I've come to the conclusion that my audiences are kinda dumb about most things musical. The same ppl have been coming to my shows for 25+ years around here. They've heard me when I was in great form, when I was drunk, when the sound guy was flooking up, when ppl accompanying me were out of tune, in short - under nearly every possible situation. They don't notice a flooking thing.
All that hard work I had put into my playing, the little sweeteners & accents, all of it was prolly for naught, cuz they just don't hear it. They hear the song choice & the voice.
I switched to light gauge strings yesterday, but I didn't adjust the neck, like a big damned dummy. So there was this little rattling in the sound. I had ppl commenting to me about how did I get my axe to sound like a 12-string without effects pedals. They loved it, while I was playing softer than usual to keep the crappy stuff from coming through & sweating bullets.
Due to the hand stuff, I've had to dummy down nearly all of my songs. But for some reason, ppl kept coming up to me telling me I sounded better than ever. These weren't friends being nice, either. I'm talking about ppl I see once or twice a year, who seemed to really get into what I was doing.
Don't get me wrong. I didn't suck last night, but it was a far far cry from what I could do in my heyday, which seemed to end about 3-4 years ago as the hand went floopy. Perhaps they were just in need of a good party after all the rains & economic woes & such.
I mean, I know what's good & what ain't. On a 1 - 10 scale of my work over the last 20 years, I'd hafta say that last night was about a solid 4. I took out all the lil hammerin' suspended fourths, the pull-offs I used to do, even had to change some chord voicings to accomodate my reduced abilities, yet no one, not even the wife, seemed to notice.
It was pretty exhausting, having to change so much on the fly, & I feel kinda burnt crispy this AM, with the fingertip blisters & all. Why won't my callouses grow playing bass?
Eh...I guess I really AM my own worstest critic.
All that hard work I had put into my playing, the little sweeteners & accents, all of it was prolly for naught, cuz they just don't hear it. They hear the song choice & the voice.
I switched to light gauge strings yesterday, but I didn't adjust the neck, like a big damned dummy. So there was this little rattling in the sound. I had ppl commenting to me about how did I get my axe to sound like a 12-string without effects pedals. They loved it, while I was playing softer than usual to keep the crappy stuff from coming through & sweating bullets.
Due to the hand stuff, I've had to dummy down nearly all of my songs. But for some reason, ppl kept coming up to me telling me I sounded better than ever. These weren't friends being nice, either. I'm talking about ppl I see once or twice a year, who seemed to really get into what I was doing.
Don't get me wrong. I didn't suck last night, but it was a far far cry from what I could do in my heyday, which seemed to end about 3-4 years ago as the hand went floopy. Perhaps they were just in need of a good party after all the rains & economic woes & such.
I mean, I know what's good & what ain't. On a 1 - 10 scale of my work over the last 20 years, I'd hafta say that last night was about a solid 4. I took out all the lil hammerin' suspended fourths, the pull-offs I used to do, even had to change some chord voicings to accomodate my reduced abilities, yet no one, not even the wife, seemed to notice.
It was pretty exhausting, having to change so much on the fly, & I feel kinda burnt crispy this AM, with the fingertip blisters & all. Why won't my callouses grow playing bass?
Eh...I guess I really AM my own worstest critic.
