Beer of the Bass Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) I have a good friend who's a drummer I've known and played with for years, we met when we were barely out of our teens. We've had various bands together since about 1999/2000 and he was the best man at my wedding. Those bands have included a noisy free-improv project, a willfully daft psych-folk band and assorted folky or singer-songwritery things. In the past eighteen months, we did a few gigs (mostly weddings) with a flung-together jazz quartet with two other old friends on keys and sax and myself playing double bass. It's predominately been a mainstream, crowd-pleasing repertoire as that's what goes down well at weddings. We haven't gone out looking for gigs, they've just sort of come along through the grapevine. I'd always viewed it as a series of one-offs rather than a steady band, if that makes sense. The piano player we did those gigs with has decided that they're is not really his cup of tea and doesn't want to do any more of them, which is fair enough. The drummer, however is really keen to find a new pianist or guitarist and to find some more paying gigs. The thing is, I'm not especially keen on playing weddings and I'm not sure jazz standards gigs are really my forte. But we've played together and known each other for so long that I'd feel quite conflicted about turning down something he wants to do. I think part of my hesitation is the idea of putting myself out there as a jazz musician - while I can usually wing it through the tunes to the satisfaction of the audiences we get, the standard on the jazz scene around here seems pretty high and I'm very aware that I haven't really put the hours in and could easily come across as a bit of a hack. So I'm just a bit uncomfortable about trying to do that in a professional context. While I've played for years, I've only had a couple of short spells of seeing a teacher and studying in a focused way. At some point down the line I'll seek out a good double bass teacher and do some more of that, but for various reasons I don't feel like now is the right time. My other concern ties in nicely with the "playing for nowt" thread, as to be quite honest I just don't enjoy the sort of gig where I feel like I'm there to provide a service to customers. I'm a great deal happier playing some indulgent noise to half a dozen people in some arts space or other, or playing something loud and groovy to dancing hippies, and if it covers the diesel and/or provides beer and food then I feel like all is well with the world. I'm also not set up to do the self-employment thing, so regular properly invoiced gigs would create a complication in my life that I'm not looking for right now. My friend is currently self employed and keen to get any extra bits and pieces he can, so we're not really on the same page about this. So I guess I'll have a conversation with my friend about why I don't want to pursue the jazz quartet idea, though it feels weird to do so. Really I'm just rambling here, getting my thoughts down in writing so it's a bit clearer in my head, but this being a bass forum I guess some of you will have thoughts on this too. Edited August 31, 2016 by Beer of the Bass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTUK Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Winging it is good for your playing and I think more people should do it as a learning tool... but I don't play with people who are my friends just because they are my friends. It has to work on another level. Getting together after 20 years or whatever is not a reason to do it again so I tend to not go there... definitely NOT go there, You are either into or you aren't. That is it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted August 31, 2016 Author Share Posted August 31, 2016 [quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1472675621' post='3123249'] Winging it is good for your playing and I think more people should do it as a learning tool... but I don't play with people who are my friends just because they are my friends. It has to work on another level. [/quote] I like to wing it as an occasional thing, but doing it regularly could be stressful. The drummer is someone I like to play with on a musical as well as a personal level - at this point we've done so many gigs together that we tend to get what the other is going for without having to discuss it too much. It's just that this would really not be my favourite vehicle for working with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtcat Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Just talk to him. He may just be enthusiastic about playing with you and think that this project is what you want. At the end of the day if you're honest with him and don't just ditch him he'll most likely be cool with it and you may find another more mutually beneficial direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeEvans Posted September 1, 2016 Share Posted September 1, 2016 I tend to say yes to everything... I would take the wedding gigs and use them as a mechanism to drive up your db jazz skills, both from point of view of the practice you'd need to do, and from actually doing the gigs - I find that performing in public at the edge of my technical ability creates big improvements in skill and confidence. That way, you're getting paid cash to get better, which can't be bad. Then you can come to your next self-indulgent noise project as a much better player, and drop the wedding band when you've had enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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