Just got hired as a bass player

[nomadh]

Blues band with a killer female singer and well organized and gigging needed a bass. I was getting tired of never having a bass player so got back into it 2 weeks ago. Only got in a few hours and 2 random jams the last few days. They send some songs to learn I went up and the liked me.
The down side is. Nearly all the songs are completely unknown to me. The upside is I like the songs and loved playing with them. The down is interesting but intricate bass lines on songs I don't know! I can play everything BUT HOW THE HELL DO I REMEMBER IT!?
They need me for the gig this Saturday!
I realized what I'm missing is the vocabulary of bass. I'm like a person that can read words but never read any books. Not at all like adding songs on guitar. I can relate new songs to old ones.
Worked about 15 or 18 songs today. I think i overdid it. Then I realized I only need about 30 total.
I worked out notes on 1 complicated song and it took 2 hours so I can't keep doing that.
Any hints on how to handle a fire hose blast of new songs?

[Partscaster]

I think writing down notes about a song, mapping the changes, the number of times for xyz before it goes back to lmnop..in my chicken scratch, not musical notation,
that helps me remember the layout of the song. Even if I dont look at the notes much, just having organized the map once helps me recall the layout until it becomes "wrote" in my mind.

[toomanycats]

I'm assuming your chops are up to playing those 30 tunes, so it's more an issue of familiarity and memorization.

*You must do everything possible to burn them into your brain and create a mental map. Make a playlist and listen to it whenever you can, while you're at the gym, driving the car, mowing the lawn, grocery shopping, whatever it is you do when you're not actually practicing bass. Marinate yourself in those songs. Whether or not you're consciously paying attention as you go about your daily routine, your mind is absorbing those tunes. This familiarity will provide a mental handrail to hold onto when it's time to perform.

*I'd also make a list of the 30 tunes, note the ones that you already know, or which are the easiest (simple 12 bar blues structure), and put them on the back burner. Then single out the most difficult ones and put them at the top of the list. That's where you'll need to focus your main efforts.

* While I personally enjoy transcribing, and believe that it's a superior way to learn while ear training, you need to disregard that for now as it's down to the 11th hour. Scour Youtube and other sites for instructional videos or tab on the difficult tunes. It's not cheating, you've got a job to do, you must give yourself any advantage.

*Move from the general to the particular. For instance, learn the basic progression of a song before you worry about getting down particular bass licks and fills. The important thing is getting through the song. Nuanced parts can always be improvised.

*If you're familiar with the Nashville Numbers system that would be a tremendous help in that you could make shorthand notes to follow. I'm not a fan of folks who use iPads onstage (or music stands . . . Aaararrg!), but you've gotta do whatever it takes to get through this gig.

I've been exactly where you are many times . . . mid week, gig on Saturday, three sets worth of material to learn . . . and it is stressful. But it can be done. Remember that Anthony Hopkins line from the film The Edge . . . "What one man can do, another man can do."

[Floridian FX]

I think part of the reason I quit playing all together is I would stress myself out trying to learn songs EXACTLY how they are played. Now that I have had a year or so off I have realized that nobody really gives 2 poops if you can play the song note for note. Especially on bass. You can fake it and still be absolutely fine. Unless it is a bass driven song like Superstition, Under Pressure, etc. You can sit nicely in the mix and play less than half the notes. All the babes will be paying attention to the guitar player anyway......

[andrewsrea]

Congrats!

As far as surviving Saturday, I have two experiences which may help. One was a year of doing pickup gigs (musicians who are trown toegther to play a a paid gig , with no idea what genre you'll be playing) after college, many times as a bass player. Additionally and later in life, the lead guitar player in a cover band I was in needed to suddenly quit for family health reasons. He was so good, he was a draw and we had a bunch of bookings. I had a week to take a two guitar band to one. I had to learn some very complicated parts, quick. Here is what I recommend:

- Established a fixed and light set list, with not too many complex 'epic' songs. WRITE THE KEYS (including major, its penatonic and minor) next to each song. Also make note of song parts you struggle with remembering. Identify which songs you'll need a little time between songs and let your bandmates know this. Have your band start with quality over quantity. Stretch out jam songs.
- Warm up your practices /learning with memorizing your major and minor scales.
- Identify vital bass parts. The bassline in Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' is essential. The bassline in Garth Brook's 'Friends in Low Places' is not. Learn the vital. If it is too much, negotiate with your bandmates.
- You'll survive if you play non-vital basslines, inside the scale for the key of each song. Some songs will be root note rhythm 'thumpers' and some will be 'bouncy noodling' around the scales. Feel that out.
- Make a mistake: slide or bend to the right note,or ignore it and recover. Don't grimace or the like and most people won't even know it happened.
- Quickly learn to communicate with a solid string-playing bandmate. Taking visual ques or asking for the note or key as you are playing.
- RECOVER REGIMENT AFTER PLAYING. You'll be playing more than usual. Stay hydrated, to not push to the point of cramping or pain. Gently stretch your hands after and wrap them cool rags for a couple of minutes. Low doses of anti-inflammatory may help.

[LightWingStudios]

I'm assuming your chops are up to playing those 30 tunes, so it's more an issue of familiarity and memorization.

*You must do everything possible to burn them into your brain and create a mental map. Make a playlist and listen to it whenever you can, while you're at the gym, driving the car, mowing the lawn, grocery shopping, whatever it is you do when you're not actually practicing bass. Marinate yourself in those songs. Whether or not you're consciously paying attention as you go about your daily routine, your mind is absorbing those tunes. This familiarity will provide a mental handrail to hold onto when it's time to perform.

*I'd also make a list of the 30 tunes, note the ones that you already know, or which are the easiest (simple 12 bar blues structure), and put them on the back burner. Then single out the most difficult ones and put them at the top of the list. That's where you'll need to focus your main efforts.

* While I personally enjoy transcribing, and believe that it's a superior way to learn while ear training, you need to disregard that for now as it's down to the 11th hour. Scour Youtube and other sites for instructional videos or tab on the difficult tunes. It's not cheating, you've got a job to do, you must give yourself any advantage.

*In general move from the general to the particular. For instance, learn the basic progression of a song before you worry about getting down particular bass licks and fills. The important thing is getting through the song. Nuanced parts can always be improvised.

*If you're familiar with the Nashville Numbers system that would be a tremendous help in that you could make shorthand notes to follow. I'm not a fan of folks who use iPads onstage (or music stands . . . Aaararrg!), but you've gotta do whatever it takes to get through this gig.

I've been exactly where you are many times . . . mid week, gig on Saturday, three sets worth of material to learn . . . and it is stressful. But it can be done. Remember that Anthony Hopkins line from the film The Edge . . . "What one man can do, another man can do."

SUPER advice!

[tlarson58]

30 songs? Seriously?!

8-10 songs per set is a hefty number. For goodness sake: How many hours are you playing for?

Congratulations on the new gig. I hope that you are a good fit and fun is the overriding vibe of the band.

[tonebender]

Congrats on the new band and good luck tomorrow night. Just hook up with the kick and make the butts shake, you'll be fine.

[nomadh]

Thanks for all the good tips. I'm doing alot of these things already.
Sort of good news is they canceled the gig. We were working out a setlist heavy on the songs I could get down first and the singer is getting over a cold and kept saying "not that one". Instead we have a practice on sat afternoon. Maybe without the singer. If that happens I'm screwed. As much as the vocal lines try to throw you off the changes they still help most times. Basically I've only been Tracking the changes that the vox don't force a chord change or false force. Also it's only one guitar mostly playing fills so no hiding there.
I got down a few of the hardest to prove I can play then been ticking off the easiest bulk. Now back to some of the trickier ones. I may have played more bass in the last 10 days than in my entire life. Maybe 40 to 50 +hours on these songs. Was getting to be a blur but starting to get back into focus.
Physically no problem. My fingers are just getting better. Spending lots of effort cleaning my attack tone. A fast move to the low e string can really make the transmission clunk sound. Lowered my action on my no name b stock glarry dinged $60 bass.
My kid has my good kawai but at this point I'm practiced with this and it's lighter and does sound great and looks good.
I also agree that at this point it's lots of notes and diagramming. It'll put names to groves and writing is another way to the brain.
I tried tux guitar tab but I think it'll take too long plus learning.
Thanks for all the support. I have this on a trial basis and I'm hoping a hungry more experienced bass doesn't swoop in. They have about 2 gigs a month booked so it's a real possability.

[nomadh]

@toomanycats
I maybe should look up Nashville numbers system?

HA! Nevermind.

[toomanycats]

@toomanycats
I maybe should look up Nashville numbers system?

HA! Nevermind.

You already know what I mean if I say the "I, IV, V chords" in the context of the blues. It's really just an extrapolation of that system of shorthand that assigns a numerical value to chords. Allows someone to say something like, "Key of A, the progression is I, II, VI, IV," and you immediately know that they mean A, Bm, Fm, D. More than that, the same relative relationships holds for any key.

[nomadh]

@toomanycats
I maybe should look up Nashville numbers system?

HA! Nevermind.

You already know what I mean if I say the "I, IV, V chords" in the context of the blues. It's really just an extrapolation of that system of shorthand that assigns a numerical value to chords. Allows someone to say something like, "Key of A, the progression is I, II, VI, IV," and you immediately know that they mean A, Bm, Fm, D. More than that, the same relative relationships holds for any key.

in concept yes. in execution nope. at speed. way way nope. i am working towards that but in all the people ive played with only 1 other knew it so ...
this is a sample of the riff based bass songs they do. makes it fun

[nomadh]

Just had the second rehearsal. It made made 10x harder because the singer sat out. Playing blues songs where sometimes a verse never does to the 4 or 5 without a singer?! Good news is they took a wrong turn almost as much as me. The groove was great. They saw I was capable of anything they could throw. They saw I did lots of shedding and knew riffs and flow. They saw I took correction and I think we all saw we liked each other. I was in the running with a 2nd person and they said auditions are closed and I'm it. We all agreed that if we did play that gig and with nods and guitar leading me a bit more than std and my ability to know when to drop back or correct we could have pulled off the gig. OK.
Like you all said. Still need more immersion time.
Need to tab out more parts and riffs and then practice READING THEM! I don't do that very often.

Oh, I almost forgot. On the way thre a woman stopped short on the freeway and I had to swerve but clipped my front driver side corner into her rear right corner plastic surround.. I can't even get out of my driver side door.
Aside from that the car actually drives fine. Made it to practice and showed my new band nothing stops me from rehearsal: )
The woman I hit said she was fine we both pulled over
A tow driver stopped we exchanged I drove away and awhile later the woman called and said her axle was bent?. I never touched her tire but now she's looking to score.

[tonebender]

Ouch, glad you are ok.

[Mr. Leyvatone]

I’m in a similar position. I occasionally have sat in playing lead guitar for a friend’s band (at their weekly hangout/rehearsal sessions).

The bass player moved out of state and they asked if I could help out. Mostly on bass but also on guitar. Honestly, the most logical solution would have been to add me on guitar and have one of the others play bass. But I don’t sing and the other guy does. His voice is important to the band and he sings better playing rhythm guitar vs bass. Understandable.

I’m not under the gun as much as you are. I’m familiar with most of the songs (still getting used to the originals). We can gig whenever we like at a couple of local bars.

My challenge is that I’ve never really played bass until now. My dad and grandfather were professional bass players so it’s definitely in my DNA.

It’s the usual thing. I know what notes to play, but I’m needing to quickly learn the dynamics of playing bass. It’s a blast. The more comfortable I get, the more I can focus on feel and getting the right tone from my fingers.

Slap on, brother!

[andrewsrea]

@toomanycats
I maybe should look up Nashville numbers system?

HA! Nevermind.

You already know what I mean if I say the "I, IV, V chords" in the context of the blues. It's really just an extrapolation of that system of shorthand that assigns a numerical value to chords. Allows someone to say something like, "Key of A, the progression is I, II, VI, IV," and you immediately know that they mean A, Bm, Fm, D. More than that, the same relative relationships holds for any key.

Yep - a derivative of my advice to play scales inside the song key. Your advice is to play inside the chord structure, which is a little more refined.

[glasshand]

I don't have a lot to add other than
- congratulations
- glad nobody got hurt in the car accident, and I hope everything works out OK

- I agree with Partscaster's advice: the thing that has helped me the most with learning new songs is getting the structure down, more than the specific riffs. Think of it this way: if you try and remember 10,000 notes like there's no pattern, you're never going to be able to do it; break it down into "4 of this pattern, 2 of this pattern, 4 of this pattern", and listen for specific cues when to switch, and it's a lot easier.

[tlarson58]

It's just the I and V, right?

[nomadh]

We had another rehearsal last week with the singer. It went well but we spent too much time on a few details getting perfect over getting most songs basically close enough for rocknroll. They were happy. More than me. I got horribly lost a few times. Lots of riff on the bass that are easy to play but had to remember or catch when. I think I should drop most when they are also covered by guitar until I can reliably remember which is which. I'm finding I know the first songs I learned for them still way better than many of the later ones. Like a highly compressed dementia.
My 1st gig is looming next week on the 22nd. We have most of the songs decided but this week the leader/drummer is on a cruise and the guitarist is having a family emergency of some type. I was hoping to arrange into a setlist so I could let the order help me remember key things. Oh well.
I have been doing bits and pieces of lots of your ideas.
Little memory jog bits. The song with the C#. The one with the long and short riff.
The one with the audioslave riff (formerly black sabbath riff until I could place it)
Play bossanova and I don't even know what that is.
Notes like "play jazzy"
Others like pulse and tic-toc .
10 songs are Danielle Nicolle. Really good but they are really blurring in my head. I've never listened to many women singers and I think that's part of my problem. Playing off of video I'm just grabbing every thing I can to remember and differentiate.
The good news is at rehearsal I was able to always jump in and play something in key then get to basically the right line after a few bars and it hits me. Should be better than that after the hours this week.
On top of all this I've been organizing a 6 person family birthday party. We've moved it 4 times now.
I did take a break and loosened the bolts on my fender and pried it back so now I can open my door. So that's nice.
Back to work

[sabasgr68]

We had another rehearsal last week with the singer. It went well but we spent too much time on a few details getting perfect over getting most songs basically close enough for rocknroll. They were happy. More than me. I got horribly lost a few times. Lots of riff on the bass that are easy to play but had to remember or catch when. I think I should drop most when they are also covered by guitar until I can reliably remember which is which. I'm finding I know the first songs I learned for them still way better than many of the later ones. Like a highly compressed dementia.
My 1st gig is looming next week on the 22nd. We have most of the songs decided but this week the leader/drummer is on a cruise and the guitarist is having a family emergency of some type. I was hoping to arrange into a setlist so I could let the order help me remember key things. Oh well.
I have been doing bits and pieces of lots of your ideas.
Little memory jog bits. The song with the C#. The one with the long and short riff.
The one with the audioslave riff (formerly black sabbath riff until I could place it)
Play bossanova and I don't even know what that is.
Notes like "play jazzy"
Others like pulse and tic-toc .
10 songs are Danielle Nicolle. Really good but they are really blurring in my head. I've never listened to many women singers and I think that's part of my problem. Playing off of video I'm just grabbing every thing I can to remember and differentiate.
The good news is at rehearsal I was able to always jump in and play something in key then get to basically the right line after a few bars and it hits me. Should be better than that after the hours this week.
On top of all this I've been organizing a 6 person family birthday party. We've moved it 4 times now.
I did take a break and loosened the bolts on my fender and pried it back so now I can open my door. So that's nice.
Back to work

Was going to ask how was your "bass job". Now I know. Keep on.

[glasshand]

I got horribly lost a few times. Lots of riff on the bass that are easy to play but had to remember or catch when.

Yeah, I've had that experience some times. "Lust For Life" is a great example - the bass part isn't technically difficult, but I always had a hell of a time catching the chord changes.

I did take a break and loosened the bolts on my fender and pried it back so now I can open my door. So that's nice.

I can't be the only one who read this and thought "Neck bolts? How does that help with the door?"

[nomadh]

I got horribly lost a few times. Lots of riff on the bass that are easy to play but had to remember or catch when.

Yeah, I've had that experience some times. "Lust For Life" is a great example - the bass part isn't technically difficult, but I always had a hell of a time catching the chord changes.

I did take a break and loosened the bolts on my fender and pried it back so now I can open my door. So that's nice.

I can't be the only one who read this and thought "Neck bolts? How does that help with the door?"

Yes. Reading back my "fender" post even confused me a week later.

[nomadh]

Well, we did our first gig. Drove 40 min to get to gig at 4 to start playing at 7. Drummer needs to drive 2 hours but got in horrible traffic and he was an hr late. Reminding me of the less fun part I didn't miss. We did get a nice meal ncluded but had to rush to eat it as I was learning how they setup their pa.

As far as the gig went it was sort of eh. Not many people showed up so I feel guilty about taking the money. I am having the songs sink in and knew much of it. I had a couple songs that I was and should be worried about and I was right. What bothered me was some of the other songs that I learned well and had no problem with while practicing that really threw me when live.
A few were my screw up but others just felt like the rug was pulled out from under me. Whatever I was keying on in recordings just wasn't there. Still over all I think most of my playing went very well. I think the band was fairly happy. I'm always hyper critical but I guess over all I got a B or B+. Biggest problem was chord changes under the guitar solos. It happened in places I didn't have issue with in the recordings including old band videos.
I guess there is no substitute for actual band rehearsal. We got some recordings. Maybe I'll put together a blooper reel.

[tlarson58]

Glad to hear that it went well. B or B+ is great in my book. Did anybody in the audience have any input? How 'bout the band?

[tonebender]

Glad it went B+, that is a good score! It will only get better.