EVENT REVIEW

On the night of October 11, 2008, the legendary bassist Billy Sheehan started a musical workshop – "Yamaha Bass Guitar Clinic" – by a ten-minute bass solo with his famous "Spider Fingers", which followed by a burst of applause. After two hours of sharing and demonstration, the audience found the clinic informative, encouraging as well as amusing.

Standing in front of some two hundred fans, Billy showed not only his extraordinary techniques, but also his passion for music and enthusiasm for inspiring young musicians. When one of the audiences said he feels like missing something because he is using a not expensive bass, Billy assured him that he is not, and showed him by striking lusty tunes with the audience’s bass.

This is not the only audience’s bass that Billy played impromptu. At the beginning of the show, another audience took his own bass to the stage for Billy to play, for he wanted to see, as it is said, if there are any secrets and special settings on Billy’s Attitude. Apparently, the rumors were proved wrong as Billy started flying his fingers across the audience’s bass.

Apart from demonstrating, Billy also shared some tips for practicing and doing good shows. With 40 years of experience, Billy thinks it is important to develop good ears, for they will enable you to listen to what is going on and to know what to do and where to go when you are on the stage with other musicians. Besides, learning a lot of songs is also crucial for live shows. Billy suggested the audience to learn the whole things from CDs, including chord changes and ending. He added that learning a lot of songs helps develop good ears.

When talking about tips for good shows, Billy pointed out the relationship between bass and drum, and their significant roles to a band. He said that it is important to keep the beat together with the drummers, not just follow them. Billy also encouraged the young musicians to start as cover band so as to accumulate stage experience and get used to confront a large audience; and after that go farther to write their own songs. As Billy put it, "Once you’re on the stage, hit it, and hit it right."

At the end of the clinic, Billy told the audience not to give up dreams and shared a true story of himself and his neighbor in their teenage. If it is his music that grasps the audiences’ ears, then it would be his passion and charisma that touched the audiences’ hearts.

About Billy Sheehan

Billy Sheehan started his music career from a Buffalo based band Talas in the 80’s. He later joined David Lee Roth and formed Mr. Big which achieved a Billboard number one single in the US and 14 other countries with "To Be With You”. His other projects include a jazz-rock-fusion band Niacin, bx3 tour and G3 tour.

Billy’s unique style of playing and repertoire won him numerous awards – He has been voted the "Best Rock Bass Player" five times in Guitar Player Magazines’s Readers Poll; he has also won readers polls in Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy and many other countries. What is more, his handprints and signature are on the Hollywood Rockwalk at Guitar Center.

INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

About Bass

To Billy, bass is like other musical instruments such as piano and drum – it can do anything, both leading and supporting roles. Whereas it is different from guitar in the fact that guitar cannot play both the high end and low end at the same time.

However, bass is just a tool – as Billy put it, it is your hands that give you the tones. When practicing fingers, he thinks that it is important to keep it smooth, strong and in time, and then speed will come automatically.

As a brilliant bassist and music fan, Billy truly enjoys playing bass. There was once Billy went to a deserted bar, he played and singed all night long for nearly six hours, during which more and more people coming in. He felt really happy about it.

About Music

Billy refers to himself as a super music fan. He loves various kinds of music and possesses thousands of songs in his MP3 player, not to mention his CDs, LPs and other collections. Though he has done over 4,000 live gigs throughout the world, he is still excited about music and will keep going. He believes that there are always changes in music, and that is why he is still learning everyday – "The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know," he said.

As a fancied music star, Billy has got thousands of emails from his fans. No matter how busy he gets, he always tries his best to reply all the emails.

With regard to digital music, he thinks it is good that he can find anything anywhere through the Internet.

About Mr. Big

When being asked about the possibility of reunion of Mr. Big, Billy said that he hope they will some days, because they have had great songs and great time in the old days.

About Yamaha BB Series

The BB series which co-designed by Billy and Yamaha was lately reinvented. As introduced by Billy, the brand new model inherits the series’ classic characteristics including good quality control, and a woofer pickup is added to offer deep low tone. Just like his another signature bass – the Attitude, no custom version is available.

About Hobbies

Perhaps many people want to know what Billy does when he is not playing bass. In the interview, he told us that he spends his leisure with languages, philosophy and books. Music, however, is still the best art in his eyes.

- Clarice Liu -

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