I just got back from an awesome weekend at Bass Player Live at SIR in Hollywood, and if you’re not familiar with the event allow me to try and describe it for you: think of the NAMM show but strip away everything that is not bass related, and what you’re left with is 8 hours of non-stop gut-pumping finger-plucking, thumping, bumping, slapping, tapping, harmonic, ground-shaking, sub-sonic mayhem for 2 days straight.

It’s awesome! Rooms full of bass vendors with all their hippest gear, panels of “famous” bass players offering clinics, autographs and photo ops, and hundreds of bass players from around the world swarming the halls of a single building… It almost doesn’t get any better than this. Now to be perfectly honest I didn’t spend too much time on the floor; it was so loud (and SO LOW) that it really hurt my ears to be walking around all day. However, I found so much value in the clinics that BPL offered this year that I spent almost all day attending them. I really enjoyed attending the following classes:

Alphonso Johnson – Concepts of Bass Playing
Ricky Minor – How Did You Get Here?
Janek Gwizdala/Juan Alderete/Damien Erskine – Social Media and Marketing
David Ellefson/Frank Bello – Metal Mayhem
Tribute to Donald Duck Dunn and Bob Babbit
Damien Erskine – Bass Technique

Each of these classes changed my life, containing information and concepts that really challenged me, and I’ll be revisiting my lecture recordings for weeks to come. I’m sure you’ll see some of these ideas come to life in my upcoming video lessons on labasslix.com! Another cool thing I discovered this weekend was an internet bass radio station called www.bassonthebroadband.com that’s being head up by the infamous Brian Bromberg. Super sweet dude, and after talking to him for some time I can tell you that I’ll definitely be getting involved over there soon. Such a great idea and a unique opportunity to explore the world of all things bass.

One thing that really struck a chord with me altogether, so to speak, was the “hang” itself. Seriously – there were maybe 300? 400 bass players under one roof? Not sure on the total number, but bass players are just so cool to hang with! And I’m not talking about the “famous” guys; I mean just bass players in general. No showing off (relatively speaking), no fighting, no intimidation, no negative energy what-so-ever. Just a bunch of bass players talking shop and doing what we do best – RELAX! Maybe it’s our supportive nature in the group that gives us this attitude more often than not, but I truly feel at home chilling with a bunch of bass players. I wonder if we could get 400 guitar players in one room and see what happens. I think they’d kill each other, but that’s just me 😉

But seriously, I think our mellow, laid-back nature is what calls us to this instrument to begin with. We’re so used to being in the background that there’s no need ego (more often than not) and there’s no need to prove anything. I feel like the mantra of the bassist is: “We know who we are and where we are and what we’re doing, so just chill out man!” I truly feel like that’s the reason some of us are called to the bass because we feel like it calls out to us. The instrument itself does what we do naturally, it feels the way we feel, and it sounds the way we want to be heard. I’m proud to be a part of this community and I welcome anyone who feels the same way.