I have played bass for about 20 years now and not once, ever, have I bothered to learn a show-off riff. This is actually a source of pride for me, because I have figured out that nobody wants or needs to hear that kind of shit.

Amen to that. Keep it fundamental. Every instrument has a "job" to do.

Edit: These bass players who want to be like Les Claypool are (mostly) useless.

For many many years I tried to be a weedleyweedleyweedley guy, but it just frustrated me. I think it mostly comes down to muscle memory more than consciously thinking about notes -- once you know a scale, it's just a matter of practice until the notes fly at the speed of light. I got kind of fast for a bit there when I was playing for like 4 hours a day, but it killed my solos. Now, I have a hard time writing decent solos because the side of my brain that makes music is the opposite of the one that (kind of) knows how to sweep pick.

Flint, you thought of my new user title though :D

This user title thing is really catchin' on! lumberjim: genius ???

Snaggletooth
 

http://www.echo.ucla.edu/volume6-iss...edia/lemmy.jpg:eek:

And now, for a random Brasilian dude who really captures
the spirit of Yngwie's pointlessly sensationalistic playing: