jez

Right. So!

We got given our performance tech assignments for June today; we're supposed to imagine we've been booked as a support act to do one song. On our own.

See, that's a piece of cake for everyone who can just sing and play guitar/piano, whatever. What the hell am I supposed to do with my bass? My job is essentially to provide repetitive chugging, which nobody would really want to listen to, without a band. Even when you're doing a song which involves an actual riff like, say, 'Money', no matter how cool the riff is, you're still just playing it over and over again and it'd be too boring. My first thought was to finally put my money where my mouth is and knuckle down and learn the infamous Metallica bass solo 'Anasthesia (Pulling Teeth)'. Seriously, if you don't know it, go and listen to it. It's AMAZING. Proper shredding going on there - on a bass!! I would love to go up for my performance and blow everyone's socks off with my newfound awesomeness. But everytime I try and learn that fucking song, I get pysched out in about five minutes. The first bit is do-able. Anything after that gets a bit hairy. It usually makes me cry. One day I'll get it, one day...

The other option was given to me by my long-suffering bass teacher Matt. He suggested another Metallica instrumental, 'Orion'. Have just had a listen to it and a look at the tab for it. The bit he had in mind lasts about two minutes and is pretty cool (although it's got Hammett shredding all over it and drowning everything else out as per usual). Again, it's kind of repetitive though - just one groove with a few variations. I want a bit more than that. I want to dazzle. This is my big chance to strike one for girl musicians everywhere and prove that we're not just there to look shiny and nice. And I want to prove to myself that I've got a right to be on this course - so far I don't feel like I've done that. So if anyone's got any ideas of something I could play for two or three minutes that would sound cool and not kill me trying to learn it, for the love of the Goddess, get in touch.

Moving onto slightly less geeky matters, I got absolutely plastered last night. My friend's band, Retro Reactive (who'll be my band too in a couple of months time), had a gig in our local sleazy rawk pub and I actually managed to drink all the vodka in the bar. They did a good set, I got mashed and then topped it off nicely by accompanying the singer back to his for a smoke (of the dubious variety). I really shouldn't drink and smoke magic ciggies at the same time, it does very funny things to me. When I eventually collapsed into bed and tried to sleep, I spent what was left of the night doing that lucid-dreaming thing where you imagine everyone's still there with you, talking to you. Anyone else ever get that or am I just pants at managing my substance intake?

Feel like complete shizer today, anyway. Have had to blow out a friend and his girlfriend's invite out to another gig tonight, which I feel pretty bad about. I'm too fragile for an actual social life! If anybody wants me, I shall be hiding in my bedroom, playing The Sims and muttering to myself.