I’ve been trying to get this picture for a while. Finally managed it. I seem to have enough that it’s a series, when I get a few more I’ll let you have a look and see what you think. In the meantime I hope you enjoy this one.
I’ve never had a chance to document this before, so this is quite a special picture. When I’m playing bass with people, whether it’s a concert or just a session, this is often my view of the left hand–which is where you get the ‘what chord is it’ information. Yup, that’s as good as it gets. Better than most times because here I’m standing and he’s sitting down. Makes it a special kind of challenge.
But you’re right, it’s way too weird that I can often tell what chord someone’s playing from behind. Funny what we can get good at.
Well, my friends continue to be good for me. In particular they continue to find reasons for me to get out. I think I’ve told you about going to a session on Tuesday nights. Nice place in Fergus, pretty normal as far as these things go, and pretty special too in its way. Folks are nice enough to let me thump along on the bass for much of the night, but they cut me no slack and play in all the challenging keys. Then comes the moment when I’m trying to figure out the bass part to that song I know, except I don’t know it in C-sharp minor, and someone takes that as a cue to begin a conversation with me. I don’t know what it is about me trying to figure out something on the bass that makes a nice, normal person think I’ll have a brain cell left to put together any kind of response to whatever it is they’re saying.
Or maybe you’re right, maybe it’s just that at that particular moment it doesn’t really sound like I’m actually trying to play. So they take it as an invitation. I suppose that’s fair enough. You couldn’t really say, “Careful! He has a bass in his hands, he might be trying to play it. You never know.” That somehow wouldn’t be fair.
Although this whole thing might be giving weight to my personal theory that no one actually hears the bass, they just notice when it stops.
But somehow I am reminded of how the duck swims–on top all serene while underwater paddling like mad.
A really large, flightless duck.
That never particularly learned how to swim.
I think one of the ways that I’ve been lucky is that most sessions I’ve been involved with have included instruments other than guitar. And while that other instrument may be nothing more exotic than a fiddle, oftener than not it’s something a little more unusual. Not only do I get to hear all these different sounds, it somehow makes the unusual a little more normal. Which strikes me as being healthy somehow.
(this particular session it was a kannel, from Estonia)
I may have told you that I’ve been enjoying a session Tuesday nights in Fergus. I usually leave the guitar at home and take my bass just to get in some extra time on the instrument. Typical of such a session, most of the singers play guitar–and use their capo quite freely. Which means that for two or three hours I get to play in all the difficult keys. G and C are quite rare. No, usually it’s C-sharp, E-flat, F-sharp, B… they show no mercy. So I get two or three hours of practice in all the keys I might not choose to play in on my own. It’s really quite kind of folks to let me play along. I suppose it’s nice, too, that they won’t let me get away without singing on my turn. Which means I often figure out whether or not I can even play a particular song on the bass right while I’m in the middle of singing it for them. Yeah, they’re nice to let me keep coming.
Last week I got talking to one of the regulars about memorizing the words for a song. I agree, it takes some work. But I think it’s a good thing to do. It allows you to get inside the meaning of a song in a way that’s difficult when you’re reading the words. I know quite a few really fine singers that can’t do without their big book of words. I think it becomes even more of a problem when we keep adding songs to that book. It becomes a huge job to memorize all of the songs in a huge book. So we don’t even try. So whenever I’m talking to players who are just starting to collect a few songs that they can sing and play all the way through I try to convince them to start memorizing now, while it’s still early for them. But the point I always stress is no matter how many songs are in the book–start with one. It may take a week, or a month, but that song will be better played for it. Once you’ve got one go on and do another one. Just like everything else in music, you’ll get better at it with practice.
Because I’ve made a lifelong habit of learning the words to songs and poems and such, I’m often asked if there’s some kind of trick involved. No, just a significant amount of repetition. The one thought I do pass along is that I don’t really memorize the words so much as I learn the sound the words make. To my ear the words have their own melody. And that melody is what I learn by heart. I know it’s a tough concept for some folks to get, but that’s how it works for me.
The melody in the sound of the words…
I’ve been trying to get this picture for a while. Finally managed it. I seem to have enough that it’s a series, when I get a few more I’ll let you have a look and see what you think. In the meantime I hope you enjoy this one.
