I chart out everything whether I use them on the gig or not. For me the act of making the chart itself is really helpful for internalizing the form and structure of the songs. For theater, jazz, cover bands, etc I'll bring my iPad along. For something like this I'll have it handy but not on stage.

I prefer to chart when learning tunes in a pinch but don't use them on stage. I have a somewhat photographic memory, so that helps sometimes if I have a memory slip up. Listening to the tracks as much as you can, within reason as you said, also helps and I'm with you on practicing without the bass just by hearing the chord movement in your head. Played a lot of Contemporary Christian music over the years in a church that used Nashville numbers and that's an amazing skill to possess when learning new tunes.

@lucistired

8 ай бұрын

I agree with this

In my main band, once we needed a replacement keyboard player. He taught me something very valuable: always play the simplest version of an arrangement first, then flesh out lines, chords, etc. And be constantly gauging the other players for their response to that.

@philipconradmusic

8 ай бұрын

Great advice

@Al_Mac125

8 ай бұрын

I find the Nashville number system extremely useful. Just thinking about tunes in that way will tell you loads about where the song or arrangement may go. I just do cheat sheets for the bloody mid 8s 😅. Good advice Phillip.

The piece about “over prepared is underprepared” sure is some wisdom. I’ve been in similar situations and would pull an all nighter trying to perfect everything; to the point of almost falling asleep while rehearsing. At a point I just get so tired where I start forgetting and get sloppy. Then after a 1-2 hr sleep, trying to perform the gig dead tired is not a fun experience. Good tips!!

@philipconradmusic

8 ай бұрын

I agree 100%! Thanks for watching

Thanks for sharing your insights! As a musician with 52 years of experience, I can underscore everything you said. Funny thing though: I traded my old pedalboard in for a modeler. It makes things a lot easier. You can split the signal to go to the amp (without amp simulations) and to the FOH mixer with the amp simulation. Using a wireless system, I was able to listen to the results in the position of the audience, and I was blown away by the overall result. By pre-programming the modeler I can just step through each song without much thinking and I can provide the vital information on the modeler‘s screen (key, start at measure, time signature, Nashville etc.) in the patch title. For a 42 song setlist that takes about half an hour when all the information has been provided. When there is a little more preparation time, I use my (Boss RC-505 MK2) looper as a guide for the first notes. Of course I need to use a (Shure) IEM system - but in such a situation it‘s well worth it and the fun, audience response and satisfaction make for a huge return on the relatively small investments.

Great job! Most of the gigs that I do are covers lasting 3-4 hours. If I'm not familiar with the material, I'll write charts. Now I'm not trying to sound egotistical, but I usually find that I know the songs better than the band. In those cases, I just go with the flow and make sure I make the "mistakes" with them...

Awesome video best part was watching the post-show high. So inspiring and energizing. Nothing like connecting with music in that way and really special to share that with people.

Great video. I agree with all your points here. Cheers from New Orleans!

That was fun to watch Philip, you’re becoming my favourite YT bass inspiration 😊

The Bassrig SV is a golden workhorse! Great tips, and completely agree, die on that Hill! No charts on stage for an indie/rock/country set.

Sam Burchfield is the bessssttt! So cool to see you could play with him!

Savannah is such a fun city. I’m from Georgia, and moved to New York a few years ago. But I’m missing Georgia and all my music buddies.

what a timely video.. last week I just played a church gig with 2 hours of practice time with the band (I subs for the bass player who couldn't show up in the last minute). Did not have the time to soundchecks etc... Thankfully we have played together before, so we got in tune pretty quick and just throw a simple arrangement for the songs...

So true what he says at 3:50 about not having to memorize note for note. Find the big moments or notes that create an impact or critical texture: bass slides, descending lines, etc. Listening through for the tricky bits is helpful too. Sometimes the groups skip them live, and you don’t have to waste your time.

You are inspiring! Keep up the great content! 🙏🤘

I love your videos and your vibe!!! Keep them coming ;)

Hey, Philip, firstly thank you very much for another video with real-life and very useful and helpful tips. Secondly it amazes me with every video, that your opinions, insights and thoughts are a 100 percent identical to my humble own. Putting in relation to my much smaller framework of knowledge and abilities we could almost be twins in this way 😂 Can't stress how much worth this is for me, thank you 🙏

Fantastic video, Philip! You made all the right calls for that gig!!

Appreciate the insight.

I like the comparison to running code in your mind, especially since my day job is in software development. I recently did a fill in gig for some friends band and had a blast. My main gig right now is a tribute group, so not worrying about playing note for note and just vibing with the song was a ton of fun.

Great vid and always interesting to see another musician's methods! And a BIG +1 on the Origin Bassrig preamp - I've had compliments every time I've used mine. Utterly incredible little box

Very helpful👍👍

Great video Philip! I would be interested in a video on the practicing in your mind thing, keep it up!

👏Impressive, most impressive.

@philipconradmusic

8 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching!

Awesome top tips

Great video!!

Great topic & well done video! Great music, this band!

@philipconradmusic

8 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Excellent video, Philip. Just dropping an idea for a future one: "To keep or not to keep my mobile phone in my rear pocket? is it cool or not..."?

Excellent video per usual 🙌. Love you brother; hope to see you in January 😘

I find if I chart songs I don't need the charts on stage, and can watch for organic things, but if I don't chart it I'll wish I had a chart. So I chart them, and sometimes I use them. The main thing for me is the mental state; you have to trust yourself to play the music, and then you'll be relaxed and it'll go great

Really dug this and your approach a lot. I have done quite a few less than a day to learn fill in gigs over the years and I really appreciate what you said about listening always being more important than anything else. Well done. But I was also hoping the end of this finely crafted video with all these tips and approaches would have ended with something like, "Man, all that stuff I said this morning, none of that worked at all! We have learned to do it different next time..."

Excellent topic. Been playing a long time especially in number system gigs and I find way more value in listening to the music, working only on intricate lines on last minute gigs like this. I also thoroughly agree on the charts topic. Used to play a bunch with charts and then got in a band that didn’t allow them. It made me be a better musician, have a better ear and better eye contact with the audience. Wouldn’t go back at this point. Doesn’t make it an excuse to show up unprepared, quite the opposite, as we all are accountable to know the tunes.

yes!!!!

I play an open stage every few months with a regular crew and we sound good without ever practicing. We just call songs on the spot. I can do that since I am ear trained and have been around for a bit. We also play old standard rock stuff. So I often have a sense of how the song should sound even if I have never played it.

I've only had to do it with songs I mostly knew. But my dad has asked me to play in one of his shows the morning of the show, so i had no time to practice or even listen to the songs before hand. We were doing songs I'd performed before but it had been a while and I hadn't even listened to the songs since the previous show. Still had fun, but it was a bit anxiety inducing leading up to getting up on the stage.

Good times! Sam is actually playing near me on the 20th, but I won't be able to make it...

Nice video! I play music by Frank Zappa in a relatively large rock ensemble. For a long time I focused mainly on the score, trying to nail every single note. However, the band is sounding better and better since I started to work on "been there", like you said: listening to the others, playing ideas that may sound simple (for Zappa, at least!) and building from there. Well, making sure the band is rocking good. By not having to read, I also can relax and enjoy more of the show, even if I'm standing next to the smoke machine (I hate them so much, ha).

So so so important about using your mind. Some people literally forget they have a brain. Good musicians can think in 4D, you sir phil have that and it shows.

more vlogs plzzzzzzzz

If you dont chart, your mind awakens - if i play this - he may do that, probing possibilites, different avenues the song may take shape into. 4D chess my friends. Dont read from paper thats 2D playing. See the possibilities, dont be told what it is. Use your mind like phil says.

Last-minute sub gigs can be pretty stressful. Luckily I've always had at least a couple days before sub gigs so far, but I'm sure the call is coming for a sub gig the day before 😂 thanks for the advice, it's super helpful.

This is a great video. I’ve been watching these drumeo videos where the drummer is essentially winging it but I can’t find videos where guitarists or keys etc have to completely wing a song. I’ve been in this scenerio a few times having to completely fake it a some songs even have never heard until playing it live…someone needs to make a drumeo guitarists edition.

@philipconradmusic

8 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching!

thanks for the insite of your preparation . what amp doe you play through

I was in such a Situation sometimes. Even like few hours before the gig they where like: dude, we are playing that and that song as well. Did you prepare it?! - they didn’t even gave me the recordings of that songs… so I had to learn basically the half set like three hours Before the gig. It was a festival as well. So the guitar player and me were sitting in the backstage, checking the songs out. 6 years later and I’m still in the band. So did something right that night. 😂 But in general, I like to chart the songs out, take it to the stage. But more like Chorus: … Verse:… Bridge:… Etc. Just to be safe. Still listening to the band and adapting to what they do. But as you said: Listing to the songs before hand is a major key to success in such situation.

In these situations, I tend to chart really small pieces of the somg just in case I forget how the groove goes or how the song starts and leave it on an ipad on the floor. Hopefully, I won't even use them, but if things go wrong I just pretend I'm tuning some pedals and take a look at the chords/score

What amp did you use for the gig?? I heard solid state, and got really interested.

Sorry, but that "chart vs no chart" take was way off. Transcribing anything to paper would require repeated and close listening and respectful dedication to every small detail of the parts you're learning. Plus, I have never *ever* experienced or even heard of someone showing up with a written chart to a rehearsal and *disappointing* anyone in the room. What's that about? If anything, you'd be making the best impression by showing up more than prepared. Finally, wouldn't it fit showing up "underprepared"? If you've got everything written out and you know you're gonna be good for go-time, then there would be no need to over-prepare. No ill will here, just debating, Cheers.

@Al_Mac125

8 ай бұрын

I sacked a drummer mid gig for showing up with charts but had no idea how the songs went. Told him 2 songs in to stop reading & just friggin play!!!

@McDoinky

8 ай бұрын

@@Al_Mac125 See, that I can understand at least. How do you write a chart but not know how the songs go?

@philipconradmusic

8 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching! I think we all agree here. Some musicians write charts so they don’t have to learn the songs.

@McDoinky

8 ай бұрын

@@philipconradmusic Well that’s not how it was worded in this video. You make charting seem negative without the proper context.

@philipconradmusic

8 ай бұрын

I do think it’s better to not chart than chart. But I think it’s better to chart than not know the songs. It comes down to how much time you have and what the gig is like. I was talking about this type of gig: an original gig with a songwriter, not a cover band or an orchestra. I think charts is a bad look for a songwriter gig if you have sufficient time to prepare.