Playing Bass

Tuesday night at band practice, our bass player wasn't able to be there.  So I took both my bass and a guitar (the Epiphone L.P.), figuring I could play some of each.  I ended up playing bass on the majority of the set list, switching to guitar for just the couple of songs that I really drive on the guitar.

It was more fun than I would have thought.  While I'm loving the whole process of getting competent on the guitar, I really do love the bass.  Maybe it's just that I'm a better bass player than a guitar player.  I'm not a virtuoso by any means, but I could step into a cover band today and not feel the need to apologize for my playing.  I can only play guitar with friends who understand that I'm still getting my feet under me.

More than that, I just have a rhythm player's mindset.  I like playing with the drummer and setting the beat, driving the song.  Soloing over top of that is fun too, and I'm trying my best to learn it, but at the end of the day, I want to be part of the rhythm section with a good drummer.

I wish there were enough hours in the day that I could make an effort to get better on the bass, as well as learn guitar.  At the moment there isn't, so my emphasis will be on the guitar.  But I won't pass up chances to play bass.

Stray Cat Strut

Stray Cat Strut is a song I've like a lot since it came out in the 80's.  I can't say I was a huge Stray Cats fan in general, but they had a couple good songs, and this one great one.

I learned the basic chords to it a number of years ago from an Internet tab site (which are sometimes a big help on learning a song, but more often no help at all, as anybody can submit what they think is right.)  But the solos and fills always seemed beyond me.

Well, YouTube to the rescue again.  I found a video lesson on the chords (which I already knew), the intro, solos, and ending.  And what do you know, I can play them.  Not good enough to play it live, but with enough practice and repetition I could probably even do that.

It has a number of patterns that are very different from the normal blues 1/4/5 progression that so many songs are built from - jazzy sounding and very interesting.  And when the guy on the YouTube lesson gives the names of some of these chords, it's enough to make your head spin.

That repetition turned out to be a little problem though.  After a bit of time working on the solos, Darling Wife asked if maybe I wanted to play some other songs.  I took that hint and understood - you need a lot of reps to get something down, but that's not fun for someone else to listen to.  Fortunately both my amps have headphone jacks for just such an occasion.

Anyway, the song is fun to play and sounds great.

YouTube links to the song and the guitar lesson.

Fat Bottomed Girls

As everyone knows, they make the rockin' world go round.

We've added one final song to our set list - Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls.  I don't remember who suggested it, but we all loved the idea, and it was unanimous to add it.  There was some thought that maybe our significant others wouldn't appreciate this song, but they're fine with it.  The reaction I got was something along the lines of, "Play it, it's a great song.  But if you dedicate it to me, you're a dead man."  Warning taken.

I did some YouTube research and found that it's easy to play - basically a three-chord song in D, and in drop-D tuning, which I've never done before.  Drop-D just means tuning the low E string down a whole step to D.  This lets you play the two bottom strings open as a D power chord.  It's not hard, and sounds great.

Since we have three singers in the band, they've worked out the harmony to the beginning "Aaaaare you gonna take me home tonight", etc.  Also, Eric has decided to just sing, which means that I'm alone on the guitar.  That's a different (and very cool) feeling.

Sarah heard me practicing this tonight, and her reaction was sheer horror.  I believe her words were, "That's wrong on so many levels."  I could only laugh and apologize for mortifying her.

YouTube links to the song, and the guitar lesson.