TimR

I'm not sure what exactly your problem is. I haven't set any criteria and I'm not telling anyone what to do. I'm giving my opinion. Why are you taking it so personally? Really, if you just want to listen to one genre and a set of tunes that's fine by me. Why join a covers band playing tunes you've never heard before? It's either because you want the money, in which case, listen to more tunes and expand your skillset and repertoire and you'll be more attractive to bands. Or its because you want to expand your skillset and repertoire. Bass playing is my hobby too. If I'm in the car I'll be listening to tunes I have to learn or listening for upcoming artists.

Just play TO the chords. If you know the chord the individual notes are usually pretty intuitive. You shouldn't have to be sitting there picking out individual notes of a run.

Don't see how? It was a question.

No it's not. Lots have people have taken my comment that most songs can be learned with one listen literally and then extrapolated that to all songs with one listen or you can't call yourself a bass player. I've never said that. At one point I questioned whether anyone should be playing in cover bands if they've not heard the covers that the audience will be familiar with. I'd question any musician who doesn't listen to a very wide range of genres. You're painting yourself into a corner. I didn't say you couldn't or shouldn't. At no point did I say they shouldn't call themselves bass players.

Why. Most cover versions should be on people's radar from hearing them on the radio. Loads of them, apparently, are played by practically every other band. Sitting down and actively listening to a song with your bass in your hand should be all it takes for the majority of songs you'll be asked to play. Most songs follow a simple format and chord progression. The bass lines consist of notes within the scale and chord. Which leaves a chunk of material you may have to listen to several times to pick out. No one said you should be able to learn all cover songs from hearing them once on the radio. The key word here is listen.

Maybe. I've only been playing for 40 years, in thrash metal original bands in the 80s, in big bands, theatre pits, down the dog and duck, function bands, jazz quartets, depped for various bands. Alongside pros and very good semi-pros. My general advice would be to play absolutly everything and anything with as many different people as possible. And don't practice tunes you know, stick Spotify on random and just play along to whatever comes up, whether you like it or not. It's not about fancy licks and complicated lines, it's about getting the simple stuff right. I've had band leaders, on meeting me at the dep gig, say keep it simple and watch me for the changes. I've never had one say, play loads of flashy stuff and improvise to make it all more exciting.

I can believe that. When I played in the function band, I was usually wondering whether the kebab shop would still be open while playing the 7th verse of Mustang Sally while raising my eyebrows at the keys player on the other side of the stage.

Creep What's Up Zombie Just 3 4 chord wonders ff the top of my head that you should be playing by the end of the second chorus.

I don't get it. Most songs. Not every song. MOST songs. Seriously, are you guys really bass players? I could pick out tons of songs that need loads of work, but most don't and unfortunately/fortunately the songs that don't require loads of work, and are easy and mostly boring to play, are the ones that get the crowd going.

Yep. One listen through to learn most covers. It'll hardly be the first time you've ever heard the tunes. I'd suggest if it is then being in a covers band isn't really for you as you're expecting the audience to already know them.

I think you may be taking what I wrote a little bit too literally and specifically. Most cover songs can be learned in one listen through. We aren't talking about film scores, neither are we talking about 20minute prog rock songs. We are taking about songs with 3 or 4 very predictable chords in them. I'd listen to the verse and chorus and then pick up my bass and put the notes in. By the end of the second chorus for 'most songs' I'd have the chords sorted. Not all songs, but that's exactly how I learned the majority of our current set list. I'd then work on any sections that are particularly difficult (if there were any) and look at harder songs on the set list. Remember we were talking about joining a covers band. Most of the hard work would have been already done by the guitars, drums and vocals. Once in the rehearsal, you can guarantee they will have already made changes to their arrangement to suit band instrumentation and ability.

You only have to learn the song. You don't have to perform it or write a critique essay on its form and place in modern music. The idea is you learn it, come to rehearsal and everyone else has learned something approachably passable, and you can get a good idea whether to spend any more time on it. Try playing some dep gigs, or jam nights, where you get told the key of a song you've never heard before and have to pick the song up on the fly.

That's probably part of the problem. If you're the kind of bass player looking for interesting complicated bass lines, you'll be limited to the number of tunes you want to play and even more limited to the tunes people want to listen to. I didn't say all tunes, just the vast majority of them. If you are ruling songs out because you're only playing one note at a time, you're not going to last long in a covers band. Learn the chords and structure. The song is learned. If you want to add runs and fills later at your leisure you can, but that's runs and fills and aren't essential parts of the song.

verse vi-IV-ii-IV Chorus I IV

You should be able to get your fingers under the notes by the end of the first verse and chorus. Chord progressions on popular covers are all pretty much the same. It's that familiarity that gets people listening to them over and over. Blues numbers are all I-IV-V. Either 8, 12 or 16 bar versions. The chart numbers at the moment predominantly feature I-IV-V-vi in various rotations. Then it's just a case of getting how many verses and choruses and whatever mid section there is. There's a tendency for people not to use their ears but to rely on tab and charts. As I say 'most' pop covers are ridiculously simple to pick up.

Our setlist seems to consist mainly of simple 3 and 4 chord songs. I wouldn't want to go through and check which ones I like playing and which ones I don't. But I wouldn't listen to a single on of them given the choice. I tend to change radio stations if any of them come on.

Good luck with even talking to the landlord. Facebook messenger.

Bass Centre Elites Stadium seem to last forever.

I think the problem in every band is that whatever your reason for playing you have to take into account the reasons your band mates have for playing. Which is all perfectly reasonable. Until they don't reciprocate. I've seen many originals bands who are rubbish and only play for their own enjoyment. But this is because they just don't understand that you can't just string a melody and words along to make a song. Neither can you spend hours refining a rubbish song that no one enjoys listening to and magic some engagement from it (I've been in that band, and it gets confusing trying to remember all the minute changes that have been made). I even know artists who've taken their work to producers ro get feedback and complained the producer wanted to change it too much and it ended up being too commercial. You can't have it both ways, you can't have a noncommercial song being popular. Music should be easy and fun to play. Otherwise it's work. You can enjoy your work and have fun, it's not mutually exclusive, but there comes a point when hard work is simply just hard work.

Could be worse, could be in an originals band where even the audience don't like the songs. 😁 I've seen that a few times. Also have played in an originals band where the audience keep asking for the band to play something they can dance to, or when a crowded pub has emptied when the band started*. That's a very long night. *although to be fair it was after a big football match with a charity raffle draw at the end. But very demoralising when you think you have a big ready made crowd.

Is this a permanent gig? Have they got gigs lined up? Do they freshen up the setlist often? Is there a theme or direction in the songs? Are there modern songs? Will you get any say in suggesting new songs? How far away are the gigs? Questions I'd ask. Thing about covers is most songs can be learned in one listen through. So you're not investing hours of your time learning them. Lots of cover bands play standards and they can crossover to other dep gigs etc.

Our guitarist owns the PA. Once he has set up all his guitars and pedals etc, he then moves to setting up the PA. It's frustrating because by the time he gets to that point I'll have set up my bass gear and lights before he arrives, then carried in and positioned all the speakers and stand around waiting until he instructs me which cable to plug in where. Issuing speaker cables first and only moving to mic cables after the speaker cables are in and finally to power leads. Just give me the bag and I'll do the power leads when I put the speakers out.

That reminds me of the other essential for the gig bag. Torch with fully charged batteries. You don't want to be scrabbling around in the dark looking for cables.

Ha. It seems from theatre. If its not an actor, prop or scenery, it shouldn't be seen by the audience (or at least distract from the performance). While the audience are thinking why the hell has the guitarist got so many guitars they're not focusing on the act. Same with white extension leads. Just looks amateurish, like someone just grabbed a lead from their home office or off a shelf at B&Q.

I'm not in favour of any hardware that stands out on stage. Just looks cluttered amd distracting on photographs. Even all my multiway extension leads are in Black. You can get cable-tie labels that you write on for the ends of leads and numbers to identify them. I once played with a guitarist who wanted 8 guitars on stage with him and the PA mixer, because people would want to see his gear. This left nowhere for him to stand. This was on a stage with wings.