Overplaying

[Baloney Balderdash]

One word: Wagner!

[Grooverjr]

Trills on anything. Full stop. 

[lowdown]

37 minutes ago, Grooverjr said:

Trills on anything. Full stop. 

 

 

What about the trill in the iconic melody of 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'? It's all part of the eerie mood of that theme.

Especially in that opening motif.

[Grooverjr]

1 minute ago, lowdown said:

 

 

What about the trill in the iconic melody of 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'? It's all part of the eerie mood of that theme.

Especially in that opening motif.

Ok, so I was being a bit broad brush. There are many valid trills, but they tend to be integral to the writing of the music (see strings in classical music for example). I was using it as shorthand for when people, especially vocalists and guitarists but also your Jools Holland types, fart around with a note instead of holding it or cutting it. I'm off outside now, to shout at some clouds.

[prowla]

1 hour ago, lowdown said:

 

 

What about the trill in the iconic melody of 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'? It's all part of the eerie mood of that theme.

Especially in that opening motif.

Whistling too...

 

...except for in that movie.

[kwmlondon]

On 20/07/2025 at 18:31, gjones said:

I was at a jam, a few years ago, and a trio got up to play three U2 songs.

 

The bassist proceeded to play slap bass over all three of them.

 

It would have been hilarious if it wasn't so tragic.....

I am not an Adam Clayton fan. I don't like his basslines. He's a multimillion selling artist in one of the worlds biggest bands and I play the occasional pub gig, but still, I don't think slapp bass would be an improvement.

[kwmlondon]

For me, the worst overplayer I went on stage with was a flute player when I was in college and we had an asignment to rehearse and play a gig. We practised all term, had a handful of nice numbers (Watermelon Man and a few other lively jazz tunes). The flue player didn't turn up to the practise sessions, but turned up to the gig and played ALL OVER EVERY PART OF EVERY SONG TWITTERING AWAY LIKE A PARROT ON METH. I could have twatted him with a mic stand.

[bass_dinger]

On 21/07/2025 at 12:49, Steve Browning said:

Cannon. I mean, that bloke in the 1812. What was he thinking?

 

He was aiming at the harmonica player, who got up and started playing during the premiere of the 1812. Tchaikovsky was so grateful to that audience member for his timely intervention, that he wrote the part into all subsequent performances.

 

True story.

[Rich]

19 hours ago, kwmlondon said:

The flue player didn't turn up to the practise sessions, but turned up to the gig 

You've got to admit though, getting any sort of tune out of a chimney is pretty impressive.

[kwmlondon]

2 minutes ago, Rich said:

You've got to admit though, getting any sort of tune out of a chimney is pretty impressive.

I honestly put my head in my hands there and told myself off for yet another stupid typo. It's entirely in character for me...

[Grahambythesea]

On 22/07/2025 at 20:51, prowla said:

Whistling too...

 

...except for in that movie.

And excepting Big noise from Winnetka

 

 

[Homatron]

Thanks for that @Grahambythesea!

I wonder if that is where Tony Levin got his inspiration from.

[Buddster]

The guy banging the drum in last nights Spain/Germany game. 

In fact, anybody who brings an instrument to a sports game. 

And the trumpet bit they play over the pa to get the crowd to cheer..

[chris_b]

23 hours ago, kwmlondon said:

. . . . The flue player didn't turn up to the practise sessions, but turned up to the gig. . . .

 

Many years ago we were trying out a new drummer. He was a bit of a name around here, and he announced he wanted to dep out the rehearsals and only do the gigs!! We told him to do one!!

[tauzero]

10 hours ago, Rich said:

You've got to admit though, getting any sort of tune out of a chimney is pretty impressive.

 

Next step up from a didgeridoo.

[tauzero]

11 hours ago, bass_dinger said:

He was aiming at the harmonica player, who got up and started playing during the premiere of the 1812.

 

"Not now, Arthur!"

[Stub Mandrel]

On 19/07/2025 at 06:11, Doctor J said:

Oversinging has very much become a thing people think they need to do, all the time.

 

It needs to die in a ditch.

 

This. I've seen a few gigs where the vocalist seems to think they get points for every different vocal style they can cram into one song.

[RichT]

On 20/07/2025 at 18:31, gjones said:

I was at a jam, a few years ago, and a trio got up to play three U2 songs.

 

The bassist proceeded to play slap bass over all three of them.

 

It would have been hilarious if it wasn't so tragic.....

 

At an open mic a month or so ago, one of the bands played Heroes by David Bowie.

 

The bassist proceeded to play mostly an overly busy version of something I've since seen people all over youtube claiming to be the bass part (I'm sure it really isn't), but even that wasn't enough for him so he interspersed it wherever he could with slap breaks and double tapping. It was horrendous. 

 

He was a lovely chap though. 

[borntohang]

A couple of years back I worked an acoustic duo with two guitars. Very laid back, restaurant music. Occasionally had a percussionist sit in and he was generally excellent and tasteful. One particular show he was suffering from an ear infection and consequently the volume kept going up with a particularly piercing cowbell right in my ear line. 

 

I could have handled that, but a chap at the pub garden we were playing announced he was also a percussionist and ran home to fetch some kind of wooden primitive xylophone thing so he could sit in. It was about knee height and he placed it on the floor while sitting on a slightly-too-tall stool, so he had to lean forward and awkwardly hammer away at it with a mallet like a particularly demented shed builder. 

 

It was already a horribly warm day and now one ear was getting the cowbell and the other a discordant clattering of poorly tuned wooden tonebars with little relation to the tune, with the two of us guitars trying grimly to hold onto a tempo. I started to get a bit woozy and felt like I was dodging massive gears inside a giant horror movie clock or something equally baroque. SAW: REAPERCUSSION perhaps. 

 

Puckered my anus enough to get through about three tunes worth of it and then had to stop the set "to do a couple of solo tunes" while the other guitarist diplomatically told them to shut the f*** up before both their instruments went into the harbour. 

[borntohang]

Oh, and there's few things worse than a trumpet player who comes from the 'HIGH and LOUD' school. The ones with the cheeks like leather bowling balls who haven't worked out that monophonic instruments can sometimes lay out during other player's solos, or that sounding like a pinched balloon neck being rapidly deflated is not a desirable trait in a soloist.

 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

1 hour ago, RichT said:

 

At an open mic a month or so ago, one of the bands played Heroes by David Bowie.

 

The bassist proceeded to play mostly an overly busy version of something I've since seen people all over youtube claiming to be the bass part (I'm sure it really isn't), but even that wasn't enough for him so he interspersed it wherever he could with slap breaks and double tapping. It was horrendous. 

 

He was a lovely chap though. 

 

Most of us are filling in for missing keys.

 

 

[RichT]

3 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Most of us are filling in for missing keys.

 

 

 

Funnily enough this lot did have a keys player! But that video clarifies that the basis of the line he played (which is in just about every youtube bass cover) is actually the guitar line. I'd somehow never come across anyone playing that as the bassline before that night.

[prowla]

57 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Most of us are filling in for missing keys.

 

 

The bass sounds like a jaws harp!

[Acebassmusic]

15 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

And excepting Big noise from Winnetka

 

 

 

What? Eh? I don't understand.....a drummer who's not trying to kill the kit by beating it into submission? A floor tom that doesn't boom for days? 🤣 For me overplaying isn't simply "too many notes played for the song" but volume dynamics where ANY musician is too loud for a balanced performance. The number of drummers I know who feel they MUST hit the drums to project the sound into the farthest reaches of the universe.....aaaargh! (Actually this goes for any instrment). Grumble over 🤣🤣

[prowla]

7 hours ago, Acebassmusic said:

 

What? Eh? I don't understand.....a drummer who's not trying to kill the kit by beating it into submission? A floor tom that doesn't boom for days? 🤣 For me overplaying isn't simply "too many notes played for the song" but volume dynamics where ANY musician is too loud for a balanced performance. The number of drummers I know who feel they MUST hit the drums to project the sound into the farthest reaches of the universe.....aaaargh! (Actually this goes for any instrment). Grumble over 🤣🤣

I think it was about the whistling...