Tracks Four, Five and Six

First Monday of the month, new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple.

There’s a song on the playlist that has 50k plays and a song that has 14million. Listen down and see if you can guess before you check.

After doing this playlist for almost a year, here’s something I’ve discovered: tracks four, five and six are the hardest part of the playlist to get right. The opening three are the easiest (not easy, but easiest) and the final two tracks tend to often times reveal themselves. But four, five and six are tough.

So if you’re making a ten song record chances are you’ve got your opening few songs, but its the second few songs that will pull the listener through (or not) to the end of the album.


As always feel free to send me suggestions for next month.

And to view past months you can check out the archive on Spotify and Apple here and here.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

The Thrill: When It Was New

The jeans

The car

The song

The band

The idea

The relationship

When it’s new and exciting it’s a thrill. But then after a while, as the song goes ‘the thrill is gone’.

The thrill doesn’t last forever. It can’t.

When the thrill dies, a quieter and lasting type of interest is born out of it. A connection and value that comes as a byproduct of embracing the thrill but then letting it die (because that’s what thrills do), not trying to artificially keep up the excitement or abandoning the thing all together.

Committing to what is on the other side of the thrill is what brings about deeper life.

***Worth noting: It’s not about committing to every aspect of your life that is thrilling and seeing it through. That would be impossible. It’s about understanding the flow and process of thrill, commitment and fulfillment and having the courage to apply it.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Presence In Absence

That is the essence of a bass player.

To the common listener we are most noticeable when we’re silent. When we’re not playing. Missed more when we’re gone than appreciated while playing.

This is why bass players are so subtly confident. Because we are aware of that power. It’s not a cool power but a definite one. The power of people wishing we would jump back in. The power of causing tension when we drop out and release when we pick back up.

When we are playing: it’s the way it should be. It feels whole.


We all hope to be missed while we’re gone. We do that by becoming essential to, and interdependent with, the people around us. To see what we have to give to others and being consistent with it. Steady. Foundational. Like a bass player.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

The Ready Trap

The thing, the project, the album, the campaign you’re thinking about tackling next has much less to do with readiness and much more to do with willingness.

Don’t wait to be ready. The question is, are you willing?

***Ready and Prepared are different. Ready is an emotion blowing in the wind…while you can become prepared by doing the daily work, thereby building the confidence to become willing to do the next thing even when you don’t feel ready.

***I’ve written about this before.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Your Reach

Remember, for all the people who like your post or share or comment there are others who love you in their hearts but simply aren’t the type of people who like and share and comment.

The internet has given us lots of numbers to keep checking and to keep track of. And they can be helpful.

But the range and depth of connection can’t be charted or graphed.

As an artist, your job is for your music to connect enough that you have no idea how far and deep and meaningful your reach.


***All you see is the clicks and the views and the number of streams. You have no idea what that stream meant to the person or people listening to it. Maybe it was on in the background. Maybe someone was excitedly showing their friends. Maybe someone was listening in their headphones with their eyes closed so tight. Maybe the group was singing along. Maybe someone was learning the chords. Maybe someone was trying to impress their crush. Maybe someone was remembering something wonderful or sad or meaningful. Maybe the family was dancing in the dining room.

There’s great serenity in the unknown…connecting enough to where you have no idea the difference you’re making.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Guts And Reputation

Guts lead you to your pinnacle and then reputation takes over and keeps the mortgage paid.

Once you have reputation it’s hard to have guts because it could cause you to lose your reputation. And you’d rather pay the note on your Ferrari than have guts.

Don’t miss a post. Sign up for free.

Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com