Summer jams in the park

Hi folks,

Thought I’d share my experience jamming in the park, and give a little status update on my bass journey. Yesterday, I packed my $40 amp on the bicycle and went to the local park to jam with a couple of strangers and my drummer buddy who I met last year. It was really nice to jam and to see how much I’ve progressed past root notes. :grin:

We’re still working on taking good pictures:

Notice the mini whiteboard on the ground? That’s gold for bassists, you can write down chord progressions and rests and won’t get lost as much. This also helps because people don’t have to look at their phones.

Half an hour in, a bunch of dudes rocked up who knew one of the guitar players. The tallest one said “cool, can I try your bass” and proceeded to play Red Hot Chili Peppers lines for about half an hour. Felt like he was showing off - he claimed “I’ve only been playing for half a year.”

Sure, that might sting if you’re a beginner like me, but it shouldn’t be a competition. So, rather than try and find fault with his playing or whatever one does to repair one’s ego, I googled the lyrics and tried my singing voice :singer: Still, I’m gonna steal the line “only been playing for half a year”, it so makes you look like a prodigy. :innocent:

He and his buddies are not in the picture, but let me tell you about their outfits! They had a crossover between frosted punk hair and a perm (like a bad bowl of spaghetti), oversized leather jackets and bell bottom jeans going with a huge tie thrown in for the bass dude. Think Peter Gabriel meets 90s hip hop. I would go nuts if I had to find all that stuff and then make up my mind about what’s cool. Loved their style and I hope they are having a good time.

After they left, we played some jams and some covers. I remember making up a bassline for Hotel California just from the roots and a sense of what the rhythm should be - and it worked! :clap:

Now I have two options: get the outfit and only learn RHCP from now on, or continue the walking bass journey to jazz it up. :wink: What a time to be alive!

Have a great weekend!
Antonio

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“I’ve only been playing for half a year” is such a relative experience frame.
It can range from: “I bought a bass half a year ago, held it for half an hour and then didn’t get back to it” up to “The last half year I got myself several personal teachers and practiced the whole day, 8 hours every day!”

It just depends so much on how much time you can / are willing to put into practicing that it basically is meaningless as a measurement of ones experience. Still, we use it so much to compare ourselves to others.
(and of course, time is not the only factor, but the quality of the practice. Playing scales all day long will at some point get you nowhere. Or noodling around for hours on end)

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Cool, jam on! And keep those braggin’ guitarists away :joy:

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