https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:15:38 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-192219 Sat, 05 Aug 2006 09:54:41 +0000
I was hoping Wes hadn't seen this post. I know how much he likes the key of E. :wink:]]> News Bish https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-192219 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-192023 Fri, 04 Aug 2006 00:15:10 +0000
One thing about playing bass, you'll never be without a gig. :D]]> News Wes Inman https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-192023 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191995 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 19:35:14 +0000
The band at my church always seems to find guitar players, but often needs a bass player. I've occasionally thought about trying to play bass for that reason.


Margaret]]> News margaret https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191995 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191975 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:17:10 +0000
FB: yeah, that definitely helped. When I get really creative I'll start hitting the 5s as well as the roots. ;)

Geoo: best of luck to you!]]> News slejhamer https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191975 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191967 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:19:33 +0000 News Musenfreund https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191967 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191960 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:38:02 +0000
Geoo]]> News geoo https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191960 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191959 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 15:30:55 +0000
You'll be an old pro in no time! :wink: :D

Dan]]> News Dan T. https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191959 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191939 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 07:47:19 +0000
Happy for you man and wish you the best of luck!]]> News Flashback https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191939 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191938 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 07:42:20 +0000
Good luck with the future gigs!

8)]]> News Mike https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-191938 https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-19509 Thu, 03 Aug 2006 06:34:25 +0000
I was nervous as heck, ... but, to my surprise, I did okay! :D

Background: As some of you might know from my recent post, I was asked to play bass in the church band despite having no prior bass experience, which I made clear to the leader. But almost two years of guitar and some diligent study of forum member Kirk Lorange's PlaneTalk methodology (based on chord tones) gave me a bit of confidence. I bought a bass, practiced some of the tunes on my own, and accepted the leader's invitation to come out and jam with them this evening.

While I brought my gear, I had told them that I intended to listen and take notes rather than do much playing. They were okay with that. But when they told me the first song they wanted to practice, "Beautiful One" by Tim Hughes, I knew I could at least hit the root notes on time. So I fired up Mustang Sally and played along. Not bad, by my own estimation. I hit one clunker note and ran through a repeat sign ( : || ), but otherwise did okay.

We played seven songs in total, three of which I hadn't heard before (and for which the leader hadn't even given me the music) but they were in the same key so it wasn't hard to play along - I'd just follow the chord changes and punch the root notes. Struggled on a couple of songs with more complex rhythms or faster chord changes, but overall I kept up and didn't throw anyone else off.

Interestingly, I pointed out that they seemed to favor the keys of D and E (especially E) - even songs written in A such as Chris Tomlin's excellent "Forever" were transposed to E. They hadn't noticed that before, but the leader commented that the vocalists struggled with the keys of G and A so they tended to drop down; they just hadn't realized that they went to E so often. To myself, I said - no problem - I'm just going to stay in first position and hit the open E and A strings! I'll get more adventurous with practice, of course.

Looking back at the evening, I get nervous thinking about it - yet I don't think I was as nervous at the time, once things got rolling. I guess I was so focused on the rhythm and the upcoming chord changes that I was too busy to be nervous. And the band members were very encouraging, too, which helped.

Overall this was a great confidence booster. I'm going to work on the song riffs so I can go beyond the root notes, now that I've got a better understanding of how the band plays. Hopefully next month I'll even go "live" with them on a Sunday morning ...

8)]]> News slejhamer https://guitarnoise.forum/news/my-first-practice-session-with-the-band/#post-19509