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Thread: Bassist Audition

  1. #1

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    Last year, we were auditioning bass players so I decided to set up a stealth camera so we could sit down and compare each one afterward. I thought it might provide an opportunity to evaluate without being distracted by our own playing. I taped over the red light so as not to add any pressure to the various bass players. Anyway, once we had gone through the audition songs with Jim, we jammed on a few others. Here's our jam on Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild.


  2. #2

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    Great playing every one, bass included. Where was the keyboardist hidden?

    all the best...

  3. #3

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    Very cool.

  4. #4

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    Everything sounded great and that is really a good idea, so later you can focus on the bass player but I think I would feel guilty for some reason.

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by kay-gee View Post
    Great playing every one, bass included. Where was the keyboardist hidden?

    all the best...
    Thanks. She's facing me just off camera. You can see her music stand on the left.

  6. #6

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    One suggestion. Give the girl singer some hand percussion or something. It makes them seem more engaged esp. during the parts when they aren't singing.

    all the best...

  7. #7

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    Xsabers - I like your idea of taping the auditions. The band I am in is also looking for a bass player - maybe we should try that approach. Don't know about how hard bass players are to find in your area, but it has been a real change for us. How quick can you tell if you think a bass player is the right one for your band?

  8. #8

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    Xsabers - I meant to add in my previous post that I thought your band sounded great on that Steppenwolf tune - excellent job! The guitarist / singer did a real good imitation of John Kay, IMO.

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by kay-gee View Post
    One suggestion. Give the girl singer some hand percussion or something. It makes them seem more engaged esp. during the parts when they aren't singing.

    all the best...
    She actually sings lead on about half the tunes. She does have several percussion instruments she uses on stage. There are a few songs where she leaves the stage altogether and mingles with the patrons or takes a cowbell out onto the dance floor and rocks with the people. They love the engagement on behalf of the band.

  10. #10

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    Good job on the song!

  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sticks4drums View Post
    Good job on the song!
    Thanks Glen!

  12. #12

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    Good stuff

  13. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by ludleg View Post
    Xsabers - I like your idea of taping the auditions. The band I am in is also looking for a bass player - maybe we should try that approach. Don't know about how hard bass players are to find in your area, but it has been a real change for us. How quick can you tell if you think a bass player is the right one for your band?
    LONG RESPONSE WARNING!

    Wow, that's a difficult question. You likely know if someone is wrong for your band right away...sometimes. Here are some of the "wrong guy for the job" experiences I've had.

    #1 Original bassist, was in the band when I was added. 1st gig; spends all night posing for his date. Uses a 50' cord and leaves the stage to go stand by her and pose as a rock star. Then decides he needs to take a leak when we are not on break so we play a song without him. Buh bye!

    #2 1st gig; bails on the band immediately after we finish to go to a jam with his old band mates. His pick-up truck was needed to move gear and he knew that. Buh bye!

    #3 Excellent player with lengthy resume. One day before the first gig, after the sponsor had printed and distributed flyers and taken out an ad in the newspaper, this guy says he has a rehearsal for a community theater gig that starts 2 hours after we would be finished with our gig, so he flat out tells me he’s just not going to play our gig and accuses us of trying to limit his earning potential. Buh bye!

    #4 Great guy, decent player, played with us for about a year until we noticed he had fallen off the wagon pretty hard and was getting drunk at gigs. He was a recovering alcoholic and we could tell that he couldn’t handle being in that environment. And we could see it was straining his marriage. So we politely let him go and wished him well. I think he was relieved and I know his wife was.

    #6 Another great guy who auditioned well, but holes in his ability started becoming more apparent as time went on. We stuck with him until our guitarist quit, and he took the opportunity to back away as well. We didn’t try to talk him out of it even though we knew replacing two key players is much more difficult. Without a guitar or bass, you really don’t have a band, but more of a “project with history”.

    #7 Is Jim, the guy in the video.

    All these guys seemed like the right guy for a time. It’s really hard to see into the future and if they have character issues. Some guys who we decided against during the vetting process:

    The Ken Doll: We met this guy at Starbucks before scheduling an audition. He was blond, tan, and had perfect teeth...and knew it. He went on and on about his voice and kept spraying his throat with some elixir during our conversation. He bragged on and on about his vocal skills until he decided to give us a recital…IN STARBUCKS! All of a sudden, he starts singing some operatic piece at the top of his lungs…IN STARBUCKS! I wish I could be the type of person that reacts accordingly and had just stood up and said, “WTF ARE YOU DOING, YOU FREAK? DO YOU NOT REALIZE WE ARE IN STARBUCKS???”. But instead, I sat there appearing interested while avoiding the stares of the other patrons. No audition was scheduled.

    The Over-Promiser: Nice guy, padded his resume and highly exaggerated his ability level. 8 bars into the first song it was apparent. Waste of time.

    The Know-it-all: Guy: Loaded with talent and knowledge, starts trying to run the rehearsal during his audition. I appreciate enthusiasm, but dude, if you are that abrasive and assertive during an audition, how will you be once you are here for a while?

    The Opinionated Guy: Ok player. Might have worked out in the long run, but starts off criticizing songs on our list as if we are rubes.

    The Ultra Flake: (I’ve told this story before) This is the guy who takes the cake, IMO. Years ago, he auditions, seems excited, plays like a pro, sings great harmony. Tells me he’s ready to join. I call him the next day and he has changed his mind and tells me, “You have issues and you know what they are.”. What??? So I push him a bit and he says “Your (now former) guitarist has performance issues”. Ok, but last night you were all-in and today you aren’t? So fast forward a couple of years, problem guitarist is gone, Flake Dude sees my ad and knows it’s me and he wants to audition again. He is so good and we really wanted him the first time, we go ahead and audition him again, and again he is “all in”. Next day or so he calls and says his dad has fallen ill in Nevada and he was going to have to move over there for an undermined amount of time. Ok, that stinks, but family first. No hard feelings. Fast forward a couple of more years and he sees my ad again. He calls me and suggests merging our two bands (he was playing in a power trio) and he and the guitarist show up and things click like crazy. Man, this is going to be good. We were immediately at a higher level. I casually mention that we were glad that the third attempt was the charm as we had tried to get him in the band twice before. He replies, no, it was only once. So I mention the time his dad was ill and he denies it ever happened and it wasn’t him. Now my memory has been known to fail from time to time and I figure I just have my bassists mixed up and it was someone else. Jump ahead a week, I get an email out of the blue entitled “I’m out!”. He uses the same line as before “You have issues and you know what they are”. Well, I know it’s not the guitar player this time because he’s your guy. He also tells me not to count on the guitarist staying either, as they are a team with more than 20 years of history. I am crushed. We all are. It was like getting dumped by your girlfriend. So I forward his email to the guitarist and tell him we would love to have him stay with us, but I understand if that’s not to be. All this time, I’m actually sick to my stomach. To pass the time, I start going through old emails and guess what I found? Yep, messages from this flake about his sick dad and moving to Nevada. All the stuff he had flat out denied. Now I’m pissed! Hours pass and I get a response from the guitar player. Expecting the worst, I am shocked to read that he is mad as hell at the bass player, reveals that he has torpedoed as many as 4 promising bands for no reason, and that he was immediately dissolving their friendship and he would stay with us (that’s the singer in the video). 1 month later we added Jim on bass, whom I’ve known for years.

    Bottom line; you can’t really know about someone’s personality and commitment until they’ve been with you for a while. Always go into the process of adding a member with a list of items you are looking for, but when you do invite someone to join, it should be on a trial basis. Give it a couple of months and if either side decides it’s not working out, no hard feelings. Of course, you can do this without stating it, but then it’s just axing a member. If everyone understands it’s a trial period, then you can have a candid conversation as the period ends and it’s not as harsh as firing someone.

    Good luck! If you can, scout guys at open jams. Some are not interested in a band commitment, but there may be some who are.

  14. #14

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    Can I just add that i took me a couple of weeks to get the courage to post this video? I make no false claims about my ability level and fully realize there are cats on here for which I am not qualified to carry their stick bag, but it's tough for me to share stuff. Thinking there might be others on here with a similar anxiety, I encourage you all to share stuff. We are all at different points on the same journey. Guys who are more accomplished are simply further down that road. But at one time, they were exactly were you or I are today. Some of us will never make it to the point that others will and that's ok.

    Bottom line, I always enjoy what other members share and there is always something I get out of it.

  15. #15

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    Good stuff, X. I enjoyed the audition summary. My band got lucky. We found our last (3rd...4th if you count me as the original) bass player on Craigslist. He happened to live literally 2 blocks from me. He fit in right away and is one of my best friends now. I've known him for almost 5 years. I sold him my last Jeep.

  16. #16

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    Love the stories. Sound like some of my own experiences.
    But, the video says it is private and won't let me play it. Disappointed!
    Proudly playing:
    Doc Sweeney Drums
    A bunch of snares
    A bunch of cymbals

    Off-Set double pedals

    I think I love to play the drums simply because you get to hit 'em!!!

  17. #17

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    We let our Bass player go last fall. He was OK in terms of ability, but a ROYAL PAIN to try and get along and work with. Constantly criticizing everyone behind their back and a totally negative attitude. He had ZERO social skills and wanted to control everything. Unfortunately, he owned the PA system and we practiced at his house. We told him straight up several times that he needed to change his ways. He'd get better for a few weeks, then back to the same old same old. Finally, one guy got tired of dealing with him and quit. The rest of us got together and decided to just cut the Bass player. We bought a PA system and moved practice into my brothers basement. My brother plays Bass, so we moved him from slide guitar to Bass. Within a week, we had another guy join who plays Bass and guitar as well as vocals. After two weeks, we were immensely better than we ever were. Everyone opened up musically and played with energy and feeling. 99% of it was due to the improved atmosphere and attitude of the group. Everyone was happy, comfortable and relaxed.
    IMO, the most important aspect of a band is the dynamics and relationships of the members. If you can get that in order, the music side is much easier. If not, it can become a struggle just to maintain, let alone make progress and improve.
    -Brian

    "Too many crappy used drum stuff to list"

    Play the SONG......not the DRUMS!!!

    "I think that feeling is a lot more important than technique. It's all very well doing a triple paradiddle - but who's going to know you've done it? If you play technically you sound like everybody else. It's being original that counts." ~ John Bonham

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