Anxieties with joining a ready made band - just me?

[mikel]

It would make much more sense for them to decide on the set list for the next gig and let you learn that and practice it with the band. That way the gig should go well and the pressure will be off trying to learn a silly amount of songs. Then you could work up another 5 or 6 for the next gig. That way the whole band would bed in the songs with the new member without learning stuff they hardly ever play. That can always be done at a later date.

[Monkey Steve]

The couple of times times I've come in to an established band with a set to learn - both permanent and depping - it's always been, like you, where I've been asked to join/help out.  The bands were always very supportive, and happy to work on stuff where I was making mistakes as long as i was putting in the work and showing that I was taking it all seriously.  For one band I learned 27 songs in three weeks (and took to the stage with my set list covered in notes) and for another I learned an hours worth of fast, technical songs in about two months.  Despite it only being ten songs, the second lot was a much harder learning process, and the fact that it worked was down to hard work on my part and a lot of effort and support from the band, but them knowing that it was all to their benefit to do that.

Your lot sound like a reasonable bunch. and it does them no favours to play their next gig with a bass player who's struggling on some of the songs.  Like Mikel, I suggest asking them for their preferred set list, and discuss whether it's worth swapping some songs for others on their master list that you can get up to speed on quicker.  They might have some staples that are undroppable, and if they are trickier to play then you know you need to get started on them early rather than picking off all the low hanging fruit and leaving the harder stuff for later.  But the important point is to get it nailed down as soon as possible, so you know what to work on

[Ricky 4000]

As the above posts ^^^^.

Anxiety is like having a particularly sadistic and unpleasant interpreter in your ear.

If the band leader says "Here's a huge list of all the songs we do / have done in the past - it's just to give you a feel for our style, and perhaps you might know some of them already".

Anxiety is the sort of friend who translates that as "You should know how to play all of those perfectly, and more besides. You're really not very good, are you?".

In other words - it's no friend at all.

[geoham]

Here’s how I would approach the situation:-

- List the songs you already know, and confirm you know them in the right key! 

- Categorise the rest based on difficulty. You might get lucky and have many songs with simple, repeating chord sequences where you can get away with root notes. 

- By focusing on the low hanging fruit to start with, you’ll probably end up with a far shorter list of songs you need to work on.

Some other tips that have helped me in the past:-

- Put all the songs on to a Spotify playlist (or similar), and listen to it while commuting, working or whatever. You may be surprised how much your brain takes in subconsciously.

- Focus on what’s important in songs. Unless there is a recognisable bass part, then just playing the root of the chords could be enough to get you through until you learn a song properly. On the other hand, take the time to learn any important or recognisable riffs.

- Don’t let getting the ‘right sound’ get in the way of learning a part. Playing the correct part with a clean P bass sound will normally go down better a badly played part with the right sound.

- Keep an eye on your guitarist or keyboard players left hand if you get lost!

More than anything, enjoy yourself.

Good luck!

 

George

 

Edited February 21, 2019 by geoham

[Cuzzie]

Agree totally with subliminal listening - as long as they are pretty true to the original it’s anazong what you take in.

I go through cycles when listening of a general overall listen, listen specifically to singing/other instruments for ‘triggers’ and listening to just the bass and really focus on it, even so much as doing the fingering/plucking/picking while driving or walking or whatever you are doing.

Its amazing what you hear listening to the same song multiple times and concentrating on certain aspects

[bigsmokebass]

@Cuzzie I hand it to you brother as you both play bass and sing (I'm sure others do too!) But I've seen a few of your videos and they're not exactly slow or easy bass lines to be doing both playing and singing. You're a exceptionally talented guy! 

I've managed to get ~30 songs in the bag, down to the original recording and hoping it will show in rehearsal the effort I've put in getting these songs down to the most intricate of parts too. It's all coming along with time but being dumped with the entire catalogue of songs had been rather overwhelming. I have raised that we start at rehearsal getting at least a few songs down tight than to have a sloppy 15-20 songs quickly ran through. 

@Ricky 4000 is spot on about anxiety and I wouldn't consider myself an anxious person generally. This 'friend' has definitely put a lot of pressure on me to perform how I had in the past to be head hunted to be asked to join the band and I'm slowly overcoming this feat, to perform as good as I have. 

Again, thank you all Inc @geoham @mikel @Monkey Steve for your sound words and advice 

[mrtcat]

Been through this recently. In Jan I joined a really established band with a LOT of gigs booked which will essentially allow me to gig for a living. They gave me a list of 70 songs but broke it down into three sections (1.Always Play, 2.Often play, 3.Rarely play.) so I worked on everything in order of priority. Yeah it was daunting but turns out that the set list rarely changes that much and we are only now starting to add new songs now we have half a dozen gigs together under the belt.

I found the learning less daunting than the whole "being the new kid" thing and actually used it to take my mind off the fact that I was about to embark on a whole load of work with guys that were essentially complete strangers. One month in and all is going well and I certainly don't feel like an outsider anymore.

[gt4ever]

I joined a new band about 14 months ago. They showed me 86 songs and said that they never play the same set twice.  As said before, we were all sensible about it and worked on 12 songs over 2 weeks and then another 12 songs and we gigged those the next month.  There was a mix of tricky and easy.  I had to decide to play the trickier ones within boxes first so I could jam them at rehearsal to see if their arrangements were true to original.  From there it was a case of putting in the time and having fun with it.  I’m now fully up to speed, have put forward a good dozen of my choices and I’m now comfortable playing duke box gigs with them.  This is where clients get a full list of our repertoire on their tables and they tick ones they like. We gather them up while they’re finishing their meal and make a set list on the fly,  keeps you on your toes as a musician and it’s pretty good fun.

Main thing is to enjoy yourself, have fun, and be realistic as to what is possible in time constraints.  Good luck!

[PatrickJ]

26 minutes ago, gt4ever said:

 This is where clients get a full list of our repertoire on their tables and they tick ones they like. We gather them up while they’re finishing their meal and make a set list on the fly,  keeps you on your toes as a musician and it’s pretty good fun.

That's a great idea!  Unfortunately my band doesn't have a strong enough repertoire to pull this off but I love the concept.