Add some swagger to your bass playing
Low Life
Welcome back, bassists! This month, let’s dive into the often-mystifying world of confidence. I’m broaching this subject because I’m currently teaching a new cohort of live performers here at BIMM Birmingham, and helping them to adjust to the demands of performing on stage.
It’s a massive topic, because performing confidently is easier said than done. The feedback I give on live performance regularly ends in discussions around ‘being more confident’ or ‘projecting confidence’, for those who do not naturally possess it. It’s important, though, because gig-goers assume that the bands or artists they pay to watch will give an assured performance, otherwise they won’t buy into it. Let’s break it down into simple steps to show that confidence is something that we can control.
Firstly, acknowledge that confidence is both audible and visible. We can hear hesitation in someone’s playing through a lack of conviction or attack on the notes, by making mistakes, having to correct notes and phrasing, or changing sections tentatively, which suggests a lack of structural knowledge. Knowing your part in extreme detail as well as the song form is crucial to delivering a confident-sounding performance. This is the concept of ‘confidence through preparation’.
From a visual standpoint, there are lots of considerations that will produce – or pr
