Hello again everyone,

There has been such a high level of positive feedback coming from you bloggers, musicians, and bassists out there, that it has fueled my motivation to reach out to you even further.  It has also simultaneously spawned a lot of thought provoking conversations with myself in the car as I drive to a certain gig, rehearsal, recording session etc.  Here is the formulated, "blah" that has come from my brain:

Do we all know what an ABY box is?  No? If you don't its a useful little pedal / channel switcher that allows you to simultaneously have two instruments plugged into one amp and easily switch between them, or vice versa.  But does our brain do this?  How do we manage (for all you busy budding musicians) to be in the proper mindset when we are playing several different styles of music, managing multiple bands, and juggling the daunting task of being a composer, sideman, bassist, musician, promoter, booking agent, and more importantly, a human being?  So back to my original query.  Does our brain do this...?   ... In my opinion... yes it does. It has to.

Personal scenario.  I am in the process of playing in a musical, being a sideman to an R&B group, composing and writing new material for my group, as well as being a bassist, and managing feeding my dog, cleaning my apartment, going out with friends, and having a personal life.  How do I do this.  I mentally equate it to having the capacity to be multilingual and fluent in each language.  After all, music is a language yes?  Now, usually there is one underlying theme per post, an asops fable or a punchline / moral of the story, and that is....

...drum roll please....

Compartmentalization.  The minute you stop trying to compare apples to oranges to eggs to elephants the more successful you will be at identifying the purpose and the role you play with each of those items.  To translate this musically.  It is CRUCIAL that you evaluate and become cognitive of what is you're doing, why you're doing it, and what can you do to maximize the success of your purpose, and plant the seed for future use of your talent.  

More specifcally...

When I play in a pit orchestra, I only focus on playing the language of broadway, or musicals, vaudville, etc.  I spent a couple rehearsals in the last week trying to figure out why I wasn't sounding like Nostros' bassist and bandleader...  well... after vexing my brain with scrutiny and stupidity over an answer that was plain obvious reason, I realized, "I am not supposed to be Nostros' bassist right now."  This wasn't my gig.  This was a gig that I was called for and that I needed to be present, alert, and ready for the uncertainty that is musical theatre.  I was not benefiting the nine other musicians in the pit by over analyzing whether or not my jazz chops were beginning to suffer because I had not been improvising over changes, or practicing and writing my own music.  The minute this fog had been lifted I was more present and began enjoying the language that I was playing.  Not comparing it to something that it had no relation to other than the fact that it was highly orchestrated music, and that there were a bunch of people in the room making sound.   I found a deeper clarity and love of the music I was playing just because I had immersed myself in it, not analyzed the living crap out of it.

Shortly after giving the best performance yet of the six weeks this show will run, I had gotten back into my car and started mulling things over again as I was on the way to another rehearsal.  This time... I was to be a sideman in an R&B band I play for...      ...I'm sure you can see where this is going...

 I immediately noticed that I brought the same bass, the bass that has flatwound strings on it, and is not normally the bass I use for this respective band...   ...if this is the case, how was I able to bypass this using my pit bass, to sound like me, and sound like the sideman that the bandleaders had hired me and expected me to be.   By compartmentalization.  The minute I had walked in the door and set my gig bag down, I prepared myself to be more in the forefront of the band, to drive and support the other musicians to acheive overall success of the tune and maximize the productivity of the rehearsal.  

So all in all, the moral of the story is to be ever present mentally, but more imperatively to be consistently conscious of what you're doing, who you're doing it with, and the reason why you're there...  the minute that you're able to just be a musician and, "Wear the right jacket" so to speak, you will understand how important you really are to the music world, no matter the level or status of a player you are.  We all dream big and dream of being the best bassist or musician out there... and truth is, in my extreme redundancy, and probably having said this in another post....     .... you don't have to THE BEST.... you just have to be, THE BEST AT BEING YOURSELF and giving the bandleader, composer, conductor, every bit of faith and reason that he made the right choice in calling you.    Make sure you can switch channels in the ABY box of your brain, and you'll make a living on the circuit, retain artisitc satisfaction with your musicianship and more importantly, your hard work, dedication to greatness, and persistance on the road of personal growth is obligatory, but also rewarding.

Comment, like, tweet, post, share, and connect.

Sincerely and with all the best,

Keep swinging.

Andy 

Greetings bloggers and bassists!

I've come to realize that I am not a habitual blogger, but for those who have commented on this site, I have read, and making some coding arrangements to make this site more accessible to smart phone technology, a little bit more user friendly, and a bit more personally accessible to myself!

I know many of you have read and commented on the blogs, and I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to do that, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you all!  That being said, I'm going to make a few recommendations! 

1. You can follow me on twitter.  www.twitter.com/andybowersbass

2. I do have a facebook page, and you can follow me on there as well, I update those much more regularly, as I am learning to get into the habit of updating this again.  

3. Email!  My email is Andrewbowers.bassist@gmail.com   and I DO respond to those!  Please send me emails with your questions, comments, requests for things you would like me to talk about in my music career, etc.   

So this post is kind of a bipolar in the sense that I am updating on where you can find my group Nostros' music, and download and purchase the album, as well as to give you a little  update as to my current practice routine. 

First things first.  I have a group that just cut an album, the group's name is Nostros, and we just released an album of all my original compositions called, "On Grounds of Misdirection" To give you a brief synopsis of the album, it is a concept record that basses most of the tunes of a single melodic / recapitulating theme that is present in one form or another in all of the ten tracks on the record. 

The initial response to the album has been phenomenal and I would love YOUR support of the record, as it was a very big emotional work for me that took me through the depths of almost every single emotion I could feel after losing someone very close to me. However, I would love to hear the emotions that get triggered by you, the listener.  

Where you can find this record:

www.nostros.bandcamp.com

That will take you directly to the album, and guess what, there is a sweet little incentive if you purchase the album, go and check it out for yourself!!!!

We have all the social media as well.  They are:

www.twitter.com/nostrosmusic

www.facebook.com/nostrosmusic

www.reverbnation.com/nostros

www.youtube.com/nostrosmusic

and our email is (you guessed it!)

nostrosmusic@gmail.com

Please send your thoughts, comments, and as always, like, tweet, connect, and spread the word!

Now onto the section where I actually attempt to cohesively organize my random blah to help you bloggers and budding bassists!

There have been several moments within the last several years where during times of intense touring, performing, session work, and or composing, where I do not necessarily feel that I am as connected to my playing or my own thoughts on what I should be practicing if at all.  We've all been there  yes?!  So here is maybe a little insight to the day regarding this vexing conundrum.  

 What do we do? We don't force it.  The biggest problem we have as musicians is that we all are perfectionists, and that we try to strive to the highest level of performance even in practice; this is not a bad thing, but can be our biggest set back.  What happens on days where you don't feel like you have the motivation to practice.  It's quite simple.  Don't.  The biggest detriment that will result is that you will continually grow frustrated and start to not see the bigger picture of the point and end result of practicing.  The end result, purpose, reason, calling, of practice, is that YOU discover YOURSELF with your instrument.  Let me say that again...   YOU, discover YOURSELF.  How many times have we practiced and then all of the sudden made a mistake that was somewhat hip?  Or some little nuance that happened in your playing that became a part of you solo vocabulary?  The point being, that made the mistake, the reason you practice (to supposedly decrease the number of technical inaccuracies), opened up a whole new door to your playing, and upon playing, you found an even greater desire to practice?

So how do we hone this on a regular basis when people are hiring you out on a gig?  We constantly play.  The problem with using the word, "Practice" is that we have such a demanding association with the word.  However we have no problem figuring out a bassline to a James Brown tune, because it's fun right?!  Or we listen to the radio while we drive and hear a tune that we love, and go, "Damn, I wanna jam to a tune like that, or that tune!"    So... again, back to what we do.  We change the stipulation as to what we practice, why we practice, and the association of the word practice.  

Constantly play.  So far, my practice routine has been dumping fifteen or so tunes into a play list for each day of the week.  Tunes that are fun to me, tunes that challenge me, tunes that have a sick bassline or melody. And I jam through basically, a set a night, seven days a week.  This has exponentially increased my auditory response to dissecting form, melody, groove, time, and orchestration.  You as a bassist are nine times out of ten, focused on playing the pocket.  Does this under any circumstance mean you can't learn the melody....?  The trombone harmony line? Nope!  No rules.  Learn the tune in it's entirety!  Start small and work your way up to as many tunes as you want daily, but watch as the week progresses on, how much faster, accurately, and facility you will gain in your aural capacity, as well as your facility on your instrument!

Thank you all for listening,

Remember, check out the music, tweet, like, follow, spread the word!  Comment as well!  Connection is everything and I would love to hear from you all!

Stay tuned and hopefully I'll see most of you on twitter!