Forehead Hand

I was walking around my neighborhood and saw a guy on his front porch, walkin around lookin around…one hand with the phone to his ear and the other hand his forehead, pacing back and forth.

Clearly it was a stressful phone call.

But just I couldn’t help thinking about the forehead hand. Does it relieve the stress?

When we’re stressed we instinctually do weird things that probably don’t actually help (put a hand on our forehead, loosen the tie, unbutton the top button, sigh, one click buying).

It would be more helpful to learn what will actually help us.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Mood Music

It’s all mood music.

Sometimes it’s to change our mood.

Sometimes it’s to reflect our mood.

But it’s a mood. It’s emotional connection.

When that singer sings that note over that chord, something happens.

When that groove is underneath those piano hits, something happens.

When those voices all join together on the chorus, something happens.

That ‘something’, that mood, that connected emotion, that’s what we’re all here. Whether we’re listening or creating.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Magnetic Timing

When you’re actively working on an album with a release date: other writers want to write with you because they’re hoping to get a cut.

When you put out the album: other artists want you to write with them because now there’s a buzz about you.

This is real and it’s ok to take full advantage of the magnetic timing of both these scenarios. 

Don’t over look the power you have to connect and create, even with people you think are a bit out of your league. 

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Filling The Time Slot

Comedians ask other comedians, what do you have? As in, how many minutes do you have?

Not how many can you do. But how much good stuff can you do.

Because it’s not about standing on stage telling jokes. It’s about making people laugh.

They understand the huge difference of having two minutes vs. five. Ten vs. twenty. Twenty vs twenty-five. Each minute has to be funny…if it’s not, cut it.

And there’s no glory in saying you’ve got ten minutes if you only have five. Everyone is about to find out the truth once you get on stage anyway.

In music, artists often simply say yes to the allotted time without first asking themselves if they have enough great material, enough of a show to fill the slot.

Lots of artists think they have thirty great minutes and they only have ten. Lots of artists think they can pull off seventy five minutes but they only really have thirty.

Don’t say yes to a time slot. Say yes to putting on a great show. Your show.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Hindsight Is 2020

In a few months when the clock strikes the new year, it will give a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘hindsight is 2020’.

When it’s 2021 and we look back on 2020 we’re going to discover a lot of good things that didn’t seem good at the time. Hindsight is 2020, and now we see that the changes we thought were horrible have turned out to be a step in a new and better direction.

We don’t know what we don’t know. That’s why the power of hindsight, once it kicks in, it works. We can look back and see a broader picture. Forest for the trees.

Pretty soon 2020 will be in our hindsight and we’ll say nicer things about it.

Why not start now?

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Race Car Drivers And Me

Professional race car drivers can go really fast.

So can I.

That’s where the similarities end.

If there’s a turn up ahead the race car driver can make the turn safely while still going really fast. I cannot.

If another car needs to be passed, they can. I can’t.

They can talk on a headset, look in the rear view, avoid a wreck, implement a strategy, change the strategy, move outside, inside…all while going really fast.

Fast? I can do fast. But it’s not about fast as much as what you can do once you have it.


And we all wish we could get there faster, but only in developing all the other necessary skills along the way will the speed be worth it.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com