The reason I play at all is because of “The Gig”. Okay a sweeping statement but that thing where it all came together: everyone well rehearsed, a decent spot on the bill, a good venue with great sound, a willing crowd. No BUM NOTES! An Encore. Smiley faces. That one that’ll keep you going through the opposite. Bum notes, no crowd, shitty venue with poor sound, people forgetting the chorus/verse/solo/coda… Anyway I said it. I have a - hopefully - nice gig tonight, a callback. Pretty much booked as we came offstage. That’s a good feeling to take to the next gig.
I played a most unusual gig on Thursday for members of Worcestershire Literary Society? An invited audience of maybe 20 for a talk and then some Dub Reggae. This ended up surprisingly being very good. We were thinking “Paid Practice” which still entails putting on the show, smiling, looking as cool as possible for an old fart etc. We ended up improvising quite a lot, we do this 'cos it’s Dub! Strange but good…
Yes, totally. Those good gigs really put some gas in the tank to handle the next not-so-good one.
I’m also finding that for me, if the hang is good and the music is good, I can handle pretty much any “bad show” in terms of pay, audience response, etc. And even if the music isn’t great, a good hang goes a long way. Good hang meaning: people being respectful of my time, appreciating me being there, and just generally being easy to be around.
Glad your Literary Society gig went well, sounds quirky!
And even if the music isn’t great, a good hang goes a long way.
True, we actually do a couple of gigs that really only pay expenses. The fuel, food and drink etc. But the crowd, the owner and the actual vibe has us looking forward to playing there again.
Yeah, totally feel ya.
FYI it’s really easy to use the Quote function on this forum platform, just highlight what you want to quote from someone else’s post and a little “Quote” dialog will pop up that automatically starts you a reply post with that selection in the quote box. Pretty slick!
This reminded me of a jazz gig I had through college. I was not a great jazz player, but I had an upright. Our drummer was not a great jazz player, but the two of us were available and didn’t demand any money.
The guitarist knew what he was doing and - somehow - suffered his rhythm section.
BUT… because we were rookies, he would play little tricks on us. The meanest/best trick was with the drummer. Whenever there was a drum solo, we would start the solo by playing a nice chord on the downbeat of every 4 bars. Very nice, very helpful.
About half way through the solo, he would turn to me (the drummer would be deep in solo land, oblivious) and say “hit on the 2” or sometimes “3”…
So there this poor drummer is, slamming and jazzing away with his helpful band pleasantly reminding him of his 4 bar phrases… and then we’d move the beat.
Oh.
I’m not sure the true delight and evilness of the trick comes across here in this post… But know this, readers: It was both delightful and evil.
Yes, it does.
Pure evil!!! 
LOL. As a drummer I have to laugh… its like being into the tune and someone drops a note here n there and all of a sudden i’m looking around wondering what tune we are playing.
Gig Report:
I got some calls for jazz gigs recently.
Woo hoo!
This is great as: It’s a gig.
I studied Jazz.
I love jazz.
This is terrible because:
I haven’t played Jazz in the last 8 years - I was touring and playing string band music: Bluegrass, Folk, and Americana.
In those 8 years, other cats (that’s Jazz Lingo for ‘hip jazz musicians’) were playing jazz gigs 5 nights a week.
So.
I was rusty, and felt rusty, and I don’t have a bank/library/plethora of tunes memorized. I made it through, and there may have been some moments of real improvised goodness.
But mostly?
Mostly I struggled to keep up, and floundered in the deep, deep jazzy depths.
So - ladies and gentlemen of the bass - stay sharp!
Keep those chops up! Learn songs! Transcribe things!!! Because when your bass muscles get flabby and you get the call from some real players that want your toned, fit, bassy-skills for the gig… it doesn’t feel great to pant and wheeze your way through.
I love this thread, and I love stories, so I wanted to get it going again with a cautionary tale from this past Wednesday.
We’ve been having a super crazy time here on the home front. I’ll spare you the details, but the basic result has been 3-4 hours of sleep for the last week. Add to that an elevated stress level, forgetting to hydrate well, possibly forgetting to get a solid meal in… and you have me on Wednesday getting on stage for the first of a two hour set.
Midway through the 3rd song I started getting dizzy. Woozy, even. Things were a bit in and out of focus - all the tell-tale signs of “hey, Gio, you might just pass out”. It was super weird and one corner of my brain thought it was funny, and would be pretty legendary to pass out on stage.
I didn’t, thankfully.
I focused, breathed a lot… didn’t play great, but made it!
After that song I ran to the band cooler and grabbed a Pepsi. I don’t drink sodas as a rule but I needed sugar!! I pounded it before and during the next song and it got me through the set.
I grabbed a bite at the set break, and floundered and flopped my way through the second set.
Holy shit.
Moral of the story - take care of yourselves, and always pack a granola bar, or an apple, or some sort of emergency snack.
It was a gnarly one… but I made it through. I even got 5 hours of sleep last night!
Things are loooookin’ good.
Wow, that’s epic ! 
I like these stories too! But in a way they seem like something so far off for me. I would love to try this stuff out someday, play in a band, have gigs. Of course, I dream about the Good, but, the Bad and the Ugly happen too, in the course of anything we do.
My question is: How does one get started with these things? I mean, I wouldn’t even know what the other musicians were talking about from these stories. I probably need a whole lot more practice under my belt too. But at what point do you attempt to join a band, without them just thinking that you suck? Are there auditions? What do you tell them when they ask what you’ve done before? I’m pretty naive about this stuff, sorry! But I do just want to make music, and get experience, and I wouldn’t have too many expectations. When I look at Craigslist ads, or sites where people put up music profiles, it seems like everyone else just knows a ton, and has years of experience. Or maybe they’re exaggerating, I don’t know, I mean, I’ve exaggerated my credentials for other things, and “faked it till I made it”.
Just trying to get some ideas of how to proceed from after B2B, and continuing to learn, and wanting to try this stuff out in the real world… Or if there’s a thread that already addressed this, let me know! Or if it’s too soon, what is the time frame of learning, typically? Thanks in advance!
Yikes! Take care of yourself dude. But yeah, if you’re gonna pass out, it might as well be while fronting 500 watts of amp and a giant cab. The bass boom might snap you back awake 
@Vik a band is not always a pro-level band 
everyone has to start somewhere. I remember my first band. We were all beginers at the time. We never gigged with this band, but we had very good times making music (/noise) and we learnt a lot. Playing in a band is incredibly rewarding. I bet I’m not the only one here with this kind of experience.
here in France we have some dedicated websites to search for musicians and band projects, I’m pretty sure the same thing exists everywhere in the world. The thing is to look for a band where the other musicians are roughly the same level than you. And of course a music genre you like.
About the questions they may have, you can simply honestly say that it will be your first band, and you can show them what you’ve done. the covers are nice for this purpose : you already have tracks in a real song context, ready to be listen to. I don’t think exagerating would be a great idea. After you finish the B2B course, I’m pretty sure you will be good enough to play in a band (avoiding disproportionate ambitions).
I don’t know if you would call that an audition but the first time you will play with unknown musicians will serve this purpose, for them to evaluate your level but also for you to see if you like the guys, if you like the musical orientation of the band, and if everybody is about the same level.
that’s it. no big deal in fact.
just my 2 cents, 'hope it helps
Yeah +1 to that. In my first band way back in college, none of us knew what we were doing at all, and only one of us (the bass player!) had any kind of musical education. For the rest of us, it was learn as you go.
Actually I guess technically that’s my only band as the guitarist from it is my friend I am jamming with now, across the internet. It’s certainly the only band I ever gigged with.
Ok, thanks! For some reason, I was equating being in a band to also doing gigs (I thought it came with the territory). But I can see how maybe it is more like a jam session scenario (I’ve never even tried this), and maybe you just somehow get the word out that “hey, I’m sort of beginner level, but willing to put in the time, if you are too, this could work”.
Yes, and it’s why I’m really appreciative of you starting that post, it is at least some way for someone to not only learn and grow, but to also document some things they’ve done or tried, and their ability!
Playing in front of people is interesting. You can never predict how someone will do the first time they play to an audience.
I was terrified I would be the weak link there as while I am outgoing in small groups I get public speaking anxiety. But nope, once we were in front of people, I was fine. I was also back in the middle of racks of synths and computers, which probably helped.
On the other hand, we had an acquaintance who wanted to be a guitarist/singer and was super pumped and a little bit cocky about it. And sure enough, the first time he got in front of a crowd, totally froze. Couldn’t play, sing, or even talk. All but ran offstage. Luckily my friend I am jamming with now picked up the pieces and the gig was fine.
The reason I am bringing this up - it’s totally natural to have fears or anxiety about playing in front of people. And it does not correlate to how you will actually do at all. It’s worth it to get out there and try even if you are terrified
Something like this but in a more structured way : with a band you will probably start with one or two songs (these can be covers) and play those songs a lot of times. You also can (highly recommended) work the tracks on your side to learn and nail the bass line : this part is in fact very similar of what you already do with the B2B workouts, nothing too exotic here. So after a few times, the songs will hopefully turn out to go very well. Then you will add another song, and so on.
In a jam scenario it’s often more a “one shot” approach. That’s very fun and interesting, but I think the band offer a better context to progress on different aspects of music making.
Can very much relate to this “challenge”, because that is what it is.
Ideally, you have some friends and decide to start jamming or starting a band with them. That’s what many of us did when we were young. The key aspect here (for me) is the “knowing each other” well part, and maybe already for some time. My own major fears when it comes to music is having to play with people I have never played with before (and who I, almost by default, deem to be better than me).
So, yes, now there are webpages where bands look for musicians, but often there is a band who has been playing for a while, and they need a (new) bass player (for whatever reason). So, you come in as the “new guy”, while everybody else is already comfortable with each other, know each others’ strengths and weaknesses, preferences, knows all the songs etc. This is a super TOUGH scenario, in my experience.
At some point, I will (have to ) take that plunge again, but I am not quite there yet
And now for the (embarrassing) stories from gigs… I guess we all have them, and somehow the “bad” and “ugly” ones become more memorable than the “good” (or perhaps “average”) ones.
One of my very first public gigs was when I was 16, 17 and playing the drums. In hindsight, the whole setup of the gig was wrong, but it was a gig and we wanted to play it. All throughout I was so nervous I thought I was eventually gonna faint. Then, on one of the songs (we were almost exclusively playing our own stuff), for reasons that remain unclear to me to this day, I started playing in double time. The others looked at me with terror on their faces (“what is this idiot doing? He is gonna mess it all up!”) Luckily the bass player (!) came to save the day, by just ignoring my crazy drumming and coolly playing his riff in “normal time”. Within a few bars I switched back to that tempo as well and we got through the song.
Many, many years later, I was playing at an open mike night, mostly RealBook stuff. While I even played in the house band of that joint, for crying out loud, I was nervous as hell to have to play with people I didn’t know (and, again, thought were far superior musicians to myself). So, this time I was playing the saxophone and while some of the others jammed, I took the opportunity to “build up” some courage at the bar with a Jack&Cola or two, or three… When I finally hit the stage, I apparently played such an excessively long solo (without taking much notice of the other musicians), that the piano player walked off the stage at some point. I was almost too drunk to notice…
Those were some of my “ugly” ones, I guess… 
Another +1 for what @terb said; not all bands are pro outfits - far from it!
I’ve been keeping an eye on a local musicians intro website but so far everybody seems to be way more experienced than myself and no ads in the area looking for folk to just learn/progress together. Yet. My plan (once I’ve got a few more months under my belt) is to put feelers out via anybody I know who goes to small gigs, plays an instrument, or know’s musicians, that I’m looking to get playing time with other people - but just for fun, and be really upfront about my level! I’m lucky in having a few friends who play various instruments (not just guitar), and even have an intro to professionals - they are mostly classical but I know most dabble with other genres. They’re mostly very helpful when it comes to picking brains and I’m sure a few will be happy to have a little jam/lesson.
There are far fewer bassists around than guitarists, so you may find yourself more in demand than you expect. Think about all those aspiring guitarists who not only feel they’re not up to playing with a band, but are then faced with actual competition to get in for some sit-in time. I think there are more bagpipers than bassists in a 50 mile radius of me - but I am in Scotland 