So I attend an open mic at my local micro brewery every Thursday. Not to play but to watch, listen, and learn.
We’ve become regulars and most of the players know us. They also know iI’m an aspiring player that looks forward to being on stage with them.
A couple days ago a trio reached out to me to ask if I wanted to fill in on a day when their bassist is going to be away. April 16th. They often play without bass so them reaching out to me was, honestly, just them being nice and telling me ‘it’s time’.
I agreed and asked for a list of their songs to see if I know any already, and to pick a couple more. I settled on a short list of
Hey Joe - already familiar
Folsom Prison - Hey! We learned this already!
Paradise (John Prine) - new
Sympathy for the devil - new
Wonderful Tonight - new
I logged onto Ultimate and gathered the song sheets. After trying them out I figured I’m OK on them and could work on practicing with them in person. I sent them the sheets so they know what I;m working with and they replied that Folsom is played in a different key but the others were OK. No Problem, I transposed using Ultimate Guitar’s tool.
They also added the fact that “those tabs don’t really apply to what we’re doing on guitar.”
Now, I’m not sure what this means. I’m probably reading too much into this so my brain is over-reacting. I’m hoping that he just means “I don’t know why you sent me bass tabs, i play guitar!” and not that the arrangement is so totally different than what we play that these are crap.
All that to say, if it is the 2nd point, how do you work with this? I have tried playing along with someone also from open mic night who changes the arrangement and I found it incredibly difficult to work with. Time changes, shortened song, key changes…I’m terrible at improvising and need to be able to practice exactly what I’m playing.
Sorry for the wall of text. If you’ve gotten this far, thanks!
OK, Got some clarity, They were commenting on the fact that they are BASS tabs!!!
LOL
Either way, I’d still love to know what other would do in the above situation where you are playing with others who don’t follow the ‘studio release’ of a song.
I would get the chord / lyric sheets for each song and send it to them to confirm
This is the key they’re playing in
This is the chord structure they’ll be using
Any changes to the above.
You’ve then got the key and chords for the songs.
I’d listen to those 4-5 songs on repeat until they’re ingrained / sick of them
Then play along just playing root notes. Don’t worry about fills / melody. You want to get to the point where it’s GCD for the verse and oh the chorus is coming up it’s GDCG
As long as you’re outlining the chords and are in time you’re gold.
Super simple bass line but be solid in your timing and chord progressions is where I’d focus.
Oh and have fun, you’re not curing cancer. It’s open mic night with friends.
First off - congratulations! You’re going to have an awesome time. Relax and have fun with it.
Secondly - I’d say you need to know the song structure to be able to play it. If they’re doing unusual arrangements then they need to share the arrangements with you before hand rather than springing a surprise on you on stage.
I’ll be seeing them tomorrow and will discuss your suggestions. I’m pretty comfortable with most of these, even Sympathy (though I omit a lot of fillers), but the only one that’s going to be trickier is Wonderful Tonight.
I’ll take your suggestion and concentrate on the root notes and then fill in as I go. As it is there are already changes in the notes that would quickly make me want to put it down. I’ve been finding “play it my way” has been working well on these songs that are more difficult. This song will be most of my attention in the coming weeks.
I agree with this 100%. I started this way and I’ve progressed to playing actual covers during open mic night. We’ve had 4 performances so far and planning for #5.
Outlining the chords in time will be enough to keep you busy for your first performance.
I ‘ve seen them play these songs before and they do seem to stick to the structure. I requested that we do a recording of just them as a backing track for me to play along with. I did that with a friend who I’ll be playing Wichita Lineman with and it’s been awesome.
Let them adjust your volume. Any mistakes will be less noticeable and it will allow you to lose the anxiety as you get going. Have fun, it is addictive.
One of the problems I’ve had with my band is that Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music can have different versions of songs. I’m not talking about extended remixes etc, but subtle differences like an extra two bars in a guitar solo, or similar. The thing we try to do, and to be honest don’t always succeed at, is agree which version of the song we are going to use as “our” version.
I then use Moises - I download an mp3 of the song, listen to the isolated bass line, decide how I’m going to play it, then drill it, over and over. I try to get to the point where I know the song inside out and can play on autopilot…
We had a 3 month band hiatus, but got back into the rehearsal studio last week. The songs we know, we really know, and just played them. Ultimately, that’s when you know you know the song - 3 months off and you could gig the songs that evening. Obviously, for a first open mic, you don’t need to be there, but hey, open mic leads to being a bassist in a band!!
Congratulations! This is so awesome! Once you get the chance to meet them and practice together, things will get clearer. Barney and SunDog have good points there.
Great opportunity, don’t pass it up.
One of the best things about open mic nights is that the crowd is very receptive…and you’re only allowed to play three songs at most of them.
It definitely cuts down on the anxiety.
Other than that, can’t you rehearse with these guys before you play out?
Suggestion - if this is your first time on stage - go for a very simplified version that you can play 100% of time with 0 mistake - Nobody will notice (they will notice if you start to stop playing because you got lost because a mistake led to another and then to another and then you got lost )
indeed, as @sunDOG suggested, be clear on which version of the song you’re playing - if they looked at your tabs and said these are bass tab we don’t read this , it also means they didn’t check tonality, structure of the song… this could lead to unpleasant surprises
Started with @Barney s suggestion of just playing the roots. This has been a great help on Wonderful Tonight. I’ve been practicing that one quite a bit and can play a simplified version fairly well. Some of the chorus changes throw me a bit but I have time to clean that up.
Paradise looks fairly simple, but I just need to figure out the pattern. That will be my next song to concentrate on.
Practicing with them tomorrow and we’ll chat tonight at the regular open mic night.
I actually really like it. It’s a nice melody, and it helps that I can now play it!
I’m still in the phase that I listen to myself playing these songs I love (or not) and I’m blown away that I can play these songs I love (or not)! Some of the songs I play because I’m playing with someone who wants to play it, or it’s one of the 50 song challenge.
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