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Bassists who don't play in bands - what do you do?


Greggo
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I seem to spend too long organising people and trying to find quality players who I get on with. That is the hardest part of being in a band.

I've not done a gig for about half a year now and its starting to feel like its irritating me. I find that most people my age (32) have had a long blast of enthusiasm at bands, then had a few hurdles, then realised they are incredibly busy with life and get tired of dealing with the same old bands who are going nowhere. I'd rather spend 4-5 hours practicing, learning and developing my playing at home rather than lugging gear around to a band rehearsal for a band who will never gig or record. Yeah, I'm picky.

I then formed my own band with great musicians. We all worked the opposite times, and one lad had stress on with buying his first house. We had to call it a day. It had potential but I could not handle dealing with the other people we were auditioning (vocalists who let us down EVERYTIME). I was the guy doing everything and I have the busiest/most intense career, so I said we will put it on hold.

I've made contact with another band who have written 4-5 quite decent tracks, and they have a great drummer/sense of melody, and they are organising things, so I'm going to try that out :)

In the modern world, there are thousands of awful bands, thousands of people who just rehearse at home, and nowadays, bassists are everywhere. Back when I started bass was a good way into a band. It isn't now.

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My Band experience has been a disaster over the last couple of years since I started playing. I was in the first one for nine months and learned a set list. We had one jam in my garage until the neighbour banged the door and a hired studio once to find that the other guys were pretty rubbish and hadn't learned their own set list. They binned it. I joined another and we had one good session in a studio but it fell apart then. I joined two others and they fell apart without even meeting!

These days I'm not beating myself up wanting to be in a Band. I play to bands which are consistent .... you know the ones on the recordings:-) so I'm learning some songs, videoing them and then moving on ( just in case I want to be in a Band and it might help ) reading stuff, listening to stuff, having a weekly lesson and most importantly having some time off to ride my Harley and watch my son play rugby. Before it was all bass and no time for anything else. It's a lot less stressful than learning the same bunch of songs for a set list plus my playing has improved a lot since.

If you want a laugh check out my vids on the tube under ukflamesey

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I do several things in the privacy of my own bedroom:[list]
[*]play along to backing tracks, mainly ones from Scott Divine's web site so far; this is partly for learning scales/arpeggios/fretboard and partly for pleasure. There is much room for advancement here, and is my current focus. I can quite happily noodle about on the C Mixolydian scale to his C Mix. backing track on a loop for half an hour!
[*]enter transcriptions of bass lines into music notation software so that I can learn the line and play along to the original recording. The transcriptions are from bought books or off the internet; putting them into software means that I can print them out on several sheets of A4 so no page turning, and I can get the computer to play the line which helps when I can't get the rhythm/timing right.
[*]I write bass lines for traditional tunes and play along to them (computer plays the melody 'on the piano' using said notation software). On rare occasions Mrs oakforest5961 picks up her tenor recorder and she plays the melody.
[/list]

I don't have either the time or the talent to ever get above intermediate level. Playing bass is simply my hobby; I love it - I could retire tomorrow and not be bored. I've never been in a band. Don't think I ever wanted to be. I certainly don't have time, and would rather spend Friday and Saturday nights in with my partner anyway. This doesn't stop me getting my fix of bass though.

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[quote name='oakforest5961' timestamp='1389809799' post='2338174']
[list]
[*]enter transcriptions of bass lines into music notation software so that I can learn the line and play along to the original recording. The transcriptions are from bought books or off the internet; putting them into software means that I can print them out on several sheets of A4 so no page turning, and I can get the computer to play the line which helps when I can't get the rhythm/timing right.
[/list]
[/quote]

What software do you use? I've tried to write out my own notes above tab and it looks ridiculous. I'm looking for an app or something cheap I can use. I went looking to see if there was a stencil of notes/rests I could use, just like a school chemistry stencil, but couldn't find one. Maybe I ought to invent one and make a fortune :D

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[quote name='Mr Fretbuzz' timestamp='1389811941' post='2338209']
What software do you use? I've tried to write out my own notes above tab and it looks ridiculous. I'm looking for an app or something cheap I can use. I went looking to see if there was a stencil of notes/rests I could use, just like a school chemistry stencil, but couldn't find one. Maybe I ought to invent one and make a fortune :D
[/quote]
Musescore (www.musescore.org) is free and does the music scores and plays it back, but won't do tabs. I find it really good though.

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[quote name='Mr Fretbuzz' timestamp='1389811941' post='2338209']
What software do you use? I've tried to write out my own notes above tab and it looks ridiculous. I'm looking for an app or something cheap I can use. I went looking to see if there was a stencil of notes/rests I could use, just like a school chemistry stencil, but couldn't find one. Maybe I ought to invent one and make a fortune :D
[/quote]

I use NoteWorthy Composer (www.noteworthysoftware.com). I started using it many moons ago, and with so many files in its format, continue with it. It does the job, and it is not expensive. It doesn't do tab. You can download an evaluation copy.

If I was to start completely afresh today, it would certainly be a contender, but I think that there are other similarly priced music notation packages that are worth a look. To choose between them you would really need to be clear on what you want them to do. Strangely, perhaps, I would be more inclined to pay £50 for a package than go with a free one.

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I love playing gigs but I remember being more enthusiastic about it all in my teens (pushing 40 now). I quite like it when we're first on these days so I can be in bed before midnight! My cousin is on drums so being in the band and going to praccy etc is great fun for me. I don't play at all when not in a band as I'm not good enough as a player to be entertained by myself.

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Interesting topic this.

I've only started playing again 3 years ago after a 30+ year break due to the x-wife putting the pressure on to quit. Re-married about 12 years ago and the wife doesn't mind me playing the bass each night etc. so that's cool.

I'm currently in a "Part Time" band as we practice once every other month and probably do 2 gigs a year. So most of my time is spent learning songs I like and trying to improve my theory which was always lacking,

Out of Interest I'm doing the Rock school Grade 4 exam in March to see where I'm at, plus it's something to focus on.

I really do like playing along to music I like and also trying to write my own stuff and record it onto PC which is always great fun.

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[quote name='yepmop' timestamp='1389817051' post='2338323']

Out of Interest I'm doing the Rock school Grade 4 exam in March to see where I'm at, plus it's something to focus on.

[/quote]

WTF! What is this? Never knew your could graduate in the school of rock, well, not that way.

Tell me more please? :)

(Too lazy to Google it)

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