General Music Chat

Bassist looking to seriously play with committed individuals. I can play anything you challenge me with but I prefer rock, metal and punk. No drugs, no alcohol and definitely no drama.

Check out my profile - Serious inquiries only

I see you are actually posting for your 15-year-old son, good to see a parent doing this rather than letting the kid post on line where he shouldn't, being underaged.
I'd suggest looking around your area for teen-oriented playspots, and also with the local school or private music schools. You're not going to find many high school age kids looking in places like this and with just 2 years experience, despite the lack of available bass players in some areas, a band of older players is unlikely to be interested in trying him out.

Sadly, I've never heard of a band without drama...

Talbot

Sadly, I've never heard of a band without drama...

Talbot

Indeed

oh gawd, that was a mouthful. lol

@gruitarmikeB: thanks for the great and positive advise.

Everyone else, you are correct there is drama everywhere we go, but committed musicians usually have less drama.

Thanks everyone!!!!

Sex, Drugs and Rock N Roll, is all my body needs!

Yea good luck

In my area they have rock schools, one of my good friends teaches, I dont know how you look them up, but he takes a group of high schoolers and schools them on being a band, he plays professionally, so something like that would really show you what its all about. If you are serious you need some sort of sound samples of your playing, so someone can listen to it, or maybe post a song list of things you know backwards and forwards, these days I carry a list with me of the things I can nail, so there arent any questions.

To me the worst response you can give someone thats interested when they ask what you play is "I can play anything!"

Most folks that say that dont have a clue, I love putting people on the spot at gigs that want to sit in.

"What do you play?"

ANYTHING

"Like what?"

ANYTHING

"Here look over this list, what do you know backwards and forwards that you can pull off right now?"

Well I dont know anything on your list!

"You said you could play anything!"

Ive seen this repeated so many times, someone knows the opening riff, and then nothing more.

Anyway, Im rambling cause I spent a few weeks waiting on a guy who said he could play anything, when he got there he wanted to play All Right Now, Sweet Home Alabama, and Cant You See, or any blues song.

If you say you can play anything, then you better be able to back it up, with 2 yrs experience I dont think thats possible.

Ive been playing for 40 years and I cant play everything, I can play anything I want to play, but everything, thats just too huge a statement to make.

committed musicians usually have less drama.

LOL, Are you sure about that?

Depends on where they were committed and for how long...lol

OK seriously, JW has some very good points. Check around for things like those, get yourself a song list together, make sure you can nail everything on it, and use that as a starting point, learn to handle different styles.

Also think about putting together a good listing that you can post on the bulletin boards at the local music stores. Keep it fairly short, professional and make sure what you want is clear.

Don't tell people you can play anything, but do tell them you're willing to try anything. I played fill in gigs for 4 years for a living, it was scary at first, because the guy who referred me to these bands had a habit of telling them I could play anything. What he should have told them is I could fake my way through almost anything...and I could. If I got lost I always used a volume pedal, it was easy to pull the volume down until I could find where the band went, and easy to get back into the mix just as quick, so usually most people never knew I got lost. Thing is I did it all the time with his band and he never caught me so he thought I could play anything...he ended up trying to stump me...onstage with one of the most popular bands in the area, in front of 200 people or more...but it was fun...

But the only way you can do things like that is lots of experience. Put out flyers anywhere you can, school. library, grocery stores, any place with a bulletin board that will let you.

Get some music posted so people can hear you.
And always remember the 3 P's...

Practice

Practice

Practice