Two Good Examples of a Great Country Sound

Our band does two great Patsy Cline songs, "Crazy" and "Walking After Midnight."  Here are two videos of a professional group performing them.  I would love to attain this level of professionalism.  We move in that direction with every practice.

Note especially how this performer sings with passion and feeling, what we call "soul."  It isn't enough just to sing the words, you need to sing them as if you believe them.

Crazy

Practice Session of Sunday, January 16, 2011

I have started filming our practice sessions.  I am posting the best of these sessions here.

This first post features our new lead guitar player, Lorraine Lewis.  Lorraine's guitar riffs add an important new element to the band.

Spooky

Recent YouTube Videos of the Band

Here are some recent videos of my band playing gigs.  To hear my bass you will need to listen with headphones, as small computer speakers cannot reproduce the sound.

Played at a Christmas Party, December 14, 2010, VA Hospital in Palo Alto, CA

Moondance 

More Videos of the Band -- Taken July 2010

These videos were taken at the Livermore, CA VA Hospital in July, 2010.  We had lost our female singer and our guitar player had to carry the day by singing all the songs himself.

Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

Learning Bass

I played electric bass when I was in high school and for a time after graduation.  I put myself on a long hiatus to finish college, build a career and raise a family.  Then about three years ago, when I was making good money, I ordered a Fender Mustang bass guitar and a Fender bass amplifier.  I converted my upstairs home office to a music room and began practicing scales and studying music theory.

Playing scales every day, in every key, both major and minor, really worked.  I soon knew my bass neck better I ever had, and could hear chord changes much better too.  If you really want to play bass, practice scales until your fingers fall off.  Yes, it's boring in a way, but so is weight lifting.  If you want big muscles, two things are required:  (1) effort and (2) patience.  It works the same with learning bass.  Playing scales is a form of exercise:  you are exercising your ears, your fingers and your brain.

Last January (in 2009) I contacted a band advertising for a bass player on Craig's List, and tried out.  They liked me, I liked them.  We began a steady regimen of weekly practice together, gigging occasionally for mostly unpaid charity events.  Meanwhile, my knowledge of bass and bass lines grew exponentially, my ear continued to develop and my confidence grew.

So now I am a bass player.  Now what?