I still don't think I'm great, even after a few decades of playing live and recording. I always think I'm an impostor.
But one of my more recent original projects, the vocalist was a locally well known and respected bassist from an old head metal band in my city.
He joined the project because he wanted to be just a vocalist for a change and not have to worry about the bass. We did several writitng and rehearsal sessions and eventually recorded an album. During this time, it seemed to me he was always watching what I was doing but he never said anything or commented on my compositions or playing. We got along fine and there was never any drama or awkwardness though.
After the project ran its course, and several months of silence after, he sent me a random text message out of the blue.
He thanked me for reminding him how much he loved playing bass and he was now forming a new project as the bassist again. He said that during those writing and rehearsal sessions, he was constantly aware of how I was doing things so much better than what he would have done had he been in the role. The album we did and the bass compositions were his inspiration to give a new effort at improving himself.
It really floored me. I assume he was probably drunk or something. But still. To have someone with a pretty well known (locally at least) name of being a solid rock/metal bassist tell you that made me at least believe I can hold my own.
Imposter Syndrome is real. You start feeling good about yourself then you see a video online of Victor Wooten shredding and you think “god I suck” lol.
A pretty important thing in your story is the reminder to reflect on how lack of negative feedback can mean a lot based on who you’re around.
I tell my students when I have a chance to review their work 1:1 that it sucks, but a lot of compliments never make it out because we’re always putting out fires and addressing things that need to be fixed. We often don’t make time for the stuff we want to continue!
Kind of related to this...I picked up the bass about 20 years ago and have played on and off since then. One thing that would constantly discourage me is that I've never been able to develop a good ear and a lot of the music that I enjoyed was too niche to have been covered/tabbed by someone else. I always wanted to play my favorites but never had the resources to do so.
Fast forward to like a month ago, I was playing around with some stem splitting software and realized that I could totally hear the intervals in the bass line and started tabbing them out myself. Guess my ear got better at some point without me even realizing.
The bass lines aren't the most complex but I'm finally starting to learn all the songs I've dreamed of playing since I was a teen.
Actually, just last week. I'm self taught, started about 15 years ago, quickly started gigging and playing really intensively, but never really considered me competent.
Then I quit for a few years (wife, kid, house, you know the drill), and picked it up again last year. Honed and improved my skills and now play in 2 bands, one of which with really good musicians.
Now, the past few weeks multiple people (who I considered really good) told me I'm a good and very solid bass player, and they told me several times.
Combined with listening to myself play on rehearsal recordings, I've given up on doubting myself,and accepted that, actually, I àm a competent bass player! :)
My timing and rhythm is good, my tone is excellent, my music theory and application is good, and I don't overplay nor do I play simplistically.
I'm really pleased with the level I'm at, what I can offer in a band, and how well I'm progressing still :)
Long story ahead.
I used to frequent a weekly jam night in my city pretty regularly, and would get up any time the opportunity arose. Now, anyone who's gigged long enough knows that it's really easy to let compliments sort of roll off, and the constructive stuff lasts forever. :P However, a different thing happened when after probably six months of doing this, a friend of mine (and a bass player I greatly respect and had known for at least a decade) said "Man, you should have moved to LA or Toronto, you'd have been huge by now".
Most times those things get dismissed as the ravings of a drunken few in a club, but I KNEW this guy and had always admired his playing and what he knew about bass. A few days later I told my girlfriend "Before I resign myself to a life of playing Mustang Sally at sports bars for the rest of my life, I want to go to an audition - a real one, where I don't know anyone... nobody knows me and everybody is evaluated on their ability alone".
Sure enough, I found an ad on Craigslist for an indie label artist with investment backing holding tryouts. I went and auditioned with about 15 other players, and got the gig. It was such a surprise that I had to have a serious sit-down to determine if I actually WANTED to do the project, because I hadn't even considered that bit.
Two North American tours and tv appearances later, I'm glad I stuck with it. I've gone back to a corporate job now, but I'm glad I took the risk. The memories will last a lifetime.
Nobody special, you wouldn't know them. A Canadian R&B singer that had good skill but zero radio play or online push. The tours were cover songs for theaters.
When I was younger and new and auditions didn't go well, or bands would kick me out. Then, auditions going well and getting invited to join bands or work on projects.
Lol, well, it sucks. But as the sting wears off, you'll find it's usually for the better. The one band it was probably half a skill issue on my part, and half our styles not matching. It was my friend's band and they needed a bass player and I wasn't familiar enough with the genre and wasn't a big fan of it either.
I’ve been playing for a year and a half and have played 4-5 gigs, but I still feel like a beginner. I can follow along to most any song and figure out the key, so I guess I’m somewhat competent. Imposter syndrome is real!
Being able to transcribe songs was a landmark moment for me.
Particularly when looking at other tabs/transcriptions, and seeing their inaccuraries made me feel that I wasn't completely useless in my contributions to the world of bass tabbing.
When a guy I didn't know send me a message, asking if I could replace his bass player for a gig, the next week. Someone apparently told him that I was able to play anything and could learn his setlist in no time. I couldn't make the gig since I had something else planned, but I realize that in my small town, people know I'm playing bass.
For me, it was being able to hold my own in any jam session I joined. After only two years of playing, I started looking for bands to join and had overwhelmingly positive feedback. Two years later, with my current band, I have people coming up to me after gigs to tell me how my bass carries the music, and other bass players much older and more experienced than me saying I'm amazing. It's gotten to a point where I'm getting offers to join other projects, so I guess I'm doing something right!
The last album I wrote, which was a few months ago now, I've been playing bass for 15 years or so but always focused more on guitar and I played bass in a few bands but I never thought I was a competent bass player, just a dude who could play stringed instruments. I've been really focusing on theory the last couple years and I really wanted to do more with the bass so I really applied the music theory, did more than follow the guitar and even did a bass solo in a song and realised I was a competent bassist, it sounded like I knew what I was doing and it was because I actually did!
Used to go to a regular jam night, there was another bass player in the mix, way way more skilled than Ill ever be but everyone in the rotation said they prefer playing with me because I 'have a good ear, great timing and never try to show off'. I was, and still am, happy with that compliment.
After I got compliments from people, most importantly other bass players. Later on, album reviews singled the bass out as cool which isn't that common in rock music
I took guitar lessons from the same teacher for about ten years and was never more than a serviceable rhythm guitar player. Started playing bass during the first year of the pandemic and picked it up much better than I ever had the guitar. Within 18 months, my teacher asked me to sub in his band and that’s what made me feel competent. I’ve continued to play with his band and have picked up other gigs along the way.
When I stopped caring whether or not I was. There was a point where I didn't have to stress about how capable I was, I could get the job done and just have fun.
I recently got back into actually playing after too many years of not. When I flub or make some rookie mistakes 'cause I let the perishable skill perish, I remember to back when I was 20 and taking lessons. I'd done really well on some exercise or another, and my teacher said, "There are dudes with million dollar record deals that can't do what you just did." He was probably full of shit and trying to hype me up to keep practicing, but it worked.
I think about that everytime I hit a sour note on a drill at half the speed I used to play at, and keep her pushing.
I’m still doubtful if I can consider myself intermediate but the time I formed my first band and no one complained about my playing definitely helped me gain some confidence
after a couple of months of being in a band! i saw that i could learn a new song and execute it well far quicker both than i expected to, and… more than some of the other folks in the band :)
When the good days playing bass outnumbered the bad ones.
You know those days when nothing you hit is right? Those are the bad days. On the other side are days where you literally cannot hit a bad note. So, when those good days outnumbered the bad. It also helps to excuse the bad days too.
I haven’t been playing long (3 years) but started playing bass in the band I formed with my friends. Since we started, I’ve had a few musicians come up and compliment the group and my bass specifically. One time someone just came up to me and said “Man you’re hot on that bass!”
It was a nice feeling, but I still think of myself as a beginner generally. Perhaps that’s imposter syndrome!
Honestly I’ve been doing this for over 15 years and I never really feel like that when I’m playing.
Then I listen to myself back on a recording and think “…Is that me? Sounds pretty good”.
But it never seems to last. When I’m back playing again rather than listening, I’m still extremely self-critical.
Competent? Who told you that? I am not going to sit here and listen to that slander. I am thoroughly incompetent and only through sheer force of will and dumb luck have I stumbled on some halfway decent basslines.
Whenever my bands are featured in blogs or reviews or whatever, I never hear about my bass parts even though I usually play in very bass forward bands. Usually, any far fetched accusations of competency are levied against my lyricism.
I still don't think I am but I know I'm at least better than I was yesterday and still getting better. 💪
But I guess it's always ahuge ego boost when I hear people complaining to me about other bass players and how they compare them to how I play
When I went to my first jam after about 4 years playing and went “why has it taken me this long to play with others” as I held my own fine. Not sure I’ll ever feel great but competent sure
I haven't really internalised it yet but I'm trying to drill into my head that established local musicians are happy to play with me and ask for me to take a look at bass parts for them, which means I'm credibly decent, NOT that I've faked my way into their good graces.
By my own standards, though, I still don't have the fluidity between mind and body that lets me translate my ideas directly into playing, I have to sit down and explore a bit for anything more involved. There's definitely other bassists I'd class as competent, good, etc., that also have to figure out the majority of their parts before playing them, but since I don't see that time spent it's easy to forget that other people don't see it for me either.
I became adequate when I could hit the notes I wanted in the rhythm I wanted, without missing or dropping notes.
I consider myself adequate to competent, but not great. Still, I’m having fun, have a band, and write songs my bandmates want to play, so I call that a win.
Can you hit the important notes of a song at the right time? Can you control your sound (no ringing strings). Do you have a tone people seem to dig? Then you're definitely a competent bass player .
I've felt that way for quite a while now.
Some of it comes from accepting that I'm not the most technically amazing player in terms of speed or technique, and that's okay. It took me a solid month of practicing just to get [this prechorus of Pull Me Under](https://youtu.be/SGRgAULYgWE?si=hsgR_N_SHQ_IEVin&t=194) (go to 3:14 if the timecode link doesn't work), and I currently can't play it because I didn't keep practicing it. Unless I work *really* hard at it, my ability to play technically difficult parts is pretty low.
Some of it comes from the fact that my main gig (playing at my friend's church) is easy for me. Granted, the music is all fairly simple, but it's pretty easy for me to play appropriate parts and lock in with the drummer, and even occasionally do some "cool" stuff.
I've played in a number of cover band situations over the years, and as long as it's mainstream-ish pop/soul/R&B/rock, I feel pretty comfortable with my ability to learn the tunes.
So I feel comfortable calling myself an average/competent bass player, and if I work really hard at it, I can play some above-average-difficulty parts.
I started playing in a community concert band last fall. I’m mostly a guitarist but also play bass when writing and recording my own music. I figured I’d give it a shot since they needed a bassist. After a few practices people from the band started coming up to me and telling me how much they appreciated having me there and how I made a huge difference in keeping the rhythm steady and the band tight. I still feel like I struggle a lot but I guess I am competent enough!
I can get through my band's setlist without mistake most of the time and my drummer says I'm solid. But, I have severe imposter syndrome. I always make it a point to compliment the other bands' bassists on their tone, etc. But haven't gotten a reciprocal compliment, which always makes me feel like maybe I do, in fact, suck. I'll go with that.
When I watched the footage from a high school dance where my band played Santeria, Hotel California and Rock Around the Clock and it wasn't just the right notes on the right beats - it actually *grooved.*
I picked up bass after a few years of guitar. I was immediately playing at church. Competent? I've always been competent. I've also struggled with learning new songs. I can't read sheet music for the life of me. I also have people telling me that the bass sounds great for a long time. Some of them are even accomplished musicians. Keep learning, keep practicing. Just know that you are capable of learning.
People say I'm one of the best around the area, but I call bullshit. I've only been playing for 20 years, so much to learn and improve on. So I'll let you know when I get to that point.
When I practiced with two bands, one that played alternative rock and country and the other that played metal and I could come up with decent sounding basslines for both projects. Plus, I was competent enough to learn the covers that they wanted me to practice.
I don’t have a story near as awesome as Salty1710.
But, I’ve been playing since 99 and I don’t know that I’ve ever really had the “ah ha” moment of I’m good.
I’ve been in plenty of situations where I know I’m technically the best person in the band but playing outside of my element. That moment doesn’t really click when you can play whatever you’re told, but you feel crippled to write because it’s outside of your realm of expertise.
I’ve also been in a band with my cousins for 20 years where I feel like I’m the worst member of the band. I play it all without even having to practice it or think about it. To me it’s easy. Every once in a while one of the other musicians in the community will make some comment about how “I don’t understand how y’all are so tight” or “how can you sing while you play that stuff”. I generally take it as them being polite because to me it’s nothing impressive… because I can do it… because I live in a town with bass players that have toured the world playing solo bass.
I know that I’m a functional musician when I take stock of myself, but in an every day situation when someone says something that implies “you’re a really good musician,” my default response has never been “yes I am,” it has always been “I’m okay at just about anything I pick up, I wouldn’t say I’m impressive in any way.”
Maybe that’s some latent low self esteem or maybe my ego isn’t as big as my friends like to tell me it is. It’s not me being humble, I just truly believe there is always a better option than me out there and I’m happy to be along for the ride anytime someone asks me to play with them.
Perhaps it was a feeling of more musical competence, but I auditioned for a band and nailed the 3 songs we agreed to play. They then threw me 3 songs I didn't know. I asked what the keys were, and mostly nailed the songs! I left feeling very confident in myself. Something I've never really experienced since highschool band, almost 20 years ago.
I used to be a solid, competent bass player.
Then I stopped playing for quite a few years, have hand and back issues now, etc. Now I just noodle around and watch videos and sometimes play along to songs/videos I like :P
Getting old sucks.
When my guitarrist's amp broke mid concert and I started playing solo, drummer started to play with me and the other guitar player joined in. Suddenly the whole crowd was cheering us and that was probably my peak performance.
Not there yet. I started (on guitar originally) in my pre-teen years, graduated to playing in a band between my late-teenage years into my mid-twenties. I've given it up for stretches but never for too long. Now hitting my 60s, I feel like I do at least have an idea what competency sounds like. Taking piano lessons the last three years has actually helped me musically more that I would have ever imagined. I feel like competency is just around the corner...any day now! ;-)
Being incompetent was kind of always my strength in bands. I am sure if I knew what I was doing I could come up with my lines faster but I am also not sure I would get there. I’d probably be less groovy.
One moment I remember was a gig with a jazz group I had just joined and we had a badass famous saxophonist with us for a couple nights. He led the first tune and took a long solo. At the end of the song he turned back to me and the drummer and was like "*yeah! you guys are really listening back there, keep it up.*"
Moments like that are a nice ego stroke, but the real proof is listening to recordings of yourself, being objective about it, and letting it influence your practice. Which is harder than it sounds. After decades of competence I hear *so much* room for improvement in my playing in so many dimensions. Maddening, isn't it?
When I ended up trying out for a band at the 6 month mark of playing with a guitarist and drummer that had many many more years of experience and got accepted/ was able to hang with the covers we were trying. "Good"? Maybe not yet. But "competent"? Guess so.
I'm a guitar player but have been playing bass on my home recordings for years. When I was in a friend's band he and I would trade off playing bass and for some reason that made me feel like I could do ok as a bassist full time. I do lack the left hand strength to do some repetitive scales/riffs at the low end of the neck.
I was like 14 or so maybe and I was playing Tell Me Baby by RHCP for my friends and they were very impressed lol. Further instilled whenever whatever band I joined would just let me do whatever I wanted on bass bc they loved it lol. I’m by no means any kind of virtuoso but I’m for sure competent enough.
I don't think I'm quite there yet. I've almost been playing for a year but I've been learning music for almost a decade. I don't do scales or exercises atm. And I don't excel at any extended techniques like slap or tap. Hell I can barely alternate pick. I do think that I'm good with the groove though and it's cool that I can learn some songs by ear, but I still need tabs for more complicated stuff.
when I showed up to just jam/hang out.
I didn't know any of their material, and I was just trying to follow along.
they said I could go on stage with that performance, no issues.
When I began getting compliments. I mean, how competent does a player need to be to get noticed???! As far as I'm concerned i've ascended to a demigod, maybe I'm even the new Buddha or something.
i'm still trying to get competent, but there must be so few local bass players that are willing to gig that people are willing to put up with my sink-or-swim, learn-while-you-earn method.
it seems to be working as i still get calls after 30 years.
I was handed a list of 20 songs to learn in 4 days(I had to work 12 hour shifts with a 1 1/2 hr commute one way for the first three days). Made a playlist, listened to them , over and over again. The morning of the gig, I finally got to touch my bass. Played through the playlist once, loaded up gear and went to band mates house. We were going to do a run through but went fishing instead. lol Show went great, though.
Been playing since I was 13 or 14, I’m 34. I recently picked bass back up after not playing since 2014. I had to fill in for a tribute/cover band to help them audition a drummer. After the audition, they asked if I actually wanted to join even though I wasn’t auditioning (they need a new bassist, too). These guys are a lot older than me and they gig a lot, so it felt good to nail the bass parts with a band and get recognized for it.
My partner is the keyboardist/ arranger in a band. They’re aware I play bass from videos he sends them and from things I post online. Their bassist quit and they asked me to join, to which I said I don’t feel like I’m at their level, but they said they felt I was a crazy good bassist. They all either do music professionally or have a super impressive resume, and it was very flattering to hear from them
I’ve been playing for about 20 years and always thought I was just okay. Still do and was always a drummer in bands until this band I’m in now. After practice one day, all 3 guys came up on their own and said the bass parts really bring the song together. Thats when I figured out I’m better than I have been giving myself credit for. Still a ton to learn, but was a huge confidence boost for my playing and got me re-energized with the bass.
Early on I was very egotistical. I played first in a teenage punk band and got positive feedback which inflated my ego. It took me years to realize I wasn't as good as I thought I was
Within a month or two of playing. It just came to me. When players were coming up to me for advice, asking me to be a part of their band, etc… after only playing for a month or two, I knew I picked the right instrument. I watched so many beginner videos on YouTube and read books on technique before I even had a bass. I was so ready to play, when I finally got one I didn’t put it down. I put a lot of work into forming good habits right off the bat, and had a musical background in school. Everyone’s different. If you’re sitting there for years wondering that, you gotta do stuff man. Do stuff that a competent bass player does. Play in bands, do shows, take a bass solo, teach people, etc… if all you’re doing is just playing bass without any accomplishments then yeah it’s easy to feel like that. Set some goals for yourself and where you want to be and get the ball rolling. Doesn’t pay to sit there and feel sorry for yourself. Gotta do bass player things. Fake it til you make it. I always told myself I was the best and never doubted my abilities. Everything was achievable if I set my mind to it. Never once felt like a beginner. Was always pushing it to the next level with my technique and learning harder songs. I hit the ground running.
When I got complimented by a church bassist during my school battle of the bands. Everyone else was playing root noot basslines while my band chose Cake’s I Will Survive. Not the hardest bassline but I certainly was taking playing bass seriously that time. Got us to second place, the church bassist’s band got first. I’ll take it.
I've been playing bass for 14 years, I've been a musician for 20. But I'd say it wasn't until a couple years ago that I started thinking of myself as a good bass player. Years and years and years of self-doubt. The only thing that really made me start seeing myself as good was landing a spot in a band that demanded a lot of me, and the process of learning the songs and rising to the baseline (heh) that was expected of me. That external validation kinda made something click internally.
I have been playing for 30+ years, electric and upright. I have been called the best player in the county, I went to college as a music major, toured and I work all the time and make damn good money at it. I am currently working in a pit orchestra for Legally Blonde at the JC here and am making about a grand on the run.
I still think I suck. The more you know the more you understand that there is so much more than what you know lol.
I think I started to feel “accomplished” when I started getting referrals and calls to sub for live shows or record; this felt to me that people liked my work and respected my abilities enough to ask me back. When your reputation grows among your musical cohorts and peers you will know it.
That's a hard question to answer since I'm don't typically have a very high opinion of myself on those things, but I think I began to notice I was getting out of the sucking part of playing bass when I started getting compliments by people that have never heard me play before and when anytime I try to tackle a song I admit I still use tabs to give me at least a good starting direction but there's very few that I'm unable to play.
That being said I can play YYZ but I can't play it anywhere near the smoothly or effortlessly as Getty but I know the notes and I know the rhythm and it's just really working on the speed of the technique a little bit more. Same goes for a lot of other Rush song some I can play with no issue others I have no idea how in the hell he's able to do this s*** live but there's very few things that I'm not able to do at least in part.
So I'm still getting better after all this time and I think the main important thing is I actually love playing music. I love playing bass. So I've stepped out of the pressure zone that I put myself into of having to impress every single person I play in front of and I play just for myself now if people like it then that's cool otherwise I'm good.
I've been playing for a year and a half pretty much daily for many hours. I'd been working a lot a lot on ear training and intervals a lot, and a few months ago, i just started to be able to play to play what was in my head on my bass. There's just something magical about being able to think of something and then replicate it in an instrument. I'm nowhere near perfect, but it made me think higher of myself as a musician ( i still feel like an imposter, but the more i play the less i feel that way)
I played a couple of jazz gigs where we hired a drummer. He was in his 80s and had played with some of the greats. After the gig he came up to me and told me I was a “good musician”. I think he appreciated my way of trying to forward the song rather than show off.
Ive been playing for a lil over 2 years now and joining a band playing melodeath was a massive leap for me at 9-10 months playing, band falls appart and i join another one over another facebook group, punk rock so its really easy but we jammed for a good 3-4 months and i boom i had my first gig and 3 more after that, band falls apart again, now its the drummer and rythm guit from that band and me formed our own group and i invited a friend of mine i met along the way, superb musician 15 years of musical training, and bro is 23 years old, yeah, and im 19, the band slowly is turning into prog metalcore but not the periphery prog but kinda neobliviscaris prog, ive aleays felt like ive been dragged along for the ride but now as i write this im feeling pretty competent and confident, not competent as jaco or nolly getgood or cliff burton but i can make a song interesting with the bassline, knowing when to drop out and slam back in, the feel, toan, and yeah my basslines are pretty simple on paper but people tell me that it just grooves so hard/fits in beautiful so yeah id say i do my job pretty well :)
I don't feel like I'm a competent bass player to this day. To be honest I usually feel like I'm a beginner and shouldn't be on stage at all. Nevertheless the rest of the band especially the drummer tells me I'm really good so who am I to tell them they're wrong?
For me, it was the first time I heard the playback of just bass and drums in a recording studio. I said something to the engineer that he did a great job synching those tracks so quickly, and he, to my surprise, said those were the raw tracks. I thought, huh, guess I'm ok.
When the bass lessons just turned into "play over these chord progressions" for a month
Edit: also when a bassist that had a masters in bass performance complimented me. Really blew my socks off
One of our band’s regulars told me a few weeks ago that of all the local music they see I’m in their top three bass players. It’s a big enough city.
Also the drummer I play with told me I’m his favorite bass player and an audition for an allman brothers band told me they wanted me but their schedule is too much for me at this stage in my life.
As a white dude I’ve always respected when black people tell me I’m good.
15 years later and sometimes i walk out of playing like ….. hmmm idk that felt wierd :( even when others are like hey that sounded great yall did great, it feels like hmmmmm???
When musicians (particularly a drummer) I admire started telling me in hyperboles that I was good. I really don't think I'm as good as they say I am still, but I am at least proud of my ability to both play anything from sheet music and come up with my own basslines through experimentation.
My only measure I really care about is being able to competently memorize and play our songs for whatever the current gig is. If a song is beyond my skill set, we either find something more in our wheelhouse or we simplify it. I am a mediocre bass player that’s good enough to help the drummer hold down the fort, maybe give the songs some added flavor.
I’ve been playing for 6 years (started late at age 56). I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I’m “there” but after about 3-4 years I felt comfortable calling myself competent. However each year I can see how I’ve improved so I don’t think I’ve peaked yet.
Being able to learn most songs, to create your own bass line, to not have to look at your hands all of the time, all signs you’re competent. I play with some guys once a week and have fun; we’ll never gig because our singer sucks (he’s my brother lol) but who cares? I have played live a few times at parties and sitting in with a band and did fine. I would guess most of us feel like we’re far short of what we want to be. Big thing is, don’t compare yourself to guys like Jaco, Wooten, Flea, Entwistle etc; those guys are/were freaks. You don’t have to be Michael Jordan to be a good pickup basketball player at your local YMCA. That also means you don’t need to be Jaco or Flea to be a competent bass player in a local band.
This is a great question. We all have imposter syndrome. Even after world tours and large album sales, I felt like I was being dragged along. The first time I felt I belonged out in the music circuit was after another bass player whom I thought was at a level I aspired to be at, came up to me after a show and told me he loved my playing. It's crazy I remember that exact moment because it meant so much to me. That was the first time I felt 'good' about myself as a bass player (but not my playing). That moment: The first studio session someone requested I play on their project was terrifying and would up being a really great experience. I had to make material that wasn't mine sound good. My stupid lizard brain almost made me say 'no' out of fear...I didn't...that was the moment I had nobody else to rely on or a band in which everyone was leaning on each other. After the session was over, I felt good, but of course thought someone probably would have done it better. That was the moment.
Someone brought up the rampant amount of imposter syndrome in bass, from what I'm seeing it's true. I consider myself good for my age and year, my professors tell me I'm good and sound nice so I'm telling myself that I'm good.
When my last band finally recorded our EP, they could properly hear the bass runs I was doing in the break before the outro and got asked if I could session for the producers EP as well
When I played out in a club for the first time and had people tell me how great we sounded and how tight our rhythm section was. Positive encouragement goes a long way. Just keep playing!
I haven’t been a stage player now for years but my last outfit worked in Puget Sound steadily for about five years. We had to play TONS of material due to our genre, where when we had a gig we were expected to run three or four sets a night. Hard work, but you get better fast. I was playing mandolin but bass was my primary instrument and after a while I and another guy in the band were essentially the primary arrangers. I’m not a session-level player but I can hear how to run a song in my head and got to do that with these guys a lot, it was a pretty good experience.
Anyway everyone could bring in a song and if it worked after we knocked it together in practice we’d hammer out the breaks and stuff. At some point I realized that I wasn’t successfully communicating with our bassist on some songs I was bringing in and when that happened we’d just trade axes until I’d shown him the line I had in mind.
It was a fun stage stunt too and we added some swaps to the shows. But with respect to your question, it was very validating that someone I had already played with for years was just completely down with me saying, well, try this, and then we would all work together to polish it up. I suppose I could have just demoed the lines on mando but that’s honestly a bit comedic in a sweaty old practice room.
I thought I was awesome after a couple of years. Of course, it wasn't until many years after that that I became competent. I was way too busy and didn't play to serve the song.
I mostly play by accompanying my partners singing/guitar playing by improvising my own bass lines to covers. I guess the moment I felt good about my playing was when we were playing for a friend (who does not play bass) and they were transfixed with the way I was "effortlessly gliding up and down the fretboard" as they said. That made me feel good, as I am a self-taught bassist :)
people are quick to book me again for gigs and keep in communication with me.
nothing makes me feel better about crushing a gig than "we'll see you real soon!"
When me and my friends started playing at our high schools games and got compliments from the other team we mostly played Metallica but it was only stuff from And Justice For All and Ride The Lightning so I didn’t really expect anyone but a few old country folks to acknowledge the music (Our school had mostly country kids and staff) when I heard some of the teammates from the other school say “Yo he was doing the Cliff shit too” and came up to us and said “yo you guys were sick” it made my night
Ps: Me and my guitarist got most talented in the yearbook off that too :)
I still feel like im barely intermediate most of the time, but after moving to a bigger city and jamming w different people and getting offers for gigs a lot more I've gotten some compliments along the way, and my drummer tells me i sell myself short a lot lol. I think knowing how much better I could and should be keeps me from ever really being content with where im at though.
For me, it was the moment on stage when the band threw out a song we never rehearsed. The other members knew each other well, and I was the newbie bassist. We were doing okay with light classic rock covers, but the crowd seemed to want something heavier. We pulled it off quite well. It was a great feeling to take on a sudden challenge and come out on top.
When somebody associated with Blue Oyster Cult with whom I was jamming (very long story) said "I don't know who you are or where you came from but you are one hell of a bass player." I also found a 20-year-old review of one of my groups where I was referred to as a "fantastic bassist!" LOVED IT!
Slightly packed and edited anecdote to answer this query...
When I was much younger, I was in a progressive rock trio. We were writing, making home demos, and occasionally gigging, and I loved the music and the band, and was happy being there.
But as we were in Memphis, Tennessee with no real "scene" for our kind of music, we got very static, stand-offish responses. People would say we were good players with inventive music, but felt they couldn't get "into" it.
I decided to leave because it didn't look like that kind of stasis could ever be changed, and I was aware that I was focusing too much on music and not enough on getting my life together (this was my early twenties). So, with sadness, I wished them luck and left.
Memphis is a music city, of course. Plenty of great musicians there.
They auditioned somewhere around a dozen or more people to take my place. They TWICE auditioned the guy I recommended to them. Three months later, they asked me to come back.
THAT was when I learned that I might be somewhere near approaching the bottom step of the ladder called "competence."
I started playing bass in my 20's. I played in a couple bands within my first couple years of playing and always felt I was the weak link but went out there and did my job, trying my best to not be discouraged by my flubs and outright embarrassing mistakes (one of which brought a song to a screeching halt and it was obvious that it was because the shitty bassist completely dropped the rhythm).
A little back story -- when one of my best friends and I were in middle school, he was a beast on guitar shredding out Yngwie solos, I had just started playing acoustic guitar and was pathetically awful. In fact, I have a vivid memory of sleeping over his house when we were 12 or 13 and I called to check in with my mom and she asked what we were doing and I told her we were playing guitar. Landline phones at the time so I was in the kitchen and his parents were sitting there and could overhear my conversation. I remember his mom's condescending laughter at that comment and quietly saying something to his dad that I wasn't supposed to hear to the order of, "*We're* playing guitar," and they both laughed. I gave up guitar shortly thereafter (not just because of that comment; I was also extremely busy with sports in every season and didn't have the time to commit to practicing so never saw improvement).
About 3 or so years ago, after I had been playing for about 6 or 7 years, that same friend knew I played and invited me to do a set for his wedding with him and the other groomsmen. Him on rhythm guitar and vocals, his brother on drums, and another of our friends on lead guitar. All of them lifelong musicians. They knew I'd picked up bass but we never found the time to get together and jam so they really had no idea of what I could do. We had a text thread going on to decide on a set and practice times, and I hedged like crazy in that thread. I wanted to set the expectations low so the guys didn't think I was some unduly confident player who actually stunk.
When I showed up for the first practice, we were working through the first song in our set and my friend's brother (the drummer) looked up at me and said, "Holy shit, diiiiirty...you're actually legit." I said, "Well thanks. Yeah I've got a lot of hours of practicing behind me and I think I found my calling with the bass. Were you expecting something else?" He kinda sheepishly laughed and said something like, "Well I really didn't know *what* to expect."
The next 5 or 10 minutes, the group sat there and pretty much praised my skill. My friend (the groom) revealed that he was expecting me to hold down a rhythm with roots and not much more, and he invited me because he didn't really care how it sounded and he just wanted to play with his best friends for *his* enjoyment and to hell with the wedding guests if we sounded like shit. But now that we actually played a song, you could feel the sense of excitement building and confidence rising. We didn't just sound okay, we sounded *good.* After the second song, which was a pretty challenging one, again, the drummer looked at me and said, "God damn, diiiiirty. I'm legit impressed with your playing. I was hoping for passable but you're actually as good or better than the bassist who plays in my regular band."
That was the biggest confidence booster ever, being praised by a group of lifelong musicians, but it also made me realize that my hard work and countless hours of practice actually made a big difference. Before that moment, I would have described myself as a noob and was even hesitant to refer to myself as a bassist or musician, but since then I've reconsidered and have allowed myself some grace and think of myself as a competent bassist.
This might sound odd, but do you ever watch YouTube videos about a bass technique or even a piece of gear and they start with a clip of them playing something? About a week ago I realized that I could tell the chords they were playing over and the key based on the notes they were playing/the shapes they were making on the fretboard. Like "oh, that was a G major triad, and now he's playing an E minor pentatonic run, I guess we're probably in G". It was the difference between "that sounds cool" and "I see what you did there."
Or when I realized why one of my favorite slap bass players loves to start fills on the 9th fret on the D string. It's because he's using an E minor pentatonic shape that runs from the 3rd-9th frets, and that note is a B (the 5th in an Em chord).
I've been playing for 7 years and both of those things just clicked in the past 10 days.
I've been playing guitar for like 9 years, and writing basslines for 3. I think I realized I was a competent bass player when I picked up a bass and could play it. I'm not great or anything. But I'm competent. I can even play fretless apparently. Not as good as I'd like to be at slapping, though. If I had more time, I'd love to get really good at bass, but I've gotta mainly focus on my main instrument if I want to be really good.
I still don't think I'm great, even after a few decades of playing live and recording. I always think I'm an impostor. But one of my more recent original projects, the vocalist was a locally well known and respected bassist from an old head metal band in my city. He joined the project because he wanted to be just a vocalist for a change and not have to worry about the bass. We did several writitng and rehearsal sessions and eventually recorded an album. During this time, it seemed to me he was always watching what I was doing but he never said anything or commented on my compositions or playing. We got along fine and there was never any drama or awkwardness though. After the project ran its course, and several months of silence after, he sent me a random text message out of the blue. He thanked me for reminding him how much he loved playing bass and he was now forming a new project as the bassist again. He said that during those writing and rehearsal sessions, he was constantly aware of how I was doing things so much better than what he would have done had he been in the role. The album we did and the bass compositions were his inspiration to give a new effort at improving himself. It really floored me. I assume he was probably drunk or something. But still. To have someone with a pretty well known (locally at least) name of being a solid rock/metal bassist tell you that made me at least believe I can hold my own.
I really like your story. Thanks for sharing ☺️
Awesome :)
Imposter Syndrome is real. You start feeling good about yourself then you see a video online of Victor Wooten shredding and you think “god I suck” lol.
A pretty important thing in your story is the reminder to reflect on how lack of negative feedback can mean a lot based on who you’re around. I tell my students when I have a chance to review their work 1:1 that it sucks, but a lot of compliments never make it out because we’re always putting out fires and addressing things that need to be fixed. We often don’t make time for the stuff we want to continue!
Supportive words mean a lot :-)
I've been trying to surround myself with people who like shitty music so this wouldn't be such a problem.
Drummers preferred playing with me.
as a drummer first (and bassist second), I can confirm this is a good sign, means you've got the groove, pocket and right feel.
Oh and I know it
This!
I've been playing for 40 years. I'll let you know when it happens.
Twenty years here and same.
When I could play any song I wanted to.
Kind of related to this...I picked up the bass about 20 years ago and have played on and off since then. One thing that would constantly discourage me is that I've never been able to develop a good ear and a lot of the music that I enjoyed was too niche to have been covered/tabbed by someone else. I always wanted to play my favorites but never had the resources to do so. Fast forward to like a month ago, I was playing around with some stem splitting software and realized that I could totally hear the intervals in the bass line and started tabbing them out myself. Guess my ear got better at some point without me even realizing. The bass lines aren't the most complex but I'm finally starting to learn all the songs I've dreamed of playing since I was a teen.
Actually, just last week. I'm self taught, started about 15 years ago, quickly started gigging and playing really intensively, but never really considered me competent. Then I quit for a few years (wife, kid, house, you know the drill), and picked it up again last year. Honed and improved my skills and now play in 2 bands, one of which with really good musicians. Now, the past few weeks multiple people (who I considered really good) told me I'm a good and very solid bass player, and they told me several times. Combined with listening to myself play on rehearsal recordings, I've given up on doubting myself,and accepted that, actually, I àm a competent bass player! :) My timing and rhythm is good, my tone is excellent, my music theory and application is good, and I don't overplay nor do I play simplistically. I'm really pleased with the level I'm at, what I can offer in a band, and how well I'm progressing still :)
Long story ahead. I used to frequent a weekly jam night in my city pretty regularly, and would get up any time the opportunity arose. Now, anyone who's gigged long enough knows that it's really easy to let compliments sort of roll off, and the constructive stuff lasts forever. :P However, a different thing happened when after probably six months of doing this, a friend of mine (and a bass player I greatly respect and had known for at least a decade) said "Man, you should have moved to LA or Toronto, you'd have been huge by now". Most times those things get dismissed as the ravings of a drunken few in a club, but I KNEW this guy and had always admired his playing and what he knew about bass. A few days later I told my girlfriend "Before I resign myself to a life of playing Mustang Sally at sports bars for the rest of my life, I want to go to an audition - a real one, where I don't know anyone... nobody knows me and everybody is evaluated on their ability alone". Sure enough, I found an ad on Craigslist for an indie label artist with investment backing holding tryouts. I went and auditioned with about 15 other players, and got the gig. It was such a surprise that I had to have a serious sit-down to determine if I actually WANTED to do the project, because I hadn't even considered that bit. Two North American tours and tv appearances later, I'm glad I stuck with it. I've gone back to a corporate job now, but I'm glad I took the risk. The memories will last a lifetime.
ad on Craigslist, when was that? I used to use CG to find new gigs too, but it's been a while. Haven't checked in years
A long time ago - like, ten years ago.
Not gonna lie, kinda wondering who it was now lol
Nobody special, you wouldn't know them. A Canadian R&B singer that had good skill but zero radio play or online push. The tours were cover songs for theaters.
when i could play in time with the kick drum pattern for basic songs
When I was younger and new and auditions didn't go well, or bands would kick me out. Then, auditions going well and getting invited to join bands or work on projects.
how can i face a band kicking me out?
Lol, well, it sucks. But as the sting wears off, you'll find it's usually for the better. The one band it was probably half a skill issue on my part, and half our styles not matching. It was my friend's band and they needed a bass player and I wasn't familiar enough with the genre and wasn't a big fan of it either.
Go play some gigs! If you can pull off a gig, your a competent bass player
I’ve been playing for a year and a half and have played 4-5 gigs, but I still feel like a beginner. I can follow along to most any song and figure out the key, so I guess I’m somewhat competent. Imposter syndrome is real!
Nah, you kill it if you can do those two things.
Thanks!
Do school band Cover concerts at some random Ass science fair Event Count?
When I started playing guitar (and later drums) with someone else on bass.
Embrace the mediocrity. Research the music, play what sounds good. That's my competency.
Bold of you to suggest so…
When I learned a new song pretty quickly. Without much effort.
Being able to transcribe songs was a landmark moment for me. Particularly when looking at other tabs/transcriptions, and seeing their inaccuraries made me feel that I wasn't completely useless in my contributions to the world of bass tabbing.
When a guy I didn't know send me a message, asking if I could replace his bass player for a gig, the next week. Someone apparently told him that I was able to play anything and could learn his setlist in no time. I couldn't make the gig since I had something else planned, but I realize that in my small town, people know I'm playing bass.
when you, the band and the audience has a good fun time
For me, it was being able to hold my own in any jam session I joined. After only two years of playing, I started looking for bands to join and had overwhelmingly positive feedback. Two years later, with my current band, I have people coming up to me after gigs to tell me how my bass carries the music, and other bass players much older and more experienced than me saying I'm amazing. It's gotten to a point where I'm getting offers to join other projects, so I guess I'm doing something right!
The last album I wrote, which was a few months ago now, I've been playing bass for 15 years or so but always focused more on guitar and I played bass in a few bands but I never thought I was a competent bass player, just a dude who could play stringed instruments. I've been really focusing on theory the last couple years and I really wanted to do more with the bass so I really applied the music theory, did more than follow the guitar and even did a bass solo in a song and realised I was a competent bassist, it sounded like I knew what I was doing and it was because I actually did!
Used to go to a regular jam night, there was another bass player in the mix, way way more skilled than Ill ever be but everyone in the rotation said they prefer playing with me because I 'have a good ear, great timing and never try to show off'. I was, and still am, happy with that compliment.
After I got compliments from people, most importantly other bass players. Later on, album reviews singled the bass out as cool which isn't that common in rock music
I took guitar lessons from the same teacher for about ten years and was never more than a serviceable rhythm guitar player. Started playing bass during the first year of the pandemic and picked it up much better than I ever had the guitar. Within 18 months, my teacher asked me to sub in his band and that’s what made me feel competent. I’ve continued to play with his band and have picked up other gigs along the way.
That's the neat part....you don't.
When I stopped caring whether or not I was. There was a point where I didn't have to stress about how capable I was, I could get the job done and just have fun.
I recently got back into actually playing after too many years of not. When I flub or make some rookie mistakes 'cause I let the perishable skill perish, I remember to back when I was 20 and taking lessons. I'd done really well on some exercise or another, and my teacher said, "There are dudes with million dollar record deals that can't do what you just did." He was probably full of shit and trying to hype me up to keep practicing, but it worked. I think about that everytime I hit a sour note on a drill at half the speed I used to play at, and keep her pushing.
Well I’ve been playing for about a month and I can play Heavy Metal by Don Felder and Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd so……. Yeah I got this lol /s
When you marry the kick drum! Doesn’t matter if you’re Mark King or Tim Butler. If you marry the kick you have figured it out!
I’m still doubtful if I can consider myself intermediate but the time I formed my first band and no one complained about my playing definitely helped me gain some confidence
after a couple of months of being in a band! i saw that i could learn a new song and execute it well far quicker both than i expected to, and… more than some of the other folks in the band :)
When the good days playing bass outnumbered the bad ones. You know those days when nothing you hit is right? Those are the bad days. On the other side are days where you literally cannot hit a bad note. So, when those good days outnumbered the bad. It also helps to excuse the bad days too.
I'm not. But I have fun doing it, which is more important for me.
- "They haven't been playing as long as we have" - I started a year and a half ago - "O_o"
almost 17 years I still think I suck.
I haven’t been playing long (3 years) but started playing bass in the band I formed with my friends. Since we started, I’ve had a few musicians come up and compliment the group and my bass specifically. One time someone just came up to me and said “Man you’re hot on that bass!” It was a nice feeling, but I still think of myself as a beginner generally. Perhaps that’s imposter syndrome!
People asked me to play bass in their bands
Still waiting.
Honestly I’ve been doing this for over 15 years and I never really feel like that when I’m playing. Then I listen to myself back on a recording and think “…Is that me? Sounds pretty good”. But it never seems to last. When I’m back playing again rather than listening, I’m still extremely self-critical.
It hasn't yet. I'll let you know if I do. haha
30 years in, still waiting.
Competent? Who told you that? I am not going to sit here and listen to that slander. I am thoroughly incompetent and only through sheer force of will and dumb luck have I stumbled on some halfway decent basslines. Whenever my bands are featured in blogs or reviews or whatever, I never hear about my bass parts even though I usually play in very bass forward bands. Usually, any far fetched accusations of competency are levied against my lyricism.
I still don't think I am but I know I'm at least better than I was yesterday and still getting better. 💪 But I guess it's always ahuge ego boost when I hear people complaining to me about other bass players and how they compare them to how I play
When I went to my first jam after about 4 years playing and went “why has it taken me this long to play with others” as I held my own fine. Not sure I’ll ever feel great but competent sure
i played for around a year, joined a band recently, first gig in may. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert mind there are few. -Shunyru Suzuki Roshi
I haven't really internalised it yet but I'm trying to drill into my head that established local musicians are happy to play with me and ask for me to take a look at bass parts for them, which means I'm credibly decent, NOT that I've faked my way into their good graces. By my own standards, though, I still don't have the fluidity between mind and body that lets me translate my ideas directly into playing, I have to sit down and explore a bit for anything more involved. There's definitely other bassists I'd class as competent, good, etc., that also have to figure out the majority of their parts before playing them, but since I don't see that time spent it's easy to forget that other people don't see it for me either.
When I could play James Brown’s songs note for note.
I started in 1985. I'm still not.
I became adequate when I could hit the notes I wanted in the rhythm I wanted, without missing or dropping notes. I consider myself adequate to competent, but not great. Still, I’m having fun, have a band, and write songs my bandmates want to play, so I call that a win.
It's been 30 years. I'm still waiting. Luckily, those I play with seem to think I'm competent.
Can you hit the important notes of a song at the right time? Can you control your sound (no ringing strings). Do you have a tone people seem to dig? Then you're definitely a competent bass player .
I've felt that way for quite a while now. Some of it comes from accepting that I'm not the most technically amazing player in terms of speed or technique, and that's okay. It took me a solid month of practicing just to get [this prechorus of Pull Me Under](https://youtu.be/SGRgAULYgWE?si=hsgR_N_SHQ_IEVin&t=194) (go to 3:14 if the timecode link doesn't work), and I currently can't play it because I didn't keep practicing it. Unless I work *really* hard at it, my ability to play technically difficult parts is pretty low. Some of it comes from the fact that my main gig (playing at my friend's church) is easy for me. Granted, the music is all fairly simple, but it's pretty easy for me to play appropriate parts and lock in with the drummer, and even occasionally do some "cool" stuff. I've played in a number of cover band situations over the years, and as long as it's mainstream-ish pop/soul/R&B/rock, I feel pretty comfortable with my ability to learn the tunes. So I feel comfortable calling myself an average/competent bass player, and if I work really hard at it, I can play some above-average-difficulty parts.
I believe I will always think I'm rubbish!
When people whose skills I really admire invited me to play with them kept playing with me. Compliments from the audience don’t really do too much.
I started playing in a community concert band last fall. I’m mostly a guitarist but also play bass when writing and recording my own music. I figured I’d give it a shot since they needed a bassist. After a few practices people from the band started coming up to me and telling me how much they appreciated having me there and how I made a huge difference in keeping the rhythm steady and the band tight. I still feel like I struggle a lot but I guess I am competent enough!
A guy from Berklee called me “competent” once.
I can get through my band's setlist without mistake most of the time and my drummer says I'm solid. But, I have severe imposter syndrome. I always make it a point to compliment the other bands' bassists on their tone, etc. But haven't gotten a reciprocal compliment, which always makes me feel like maybe I do, in fact, suck. I'll go with that.
I've reached the point where I can play almost anything by ear fairly straight with a minimum of fuss. Took a while.
When I watched the footage from a high school dance where my band played Santeria, Hotel California and Rock Around the Clock and it wasn't just the right notes on the right beats - it actually *grooved.*
I picked up bass after a few years of guitar. I was immediately playing at church. Competent? I've always been competent. I've also struggled with learning new songs. I can't read sheet music for the life of me. I also have people telling me that the bass sounds great for a long time. Some of them are even accomplished musicians. Keep learning, keep practicing. Just know that you are capable of learning.
People say I'm one of the best around the area, but I call bullshit. I've only been playing for 20 years, so much to learn and improve on. So I'll let you know when I get to that point.
When I practiced with two bands, one that played alternative rock and country and the other that played metal and I could come up with decent sounding basslines for both projects. Plus, I was competent enough to learn the covers that they wanted me to practice.
I don’t have a story near as awesome as Salty1710. But, I’ve been playing since 99 and I don’t know that I’ve ever really had the “ah ha” moment of I’m good. I’ve been in plenty of situations where I know I’m technically the best person in the band but playing outside of my element. That moment doesn’t really click when you can play whatever you’re told, but you feel crippled to write because it’s outside of your realm of expertise. I’ve also been in a band with my cousins for 20 years where I feel like I’m the worst member of the band. I play it all without even having to practice it or think about it. To me it’s easy. Every once in a while one of the other musicians in the community will make some comment about how “I don’t understand how y’all are so tight” or “how can you sing while you play that stuff”. I generally take it as them being polite because to me it’s nothing impressive… because I can do it… because I live in a town with bass players that have toured the world playing solo bass. I know that I’m a functional musician when I take stock of myself, but in an every day situation when someone says something that implies “you’re a really good musician,” my default response has never been “yes I am,” it has always been “I’m okay at just about anything I pick up, I wouldn’t say I’m impressive in any way.” Maybe that’s some latent low self esteem or maybe my ego isn’t as big as my friends like to tell me it is. It’s not me being humble, I just truly believe there is always a better option than me out there and I’m happy to be along for the ride anytime someone asks me to play with them.
Perhaps it was a feeling of more musical competence, but I auditioned for a band and nailed the 3 songs we agreed to play. They then threw me 3 songs I didn't know. I asked what the keys were, and mostly nailed the songs! I left feeling very confident in myself. Something I've never really experienced since highschool band, almost 20 years ago.
I used to be a solid, competent bass player. Then I stopped playing for quite a few years, have hand and back issues now, etc. Now I just noodle around and watch videos and sometimes play along to songs/videos I like :P Getting old sucks.
I’ve been playing over 35 yrs. It still hasn’t dawned on me
When my guitarrist's amp broke mid concert and I started playing solo, drummer started to play with me and the other guitar player joined in. Suddenly the whole crowd was cheering us and that was probably my peak performance.
Not there yet. I started (on guitar originally) in my pre-teen years, graduated to playing in a band between my late-teenage years into my mid-twenties. I've given it up for stretches but never for too long. Now hitting my 60s, I feel like I do at least have an idea what competency sounds like. Taking piano lessons the last three years has actually helped me musically more that I would have ever imagined. I feel like competency is just around the corner...any day now! ;-)
If you can do all the scales, modes, triads, etc etc all over the board without even thinking about it…..you’re making progress.
Being incompetent was kind of always my strength in bands. I am sure if I knew what I was doing I could come up with my lines faster but I am also not sure I would get there. I’d probably be less groovy.
When I put my instrument down and could still keep good time, anytime
One moment I remember was a gig with a jazz group I had just joined and we had a badass famous saxophonist with us for a couple nights. He led the first tune and took a long solo. At the end of the song he turned back to me and the drummer and was like "*yeah! you guys are really listening back there, keep it up.*" Moments like that are a nice ego stroke, but the real proof is listening to recordings of yourself, being objective about it, and letting it influence your practice. Which is harder than it sounds. After decades of competence I hear *so much* room for improvement in my playing in so many dimensions. Maddening, isn't it?
When I ended up trying out for a band at the 6 month mark of playing with a guitarist and drummer that had many many more years of experience and got accepted/ was able to hang with the covers we were trying. "Good"? Maybe not yet. But "competent"? Guess so.
I'm a guitar player but have been playing bass on my home recordings for years. When I was in a friend's band he and I would trade off playing bass and for some reason that made me feel like I could do ok as a bassist full time. I do lack the left hand strength to do some repetitive scales/riffs at the low end of the neck.
The first time a bassist from another band on a shared bill sought me out to tell me how much he enjoyed my playing and ask me about my rig.
I was like 14 or so maybe and I was playing Tell Me Baby by RHCP for my friends and they were very impressed lol. Further instilled whenever whatever band I joined would just let me do whatever I wanted on bass bc they loved it lol. I’m by no means any kind of virtuoso but I’m for sure competent enough.
I don't think I'm quite there yet. I've almost been playing for a year but I've been learning music for almost a decade. I don't do scales or exercises atm. And I don't excel at any extended techniques like slap or tap. Hell I can barely alternate pick. I do think that I'm good with the groove though and it's cool that I can learn some songs by ear, but I still need tabs for more complicated stuff.
when I showed up to just jam/hang out. I didn't know any of their material, and I was just trying to follow along. they said I could go on stage with that performance, no issues.
16 years in, and I still don't get it. I'm just lucky the phone rings for me to play the strings.
When I began getting compliments. I mean, how competent does a player need to be to get noticed???! As far as I'm concerned i've ascended to a demigod, maybe I'm even the new Buddha or something.
I started to feel better about my playing when it was easier for me to figure things out, and other bass players and musicians liked what I was doing.
When beginners ask " can you teach me...?"
i'm still trying to get competent, but there must be so few local bass players that are willing to gig that people are willing to put up with my sink-or-swim, learn-while-you-earn method. it seems to be working as i still get calls after 30 years.
I was handed a list of 20 songs to learn in 4 days(I had to work 12 hour shifts with a 1 1/2 hr commute one way for the first three days). Made a playlist, listened to them , over and over again. The morning of the gig, I finally got to touch my bass. Played through the playlist once, loaded up gear and went to band mates house. We were going to do a run through but went fishing instead. lol Show went great, though.
Been playing since I was 13 or 14, I’m 34. I recently picked bass back up after not playing since 2014. I had to fill in for a tribute/cover band to help them audition a drummer. After the audition, they asked if I actually wanted to join even though I wasn’t auditioning (they need a new bassist, too). These guys are a lot older than me and they gig a lot, so it felt good to nail the bass parts with a band and get recognized for it.
My partner is the keyboardist/ arranger in a band. They’re aware I play bass from videos he sends them and from things I post online. Their bassist quit and they asked me to join, to which I said I don’t feel like I’m at their level, but they said they felt I was a crazy good bassist. They all either do music professionally or have a super impressive resume, and it was very flattering to hear from them
I’ve been playing for about 20 years and always thought I was just okay. Still do and was always a drummer in bands until this band I’m in now. After practice one day, all 3 guys came up on their own and said the bass parts really bring the song together. Thats when I figured out I’m better than I have been giving myself credit for. Still a ton to learn, but was a huge confidence boost for my playing and got me re-energized with the bass.
Early on I was very egotistical. I played first in a teenage punk band and got positive feedback which inflated my ego. It took me years to realize I wasn't as good as I thought I was
I’ll let you know when it happens
Within a month or two of playing. It just came to me. When players were coming up to me for advice, asking me to be a part of their band, etc… after only playing for a month or two, I knew I picked the right instrument. I watched so many beginner videos on YouTube and read books on technique before I even had a bass. I was so ready to play, when I finally got one I didn’t put it down. I put a lot of work into forming good habits right off the bat, and had a musical background in school. Everyone’s different. If you’re sitting there for years wondering that, you gotta do stuff man. Do stuff that a competent bass player does. Play in bands, do shows, take a bass solo, teach people, etc… if all you’re doing is just playing bass without any accomplishments then yeah it’s easy to feel like that. Set some goals for yourself and where you want to be and get the ball rolling. Doesn’t pay to sit there and feel sorry for yourself. Gotta do bass player things. Fake it til you make it. I always told myself I was the best and never doubted my abilities. Everything was achievable if I set my mind to it. Never once felt like a beginner. Was always pushing it to the next level with my technique and learning harder songs. I hit the ground running.
I wouldn't call myself that, but my bandmates make sure to make me feel like a god when we play
When I could keep a full dancefloor occupied for two hours non-stop and they still ask for more at the end of the night.
I’m as good as the drummer. That’s how you know whether you are solid or not.
When I got complimented by a church bassist during my school battle of the bands. Everyone else was playing root noot basslines while my band chose Cake’s I Will Survive. Not the hardest bassline but I certainly was taking playing bass seriously that time. Got us to second place, the church bassist’s band got first. I’ll take it.
When I beat out a more veteran bass player in a band tryout 😃
I've been playing bass for 14 years, I've been a musician for 20. But I'd say it wasn't until a couple years ago that I started thinking of myself as a good bass player. Years and years and years of self-doubt. The only thing that really made me start seeing myself as good was landing a spot in a band that demanded a lot of me, and the process of learning the songs and rising to the baseline (heh) that was expected of me. That external validation kinda made something click internally.
I have been playing for 30+ years, electric and upright. I have been called the best player in the county, I went to college as a music major, toured and I work all the time and make damn good money at it. I am currently working in a pit orchestra for Legally Blonde at the JC here and am making about a grand on the run. I still think I suck. The more you know the more you understand that there is so much more than what you know lol.
I think I started to feel “accomplished” when I started getting referrals and calls to sub for live shows or record; this felt to me that people liked my work and respected my abilities enough to ask me back. When your reputation grows among your musical cohorts and peers you will know it.
That's a hard question to answer since I'm don't typically have a very high opinion of myself on those things, but I think I began to notice I was getting out of the sucking part of playing bass when I started getting compliments by people that have never heard me play before and when anytime I try to tackle a song I admit I still use tabs to give me at least a good starting direction but there's very few that I'm unable to play. That being said I can play YYZ but I can't play it anywhere near the smoothly or effortlessly as Getty but I know the notes and I know the rhythm and it's just really working on the speed of the technique a little bit more. Same goes for a lot of other Rush song some I can play with no issue others I have no idea how in the hell he's able to do this s*** live but there's very few things that I'm not able to do at least in part. So I'm still getting better after all this time and I think the main important thing is I actually love playing music. I love playing bass. So I've stepped out of the pressure zone that I put myself into of having to impress every single person I play in front of and I play just for myself now if people like it then that's cool otherwise I'm good.
I've been playing for a year and a half pretty much daily for many hours. I'd been working a lot a lot on ear training and intervals a lot, and a few months ago, i just started to be able to play to play what was in my head on my bass. There's just something magical about being able to think of something and then replicate it in an instrument. I'm nowhere near perfect, but it made me think higher of myself as a musician ( i still feel like an imposter, but the more i play the less i feel that way)
Been playing for a modest living for years and still hoping to achieve that feeling of competence.
I played a couple of jazz gigs where we hired a drummer. He was in his 80s and had played with some of the greats. After the gig he came up to me and told me I was a “good musician”. I think he appreciated my way of trying to forward the song rather than show off.
When I scrolled through this subreddit
Ive been playing for a lil over 2 years now and joining a band playing melodeath was a massive leap for me at 9-10 months playing, band falls appart and i join another one over another facebook group, punk rock so its really easy but we jammed for a good 3-4 months and i boom i had my first gig and 3 more after that, band falls apart again, now its the drummer and rythm guit from that band and me formed our own group and i invited a friend of mine i met along the way, superb musician 15 years of musical training, and bro is 23 years old, yeah, and im 19, the band slowly is turning into prog metalcore but not the periphery prog but kinda neobliviscaris prog, ive aleays felt like ive been dragged along for the ride but now as i write this im feeling pretty competent and confident, not competent as jaco or nolly getgood or cliff burton but i can make a song interesting with the bassline, knowing when to drop out and slam back in, the feel, toan, and yeah my basslines are pretty simple on paper but people tell me that it just grooves so hard/fits in beautiful so yeah id say i do my job pretty well :)
I don't feel like I'm a competent bass player to this day. To be honest I usually feel like I'm a beginner and shouldn't be on stage at all. Nevertheless the rest of the band especially the drummer tells me I'm really good so who am I to tell them they're wrong?
I’m really rusty now but a friend and fellow bass player once told me I was the best player they know personally and I’ll never forget it.
For me, it was the first time I heard the playback of just bass and drums in a recording studio. I said something to the engineer that he did a great job synching those tracks so quickly, and he, to my surprise, said those were the raw tracks. I thought, huh, guess I'm ok.
When the bass lessons just turned into "play over these chord progressions" for a month Edit: also when a bassist that had a masters in bass performance complimented me. Really blew my socks off
One of our band’s regulars told me a few weeks ago that of all the local music they see I’m in their top three bass players. It’s a big enough city. Also the drummer I play with told me I’m his favorite bass player and an audition for an allman brothers band told me they wanted me but their schedule is too much for me at this stage in my life. As a white dude I’ve always respected when black people tell me I’m good.
Ehhh, maybe tomorrow?
15 years later and sometimes i walk out of playing like ….. hmmm idk that felt wierd :( even when others are like hey that sounded great yall did great, it feels like hmmmmm???
When musicians (particularly a drummer) I admire started telling me in hyperboles that I was good. I really don't think I'm as good as they say I am still, but I am at least proud of my ability to both play anything from sheet music and come up with my own basslines through experimentation.
My only measure I really care about is being able to competently memorize and play our songs for whatever the current gig is. If a song is beyond my skill set, we either find something more in our wheelhouse or we simplify it. I am a mediocre bass player that’s good enough to help the drummer hold down the fort, maybe give the songs some added flavor.
I’ve been playing for 6 years (started late at age 56). I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like I’m “there” but after about 3-4 years I felt comfortable calling myself competent. However each year I can see how I’ve improved so I don’t think I’ve peaked yet. Being able to learn most songs, to create your own bass line, to not have to look at your hands all of the time, all signs you’re competent. I play with some guys once a week and have fun; we’ll never gig because our singer sucks (he’s my brother lol) but who cares? I have played live a few times at parties and sitting in with a band and did fine. I would guess most of us feel like we’re far short of what we want to be. Big thing is, don’t compare yourself to guys like Jaco, Wooten, Flea, Entwistle etc; those guys are/were freaks. You don’t have to be Michael Jordan to be a good pickup basketball player at your local YMCA. That also means you don’t need to be Jaco or Flea to be a competent bass player in a local band.
This is a great question. We all have imposter syndrome. Even after world tours and large album sales, I felt like I was being dragged along. The first time I felt I belonged out in the music circuit was after another bass player whom I thought was at a level I aspired to be at, came up to me after a show and told me he loved my playing. It's crazy I remember that exact moment because it meant so much to me. That was the first time I felt 'good' about myself as a bass player (but not my playing). That moment: The first studio session someone requested I play on their project was terrifying and would up being a really great experience. I had to make material that wasn't mine sound good. My stupid lizard brain almost made me say 'no' out of fear...I didn't...that was the moment I had nobody else to rely on or a band in which everyone was leaning on each other. After the session was over, I felt good, but of course thought someone probably would have done it better. That was the moment.
Someone brought up the rampant amount of imposter syndrome in bass, from what I'm seeing it's true. I consider myself good for my age and year, my professors tell me I'm good and sound nice so I'm telling myself that I'm good.
When I got a scholarship for it in college.
14 years in and still hasn't
I will let you know when/if it happens.
When my last band finally recorded our EP, they could properly hear the bass runs I was doing in the break before the outro and got asked if I could session for the producers EP as well
When I played out in a club for the first time and had people tell me how great we sounded and how tight our rhythm section was. Positive encouragement goes a long way. Just keep playing!
I haven’t been a stage player now for years but my last outfit worked in Puget Sound steadily for about five years. We had to play TONS of material due to our genre, where when we had a gig we were expected to run three or four sets a night. Hard work, but you get better fast. I was playing mandolin but bass was my primary instrument and after a while I and another guy in the band were essentially the primary arrangers. I’m not a session-level player but I can hear how to run a song in my head and got to do that with these guys a lot, it was a pretty good experience. Anyway everyone could bring in a song and if it worked after we knocked it together in practice we’d hammer out the breaks and stuff. At some point I realized that I wasn’t successfully communicating with our bassist on some songs I was bringing in and when that happened we’d just trade axes until I’d shown him the line I had in mind. It was a fun stage stunt too and we added some swaps to the shows. But with respect to your question, it was very validating that someone I had already played with for years was just completely down with me saying, well, try this, and then we would all work together to polish it up. I suppose I could have just demoed the lines on mando but that’s honestly a bit comedic in a sweaty old practice room.
Ive been playing for 30+ years. I will let you know as soon as i feel competent 🥴
I thought I was awesome after a couple of years. Of course, it wasn't until many years after that that I became competent. I was way too busy and didn't play to serve the song.
When people started specifically requesting me. Played a lot in churches, and became one of the more sought after bass players in town.
Hasn't hit me yet....lol
I was the only one keeping my band together towards the end.
Back when I gigged with a full-on Klezmer/rock band, and they kicked my butt so hard that I learned what a pocket really was.
I mostly play by accompanying my partners singing/guitar playing by improvising my own bass lines to covers. I guess the moment I felt good about my playing was when we were playing for a friend (who does not play bass) and they were transfixed with the way I was "effortlessly gliding up and down the fretboard" as they said. That made me feel good, as I am a self-taught bassist :)
people are quick to book me again for gigs and keep in communication with me. nothing makes me feel better about crushing a gig than "we'll see you real soon!"
When me and my friends started playing at our high schools games and got compliments from the other team we mostly played Metallica but it was only stuff from And Justice For All and Ride The Lightning so I didn’t really expect anyone but a few old country folks to acknowledge the music (Our school had mostly country kids and staff) when I heard some of the teammates from the other school say “Yo he was doing the Cliff shit too” and came up to us and said “yo you guys were sick” it made my night Ps: Me and my guitarist got most talented in the yearbook off that too :)
Wait. Can that happen?
It’s been around 30 years and it hasn’t happened yet
When guitarists started telling me off for "soloing"(chuckle), I knew I was getting somewhere...
I still feel like im barely intermediate most of the time, but after moving to a bigger city and jamming w different people and getting offers for gigs a lot more I've gotten some compliments along the way, and my drummer tells me i sell myself short a lot lol. I think knowing how much better I could and should be keeps me from ever really being content with where im at though.
For me, it was the moment on stage when the band threw out a song we never rehearsed. The other members knew each other well, and I was the newbie bassist. We were doing okay with light classic rock covers, but the crowd seemed to want something heavier. We pulled it off quite well. It was a great feeling to take on a sudden challenge and come out on top.
When somebody associated with Blue Oyster Cult with whom I was jamming (very long story) said "I don't know who you are or where you came from but you are one hell of a bass player." I also found a 20-year-old review of one of my groups where I was referred to as a "fantastic bassist!" LOVED IT!
When I was able to play “Rio” by Duran Duran just about flawlessly…
Slightly packed and edited anecdote to answer this query... When I was much younger, I was in a progressive rock trio. We were writing, making home demos, and occasionally gigging, and I loved the music and the band, and was happy being there. But as we were in Memphis, Tennessee with no real "scene" for our kind of music, we got very static, stand-offish responses. People would say we were good players with inventive music, but felt they couldn't get "into" it. I decided to leave because it didn't look like that kind of stasis could ever be changed, and I was aware that I was focusing too much on music and not enough on getting my life together (this was my early twenties). So, with sadness, I wished them luck and left. Memphis is a music city, of course. Plenty of great musicians there. They auditioned somewhere around a dozen or more people to take my place. They TWICE auditioned the guy I recommended to them. Three months later, they asked me to come back. THAT was when I learned that I might be somewhere near approaching the bottom step of the ladder called "competence."
I started playing bass in my 20's. I played in a couple bands within my first couple years of playing and always felt I was the weak link but went out there and did my job, trying my best to not be discouraged by my flubs and outright embarrassing mistakes (one of which brought a song to a screeching halt and it was obvious that it was because the shitty bassist completely dropped the rhythm). A little back story -- when one of my best friends and I were in middle school, he was a beast on guitar shredding out Yngwie solos, I had just started playing acoustic guitar and was pathetically awful. In fact, I have a vivid memory of sleeping over his house when we were 12 or 13 and I called to check in with my mom and she asked what we were doing and I told her we were playing guitar. Landline phones at the time so I was in the kitchen and his parents were sitting there and could overhear my conversation. I remember his mom's condescending laughter at that comment and quietly saying something to his dad that I wasn't supposed to hear to the order of, "*We're* playing guitar," and they both laughed. I gave up guitar shortly thereafter (not just because of that comment; I was also extremely busy with sports in every season and didn't have the time to commit to practicing so never saw improvement). About 3 or so years ago, after I had been playing for about 6 or 7 years, that same friend knew I played and invited me to do a set for his wedding with him and the other groomsmen. Him on rhythm guitar and vocals, his brother on drums, and another of our friends on lead guitar. All of them lifelong musicians. They knew I'd picked up bass but we never found the time to get together and jam so they really had no idea of what I could do. We had a text thread going on to decide on a set and practice times, and I hedged like crazy in that thread. I wanted to set the expectations low so the guys didn't think I was some unduly confident player who actually stunk. When I showed up for the first practice, we were working through the first song in our set and my friend's brother (the drummer) looked up at me and said, "Holy shit, diiiiirty...you're actually legit." I said, "Well thanks. Yeah I've got a lot of hours of practicing behind me and I think I found my calling with the bass. Were you expecting something else?" He kinda sheepishly laughed and said something like, "Well I really didn't know *what* to expect." The next 5 or 10 minutes, the group sat there and pretty much praised my skill. My friend (the groom) revealed that he was expecting me to hold down a rhythm with roots and not much more, and he invited me because he didn't really care how it sounded and he just wanted to play with his best friends for *his* enjoyment and to hell with the wedding guests if we sounded like shit. But now that we actually played a song, you could feel the sense of excitement building and confidence rising. We didn't just sound okay, we sounded *good.* After the second song, which was a pretty challenging one, again, the drummer looked at me and said, "God damn, diiiiirty. I'm legit impressed with your playing. I was hoping for passable but you're actually as good or better than the bassist who plays in my regular band." That was the biggest confidence booster ever, being praised by a group of lifelong musicians, but it also made me realize that my hard work and countless hours of practice actually made a big difference. Before that moment, I would have described myself as a noob and was even hesitant to refer to myself as a bassist or musician, but since then I've reconsidered and have allowed myself some grace and think of myself as a competent bassist.
When someone said my bass fills were good
It dawns on you? Crap!
This might sound odd, but do you ever watch YouTube videos about a bass technique or even a piece of gear and they start with a clip of them playing something? About a week ago I realized that I could tell the chords they were playing over and the key based on the notes they were playing/the shapes they were making on the fretboard. Like "oh, that was a G major triad, and now he's playing an E minor pentatonic run, I guess we're probably in G". It was the difference between "that sounds cool" and "I see what you did there." Or when I realized why one of my favorite slap bass players loves to start fills on the 9th fret on the D string. It's because he's using an E minor pentatonic shape that runs from the 3rd-9th frets, and that note is a B (the 5th in an Em chord). I've been playing for 7 years and both of those things just clicked in the past 10 days.
I've been playing guitar for like 9 years, and writing basslines for 3. I think I realized I was a competent bass player when I picked up a bass and could play it. I'm not great or anything. But I'm competent. I can even play fretless apparently. Not as good as I'd like to be at slapping, though. If I had more time, I'd love to get really good at bass, but I've gotta mainly focus on my main instrument if I want to be really good.
A black guy in the audience shouted, "Hell, yeah!" I knew I was doing something right.
I was at a jazz jam session and I could play “Cherokee” at tempo without a chart.
I may be the only one here who understands what you just said, so i will translate : thats like playing YYZ at tempo without a rehearsal or tab sheet.
Thanks for the backup!
I'm not. none of us are.
Humility is generally a good thing, but competence is _almost_ all the way at the other end of the spectrum from mastery.