Band Life as a Beginner

David Weaver · From: Aurora, CO USA

I’ve played my 8th gig as a steel player this weekend (if you count the ones where I was so nervous that I couldn’t find the strings).

This counts as unfinished business since I have owned a steel that I couldn’t play for over 25 years. Thanks to this Forum, I dug back into it as “unfinished business.”

I took some lessons from the late Jeff Newman. He said if you want to be any good, you have to get out and play. I said “Jeff, I’m 61 years old, happily married, have a business that consumes my time…do you expect me to get out in smoky bars and play for $35 per night on the weekends too!!!”

He said “Yes”.

So I joined a band.

Here is what I know so far:

1. I stink as a steel player.
2. The band and the crowd think I am very good to great. This has yet been reconciled in my mind.
3. I have blown more solos than an old bull has blown gas, but when I look out expecting the dancers to stop and stare at me, they don’t. The fact that “Waltz Across Texas” has never (thanks to me), in the history of man, sounded that bad goes by as if no history was made at all.
4. I told the band leader that he didn’t have to pay me…I just want to learn to play. He wisely said “Yeah, we all felt that way until after about the 4th gig haulin’ all this crap on and off stage. Take the money, what there is of it. You’ll get over the guilt.” Buddha couldn’t have said it better.
5. Give the band's tip money to the waitresses. Get the gear out of the bar fast so the help can go home. Play “God Bless the USA” once a night. The staff will tell the bar owner that they love the band.
6. Spend the break thanking the people who came to listen and dance. Many of them have complimented me on the sound of the band and my playing. Still not sure what they are hearing.
7. Keep checking with the wife to be sure all of this is ok with her.

I post this because there is a division between playing out, and not playing out. I wish there was a way to get the skill and experience without some of this.

It’s kind of scary playing out…even when it doesn’t really count except as a hobby.

On the whole, I am glad I am doing this, and I apologize to those who play this instrument well.

My only question is, from what I have said above, am I doing anything illegal?

Mark Metdker · From: North Central Texas, USA

Great post David. You said you just played your 8th gig.....I have been playing for almost 30 years and I have most of the same observations/concerns that you just listed. But, after all the angst, just try to remember this when playing live......don't forget to have fun!

If you're having fun, the crowd has fun. Most of the time, they either don't know, or don't care if you suck. And another thing, I'll bet you are a lot better than you give yourself credit for. Us steel players are our own worst critics.
Thanks for giving me a chuckle on this dreary Monday!

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Randy Reeves · From: LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA

all the concerns you have listed tell me that you care.
that makes you a pro.

Rick Schmidt · From: Prescott AZ, USA

Hey David....good to know there's still gigs in my old home state! Congrats!

Almost 30 years ago, it was at gigs like that around Denver/Boulder area that I learned how to BS my way through a night onstage. Just don't make any sour faces when you know you've just clamed and you'll be fine.

Paul Matthews · From: Westhoughton, Lancs, England

> Just don't make any sour faces when you know you've just clamed and you'll be fine

On the contrary, make the same mistake next verse and claim you were "trying the diminshed 14th to suggest a hint of a minor without actually playing a minor and you did not think it worked" or similar gibberish

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Absolute beginner!
Bennet Freshman E9 3+3

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

That's a great post, David - gave me my first smile of the day!

RR

Mike Winter · From: Portland, OR

A wise man once said, "The next best thing to playing and winning is...playing and losing." Great post, David. At least you're playing, and that's cool. Keep playing and having fun, that's what it's all about...or should be.

Mark Ardito · From: Chicago, IL, USA

I had just started to get comfortable with my ability to push the A/B pedals up and down and make it sound OK when I started to play out with a band in Chicago. If I had to move away from the A/B pedals I was in big trouble and it sounded like hell. Anyway, I knew about 5-7 licks with the A/B pedals. I played the same 5-7 licks on every single song, but just switch the order I played them on the different songs. The band and the people who came out to see the shows thought I was the cat's pajamas. Every single song I would play with fear that I might screw up those 5-7 licks, but I guess I did OK.

The one thing that really improved my playing was actually sitting in with a live band. You can play to tracks at home all you want, but it is not the same as playing with a drummer who speeds up the tempo in the Chorus of the song, or for a band that doesn't tune to exact A440 and you need to hunt around to get your intonation just right.

Keep on pickin'! It only gets better!

Mark

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[This message was edited by Mark Ardito on 30 November 2004 at 09:54 AM.]

Ray Minich · From: Bradford, Pa. Frozen Tundra

And that neat shot of adrenaline that courses thru the veins about the time you hit a good steel break is worth all the clams in the world.

seldomfed · From: Colorado

Great post Dave,
where are you playing? I'll come see you guys.

Chris

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Chris Kennison
Ft. Collins, Colorado
"There is no spoon"
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David Weaver · From: Aurora, CO USA

Thanks guys for your nice comments. Rick, I probably heard you at one of those gigs way back when.

Mark, you are right about the fun part of it. Our band does have a lot of fun and it shows in the crowd reaction.

One example, we do a rock song Turn the Page. I do the saxaphone part from the Segar version. If you know the song, you know what I am talking about. I did the intro fine....I did the middle lick fine. I might as well have turned up the volume full bore and thrown a rock on the strings for the final lick.

After it's over, the band leader says to the crowd "That was a song about a musician,s life on the road and our steel player just took the wrong exit!"

We do practice hard and we do try to get it right, but no one keeps score on the screw-ups.

We held a large party of people through 4 sets, and as they left, one of them came up to me and said "Thanks guys...you made my brother's birthday party a real treat".

Nice....

HowardR · From: N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville

Dave, judging by your writing, I think you should do a few minutes of stand up to soften up the crowd...

David Weaver · From: Aurora, CO USA

Chris

Sorry, didn't see your post until I finished the one above.

Are you kiddin!! I know who you are and I have heard you on non-pedal a number of times. You are truly great!!! I'm keeping our whereabouts a secret from you!!

We don't have any gigs until January anyway.

I'll let you know....

Chuck Cusimano · From: Weatherford, Texas, USA

David, I would love to see more people with your attitude playing music. Unfortunately there are those that can't play any better than a guy on his 8th gig, and they act like strings were invented because they took an interest in an instrument. Keep up the good work! By the way, taking your break time to talk to the patrons will bring them back faster than if you recorded 8 sessions every day in Nashvegas.
P.S. If you run into Ernie Martinez Tell him I said HOWDY!

[This message was edited by Chuck Cusimano on 30 November 2004 at 01:01 PM.]

Ken Thompson · From: Great Falls, Montana, USA

Great post. I agree with everything you said. Our band makes a special effort to be humble and thankful to anyone that listens. That goes a long ways in covering up any mistakes that were made. The chances of one wrong note not being made by three or four players during the course of five sets is huge. Now add that we steel players are playing twice as many strings, half of which I don't know what to do with anyway, and the odds go way up that there will be a "wrong exit" taken at some point. I just say, "he**, I got most of them right".

Mike Bowles · From: Princeton, West Virginia, USA

Great post David I have never had my steel out of the house but you might have just changed my mind after all what can they do shoot me my playing isnt the greatest but some of the singers i play for aint that great either mullen sd10 nv 1000 profex2

Larry R · From: Navasota, Tx.

Great Post Daved. I had to chuckle at most all of your points. I was in your shoes nearly 2 yrs ago. I'm still learning. My musicianship didn't get off the ground until I got in a good band with semi-pro players. I use the term semi because they aren't in Nashville yet. They are pulling me up to their level and teaching me music that I would never have been exposed to in my music room. Hang in there, it gets better.

Larry

Fred Shannon · From: Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.

David W. you said, "My only question is, from what I have said above, am I doing anything illegal?"

My friend if you are, then there are a bunch of us reading this thread that would already be in jail and the bailbondsmen in this area would be millionaires.

You hit a clam, look quickly at the bass player and say, "What the heck are you doing?" That's an immediate out, because in most cases he doesn't know either.

Now I'm in for it, but don't yell too loud, you'll wake the drummer and that's really dangerous. He throws sticks a lot.

Moral: We've all been there and done that, I guarantee. Stay at it. From guys like you good steelers are born.

fred

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"From Truth, Justice is Born"--Quanah Parker-1904

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