the last 5 years I've acquired an outstanding bass and amp, and some decent recording equipment.
And I have practiced a bit each week to slowly improve my chops (mechanical skill as a bassist, whatever that means).

I've performed on stage and totally improvised weird and rhythmic stuff to the delight of onlookers (nobody said I sucked, even when I pushed them to tell me the truth). Sure it wasn't Ynqwie Malmsteen or Segovia quality string lickin', but it was interesting, unpredictable, and just plain sounded cool.

I totally hacked it up, and it was good.

So, to me, a hack is someone that doesn't know what they are doing, but tries to do it anyway.
Sometimes they sound good, sometimes they sound like crap.

I've heard very well accomplished musicians that know their theory, can sight read, can play around a pocket like any pro out there, and still sound like absolute crap because all they know is theory, and sight reading, and playing to the pocket.

It reminds me of sparring with 'black belts' back in martial arts classes years ago. I was a lowly yellow belt, and managed to score point after point on (some) black belts because; although they had the skill and knowledge to wipe the floor with me, they lacked the creativity to overcome my improvisation, and yes, straight up hackneyed style. I remember my instructor telling me I did it all wrong, but was still impressed with my ability to overcome skill with creativity.

So I'm with Scott here, I'm a hack, and I'm ok with it.

For comparison, my brother is a professional saxophone and other woodwinds player. He has a degree, plays with other professionals in studio and on stage, teaches, and makes 100% of his rather decent income as a musician. He knows what he is doing, and has worked very hard to get where he is.

He is most certainly NOT a hack.
 
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#30
Kamrin said:
Title pretty much says it all.

What exactly is a "hack"?
What must you do or not do (or not know) to become a "hack"?

I ask this because I do not wan't to become one. :D
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I've always looked as "hack" as a self identifying/ self deprecating term... it's not a label that I would tend to apply to others... there are all kinds of ones out there that already fit ("meh", "bad", "unskilled", etc....)
 
#31
Hack, like any pejorative term, is pretty situation dependent. Someone who is totally up to one gig might not be for another.
Wannabes and hacks are intertwined, the only thing I've found that thins the herd is a long term verifiable resume, a built reputation
A person may be inexperienced but have the goods, they just need to keep moving forward. They are not hacks.
Hacks often toss about terms like professional or expert to impress, while true ones seldom do. Put both on their feet where they have to deliver, and the truth becomes obvious really quickly.
 
#35
The term "hack" comes from the golf world. It refers to someone who hacks up the golf course rather than solidly hitting his ball toward the green when he makes contact. It's somewhat derogatory, but it can be applied to about 90 percent of non-professional golfers. A hack can have a lot of fun playing, and the golf game needs hacks to keep courses in operation.

So to carry the term over to the bass playing realm, I would say that a "hack" is a hobbyist who doesn't play at or really near a true professional level. Playing at a professional level would include things such as sight reading sheet music and charts, improvisational ability, sense of rhythm, technical proficiency, playing by ear, and locking in with a band. If someone is solid on three or more of those areas, I wouldn't call him a hack.

That said, just as the golf world needs hacks, so does the music world. Hacks can have every bit as much fun playing music as professionals. Every professional was a hack once, and that was probably the time when they learned to love music.
 
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#36
The word hack comes from so many differernt things it is difficult to trace the etemology of the word. But, doing a bit of googling brings up this as one of the definitions:
Hack writer, a writer who is paid to write low-quality, quickly put-together articles or books. The term began in the 18th century.
The reference to Hackney is specifically a Londen taxi driver.
I't does not mean someone who can't play. It really means someone who will play anything for a paycheck. It is just a pejorative term for a hired gun.

But, If you don't know what one is, then you probably aren't one.
 
#38
My definition of a (musical) hack is: Somebody who is half assed about everything, has no desire to improve at all, doesn't care how songs sound...ie:—he/she learns a song wrong, and even when the correct way is pointed pout, they won't even attempt to correct their mistakes.

I engineered a session once with singer/songwriter who had some really catchy songs that he wanted to demo. After the first take we're listening to the tracks back and he'd made a few mistakes as well as speeding up and slowing down all over the place, and it's REALLY obvious (he was playing over the already tracked bass, drums and keys). So I asked him if he wanted to try it again, and his response was "why?" So I said, "well, maybe we can clean up some of the timing issues and correct some of the mistakes". He was reluctant, but eventually gave it another shot... and proceeded to do EXACTLY the same thing again. So half way through the playback, I stopped the tape and said, "OK, one more time?" And he says, "nope, that one's fine, I'm not doing it again". I even suggested that he could take a mix of the bed tracks home with him and work on it in his own time and then come back and nail it, but nope, that was it. I consider this kind of person to be a hack, as well as lazy—I don't know, maybe the two go hand in hand.

I think that as long as you're attempting to improve yourself you will make progress, and nobody can call you a hack. Nobody's perfect, and everybody makes mistakes—even seasoned pros—so just do your best.
 
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