Category: Music

Coming soon to a bassist near you…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

The Ampeg Micro Stack.  Easily the most natural sounding amp I’ve ever tried for my upright bass and very easy on the back.  Now I just gotta find the money. Plasma donation time?

And yes, it does look like Rosie the Robot on the “Jetson’s”.

Meandering around the www…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

I came across these YouTube videos of AC/DC before Bon Scott, Bon Scott before AC/DC and the AC/DC with Bon Scott in the early part of their career. We know, of course, how the story ends. Bon Scott found dead in a car at the height of his fame. The whole gain the whole world and lose your own soul thing, true then true now. Yet I thought it would still be interesting to take a journey in the way back machine.

It's a kind of passion…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

when you decide to seriously take up the art of playing bass.

Some came to the bass because they were tall and their junior high orchestra needed someone with the height to play the double bass. Others were frustrated guitarists who picked it up because they felt it was at least better then not being on stage with the band. Others sense a kind of novelty, but the novelty wears off after time.

You can see it when they play, and hear it too. One can survive by going through the motions, stay on the root note, keep decent time, and take your bows. You can tell, as well, when a person plays with passion, with the sense of pushing every possible sound out of four strings or knowing just the right time to place a note that changes the whole melody.

And if you are a bassist of passion, even if you are just beginning to play, you become identified with the instrument. Its always with you even when its on the stand at home. In a world of guitarists you are a rarity and people find you. On the street the tall instrument with the four strings always gets the first look.

Perhaps someone will grab your instrument and think they, because they can play guitar or mandolin, can master it. They usually play a few notes from one of their leads and then the realization sets in. The bass, especially the upright, requires strength combined with a delicate touch, a sense of time, and the ability to place notes not just where they can be but where they should be. Slowly they hand the instrument back.

That’s when the respect begins and those who know will understand.

Having a standing 15 minutes of fame…

~ Fr. John Chagnon ~ Leave a comment

every Tuesday at Junior’s in River Falls, Wisconsin I’ve gotten to know audiences and understand why KISS did what it has done for what, thirty years now.

Getting an audience’s attention is hard. Being good isn’t good enough. It helps but why were the Bay City Rollers famous and a thousand people who played better in their sleep still working the Dirt Circuit? Audiences are fickle, easily distracted, easily bored, and always looking for a limit to be pushed. It’s not the words, not the tune, not the talent, but the show that matters. Adam Lambert pushed a man’s face into his crotch and finally got the attention, but what’s next?

No, I’m not going to play bass and spit blood all over the stage. I plan to keep my clothes on, the profanities off, and do a show my mother could attend. That probably dooms me to little things here and there with audiences talking and eating while we play. That’s okay because I’ve come to an understanding.

Human audiences will always be what they are, but the audience of heaven is what matters most. I sometimes stand in front of crowds that could care less but when I stand in worship I am standing in the presence of One who accepts whatever feeble song I can muster with a love rooted not in the show but in the character of the Listener. There is a tyranny in being on the stage, there is none standing at the altar.

Amazing what a bar and grill can teach you.