How do you know if you're any good?!

[Barking Spiders]

News today that the company that owns mine is merging with another which means several hundred redundancies are likely. So the talk in the office has been which parts of the biz might be for the chop. This then came down to us asking if in fact how good or bad are any of us at what we do. This got me thinking about other stuff I do like playing bass, guitar, drums, speaking foreign languages etc. Where am I on the spectrum? Viz bass you could say that highly technical session players are maybe 10s and use them as the standard but if they lack qualities such as feel etc then maybe they're not 10s. Or you could say you have a repertoire of several hundred great lines off pat which might give yourself a high rating but if you can't improvise then maybe you're lower down the spectrum. So without being modest/self-effacing  what do you do to try and get a true picture of your own skill level?

[FinnDave]

If people whose playing I respect ask me to play with them, then I consider that to be a sign of reasonable ability.

[Steve Browning]

I work on the principle that I am the best at playing in the style I do. If that's what you want then no-one else will be as good. If you want something else, choose the person who does that best.

There are too many variables in other ways to compare.

 

[Lozz196]

I`ve asked myself this a few times, and put it into sections:

Can I play/record the same song unaccompanied by any other instruments/vocals say 2 or 3 times, and be within a couple of seconds each time

Has my bass playing ever been described as tight or solid

Have any drummers ever expressed that they found it difficult to work with my bass-playing

Have I ever held up the progress of any band that I`ve been in due to not being able to learn/play any songs/material

If the answers to 1 & 2 are yes, and no to 3 & 4 then whilst I might not be Mr Flash it seems that I must be doing things right.

[fleabag]

I dont question it. I'm stunning, and that's the end of it.

Move along please

[TheGreek]

I don't think anybody is a 10 - I think that if we're being honest, all of us can improve.

I'm never prepared to accept "near enough is good enough" in any aspects of my life. 

[jazzmanb]

i do it for fun,as time has gone on although i'm not flash i seem to get compliments and get a asked to do stuff/join projects etc.Once i've gigged with people they want me to gig again. so i'm pleased about that.I'm self taught and don't read but  i'm able to pick a tune up easily where readers struggle with no tabs (Mick karn for example).loads of low/mid level bands are seperate musicians playing the song seperately on the same stage ,i think i'm quite good at pulling people in to sound like a unit.

[Frank Blank]

This is so subjective, has so many variables, that we all have our own individual ideas of what is ‘good’, what constitutes a ‘10’ on our own individual scale. There is no yardstick outside of of our likes and dislikes that has an inherent objective scale from ‘bad’ to ‘good’. Take Jah Wobble for instance, he is one of my favourite bass players. If I had to to explain why I would have to link it back to one album, Metal Box, then to refine my explanation in order to define what it is about his bass lines on that album I realise that almost every single definition I come up with is connected with a host of feelings, subjective notions, memories and just a huge stack of junk. I can describe some of his bass lines as ‘sublime’ in my opinion but I do not attempt to emulate the myriad qualities within those basslines in order to become a ‘better’ bass player because I realise that those basslines are a subjective meeting midway between me as the listener, hearing the line with all my likes, dislikes, peccadilloes and the line he is producing, with all his likes, dislikes and peccadilloes. My idea of a ‘good’ bass player can only ever be a Venn crossover between my subjective junk yard and Jah Wobble’s. Music is art, art is subjective. If music moves me emotionally then I consider it good, not good generally but good in my mind to me and that sense of good is impossible to define.

[ambient]

There are lots of variables with this, also who do you compare yourself to?

I did a 3 year music degree course, I think there were 12 bassists in total in my year. I wasn’t the worst of them, but I most definitely wasn’t near the best of that 12. The difference between the top and the bottom was scary.

We all had different abilities, and strengths and weaknesses. So I may not have been as technically good as some, but my sight-reading or harmony knowledge may have been better. I ended up with a 1st, but that was thanks to one particular module that I excelled in, which actually wasn’t actually bass playing, though it was a solo bass thing.

End of the day, if you enjoy what you do, and you’re not being let down by your ability that’s all really matters.

Edited January 30, 2018 by ambient

[Monkey Steve]

with regards to the OP's reasons for asking, there's perhaps a different angle of attack - not how good are you in any objective sense, but how good a fit are you for the band you're in?

[police squad]

As Lee Pomeroy said somewhere, if you're a good bloke, play ok and get on with everyone, you get the call.

[Nicko]

Are there songs that are beyond my technical ability - yes but we dropped them,  are there songs where I play simplified lines - yes but no one notices, do I make the odd mistake - yes but I can normally cover it up well enough that only I know.  So, I'm probably about a 5 on the scale, but it doesn't matter because everyone who sees the band thinks we are stunningly good and thats really all that counts. 

Without wanting to sound arrogant, in my day job I was a 10.  One of my old bosses actually has a scoring system and rated a couple of hundred people doing my job, and as a contract employee my reputation was as imortant as anything in getting work, so I'm not overplaying how good I was.  I got so frustrated dealing with the mediocre people around me I have basically given up on it. 

I thnk this is actually important because if I wa s virtuoso bass player I wouldn't want to be in a fun band with similarly talented musicians.

[Cato]

I think most of tend to play down our skills, especially to ourselves.

Generally, whenever I start learning new stuff there are sections when I think to myself 'I'm not sure I can do that'.

I'm always quite surprised at how quickly I actually manage to learn those bits.

Of course, there's stuff I really can't do, but there's definitely less of it than there used to be, which i take as a sign of progress.

Edited January 30, 2018 by Cato

[TrevorR]

I know exactly how good a player I am...

How good am I? ...I'm alright.

[Highfox]

Not as good as I wish I was

It's a never-ending experience on trying to improve.

[chris_b]

Self belief gets you into your first band.

Getting better moves you into the next band, and so on.

Joining the best bands depends on who you meet.

IME you never really know, but you should never stop striving to be better.

[scalpy]

Can depend on the size of the pond! My lord my ego took a knock leaving home to study trumpet at Uni. 

[gjones]

I got described as a 'smooth' bass player by two random musicians recently. What the heck does 'smooth' mean? They meant it as a compliment but I have no idea what it means.

This is my idea of a great bass player. Somebody who has all the chops but knows when to hold back and compliment the song. The first video is an example of the first quality and the second video is an example of the second quality. The guys name is Alan Thompson from Glasgow. He used to be John Martyn's bass player.

 

 

[Roger2611]

4 hours ago, FinnDave said:

If people whose playing I respect ask me to play with them, then I consider that to be a sign of reasonable ability.

Very much this, I have never really believed that I am as good as people tell me I am, I guess my mate who inspired me to play was and always has been far and away technically way more acomplished than me, at 16 or 17 years of age he could play all the John Taylor basslines, most of Bernard Edwards basslines and everything in level 42's back catalogue...however he still tells me I am the better player because I can write and create basslines he only wishes he could dream up....that has always seemed really strange to me but I guess you can learn so many other peoples songs that it stiffles your own creativity?

[Len_derby]

Personally,  I reckon thinking in these terms just opens the door to a musical career of anxiety and micro-stress.

I just accept that I can be better, always will be, and I'm working on it!

 

To the OP, I've been through the redundancy programme scene twice. In two different careers. My experience is that who goes and who stays doesn't seem to have much to do with ability at the job.

Edited January 30, 2018 by Len_derby

[thepurpleblob]

Good enough for what?

I'm good enough to play in the band I play in and the band gets gigs. 

I'm not good enough to turn up to any gig situation anywhere and be able to handle it without breaking a sweat. 

[jezzaboy]

I am mediocre at best but have just rejoined the band I left last summer (not under the best terms either) as the last 2 guys couldn`t hack it, so someone loves me! 

[peteb]

6 hours ago, FinnDave said:

If people whose playing I respect ask me to play with them, then I consider that to be a sign of reasonable ability.

This...

[bubinga5]

A subjective question no doubt. !  A reasonable amount of ability involved of course. But really important things to think about, for a good bass player, is reliability, and a good attitude.. If I were to hire a bass player, I would want these. You don't need to have incredible chops to be a great bass player. 

Edited January 30, 2018 by bubinga5

[Dr.Dave]

Hard question to answer and all I can manage is that I always knew when I wasn't good enough to make me happy and feel confident but I have no memory of the time that changed.

Bubinga5's comment is a good one - indeed you don't need incredible chops to be a good bass player , but I find the players I have most time for certainly do have incredible chops. They just choose not to use them very often.

I've only got a few party tricks and half of those are the same ones backwards !