bass_dinger

Good thinking! I will try this. I find that a lot of the material is very busy, and the bassline, too simple, or too buried in the mix, to be of any musical use. I also play other songs, to increase my dexterity and technique. Last Sunday, the bassline to "Let Your Yeah be Yeah", by the Pioneers, found its way in some new song (the title of which escapes me. As do the lyrics...).

I am learning to learn better . . . . Most recently, I am trying to play by ear. Put on a track, and play along. Last week, Let Your Yeah be Yeah by the Pioneers. I was chuffed to get the chord changes, and the bassline too (although I lack the nuance and feel). I have also found my two notebooks and music folder. In these, I list the songs I worked on for a each day, and each page has an entry for the songs themselves. All this allows me to return to make notes about my shortcomings and learning needs for each song, and to return to my previous learning later than week. This stops repetitive noodling of the same half dozen favourites, and allows me to stretch my ability.

It is good that you can laugh at this. Because the alternative (rage, and frustration) would damage your own wellbeing, and not change the Learner's attitude. Thanks for sharing . . .

Someone in the audience tried to set fire to it, after hearing the introduction to Mustang Sally once too often?

I did too.

I am in for 2022. I realised how useful the 2021 challenge was, in that I focused on using what I had, and worked to improve my skill levels. I also see that the upgrades that I want, are so difficult to source, that I may as well not bother looking!

Nowadays, I am a veritable riff machine, able to churn out musically appropriate basslines spontaneously. I can happily throw away melodic basslines that Bach would have turned into a fugue. Either that, or I manage to cram the bass riff from Fontella Bass's "Rescue Me" into every single song, and not care who notices it. Actually, I am much closer to the latter. One week, our young singer was at home, isolating. So, I deliberately inserted every cliché and standard line I could think of into the songs, to reach out to her as she watched us YouTube. When I next saw her, I asked her if she spotted it. "Yes! I was saying to my sister, 'listen, he is doing the riff again!', but she could not hear it." It was at that moment that I realised that musicians hear, but the rest of the congregation don't really notice what I do. So, that is the real reason why I am happy to throw stuff away. I used to very much enjoy inserting the descending octave bassline from Bach's Air on a G String, into the chorus of Jared Cooper's King of Kings, Majesty. It worked in A, but I could not transpose it to G on the fly - so, I decided to create a new bassline, which fitted better with what the others were playing that morning. Nobody noticed. Nobody complained.

I can recommend a book "the Heart of the Artist" by Rory Nolan. Read it, then give it to your leaders to read, so that they can better understand how us "creatives" work! It allowed me to be a little less precious about what I have been working on - a bassline that I have been working on for a few days is now more easily binned, when I see that it does not fit.

Fixed it for you . . . .

Indeed - literally, in receipt of a gift. Of course, I could not have done this gear abstinence without my family, my car, the rising cost of petrol, and of course my mortgage. All were there for me, every time I considered some new gear.

Home straight . . .. 21 days to go! A set of new strings. Six 9 volt batteries. And I was gifted two Beringer pedals and a wee 4 channel mixer from the same stable. Am I still in? I must say, the challenge really made me think about what I needed to improve my playing - and it was not "more gear". Oddly, it was more ability to count, and subdivide bars.

Is that true? Certainly, it feels like it at times. Last nice, I was rubbish at my rehearsal, but others thought it wonderful. I was careful to play in time, but the chord charts were clearly wrong and thus, my note choices were too. However, nobody seemed to notice.

That's an unusual set up. Is it because your predecessor was a bass-playing worship leader, and you inherited the role? It seems to me that the guitarist is often looked to as the leader, regardless of whether they are qualified or willing to carry out that role.

I hope that your fridge of choice will be a Smeg . .

I was not going to post this, below. However, having read DMC79's righteous indignation, I wanted to share how things can be, with a little discipline. Here goes . . . I too appreciate my own church, and am grateful for the support that I am given by the leaders. I am also pleased to see that things can change. Five years ago, the band in my church was one paid worship leader, and whoever turned up on the morning. That paid leader was necessary, because, otherwise, the quality would have been too variable. And now? Songs are sent out over a week in advance - we got next Sunday's songs last Saturday morning. On Sunday afternoon, the Worship Collective attended an in-house teaching session, in which the band covered rhythm, and a separate group looked at harmony. One of the team took us through some vocal exercises. We are currently quite blessed by personnel too - a professional opera singer, and guitarist and recording artist; a Worship Leader who was trained in music at college; a family of musicians that could be a band all by themselves; a young vocalist who takes regular singing lessons; another vocalist was a member of a prize-winning barbershop quartet; another of the vocalists used to dance on stage, on concert tours with Michael Jackson, and is now a skilled choir leader. At the last baptism, one of the candidate's sister came to sing for her sister - but the singer is one of Eric Clapton's backing vocalists and a former finalist in The Voice. The sound system and broadcast studio was set up by the previous worship leader - a sound engineer with a national TV broadcaster, and a recording artist in his own right. This week, four of the band are taking time off of work to play at a midweek funeral. Apart from the barbershop mum, the sound engineer, and Eric's backing singer, all of these people have joined the church band within the last two years - half of them during lockdown. There has been an influx of people who like to make music, and have the commitment to make it work. However, the initial seed of that change, was having someone say "we want it to be better" - and that meant the personnel needed to change (which was easier during Lockdown, when only 2 or 3 people were able to play in the group). It seems to me that the size and make up of church bands change as the years go by - sometimes lots of improvers, sometimes a more experienced band. At two different times, we lost two worship leaders, as they both migrated to different churches. Be encouraged - things can change, and improve.

This principle is perhaps why church music is as it is - that many of us came up via the route of playing with a band, and not being very good, at least for a while. Thus, when the next generation of musicians emerges, we too want to be kind and patient with them. Thus, we allow them to sit in with the band, to make mistakes, and to allow them to learn by making mistakes. Add to that EZBass's wise comment: "The only reason I can think of for the practices experienced in this thread is due to the performance coming from a different headspace than a conventional gig. Rather than a form of entertainment for paying punters, it’s an accompaniment for the worshippers and is provided on a voluntary basis and, therefore, the usual stringency (for want of a better word) of a gigging band is negated." Thus, a church is more likely to entertain beginners and amateurs. In my experience, that only works to a certain extent - new players need to be coached, each week, so that they can continue to improve. Instead, they might be left to play with no coaching or guidance.

Ha! My Leader is more honest (and more random) in rehearsals: "we might do the chorus twice here, depends how we feel". And it is not uncommon to only play the first verse and chorus in the run-through. "Is the key okay? Yes? Onto the next one . . . " I treat the practice as a warm-up, rather than a definitive guide. Faster? Slower? Extra repeats? Start on the chorus rather than the verse? Miss out the whole of the last three bridges in The Blessing, and instead sing the chorus six times? Change key in the service (with a misplaced capo). Different leaders have different requirements - from music, play by ear, follow the leader. It used to make me very grumpy, as it used to spotlight my lack of ability. Now, I can manage a little better, and realised that most of the congregation can't hear my bum notes. I am more relaxed about my own short-comings. Playing with different leaders with different styles, is akin to a musical work out - it makes one sweat at the time, but one gets stronger for subsequent sessions!

On Sunday, the service included participation from the girls' and boys' brigade. One minute prior to the start, one of the singers realised that their ceremonial flag needed to slot into a bracket, which was behind my amplifier. So, I needed to move my kit, and so did not realise that the leader, and the whole congregation, were waiting for me to respond to his question "are we all ready?". Five years ago, I would have been mortified by this issue. 25 years ago, my hands would be sweating even before I started playing! Now, I am less bothered by this sort of hiccup - and, indeed, was able to chat to the Flag Bearer as he walked onto the stage, while I played bass.

Recently, the Under-Pastor and sound team have been working on the sound in the room. They have realised that all of the sound comes from the stage, and they can't turn the band down in the room. They start the process about 10 minutes before the service starts - 80 minutes after the rehearsal began. The sound has been like this since August 2020. So far, their experiments have not interfered with how and what we play. We have managed to smile and nod during their 10 minute "Window of Puzzlement". 10 minutes is not enough time to even explain stage monitoring, and sound leakage. I am hopeful that they will find other things to occupy themselves prior to the service.

Are we all back playing at church? Are we preparing for Christmas? Working on the basslines for the hymns? Working out how to see the sheet music when Carols by Candlelight really does mean, candles!

Different instruments ?? I don't even have a different setting on the bass's tone, volume and balance knobs! The amp is set flat too. I thought that it was all in the fingers, muting, note length, and where and how one plucks.

Shaggy and the Beatles - Let it Be Me

My guess is that you learnt them all correctly - the keys, the bass runs, the fills, the interplay between the drummer and the bassist. Sadly, the rest of the band then learnt them wrongly, or simplified the arrangements, or decided that every song should be in G. If it's any consolation, my church band regularly used to send out the sheet music in one key, a chord chart in another key, and a YouTube video in a third key. We would then rehearse it in a fourth key, before changing it to a 5th key to suit the vocalists.

There can't be many gigs where you can speak directly to management about the number of songs . . .

No keys? No chord charts? No YouTube videos as a point of reference? In that case, I can see why you won't be taking it further. I play in a church band, and I would struggle with 83 songs with no help given.