Where's me chops?

[Bilbo]

I have had a fallow Summer (1 gig in July, 2 in August and, last night, my first in September). I have done some home studio practice but no full band rehearsals or recording sessions etc.

Last night, I played a gig and a couple or three of the tunes called were fast Latin or funk grooves. I dug in but found that myself tripping myself up on patterns that I have had under my fingers for decades and my stamina was poor. I only did a couple of solos but even they felt like I was running in treacle. Just not match fit, I guess. Pisser.

[Passinwind]

I hear ya, and remember how rough that was when I had a real upright or worse yet, got thrown in on someone else's after not owning one for a while.. Last night was only my second real gig all summer. It was a last minute call for a big band wedding hit, nothing like my usual blow-over-charts calls. Luckily it was only an hour, and few of the band members know me well enough to be able to keep me on track with cues here and there. I've been shedding on my BGs all summer, not the EUB. Time to get back to work!

[RockfordStone]

after my band split up i stopped playing for a while, save for some noodling at home. when i got back in a room with other musicians it was like i hadn't played bass before.
i think there is an element of what sportsman refer to as match fitness. its ok to practice at home but i think if you have time away from playing with other people you lose a bit of sharpness.

[blue]

I say if your lucky enough to be in a heavily booked band, you have a better chance of staying in good playing form.

Again, something guys looking to join their first band should think about. Am I in situation where I will be gigging a lot?

Blue

[JoeEvans]

If it was double bass, I can really empathise - I've only switched to it over the last year and I've never played an instrument that needed so much active practice to stay fit. I had a rehearsal last week after only two weeks off my normal routine of scales and exercises, and my fingers seemed to have lost significant amounts of stamina and accuracy. A while back I played an accordion gig after more or less not taking it out of the box for a year, and it was almost as if I'd never stopped - everything was still there.

[Guest bassman7755]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1442219333' post='2865140']
I have had a fallow Summer (1 gig in July, 2 in August and, last night, my first in September). I have done some home studio practice but no full band rehearsals or recording sessions etc.

Last night, I played a gig and a couple or three of the tunes called were fast Latin or funk grooves. I dug in but found that myself tripping myself up on patterns that I have had under my fingers for decades and my stamina was poor. I only did a couple of solos but even they felt like I was running in treacle. Just not match fit, I guess. Pisser.
[/quote]

I think sometimes the things that you think you know best can sometimes be the first casualties of lack of practice, I guess what happens is that they get delegated to purely muscle memory because you havn't consciously though about them for ages.

[KevB]

I had this last Saturday, first time we'd gigged since early August then we were all off on holidays so no bookings taken. We'd actually had a couple of hrs in a rehearsal room during the week and it didn't sound too bad but we seemed terribly rusty at the actual gig and I was as guilty as anyone, bizarre mistakes on songs I can usually do in my sleep.