No matter how much you love playing, no
matter how challenging your regular songlist may be, there will come a
moment when you are on stage and you realize that your enthusiasm is not
what it was the last time you ran down this number. What do you do? Do
you simply resign yourself to “getting through” the tune? Do you hope
that the applause afterward is enough to bring a smile to your face?
There’s a better choice.
Whether you’re tackling “Louie Louie”
or “Got A Match?” the issue is the same: You have mastered the technical
aspects of performing the piece and your band does not tremble with
nervous energy as you’re counting it down.
The problem is not as simple as the
fact that the number has lost its initial appeal for you. If you’re
playing for an audience, your lack of enthusiasm is something that
spectators will notice. If your fans don’t think you’re having a good
time, it will diminish their good time. This means that they will
probably think twice about catching your next show, and that is a
risk you can’t afford.
Everyone has different ways of keeping
things fresh, but here are a few of mine.
The easiest way to approach the
situation for me is to find some aspect of my performance that is weak
and work on it while I am playing before an audience. I know I
can get through the tune, but with the added pressure of improving what
I do before a crowd I often have enough to give me some adrenaline and
push me in a new way. I am smiling before I know it.
Another way to make something old new
again is to change some aspect of my performance that I’m used to.
Sometimes I may play 4 bars staccato to hear the music in a different
way. Playing quarter note triplets beneath the soloist can really shake
things up. Switching to sixteenth notes for a measure or even a part of
a measure can give me a new perspective, too. These last few tricks are
something I’m more likely to try in rehearsal than I am on stage, but it
depends on the band. Some groups love to have things stirred up. It’s
important to know if your current band is one of these before you start
playing your ballad like Rocco Prestia, though!
Changing how you play a part is good,
too. This may be simply shifting your current fingering to another part
of the neck – possibly in a different octave – or figuring out a whole
new fingering all together. In the case of an R& B tune like “Mustang
Sally” or “Chain of Fools” this may not be a huge difference, but simply
listening to the new timbre of the notes or hearing how playing in
another octave affects the piece can be pretty powerful. If you’re
playing something that’s riff-based -- like “Cissy Strut” or “The Ocean”
-- a new fingering can lead you to a whole bunch of new ideas like licks
for fills and double or triple stops to play.
Which leads me to another trick. Find
the chord structure of the tune that’s giving you reason for concern and
work out some voicings that you can play to augment what you normally
do. As an added level of challenge, see if you can come up with a simple
arrangement to play the song as a solo piece on your bass! It doesn’t
have to be Jaco’s “Amerika”, Jeff Berlin’s “Dixie” or Michael Manring’s
“Purple Haze”, it doesn’t have to be something you would ever perform in
public, but try and make the tune recognizable when you are playing it
without the traditional melody voices of vocal, guitar, and sax.
Finally, if you have never considered
it, learn the melody of a tune that’s become stale for you. It is
the centerpiece of the song and if you can already play the number, it
should pose no major challenge to get the notes under your fingers, but the tough part will be to phrase it like it’s your job to
be in the spotlight. This can give you valuable insight into the song
which you might otherwise lack.
As bassists we can become very myopic
about the songs we play. We are first and foremost musicians at the
foundation of the harmonic structure, but that does not mean we have to
limit ourselves or spend our musical careers living in a box.
