kwmlondon

I have been listening to that album since I was born. It was one of the records my mum and dad had and it's been burned into my brain. I'm really, really glad you like it.

There is one. Willy Weeks playing with Donny Hathaway - The Voices Inside. The 1972 Recording. Every bass solo since has been a pale imitation IMO, like bad photocopies.

this is very constructive. I feel ungrateful dissing my bandmates musicanship, it seems disloyal and I could not do it to their faces and I am very grateful to them for their time and generosity and freindship. I'm not the best bassist around but I am trying to become a better musician and bass player where they are trying to play songs better and I suspect we're not after the same thing. The confidence thing is a weird one because it's not stopping me from doing anything, it's just tied up with the enjoyment. I think I'm feeling less confident BECAUSE I'm not enjoying myslef.

I don't like playing solos in public. I can't think of anyting I could ever play that anyone in an audience would ever want to listen to, but then I can only name a handful of bass solos I've enjoyed myself and those are such a high bar I think it'd be daft to try and reach it. Now... a tasty fill or a bass break with a bit of almost-indulgent close-to-over-playing for a couple of bars, that I am down with! Hit the audience with it so quickly that by the time they've realised what's happening, it's over... No, what it it's mostly about is that the more I practise something the more I'm familar with it and it gets to the point where I can just about play the notes but they're not fretted todally clean or evenly OR I play it worse than I did yesterday. That's heart-breaking, but mostly down to being tired or distracted but still. Recently it's just driven me a bit mad.

Also, I have a thing about really transparent gear. I play a Dingwall and there is NOWHERE to hide with that and it's forcing me to be really super-accurate which I mostly enjoy. It's just literally in the last couple of weeks, maybe when I'm tired and not at my best, that I try to play and I have looked at the bass and the window and thought "so this is why guitarists throw their expensive guitars at their amps." I'm in two bands. They're lovely people. They are very complementary about my playing and tone and often ask me to turn up, but they don't have any idea what I'm doing! Sometimes they listen, sometimes they get lost in their own worlds. Being fair, the drummers in each band are improving, but it's a rare treat to "click" with a drummer these days.

It is and there are points when I find myself playing the dots on the page and I almost feel giddy that I'm doing it. It's like witchcraft - I don't know the song but I'm playing it! Then, at other times I feel like I'm trying to read a foreign language and they blur into a mess in front of my eyes, but I do keep plugging at it - I can feel my brain gears crunching and try to learn something new. Lessons? I've flirted with them but the teacher I had a few years ago isn't available any longer and we got on really well - constructive, pushed me enough to make me work but encouraged in the right way to make me feel I was getting somewhere. It's so nice to hear that you have a nice tone isn't it? I'd do it again if I found the right tutor, but I'm looking more at performance classes in an adult college at the moment. I'm doing a course at City Lit at the moment and that's been getting better and better. This week we worked on improvising with a melodic minor scale over I-IV cords!!! Scary stuff but very excting!

I tend to play the same things each rehearsal - trying to get the band to work. I respect them as people and friends and definitely as song-writers, but as musicians? I'm afraid not. They've been good and let me write my own lines to their songs but I don't really get any feedback. The last rehearsal with one was really frustrating as the drummer completely loses time at points and the guitarists noodles between songs so I can't take my earplugs out. I asked him to stop but he just started again not even aware he was doing it. I now go over and turn the bass down myself on the guitarists amp! No, don't hold back. I'm pleased to get the feedback. If I'm competely honest I need to get out of the situations I'm in and take up a new challenge, it's just really hard when you like the people you play with and don't want to let them down.

Well, for the most part it's like meditation for me. For a long time it's really been calming and relaxing to do my exercises but recently I've just gotten angry and that's not right. I guess I need new exercises.

Totally, it's a lot more fun playing I Want You Back than drilling arpeggios but I found the arpeggios help me play the songs. Playing the tune is the reward for doing my scales!

No. Well. Yes. I the nerve damage means can't feel the buttons on a remote control so it's a pain choosing what to watch on the telly and it's hard playing with a pick as my thumb is numb but I get by. It's got me playing with alternate finger picking and I've really enjoyed getting into that - I'm quite good at the old ghost notes and I can play Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick at about 90% speed and I can play Hysteria at full pelt! Honestly, I never thought I'd be able to do something like that but I can... roughly.

fortunately I'm not very egotistical when I play or it may hurt my feelings.

Okay. Here's what happened. I'd not played in 15 years or more and in that time I'd cut my right thumb very badly. I met up with some old college buddies for a jam and I could not play the way I used to, I tried playing "properly" using alternate picking and realised how much my poor technique was holding me back. I'd avoid certain things because I could not every hope to play them, but then thought "dammit, why not learn to play properly" and I've been doing it and for the most part it's been satisfying and I can play things I'd only ever dreamed were within my ability, but .... but recently I've just felt really frustrated. I put hours and hours in every day through the pandemic and it was really good to drill scales and arpeggios. It's just recently I feel like I've hit a wall and it is bruising.

I have been working on Sir Duke for 5 years. I am a bit better than I was a year ago but my old brain isn't exactly picking stuff up easily! I am working on my music reading though and that's really, really frustrating. I do a bit every day but it's like knocking nailes into the wall with a banana...

Yeah, that's true - I am much better than I was a couple of years ago but I don't FEEL like I'm enjoying it. My band members? When I say I am getting frustrated with my playing they just say how good I am, which is kind and nice but honestly I don't think they really know what I'm doing anyway. They don't listen very well. A couple of times I've actually stopped and nobody's noticed!

But when I've played with musicians recently i've found myself turning the volume down so I don't have to listen to myself.