Showboating.

[neepheid]

Can't slap, won't slap. Doesn't seem to have affected my membership of bands.

[Grimalkin]

The Fox and the Grapes... It's not just a pub...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes

 

It's what we're famous for.

 

 

[chris_b]

Everyone on Youtube is putting out content for Youtube! Of course these guys can play simple parts when the situation requires it. 

 

I went to a Victor Wooten bass clinic and he said he'd love to play straight soul or blues bass lines but no one asks him.

 

Then Keb Mo asked. . . this what VW played.

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by chris_b

[EBS_freak]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

Can't slap, won't slap. Doesn't seem to have affected my membership of bands.

What, you didn't even get the call for the L42 dep thats been going around for years? I thought everybody had done that gig.... like the Drifters.

[neepheid]

Just now, EBS_freak said:

What, you didn't even get the call for the L42 dep thats been going around for years? I thought everybody had done that gig.... like the Drifters.

 

The Mariana Trench of my talents continues to reveal new depths.

[kodiakblair]

5 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

Oddly, its getting to the point where I feel marginally embarrassed to say that I'm 'just' a rock/indie/punky/post-hardcore player.

Naw, that's a badge of honour 🙂

 

 

[Barking Spiders]

2 hours ago, mikel said:

Quite a few people on here have claimed to want to do fret w*nk*ry, but only for their own amusement and never in public. I don't see the point of learning or practicing something I would claim to never use. 

 

Because it's about pushing yourself to the next level and see how challenging certain techniques are to do proficiently. 

[Count Bassy]

15 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

 

Because it's about pushing yourself to the next level and see how challenging certain techniques are to do proficiently. 

Also, playing anything on your chosen instrument, and sometimes even a completely differnt instrument, and sometimes just listening, will all feed back into your playing & knowledge in some way. Everyday a school day.

[Leonard Smalls]

Perhaps all displays of skill should be outlawed?

So if we're talking footy, if a player should be so show-offy as to score with a bicycle kick he/she should be instantly sent off and flogged on the by-line?

Or if an artist has the temerity to produce a picture that rivals the Mona Lisa, they should be tarred and feathered, then forced to do the pic again in a way that in no way exceeds the abilities of yer average geezer dahn the boozer?

Or if a guitar player manages to wring a solo out of their instrument that's so achingly beautiful that even the tour manager bursts into tears, then they should be made to wear boxing gloves for any future gigs?

 

Or is it only bass players who should be neither seen nor heard, apart from eighth notes on the root and the occasional flourish of a third or (eek!) a fifth?

 

 

[EBS_freak]

All relative isn't it. Back in the day, Hendrix was seen as showboating... yet, his playing can be duplicated by many now. Same for people like Van Halen.

 

Showboating is built out of innovation. Even if the innovator doesn't know what to do with it... somebody will take and develop it. And to a certain extent, music is art... you dont have to like everything.

[fretmeister]

21 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

Charles Berthoud, yes.  That's the guy.

 

I mean, there's no doubting the guy can play, but for me it just seems all a bit unnecessary.

 

 

Critics said that about Mozart too.

 

[BigRedX]

Personally if I was going to take time to work up some serious musical skills I'd do it on the guitar, piano or my singing.

 

I wouldn't bother with techniques on the bass that are at best used for 8 bars once in every ten songs.

[fretmeister]

If the "necessity" of musical skill was limited to only what we individually like to play then everything beyond Grade 3 or 4 on any instrument would be unnecessary.

 

And that is clearly dilettantism, and frankly, bollocks. 

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, fretmeister said:

If the "necessity" of musical skill was limited to only what we individually like to play then everything beyond Grade 3 or 4 on any instrument would be unnecessary.

 

And that is clearly dilettantism, and frankly, bollocks. 

 

Lots of things in this world aren't necessary, that doesn't invalidate them.

 

Getting back to a point raised by the OP - no, I'm not jealous of virtuosos.  I'm too lazy to put in the amount of work required to acquire these skills and I'm comfortable with the concept of reaping what one sows.  They've clearly put the hours in, I'm pleased for them to be pushing the boundaries that lazy bass luddites like me can't even fathom how to approach.  If my reaction to such playing is cold, that's because frankly I'm a bit lost.

 

I'm good at other stuff.  I'm an expert in a different field.  I'm OK at playing bass, which is a boatload better than the vast majority of the world, and as long as it's enough to keep me from getting sacked from bands for incompetence, job's a good 'un.

[MacDaddy]

20 hours ago, mikel said:

Quite a few people on here have claimed to want to do fret w*nk*ry, but only for their own amusement and never in public. I don't see the point of learning or practicing something I would claim to never use. 

 

Because it's fun?

[EBS_freak]

1 minute ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Because it's fun?

Indeed.

 

It's like juggling. What's the purpose of it... apart from fun?

 

Fun to watch, fun to showboat with. Fun things dont have to have a reason.

[MacDaddy]

18 hours ago, chris_b said:

Everyone on Youtube is putting out content for Youtube! Of course these guys can play simple parts when the situation requires it. 

 

I went to a Victor Wooten bass clinic and he said he'd love to play straight soul or blues bass lines but no one asks him.

 

Then Keb Mo asked. . . this what VW played.

 

 

 

 

Billy Sheehan said that 90% of what he does, is just being a bass player in the band.

But if fans go to see a band with Billy Sheehan they're probably going to expect a bass solo.

[Grimalkin]

Different techniques are tools for communicating music, there is a time and a place for it but it shouldn't overrule. 

 

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

[Woodinblack]

22 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

Charles Berthoud, yes.  That's the guy.

 

I mean, there's no doubting the guy can play, but for me it just seems all a bit unnecessary.

 

Its very necessary, that is what provides him with an income. Isn't that the point of being a professional musician? 

He also does lessons on various places (scotts bass lessons etc). he has a few albums and yes, he can play in a normal band where it isn't about him.

 

Olympic runners - whats the point huh? you can go faster in a car and can they even go for a walk like normal people?

 

[Reggaebass]

I like some slap ,but a lot of it is showboating to me, I had lessons for it, not to play live but to just learn how to do it for my own fun, I tried slap reggae but it really doesn’t work 😁

[lowdown]

5 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

 

Olympic runners - whats the point huh?

 

 

The point? They Danced a lot:

 

 

 

[Woodinblack]

The nylon coloured suit - why did they ever die out for bands heh?

[Muzz]

I've said this before in defence of the vitriol that my chum Nige Clutterbuck has endured over the years for his showboat-y super-fast slappity-poppity, but the majority of those videos which seem to bring out the worst in fellow bassists were taken at trade shows; Nige worked for Rotosound for a long time, and the showboating brings punters to the stand. Same with YouTubers - they have channels to promote, and like it or not, the Great Unwashed love a bit of showboating. His bass playing is much more than that, and there isn't a shred (SWIDT?) of the showboating in his playing with Dare...

[cetera]

4 minutes ago, Muzz said:

 Nige worked for Rotosound for a long time, and the showboating brings punters to the stand.

 

I'm sure he's a good bassist/decent all round chap etc but tbh, at the time, it forced me away from their stand and did nothing to show that their strings were capable of anything other than making the sound of 'falling down the stairs'.

[EBS_freak]

Ah Rotosound.

 

"Hey Nige, is that hard to play? Cos its hard to listen to."