John Hendow

Last night at preons rehearsal we played our main set of songs with a metronome keeping time. In my experience this is usually more difficult that it sounds, and can be a challenge for seasoned musicians. Our songs have a degree of internal syncopation at times, and it’s a natural tendency to rush or drag a bit. Although the steady pulse is a good reference for tempo, it takes a degree of concentration to stay locked up with it.

When practicing at home I use a metronome / click track, or sometimes I fire up a drum loop to give me something to play against. When I’m practicing fretless bass I also have my digital tuner in-line… I’m getting much more consistent at finding the finger placement that puts me in tune but it’s always nice to be able to spot check when changing positions on the neck. So, which is more important: to have perfect rhythm or perfect pitch?

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In December 2006 I began to rehearse with a new band called the preons. The band has been around for a few years and has released some music on CD. It’s a bit of a new experience for me since I’m playing bass in this setting. The music is an interesting mix of pop, rock, jazz and earnest folkiness. My first objective was to learn the existing material, so I transcribed the bass parts as recorded by the band’s former bassist. I consider it my responsibility to perform these parts very closely to the recorded versions.

We also started right in on some new material, which is coming along nicely. The band has an interesting collective musical sense that often manifests itself in unexpected chord substitutions and harmonic structure. One of my bandmates, Brad Nelson, is a friend from work who also has a degree in music. I’ve been impressed with his trumpet and keyboard playing, and it’s a lot of fun to play together.
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Beginning in early December I started putting in more time with my basses. It’s taken some time to become accustomed to the longer scale length of my five string. And I’m still working on my intonation on the fretless. But overall it’s going pretty well and I am beginning to feel pretty comfortable with it. I have always really preferred the tone of (right hand) fingers on the strings rather than the sound of a pick. One small advantage is that I play classical guitar, so I have reasonably good right hand technique for the three main types of plucking strokes. In addition, I know how to slap and pop, so I have some choices for timbre.

One of my bands is Ants Invasion. It’s a dead-on tribute to Adam and the Ants. I was a huge fan of that band in the 80s and saw them perform live. It’s been a lot of fun to learn these guitar parts and perform the music live. And my fellow musicians in this band are a pleasure to work with. They’ve become some of my closest friends, and we’ve had a lot of great adventures together over the years.

In Ants Invasion we do our best to recreate the studio versions of the original songs. For me, this has involved creating painstakingly detailed transcriptions of the multi-tracked guitar parts and then condensing them into something that I can perform on stage. Most of the time I manage to cover two of the parts simultaneously, which is usually enough to recreate the original sound.

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This continues to be a summer of musical reunions. Several members of Jumbalassy got together to play shows, and judging by our collective enjoyment of these gigs I’m guessing that we’ll be doing this more often. Most of the lineup is intact, with a few additions. I’d say our summer shows have been pretty good, and the audience reaction has been positive. Our first summer gig was at the “Bite of Seattle”, which is a weekend-long festival at Seattle Center. We played on the Mural Amphitheater Stage, which is very familiar ground to this band. Over the years of our existence, I would estimate we have performed on this stage at least 25 times. The same stage crew and support personnel are always there. It’s like a reunion with them too. 

We also played a corporate event in August, which was my favorite show of the summer. We were hired by Starbucks to perform for employees. The band sounded great and had a wonderful time playing together.