The world of depping

[kiat]

2 minutes ago, TimR said:

Drummer: We are sounding pretty tight even with this dep guy.

Guitarist: Listen to my playing, I'm on fire! ...as usual.

Singer: Something is off somewhere, just can't quite hit the notes.

Punters: This band sounds great.

Bass player: Must keep smiling, Must keep smiling. 

 

🤣

Perfect summation 😉 Are you a mind reader?  🤣

[TimR]

2 minutes ago, kiat said:

Perfect summation 😉 Are you a mind reader?  🤣

 

Been there... Many times. 🤣

[Burns-bass]

Did yesterdays gig with zero rehearsals, setlist changed around and some called out in different keys. Was a good workout.

 

Turns out the guys are all pit players and have been doing this for 20 years so lots of eye contact and trying to fit in.

 

Sounded good and some great players. A lot of fun (and £250 so pretty good).

[jazzyvee]

I had one of those gigs last night with a Tribute band and same thing, some different keys as the singer was also a dep, different arrangements,starts, endings etc.

Kept me on my toes trying to guess what and when the breaks would be and how the songs would end. The most uncomfortable was that many of the starts were different to the original records which you only discover when you start playing what you know and it turns out that they don't start like that anymore. Makes starting the next song an anxious moment. 🙂

But overall it was a nice gig. 

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Before last night's gig.

 

Guitarist (in jest) "I forgot to tell you were detuning by a semitone tonight"

 

Me "Don't worry, if the bass is off it's everyone else who sounds out of tune"

[Franticsmurf]

3 hours ago, TimR said:

Drummer: We are sounding pretty tight even with this dep guy.

Guitarist: Listen to my playing, I'm on fire! ...as usual.

Singer: Something is off somewhere, just can't quite hit the notes.

Punters: This band sounds great.

Bass player: Must keep smiling, Must keep smiling. 

 

🤣

Were you watching us last night. 🙂

[Franticsmurf]

Being relatively new to this depping lark, one thing I have noticed is that I have spent more time learning the actual bass part to the songs, rather than working out my own versions which I do with my main band. I have always been someone who thinks that a covers band (but not a tribute act) should be bringing something new to the set in terms of arrangements so that there is an identity to the band regardless of the actual songs played. To me this includes tempo, instruments, solos, fills etc and I try to personalise the bass lines within the context of the song. I think that in some ways this has made me a little lazy in terms of learning parts as I can always use my philosophy to fudge over difficult bits. 

 

But over the last couple of months I've done a lot more depping and I've made a point of learning the original parts, as regardless of the way the band plays the song, the original version provides a good starting point and usually a reference should things go wrong. In preparing for dep gigs, I think I've become a better bass player and certainly my self confidence in being able to play the proper parts has increased. That in turn has given me the confidence to take on the depping roles.