mlauritsen

The best musicians play jazz. When people use jazz as an excuse for not knowing how to count, that's ridiculous. They're just doubling down on their own ignorance. I mean listen to Miles Davis and tell me he doesn't know exactly when and where he's playing every single note. Some tosser cutting the verse short has no business putting himself on the same continent as that.

Sounds to me like the guitar was cutting things short, which is hard to deal with, because if they do _that_, there's a good chance they also don't know what's coming next - you could have been thrown into the bridge when it should have been a chorus. Prolonging things is easier, because you just have to keep playing the same bit, with the added spice of predicting when the thing is going to end. 🙂 And like you said, if the extra bits fit into the structure (4/8/12 bars), it can be sold as "our version" of the song. One or two bars more or less is disruptive. In the end, your gut will tell you what to do. Our drummer was in a foul mood for practice this week, and I kind of got the sharp end of that. But he's usually a great guy, and a great musician, so feck it. When he's unhappy with my playing, he usually has a point. 😉

I'm going to out myself as a newbie and ask what the mariah carey reference means? 🙂

I know how he feels. 🙂 It's amazing how different it is to play with other people, as opposed to a recording or alone. Actually recovering from someone messing up / losing your/their place or generally getting out of sync is one of the great pleasures of playing together. The only failure is if it gets so bad you have to stop playing.

Seems like the kind of thing you wouldn't leave your bedroom without. We had a gruelling session last week, butchering "Smoke On The Water" for an hour... I'm not sure how you can play guitar for a decade and not know what the main riff should sound like. How do you deal with that as a band? I make mistakes myself in every session, so I try not to be an donkey when other people screw up. Still, you have to say something, there is no way we are playing SOTW that wrong in public. Our drummer was great, he pounded the riff on the toms to make it clear what was wrong. Incidentally, there was a funny conversation that day: - Drummer: "Isn't there meant to be a solo in there somewhere?" - Guitar guy: "Yes." - Drummer: "Can you play it?" - Guitar guy: "No." So if you can't play the riff, nor the solo, what exactly are we doing here? :-) (I'm letting off steam here, it's a great bunch of guys and we still had fun playing SOTW many times (main riff consistently all over the place and all). Just glad no original members were present...). A bad hour playing music is better than a good hour at work. I myself was called out for simply playing G through the verse (guitar guy really wanted his half-bar of F) - fair enough. 🙂 Ps. In general, I don't believe there is such a thing as "playing songs wrong". However, when you cover songs known and loved by billions of people, you _will_ get in trouble if you screw up the main riff. Pps. How much trouble am I in for drifting way off topic? Would it help if I mention our singer would be better classified as a "vocaliser"?

Getting the boot from one band has greatly increased my appreciation of the other band and the guys I play with there. Practice has been an absolute triumph motivationwise the last couple of weeks. 😉

I agree that the mix is a strange one - that was one reason I assumed we were a "for-fun" band, and hence, if the others were having fun playing with me (which was the only feedback I got), no reason to doubt my spot. Main lesson learned was definitely "don't assume you're in". Unless there's a contract in blood, assume it's up in the air, and invest accordingly. And always be ready for the boot, however subtle / kind it might be. 🙂

Totally agree about "boring" parts - that's great! Let's make it our own and do something with it. Our drummer recently called Paranoid "boring", but it's the song we consistently have the most fun playing. Turns out, if you can't play boring songs perfectly as a band, forget about the complicated stuff!

I agree with everything you say, this was a valuable experience, and looking at the list of songs, there are a couple which were are welcome in my book. 🙂 To your list of skills I would add developing a sense of whether you want to pass the audition, and learning to sense how secure your position in the group is. I was much too quick to assume that I was in for life. It would have been much less shocking to get kicked if I hadn't just assumed that these people I didn't know much about had nothing going on they weren't telling me about. And my ear needs to improve, that's job #1 now.

Now there's a guy _I_ would throw out because of his hair. 🙂 Is he fretting above the capo?

I agree, useful thing to be able to figure out without disturbing them while they're trying to step on the right pedal... 🙂

One time, they didn't tell me the song, they just started playing. Never mind transposing, just play something and look confident! 🙂

Totally agree about learning progressions and patterns instead of fret positions or notes. I was trying to do this but the capo threw me - it only changes the open strings, so e.g. when the guy plays an E, it's really an F# (or whatever), but when he plays a G, it's a G. Sounds to me like the chord progression is being mangled? Knowing in advance would be good, but I think that requires a level of predictability and organization that many people don't want?

Thanks 🙂 I need to get better, and I'll use this experience as motivation - the better I get, the less I'll get kicked out.

What would you say? I think I would respectfully decline, since I would not trust them (nobody mentioned a "trial period" the first time around). I'd rather pick the songs and skills I work on myself, rather than learn stuff I don't care about and then not need it. I play with group (same drummer) where I'm more involved, and the material is more motivating (sabbath, hendrix, deep purple...), I think I would be better off nailing that material than spreading out. Thank for everybody's feedback and kind words! 🙂

In the meantime I had a chance to talk alone with the drummer (who got me the "gig"), and he was cool about it - really apologetic (not that I needed him to be). Seems the other bass guy was really good and had stage experience, and so there was no competition from me who was struggling to figure it all out... I have no problem being replaced by a better guy, in the future, I'll prioritize my own initiatives where I can at least be a part of the decision. My takeaway: Learn to run with any song people throw at you with a minimum of information. Learn to listen better and play along on the fly. It was quite a challenge, guitar guy would tell me the chords, and he had tuned down a step, and he had a capo on two. 🙂 Is it reasonable for people to expect you to know what that means? As a bassist, do I need to know that much about guitars?

Green Day - Basket Case (I like this one, fun to play) Radiohead - Creep (Cool sing, and easy to play) Seether - save today, driven under, wasteland Rise Against - Hero of War Thrice - Stare at the sun Chris Isaak - Wicked Game 3 doors down - landing in london cranberries - zombie (easy, so no problem) None of these are very hard, it was more the quantity. Hence, I figured "give me a couple of weeks and i'll be fine", but I got the boot before I really made it. Anyway, time helps, chalked down as an experience and moving on. 🙂

That's a great point, and I think I will look for something where I can influence the playlist from the start. Several times they just started playing, assuming everyone would know which song it was. Not me. I just ended up trying to do whatever guitar-guy's bottom finger was doing. 🙂 My other gig is pretty cool, I've been involved since the start and I have a direct say on the material. It is sooo much more fun to practice and play stuff you know and like. 😉

Good point, I will ask the drummer. They explicitly said it was nothing in my playing, but I mean, they're not going to throw me out because they don't like my hair... I forgot to mention I'm a good generation older than the other players, that could be a factor - and explains why I know none of their music 🙂

Hi, I was recently invited to play with some guys I didn't know - I play with the drummer in another context, and he suggested I try out. The band is reasonably competent, without live or recording experience (or maybe they do and I just couldn't tell) I played with them a couple of hours a couple of times, killed myself learning their 10+ cover songs in non-standard keys and then, after a break for autumn holidays, I got a message on our "band chat" that another bassist had applied and they had decided to go with him. I didn't realize they were still looking, the feedback after both sessions was pretty good, and since the band was "for fun", I figured I had the gig. Sucks. I don't want to waste any time complaining and being bitter, just wondering how other people deal with setbacks like this. I was really enjoying playing with real people again, excited to get to know new musicians and new material (of the 10+ songs, I could have named Green Day, otherwise I had never heard of neither songs nor bands covered). Really bummed out to have thrown myself into practising a lot more than usual, and apart from now knowing 10 songs I will never play again, it was pretty much wasted effort. On the plus side, this got my playing and practice back into gear after a period of "being distracted". Regards Morten

Another option would be a peavey CS800, this seems to be a better match, powerwise... ?

I found a crown XLS 602 on a local auction site... However, it's rated at 600W into 4 ohms. (The 3620 says max 400W into 4 ohms...) Is there any way to safely connect this to a 3620? It would be easy enough to keep the volume down, but would the amp blow the speakers simply because the ratings don't match? My intuition tells me not to do this, but since I'm not an expert, I thought I would ask anyway.

Thanks, that's very helpful. I'll see what I can find power-ampwise. Can I just Y-cable the pre-amp output to the two power inputs then? I've seen Y cables for sale, but that does not mean it works well... Are there active splitters that work well for this?

I was lucky enough (over a couple of years) to find two Peavey 3620s for practically nothing. (65kgs, 2x18 and 2x10) My question is: How powerful an Amp do I need, and how do I not blow anything up? The cabs have two "full range" inputs, which I figure I could use to chain the two cabs in parallel (Amp -> cab 1 -> cab 2). Since each cab is 400w (max) @ 4 Ohms, I would guess I need an amp providing at least 800w into 2 ohms? Not sure how the math works there... That's if I connect them in parallel. Another option would be to find an amp with two channels and plug one cab into each. Any suggestions for amps that would go with this? I would go with either Peavey power amps or crown, simply because I spent some time looking into their lineups and feel comfortable with them, but any recommendations are very welcome. I was planning to get a pre-amp pedal (Sansamp / Darkglass DI?) and run it straight into a power amp - would that work? Obviously, I'm responsible for my own mistakes, any advice here is very much appreciated!

Beautiful - thank you so much! I was hoping for somebody to post exactly what you did (proper music notation), that's the simplest way to really nail it in writing. This riff is even cooler now that I understand how it works. (Absolute genious, with a popped sixteenth "spilling over" like that!) If you need a lawn mowed or something, let me know (little chance of that in London I guess). ;-)