I think the part that kills me is that the songs that have been mentioned so far aren't even complex, so there is no need to have more than 1 bass player.
there are several reasons for having more than one musician on all the instruments
some of THEIR reasons for having more than one bass playerpart of it is because its the jurisdiction (comprised of at least 150 churches all across the state), even in the music dept, the bishop wants to have more people from the local churches involved. so that means there has to be some sort of rotation going on.
but unlike other areas, like choir members, too many people in rotation as musicians diminishes the effective use of their time. this is what i did have to explain. but this is not a lifetime gig, so as time goes on, people may go on to other things leaving areas to fill.
also since this is a week long series of services, everybody may not be able to make it every night (people do have jobs, families, etc), so u do need multiple people in place at times.
well one thing that i figured was happening was that my skills were underestimated because of the way i played. I came there strictly to learn, not to get shine, not to show off, not to prove anything to anybody. So taking that receptive, humble spirit, especially one of learning changes how you play. Everybody else new that comes there, as soon as the music starts (even if they dont know the song) they start going off (drummers, organists, keyboardists, bass players) as if to say "i gotta show everybody that im niiiiice". Because I didnt do that it was interpreted as not being skilled or lack of confidence, rather than just wanting to learn.
I explained it like this. If you want to take a class to learn more about something, when the class starts are u gonna just start going full blast telling the teacher what you know? or are you going to pay attention, be receptive and take what they are telling you and as you go on, they'll know how knowledgeable you are.
some of MY reasonsAlso a weak point of mine is hymns. We just dont do them at MY church, and the ones i do know, often times I have to learn them all over again because they are played entirely different (partly because the organist at my church butchers them) and i often find myself listening rather than playing, as im trying to find the progression amidst the 700 chord changes that every organist seems to feel the need to squeeze in.
And also because there's a rotation of organists and keyboardists going on, playing with each person just isnt the same and sometimes u have to adjust (which is already an adjustment from how i normally play at my church), which may not be an issue for any of you guys here, but is an issue for me right now, which is partly why i joined. so i can get accustomed to playing with other COMPETENT musicians.
so it does help at times to be able to have someone else to swap out with.
