I started playing bass about 30 years ago in high school. I also sing tenor and baritone. In all the choirs, praise groups, and bands (both inspirational and secular) that I've played in, I've always proclaimed that on any given song, I can sing or I can play bass, but I can't do both at the same time.
Over the past 3 or 4 years, out of necessity, I've started working hard on being able to sing and play at the same time. Since I'm largely responsible for the music in the 8:30 service, I'm able to pick songs where I can simplify the bassline if need be in order to sing background. Since we only have one tenor in the group, if he's singing lead, either I or our pianist have to fill in the background. I've also found a couple songs that I can lead.
Okay, now about today's victory.....On two of the songs for today, I played and sang lead. In our 8:30 service we did Fred Hammond's "Please Don't Pass Me By". In the 11:00 service we did "He's An Awesome God". The victory is that the bass I was playing is an unlined fretless! I've done "Please Don't Pass Me By" a lot, but usually just singing along with piano accompaniment. Lately I've been doing it with any of my fretted basses, and even then, I'd drop out the bass part if I was not confident on certain parts. But I like the extra sustain and "mwah" of a fretless bass on that song and most of the slower paced songs that we do, so I decided to give it a shot. This was my first time ever doing "He's An Awesome God". I'm sure there were some rough spots, but from what I can tell, it went very well. Still, I'm not gonna sprain my shoulder patting myself on the back until I can get "Give Me A Clean Heart" down pat with the fretless. But I am gonna celebrate today's breakthrough.
Peace,
James