Time to write your own bass lines. That is what I take “by doing” to mean.
Its ok to make them simple, for now. To get past the live performance. you can always add to them or change them in the future, but for now, make your own bass line, something you will be confident playing, to the groove, on a stage, in front of live people. Make it fun, learn from it on many fronts.
from creating your own lines, to learning to play on stage, in fromt of others, all sorts of ways to grow with this task
That’s not really the problem here… it’s more about not being able to practice for myself as my memory isn’t good enough and with just one practice session a week I don’t learn enough. I don’t have reference material. That’s my problem.
I know that without repititon I won’t get the hang of the form.
To repeat it without actually drilling in mistakes I need reliable reference material.
I don’t have reliable reference material.
There’s nothing in the songs that overwhelms me anymore but I’m missing the possibility to practice those songs outside of band practice. As said: No recordings, no music sheets, not anything as reference I could practice to.
I wasn’t there when the songs were written and as I needed some time to learn the 3 with music sheets I don’t see how to learn 5 additional ones without reference material in a shorter time frame while having less free time.
The suggestion to record practice sessions is a good one as this would provide me with reference material I could practice to.
Recording practice sessions is a good tip anyway because you can remember new ideas you had. And someday those can become valuable
Joy Division is arguably the most influential band in the post-punk genre. Their last song was called Ceremony. The only available extant studio recording of Joy Division performing Ceremony is from a rehearsal session. Ian Curtis hung himself two weeks after it was recorded.
Crying about not having a reference and studio recordings of two of the song exist and are up on youtube. Sooooo… yeah. The situation is better than I thought/made it out to be.
Still like the recording idea though.
Sorry for updating so rarely. Still trying to find my balance with the usual work load.
I missed last band practice due to a dentist appointment. It was over early enough that I could’ve rushed to practice but I rather cancelled because I didn’t want to stress out and the local anesthesia usually does a number on me making me dizzy and unbalanced quite some time afterwards.
But it has been more than 2 weeks since my last update so we did practice one time.
Overall I still am enjoying myself and shedded a bit of the stress I mentioned in the few posts before that. Last time we still played through the setlist but I made the suggestion to just grind one song until I can play it and it seems this was accepted. I’ll see in the next practice session.
The reason I suggested it is that it gets a little bit better every time we play the setlist through but I mostly stumble through and can’t remember the things I learned for multiple different songs so next practice session is almost like a reset and thus not very effective learning. I reach the point of the week before faster every week but I still have to get there every time instead of remembering what to do.
Sidenote: Guitarist got angry at drummer who played too loud right next to his ear. Drummer was sad afterwards because playing drums quetly isn’t any fun.
Good to see you @juli0r and good to hear you’re still enjoying the ride.
Stumbling through songs is something I do every time I practice on my own never mind about with the pressure of others being there too but good on you for acknowledging it and not becoming a prima donna
This is so great.
Makes me realize that - even across continents and countries and language and culture - we’re all really the same.
Can’t wait for part 2:
Drummer, in passive agressive move, starts playing louder and louder. Guitarist complains. Drummer counter-complains saying Guitarist is now too loud. Volumes and tempers escalate. In the ensuing explosion of emotions and decibels, band finally makes authentic, excellent rock music.
That reminds me of one of the stories regarding the legendary feud between Cream drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce. According to the story, Bruce was tired of Baker’s loud drumming, so he got a more powerful amp (or turned it up, I’m not sure which). In turn, Baker just drummed louder, causing Bruce to amp up even louder. It went on and on, louder vs louder. According to Eric Clapton, the duo became so loud that he could pause his guitar playing and nobody would even notice.
The two musicians feuded during the entire short existence of Cream, but they sure put out some great music.
good suggestion, but limited practice space. At least one person more or less has to be next to drums. I didn’t see the old practice room but the other members were very happy they had enough room to turn around in the new one… around a heavily populated area like Cologne practice space is hard to come by at all and a big practice space is just too expensive. We already pay half the amount of a small flat…
It’s… it’s actually the guitarist who tends to set himself too loud. Which I really don’t understand as he does not need to change settings on the amp - we all have our own adjustable mix. He could just adjust his mix so he hears himself louder. Maybe it was lazyness but it was really annoying as this throws the mix off for everyone and I took a bit to notice as I did not think that the mix changed. It was like “why do I almost not hear myself? mhhh”.
The simple reason why playing drums softly is no fun is because it is so much harder to keep good time when you have to restrain yourself! Drummers hate that feeling…
@juli0r good to see you posting, we can live the dream thru you just have fun it will get easier. I’ve also not been on much, also to busy, try to catch up with everyone before sleep. I’m having fun with my bass
Jamie
just have fun it will get easier. I’ve also not been on much, also to busy, try to catch up with everyone before sleep. I’m having fun with my bass 