Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

[Y'all already know the joke the title alludes to, right?]

Composing a bass solo is a lot harder than improvising a bass solo.

The improvisation, being ephemeral, can be held to a lower standard: the occasional not-quite-perfect note or missed opportunity to do something really cool will be forgiven even more quickly than they are forgotten, with the understanding that, "hey, after all, this is being made up on the fly." In general, audiences remember the good notes longer.

The improvisation has a context it can lean on very heavily; the mood of THAT audience at THAT moment, the feel of that place ... And it can incorporate the audience's response instantaneously, so the reaction to one lick can steer the player to make a completely different choice in the next phrase than he or she would have done otherwise. And what might otherwise have been a boring run of repeated sixteenth-notes might be exactly what gives that audience on that day a sense of anticipation, a buildup to the next bit instead of a yawn.

The composition is built away from the audience to be presented to them after it is complete, without that instant feedback, and also without any context that the performer can't re-create from scratch intentionally. And if the performer isn't the composer, the piece has to be interesting enough even without the audience reaction right there for the performer to actually desire to learn it and bring it before an audience later. Boring bits and awkward bits will be noticed. So will clichés.

Composing for an ensemble is a bit different, not being limited to what can be reached by a single pair of hands. And composing for other instruments feels different as well, though perhaps that has more to do with musical genre than choice of instrument -- Celtic dance versus rock, for example. I have to think about (and observe) that aspect some more. But for now, what I'm noticing is that at least for the bass guitar, composing is more difficult than improvising.