Saturday, January 9, 2010

Gig Notes: Soul Track Mind-TC's Lounge Wed 1-6-10

Usually I like to have my thoughts on gigs up as soon as the gig is over or the next day. Thursday night I recorded the podcast for The League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen. It's a part of the Spill.com community. If you love movies, comics, TV and fanboy(girl) culture, check out the podcast and the website.

The gig was ok considering the band has played 2 sets together since November and the fact me and the horn section are being replaced. The crowd was ok, a lot of regulars with some newbies. We didn't record the gig, and that was probably a good thing. We made mistakes with parts, tempo and even a key or 2. I love to record everything. There is no better way to become a better musician than listening to yourself. When I listen to myself playing, it helps me visualize parts, solos for future musical situations.

I also take notes on the process of gigs:

1. This was the 1st gig with the my new 2008 Fender Precision bass. The P-Bass has killer deep bass sound and it's perfect for the R&B sound STM needs. I have to give it a name (my '78 Jazz is Clyde). It was rough, though because I didn't get it set up, so the action was a little too high.

2. With the addition of the my Precision Bass, I need to get a dual guitar stand to hold both basses when I'm on break. I have one stand that holds one of my basses and I lean the other on top. It kinda works, though the tuning pegs of each bass get knocked about, so I have to tune before plugging into my amp.

3. Speaking of plugging into my amp, I need to buy a new Monster 12ft. Bass cable. I have 1 12ft and 1 30ft cable now. The 30ft cable gets tangled too easier on such a small stage like TCs. I hate stepping on cables when I play.

4. I'm officially in new amp buying mode. I need an amp with 2 channels. For me, each tune needs a specific sound. My Jazz & P-Bass give me different sounds, but the amp settings need to work with the characteristics of each bass. My current amp (Hartke 3500) only has one channel, is pretty limited and lacks the subtly of sound that I want for certain songs, parts and basses. Plus, I like using pedals for sounds depending on the bass I'm using and I want to get an amp with foot-switching possibilities so I can use my pedals more effectively.

There will be a lot more about my quest for sound in future posts. I think the life of a musician is a search for sound-sounds of music, sound footing in a music career, to try to be of sound body and soul, etc...


Next gig, I'll get the set list.

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