My name is Jim and I'm a bass player...
I'm what they call a Weekend Warrior. I'm not a professional player in that I don't derive my income from playing bass, but I do get paid. I first started playing bass in high school back in 1982 or so. I was asked to play in the school Jazz band, but I declined. Big mistake. I could have learned a lot from the experience, but I was too busy playing football, working on the school paper, working two jobs, and chasing skirts. We all have to make choices.
Recent Band Experience
Off and on over the years I've played in several local cover bands. I was in a duet with an acoustic guitar player for a while. It was there I learned just how hard it can be to arrange a song with just a bass and an acoustic guitar. I was always the guy that guitar players called when they wanted to jam because I was able to learn new songs pretty quickly. I've done a few originals and helped others with theirs.
I recently left an original band, Radiobox, an alternative rock band based in Tempe/Phoenix, Arizona. It was my first time in an original band. It was fun, but I prefer covers. Before that I was in a three-piece rock band (well, four pieces if you count the singer). Swampcooler still playing around town, and, nice guys that they are, have a little blurb about me on their history of the band page. I've always enjoyed the challenge of a three-piece because there's no place to hide. I've been fortunate to play with some really good musicians over the years, so that makes my job easier
Original Music
I have a home studio where I mix the music for whatever band I'm in as well as do my own originals and covers. There's one original I'm really proud of. It was originally written back in 1993. It's a humorous little diddy about turning 40, which I did just a couple of years ago. I have since re-recorded the song in the studio with a friend playing guitar and singing.
Live Version from 1993: Day Over 39 Live
Remix when I turned 40: Studio Version
Sometimes people ask me to lay down bass lines for songs they are working on. Here are a couple of examples:
Holy - Went for
a Godspell feel.
Monday Morning
- It was country, but the author wanted a different vibe on bass.
Studio Covers
When George Harrison died, I decided to finally learn how to play "Here Comes the Sun" on acoustic guitar (damn those strings are small). I played all of the instruments and had my brother-in-law sing:
Here are a few others:
Peter Gunn
- I played all the instruments
Tightrope -
Recorded with Swampcooler
Thing Called
Love - Recorded with Swampcooler
Live Covers
Lemon Song
Rock and
Roll Hoochie Coo
White Room
Interstate
Love Song
Stray Cat Strut
Wall of Denial
Long Last
Lonely Mile
Philosophy Playing in Bands
I like playing in cover bands. The goal of a cover band is to deliver what the client wants. If it's a bar or club, that means providing entertainment that gets people to hang around and spend money on food and drink. I'm okay with playing songs like "Play the Funky Music" at every gig if that's what gets asses out of the seats. I don't believe cover bands should "entertaining themselves" on the club's dime by playing what only they want to play rather than what the crowd wants to hear. The audience rarely gets sick of a song - that's really just an issue for musicians.
Granted, if you can accomplish both at once, that's great. But that's easier said than done. Personally, I don't have any songs I won't play simply because I don't like the song or because I'm sick of it. Some musicians do. That's fine, so long as we can still put together a set that entertains the crowd. The only songs I object to are ones I believe will inspire the people to go outside for a smoke or, even worse, ask for their checks.
I also prefer that a cover band have a leader that handles getting gigs. Not a boss - a leader. It's rare to find a band where everybody lands gigs. Usually those bands are ones where nobody lands any gigs. As far as I am concerned, the person landing the gigs has the ultimate say-so on what the band does at those gigs. Of course, if the leader doesn't listen to his bandmates, he'll soon be without a band. And if the leader makes bad decisions, the band won't get repeat gigs and will ultimately break up.
My Thoughts on Practice
I'm a firm believer that band practice should be restricted to tightening the set list, not learning it. Learn the songs on your own. Come to practice prepared. Let's work on intros, breaks and endings. If push comes to shove, good musicians who are comfortable with each other should be able to show up at a gig and play a song well without ever having practiced it. The longer the band has been together and the more gigs they have played, the less the need for rehearsals.
Too much practice can suck the life out of a song. Audiences are not interested in note-for-note perfection (except for maybe tribute bands). They want energy. Must flubs are only noticed by other musicians. The rest of the audience wants to see the band having a good time, not cussing to themselves over every little mistake. Live music should make people feel alive.
My Job as a Bass Player
My choices as a bassist revolve around what makes the song work rather than "showing off" on my instrument. That starts with locking in with the drummer to nail down the groove and is followed by providing the harmony needed to move the song forward. My biggest job is to listen to the song and figure out what it needs.
If the band has all of the instruments and is playing the song note-for-note (not much fun if you ask me), then that pretty much means I also need to play note-for-note. Most of the time, though, each musician is trying to keep true to the song while adding a bit of himself. In many cases the band doesn't have all the instrumentation, so sometimes I need to "say" what another instrument is saying in the original because it would feel "empty" without it.
I've played a lot in three-piece bands. Some people think when covering songs by bands with more pieces, that means I need to play more. In reality it usually means playing less. If I play too much, who's keeping the groove? The groove always come first. When the band has more pieces, I can think more about accents while others keep the groove.
As far as bass solos go, I don't like them. I'm okay with throwing in a lick on a one or two-bar break, but anything past that usually bores the audience. I get my satisfaction by watching the audience get up and dance because the drummer and I have locked down the groove.
Other Stuff
I design and program websites for a living. When you think Phoenix web design,
think about me! You can also check out some of my blogs:
Always Well Written on WordPress
Always Well Written on Blogspot
UncaYimmy on Blogspot
UncaYimmy on LiveJournal
Always Well Written on Yahoo