Chords for Why I Almost Quit Music (100% Honest Q&A)

[Am] Hey everyone!
So a couple of days ago I made a post asking how many of you would be interested
if I did a Q [E]&A and judging [D] by the fact that there were over 700 [Fm] comments on [Gm] that post,
I took that [Am] as a sign that a lot of you wanted this.
So today I'm going to be answering a load
of your questions [Em] like what was the most embarrassing moment of my bass career,
[Gm] [Ab] how many hours a day do I [Gm] practice and whether I'm [B] going to do another battle with [A] Davey504.
So let's get [Eb] right into it, my first ever Q&A video.
How much practice do you do technique
work slash scales versus songs?
Okay well that's changed a lot [Ab] actually.
Back when I was in my
peak practicing mode I was [Cm] doing about eight hours per day.
[Eb] I was taking it [Bb] really [Eb] seriously
and I knew that I wanted to be a solo bassist.
Most of what I was doing back then was pretty
technique focused.
Now 95% of my [Ab] practice is just for the next YouTube video that I'm gonna make.
[Cm] My English is the worst but [Eb] how long have you been playing instruments?
[Ab] Well first of all your
English is better than my [Bb] any other language [Eb] so I've been playing [G] piano for [Cm] 21 years and I've been
[Ab] playing bass for [Eb] 16 years.
[Gm] How it felt when you became so [Eb] famous through _ [Ab] Davey504 and now you're
one of the most popular bassists on YouTube?
[Eb] It was definitely a very surreal experience.
It was [Dm] really nice [Eb] to see [Db] that all of my hard work had started paying [Eb] off.
It was also really
stressful because I hadn't really made very many YouTube videos for a while so I started working
like crazy to put out you know two videos a week and that was really stressful and a lot of hard
work [Ab] at first but I think it was definitely worth it.
What are some of [Cm] the biggest obstacles you've
had to [Eb] overcome to get to where you are now?
[Cm] When I first started out I would play basically [Eb] any show
that I could just to try and build up a fan base.
You know I would play [Ab] bars, _ restaurants, _ colleges,
[Eb] _
[Bb] clubs, basically whatever I could whether or not it [Ab] paid.
I did a lot of street performing too
[Bb] because actually [Eb] that would often [Gm] end up getting me [Cm] more fans than you know [Ab] playing the bars and
stuff like that.
[Eb] But this could be really [Bb] hard sometimes [G] because it's a [Gm] very long [Ab] process that
often feels like you're not actually really getting anywhere.
I [Bb] remember there were some
[Eb] nights where I'd get [Gm] home from a gig [Db] at you know _ 2am having just played to [Cm] next to no one, getting
paid pretty much nothing and part of me [B] would really question whether I'd made a huge mistake
by deciding to pursue [Eb]
music rather than something safer.
But in the end my love for music and bass
has always been stronger than my fear of failure and that's what gets me through those hard times.
In your opinion who do you think the most [Cm] technically and [Bb] musically skilled bassist of
all time [Cm] is?
Well that's a really tough question [Eb] and people are obviously really skilled in
different areas but if I had to pick one I would probably go with Victor Wooten just because his
slap I feel is [Cm] pretty _ unparalleled.
There's a video [Gm] of him playing Sinister Minister live with
the Flecktones.
It was at some small [A] club you know back in like [C] 90.
[E] That slap [Ab] solo [E] is probably the
most [C] ridiculous slap solo I've ever seen from any [Gm] bassist.
Any collab planned with [Ab] Nathan Navarro?
_ Please the bass world needs it.
Alright [Eb] leave a comment if you want me to do a collab [Cm] or battle
with [Eb] Nathan Navarro.
What is the [Ab] best moment in your [Eb] opinion you've [Bb] ever had the pleasure to
experience [Eb] regarding your music career?
[Ab] The first one was when I played a show at this place called
[Eb] Capital Center for the Arts.
It's about a 1300 seat theater and it was one of the biggest gigs that I'd
played up to that [Bb] point.
Because it was such a big [Fm] gig for me [Bb] I'd been [Eb] really nervous leading up until
[Bb] that point.
They only gave me one [Ab] song in a load of other acts so [Eb] I was really feeling a lot of
pressure.
[Abm] I went out there and it was a [G] sold out crowd [Cm] all 1300 [A] seats were [Dm] packed and I [Bb] played a
pretty epic piccolo [Eb] bass solo you know [Bb] probably one of my best up until that point.
[Cm] And while I was
playing I was getting all [Gm] of these cheers [Eb] and claps from the crowd [Ab] they were being really supportive
[Gm] and [B] then at the [Cm] end I got a standing [A] ovation and that was just a really [Bb] nice moment because it was
[A] easily the [Ab] biggest gig I'd played up until that point [Bb] and it went so [Eb] well and it just gave me so
much [Cm] confidence.
How are things going with your [Ab] fiancee slash wife?
That proposal [Bb]
video was [Eb] fun.
_ _ How are [Ab] things going?
Things are good.
_ _ Nice.
What [Bb] is the most embarrassing [Eb] moment you've had in your bass career?
[Db] You know there's been tons of gigs where I've made some pretty [Cm] horrific mistakes and it just
sounds [Eb] terrible.
There was one show [Ab] I played where there were probably about a [Eb] thousand people in the
audience you know [Ab] they really hyped me up and [Eb] had this big [A] intro that they'd planned [Eb] out.
So now put
your hands together for Charles Bear 2. _
Everyone's clapping you know can't wait [Ab] to see what I'm gonna
[Bb] do.
And then of course [Gm] my mic isn't [Ab] working.
Play my bass there's [Bb] no sound [Gm] coming out.
So I was just
[Ab] kind of standing awkwardly on [Bb] stage for about [Gm] five minutes [Ab] while a thousand people were just sitting
there waiting.
[Bbm] Do you play video games?
If yes what are your favorites?
[Eb] I love games like Mario Kart,
Super Smash Brothers, Zelda, [Cm] Halo.
I'm pretty sure I could beat [Eb] any of you in Super Smash Bros if I
play as Captain Falcon.
And Mario Kart well [Ab] _ let's just say [Eb] I get the jump on Koopa Troopa Beach
[Ab] every time.
Would you bass [Eb] battle [Ab] with [Bb] Davey504 again?
[Gm] I think he wants to wait [Ab] until his hair
has grown back before [Bb] he does another battle with [Gm] me.
But yeah I would be [Ab] up for that.
What bands
have you been in?
[Bb] I've been in a lot of [Gm] different bands.
When I was in [Ab] school I was in a pretty like
hard rock verging on [Bb] metal band called Bloodshot Summer.
And then when I was at Berkeley I was in
another [Ab] kind of hard rock [Eb] band called The [Bb] Resemblance.
And then a Celtic bluegrass [Cm] band
called Cat and the Moon.
[Bbm] I played with a pop artist called [Ab] Skylar a lot.
And before [Eb] Covid I was playing
[Bb] in a band called [Cm] Solsha.
That was an Afro [Fm] [Bbm]-Celtic funk band.
Any collab or projects [Ab] planned with
Ichika [Eb] Nito?
I would [Bb] really like to do another [Cm] proper collab [Fm] with Ichika.
It seems [Bbm] like he's
really focused on doing his own thing right [Eb] now.
I'm not seeing him doing a lot of collabs with
other people.
But I really [Cm] love the one that we did together.
I [Bbm] think our styles work really well
together.
And so yeah I'd love to do another one with him.
[Eb] If you could put together a dream band
who would your bandmates be and what genre of music would you play?
That's tough.
I'm probably
gonna end up having about 10 members here.
On the guitar I [Bb] would have [Ebm] Ichika, _
_ [Eb] John Petrucci, _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ [Cm] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
_ James [Ab] Hetfield just because it's [Gm] fun.
And maybe [Eb] like Jimi [Gm] Hendrix.
[Gb] So you know four guitarists.
That's what everyone, that's what every band needs.
[Ab] On drums it would probably be [Bb] Dave Weckl.
We've
got to [Eb] have at least three or [Bb] four bassists.
[Eb] So you know [Bb] assuming I would also be playing bass in the
band I would get Victor in [Ab] there.
Probably [Gm] Jacko to play some crazy fretless stuff.
[Ab] And Marcus Miller
to lay [Bb] down some funky [Gm] slap.
Do you prefer to play [Ab] bass with your eyes closed?
_ [Gm] They're closed
often which is [Ab] ballsy and talented.
It's not a conscious choice.
It's not [Bb] something you know I
decide all right [Ab] now I'm gonna [Eb] close my eyes here because _ [Ab] that's gonna look really [Eb] passionate.
_ No it's just [Ab] something that happens you know when I'm hitting a really [Eb] nice bend or something like
that.
Do you feel [Ab] getting involved more in [Eb] YouTube has helped or hindered your growth into _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ [Gm] _
[Cm] _ the
_ _ _ industry?
I would say overall it's helped because on YouTube the possibilities are endless [Eb] especially
because I'm producing my own music.
So I can have a song that's got you know bass, drums, strings,
piano, guitar, pretty much any instrument I want.
That's something that's much harder to do [D] live.
I'd have to have about 20 [Gbm] musicians on [Dbm] stage.
The one thing that [Gb] can be difficult about YouTube
[Bm] sometimes is that it [B] feels like every video I release [E] needs to have some kind of _ groundbreaking
or catchy interesting idea.
If I just [A] release an original that has no theme [B] you know [Gbm] like a
weird [Bm] tuning then the problem is that it [E] doesn't get as many clicks because [D] it's not as [Db] catchy.
It's not as [Gbm] clickbaity.
That means that YouTube [A] stops showing it to as many people [D] including
the people who actually subscribe [Dbm] to my channel.
[A] And that can be a little [E] bit frustrating [D] because
I know a lot of you want to just [Bm] see straight up original music [D] with no frills, no strings attached.
[A] A book about [E] learning tapping written by you would be awesome.
[A] Well you're in luck because I do have
[Gbm] a book about learning [Bm] tapping written by me.
I'm going to leave a link in [E] the description.
Alright well thank [D] you guys so much for all your questions.
[Db] Let me know in the comments if you [Gbm] have
any more questions or things you [A] want to see in future videos [D] and I'll see you guys [Dbm] in the next video.
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