Just joined - love the site. I've been stealing licks and solos from the free vids for a couple of weeks and felt guilty. They put a lot of time and effort in to this site and deserve to get paid. I am a grizzled old codger who has been playing/gigging/recording for about 30+ years. I was never a guitar player - originally I was a cellist and moved to bass because I felt it held the power and drive in a band. (And also because it's hard to get layed when you play the cello - the really naughty girls don't flock to the cellist) The guitar gets to put the icing on the cake most of the time but the bass is the cake. I studied music at the University of North Texas way back in the olden days and learned some jazz in the lab band (not the one o'clock) but was mainly a classical player and studied comp and theory. Now I gig in all styles - in my area, country is what pays. I hate country music but have no choice - it pays twice the money or more here in Texas. I still do Jazz, Rock, Fusion or any other gig that comes along but mostly they pay like crap here - they do keep me from going crazy. The guitar players get to have more fun in country so I might start learning to play guitar also. I'm not so old of a dog that I can't learn new tricks.
I've been learning to apply a lot of Emir Hots licks to the bass - some are technically difficult/impossible due to the limitations of the instrument but much of it is useful in soloing regardless of the instrument. I love the way he manages not to sound like he's playing a lot of patterns - he breaks off and changes just before it would get monotonous, which is very important. I wish more players would get that particular skill set. Sometimes we all get caught up in our own technique and forget we are trying to wow an audience, they are often more sophisticated than we give them credit.
Anyway - just saying Hi - I don't know any of you yet and hope we can all help each other.