arthurhenry

[quote name='51m0n' post='748310' date='Feb 17 2010, 12:29 PM']Some awful truths (massive generalisations) you need to get your head around:- #1 Punters often cant make head nor tale of bass - they can tell if its wrong, sometimes.... #2 Punters main concern is having a good time, not checking out the various and clever references the bassist is making #3 Puinters couldnt tell good bass gear from bad, or good bass tone from bad, if the groove is there they are happy, although they generally wont know why, why on earth would you expect anything different? #4 Punters do not see bass as something to concentrate on in a mix, they aren't trained too (why would they be, and yes it requires some training) #5 Punters concentrate on melody, lyrics, guitarists, keys, horns, drummers, before bass - get over it! #6 Consequently most punters think a band is bad for any other reason than the bassist being utter plop, even if the truth is that the band is plop because the bassist is rubbish. #7 Punters think bass is easier to play than guitar, keys, drums, and far easier than singing. In some genres they are not far off the truth, however much we like to think that isnt the case, if only because the parts are simpler. #8 The vast majority of venues/sound engineers are massively compromising your bass sound FOH, so no one can hear anything other than a whumwhum,whum even when you are above the 12th fret on your G string. The kick drum will be like a sledgehammer between the eyes in comparison. Thems the breaks kiddo, tough! This is a massive generalisation, but still very true, there are some genres where this is less the case (dub, funk) but even then it still holds true for a large proportion of paying civilians out to have a good night. Enjoy that you played well, held the band together, were tight, enjoyed the music and made people happy, do not fret if no one mentions any thing about what you played precisely, since they wouldnt have picked it out anyway.[/quote] I agree with all the above. By the way I've been playing for 23 years - semi pro for 18 of them, I just wondered if others felt the same as me. I have got over most of this stuff, it just niggles sometimes.

[quote name='peted' post='748317' date='Feb 17 2010, 12:36 PM']I don't have a clue what you're on about [/quote] I don't see a stream of colours when I'm playing or listening. It's just that each note has an inherent colour and as mentioned above, character for me. It dosn't bother me at all - it's "just there."

Do you see notes as colours? I've spoken to other musicians who do and some who don't have a clue what I'm on about! For me: E is yellow F Grey F# Sandy G Green G# Greeny turquoise A Browny red A# Dark grey B Blue C Green C# Bluey turquoise D Red D# ?

[quote name='NJE' post='748284' date='Feb 17 2010, 12:11 PM']I came to the following conclusions a long time ago with regards to playing live with a band: 1. A suprising amount of people dont even know what a bass is or what its purpose is in a band "is it liek a big guitar" 2. Most people wont be able to hear or pull out what you are playing from a band mix 3. Even if they can hear you most people dont really care what you are playing 4. Most of the time the audience watch the singer and guitarist because they can idetify with it easier than bass. 5. Nobody really cares what bass or amp you have, not even musicians a lot of the time. 6. Even if someone knows about bass their knowledge only usually extends to John Entwistle, Mark King and Flea "Jaco who?" 7. In most cases when you start slapping the sound engineer turns the PA off or down and then asks you play "properly" I say "most of the time" a lot because there are odd occasions when someone will comment on your playing/gear. This is in my experience is either a really young person starting out asking about your gear and commenting on how good you were. In these cases its always nice to chat and be humble and honest because basically I am not very good. The other occasion is usually cocky musicians saying your tone was rubbish and "why dont you get a proper bass, I have a Fender". In short I agree with the other chaps, be tight try and impress your band and hold your own musically with your them. Get the best sound you can with the best gear you can and try and put on a good show and play the songs well. You may not be noticed individually but the music wouldn't be as good without your low end.[/quote] Fantastic. I totally agree with your observations except no.7 As a non slapper, I've had people come up and tell me I should do it and even one guy who said it was the "proper" way to play bass! I've observed that a slap fest is one of the few things that audiences do notice about bass.

[quote name='farmer61' post='748271' date='Feb 17 2010, 12:03 PM']Join a 3 piece band, you'll get noticed all right - mistakes and all![/quote] All the instances I mentioned were with 3 piece bands! Audiences usually don't notice the mistakes - bandmates do!

[quote name='Jerry_B' post='748222' date='Feb 17 2010, 11:31 AM']To be honest, even with me being a bass player I wouldn't have recognised any of the things you played - well, perhaps some of the Iron Maiden stuff, depending on the songs. People's taste is many and varied, which colours what they know or can reference to. And, like others have pointed out, the audience may have not have been able to hear it.[/quote] That's true, I guess when you're passionate about a particular piece of music you like to think someone else out there ( even in a pub crowd) will be the same and come and say so. But usually not!

[quote name='SteveK' post='748214' date='Feb 17 2010, 11:24 AM']You keep saying "no one noticed"! How do you know? Providing you played these licks/riffs well and you were heard in the mix, then, I'm sure many will have noticed...what kind of reaction were you expecting?[/quote] It would have been nice for someone to come up and say they'd noticed, but perhaps this is an unrealistic expectation.

At a heavy rock gig I played a load of Rush and Iron maiden licks at soundcheck - no one noticed. At a classic rock covers gig I slipped the solo from Jethro Tull's Bouree into my solo - no one noticed. At a covers gig someone kept shouting out for some Bee Gees. Later in the set I slipped in the riff from Stayin' alive - he didn't notice. On the 20th anniversary of Jaco's death, I sneaked lots of Jaco licks into the set - no one noticed. Shortly after George Harrison's death, I slipped the melody from Here comes the sun into a song - no one noticed. Do things like this happen to you, and frustrate you? Am I a musical snob for expecting audiences to notice this stuff? Is it due to peoples lack of understanding about Bass? Is the sad truth that however passionate you are about music, most of the people you ever play to will be casual music fans?