Thinking I blew it...

[One_Dude]

I have been playing bass for about 30 years; I am not one of the flashy players that plays a dozen notes when three will suffice, and I'm certainly not one of the best players. I have played bass in several bands and regularly at church, and consider myself to be a decent player. I also play guitar, mandolin, and a bit of dobro. These days my primary instrument is mandolin.

 

At a recent jam a long-time music friend commented on my mandolin playing and asked me if I would be interested in joining the group she plays with. I said yes and she said she was going to recommend me to their band leader. About two weeks later I heard from the band leader and he asked if I would like to sit-in with them on their next job in four days. However, he asked me to play bass rather than mandolin. I said yes since he was talking about two or three songs only. Turns out he wanted me to play songs I never heard before. I was able to download their CD from CD Baby and listen to the songs he identified as the ones he wanted me to play. One song was pretty straight forward and not a problem, but the other one has quite a complex chord progression, and there was no way that I could learn it from the CD in three days.

 

In the past I have turned down people who asked me to play bass with them if we could not have one or two full blown rehearsals. I asked for a practice session in this case and we agreed to meet early before the job and go through the songs. When I got to the venue, I learned that the band leader expected that I would have played along with the CD to completely learn the songs and the quick practice would just be to verify that.

 

I expected to be provided with a copy of sheet music, or at least a chord chart for the more complex song; I was given neither. Hence, the band leader was disappointed that I had not learned the difficult song. I played on two other songs and I think that went OK. It occurs to me now that this may have been an "audition" of sorts and that I may have blown my chance to join their band. On the other hand, I think the band leader had unrealistic expectations by thinking that I should come in being prepared to play a complex piece I had never heard with no music or chord chart in three days time.

 

What do you think? Is this something I should have been able to do? Have any members here had similar experiences?

 

Thanks for your responses,

 

One-Dude

[WRGKMC]

This is not uncommon. Being able to tab parts out and learn them quickly is part of the qualifying process for playing out. I've filled in for bands where I had to tab out 40 songs and play out the next day. Having heard the material before surely makes it easier, but not essential.

 

Tabbing is a skill that takes time to learn and get good at. I still have handwritten stuff I did from 50 years ago and back then it was even more difficult to accomplish. You didn't have computers and internet to download music or tabs nor even Microsoft office to type things up. You sat in front of a turntable and lifted the needle on a record every few bars. Add to that many records weren't even in proper pitch and the only instrument tuners were strobe tuners which few could afford so you did everything by ear.

 

I'm not saying walking up hill to school and back uphill both ways is a good thing. I love the things we have today that make learning music simple. But the difficulty did three very important things. You had to use your ears for everything including tuning. You had to have a strong desire and allot of drive to go through that hassle and learn music that way. In the process of tabbing the music you memorized the song better then you ever could just being given the tab or downloading it because you analyzed every sound on that recording finding all the right notes.

 

When I used to buy albums I'd tab out every song on them. They were my library of learning. I still have my original collection dating back to the first albums I bought. Many of the scratches on them were caused during the process of learning the songs and I still know most of the songs 50 years later. I I would have been handed tabs they would have more likely been forgotten.

 

In all, the skill to tab out music is a good part of what makes a good musician who is ready to be on stage. Sure there's other things like showmanship, working with others, performing under pressure and learning to read others minds and predict what they are going to do is important too, but being able to tab your own parts out and do it correctly is probably the most basic and most important. It's the thing that separates the men from the boys.

 

Back when I first started playing I had bass players who couldn't tab or tune their own instrument. I'd have to spoon feed them every note they played and even then I'd have to simplify many parts to make them easy enough for them to be played. Most of the time they wound up being dead weight dragging the band down because they were never sure of themselves. They'd have to watch what you were playing to follow the changes instead or hanging ten with confidence they knew the part and put on a performance the way they should have.

 

Later when I started playing out professionally I had to find people who could learn the parts themselves. Just didn't have the time to teach others. The true sign of a professional is one who doesn't have to relay on anyone else to learn his parts. He goes home and he does his homework, even if it requires him to burn the midnight oil and play to the album a hundred times. When he comes back he should be able to play the part from the beginning to the end "solo" including all the breaks, verses, choruses etc. From there you rehearse to make things comfortable for everyone but there's little to no leaning on others involved to cue you along.

 

This is the competitive edge that comes with the territory of playing out. I wouldn't be caught dead not knowing may parts before I played with others. I may jam with them just for fun but a working bad requires a good deal of discipline from the start. The minute you let people dodge their responsibility of learning their parts, that's when bad habits creep in and things go south. You get these players with inflated egos who think they can sneak through relying on others to cover them. it never works. The band will never achieve its fullest potential that way because you got to cover for that persons lack of knowledge and fail to reach your own maximum performance levels. I cant even play out with people who are unsure of their parts any more. Especially in a three piece band, If I go off and play a guitar lead and the bass player doesn't play the right backing notes the whole thing winds up being a major train wreak.

 

Of course I'm not trying to jump on your case for not having the skill to tab things out yet. It takes about 5 years of playing (and tabbing) to acquire this skill for most musicians. By then if they haven't gotten the skill down yet they are either doing things very wrong or they lack the ears needed to be a competent player. The only advice I have is to start doing allot of tabbing on a daily basis so you don't have this issue again. Being embarrassed on stage like that should be a big motivator and you should carry that humility with you. I have a long list of nightmares I've endured myself but I've learned to turn them around and use them as a source of professionalism.

 

Every pro does this by the way. I watched a show on Tome Petty. When he got his first recording contract he went into the studio with maybe 3 or 4 songs. He recorded those and did pretty good. Then he was asked, where's the rest of it? Where's the rest of the album? He said that's all there was. Man he was made to feel like the lowest form of animal life possible after that. He went home to the wood shed and wrote music non stop after that and never let himself ever be embarrassed like that again. They must have done a good job on him that first time because he had a long line of hits from then on.

 

That's what I'm talking about. You should feel humility when its deserved and instead of shoving it into a box where you'll forget about it, take it and make it work for you. Painful, you betcha, but you find nothing in music comes without emotions and dealing with them in a positive way. Its what music is all about and as you walk the right path dealing with those emotions, you learn its a well beaten path walked by others.

[One_Dude]

Thanks for your comments, and I appreciate your honesty, but I am not a rookie at playing out. I have played semi-pro for almost 40 years, and I know what is required. I have always played in situations where we used either charts or sheet music until the material was memorized. This is the first time I have encountered a situation where I was expected to learn original music from a CD in three days without having written copy of some sort, and virtually without rehearsal.

 

I know that many musicians do not read music and therefore rely on Tabs to get them through. In my mind this is not the mark of a professional. I am sure there are some, bass players especially, who are able to walk into a situation without playing with the band previously and doing the band's original material and pull it off. That is probably a special talent, but I do not think it is the accepted industry standard. If it was there would be no need for rehearsals of any sort, whether it be symphony music or rock & roll. To listen to a recorded song 100 times or so to learn it is neither time efficient nor desirable in my opinion.

 

I accept responsibility for walking into this situation without following my standard practice of refusing jobs where the band is not willing to spend any time on rehearsal. There are many elements of a song that cannot be properly learned without playing with the actual band members who will be performing. In the future I will be more strict in following my standard practice.

 

Thank you again for your comments and insight, however, I think some of your comments are more suited to a new player without professional experience.

 

One-Dude

[WRGKMC]

Its good to hear you have experience, but I can tell you, out of the 20~30 pro bands I've played in and the hundreds I've recorded in the studio, I've never once came across one in the past 50 years where the band provides sheet music or tabs. The only time I had that was when I played violin in a full orchestra and you had to have the music to play.

 

I think your expectations of what's considered as normal is the exception, not the rule. Most musicians today cant even read tabs or music. You might get the actual recordings, but with most you're lucky to even get a song list from many no less the actual tabs or sheet music. Your even lucky to get the names of the artists that recorded the songs so you can get the right version of the song.

 

I know I've supplied it to many players with the music and the chord charts but given the fact so few working musicians can ever read tabs or music, I found it to be a hugely wasted effort on all but a select few. Just given the fact so few bands do much more then download lyrics I'd have to say good luck on being supplied the actual music.

 

What I've seen with most working bands you do an audition either live at an open mic night or at a rehearsal before they even decide if you're right for their band. Chances are they will select someone who knows most of the music already so they don't have to start over from scratch when they get a new player. Its always been that way with any working band I've ever auditioned for.

 

Again, if your experiences have been different then we just aren't on the same wavelength when it comes to performing. Back in my High School days, sure we used to get together and learn everything at rehearsals, but once I went pro that stuff ended. I've auditioned hundreds of players myself. I'd send them a song list, tabs, the music all handed to them on a silver platter. I'd even give them enough time to learn it. The guys who show up and cant play at least a couple songs after all of that usually wind up having the shortest auditions with the usual don't call us we'll call you as they were leaving.

 

The guys who don't need me to send them all of that are usually the pros. They've either played the music before, heard it enough times to fake it very well. You don't need to coax them to learn it either.

Last cover band I played I learned every song they played in two sessions. I came to rehearsal 3 days after they called me and knew half their list. (it was during the week and I work a day job so I didn't have enough time to chart them all) Came back to the second session and knew everything they played note for note. We made $2500 that same weekend.

 

There were some mistakes of course being so new playing together but nothing anyone in the audience would notice. In fact those mistakes were caused by them playing their own simplified versions to accommodate the last bass player they had. They had forgotten how the songs were really supposed to be played.