Set the Gig So You Figure Your Garbage Out
I spent the better part of two years really learning how to play live keys, and by that I mean I was a programmer with synths and a home studio, and when I tried to play live I realized some real deficiencies in my playing, mainly just being able to quickly grab chords.
So I spent two years working on it for Daphne Falls.
This week the bass player left, which means if the band goes on I’d probably switch to bass. It’s interesting because lately, leading up to this I was really having trouble fitting in keys parts due to the humongous sounds of the guitars, and I wasn’t sure it was really adding anything. No one could hear me etc. All these little issues were popping up.
You’d think after two years of working on keys that putting it down and switching to bass would be depressing, but it’s not.
I learned so much.
The whole reason I took the gig was to sharpen up my live key skills. I knew from the outset I could play monophonically and then add in chords, and that’s what I did, but my ability to play chords quickly and (needed) memorization of notes in key and all that stuff has really gone through the roof. It’s kind of that whole thing that gets talked about to death here: set the gig so you figure your garbage out, otherwise you’re just sitting there looking at your dog and finding other stuff to do. There’s too much YouTube on Apple TV otherwise.
It was all really time well spent.
I have no idea what’s going to happen to the band, and I care, but I also don’t. I know I worked my ass off and got so much out of it.
Hopefully the band got something out of me too. (and will continue to...)