Bass Playing

Gerald Murphy is a 22-year-old fund broker (Fondsvermittler) for a major company in New York City who handles ship investments for Germany.

In his free time, Gerald is the lead singer of “Jizzy Snipers” a rock band he formed back in high school. The other members of the band are Rick McFee on the drums, Jerry Carmichael on lead guitar and Harry Fitnee plays bass. The guys get together and play on the weekends and every third Thursday.

Most of the time they play in Gerald’s basement, but sometimes Kyle down at MusicalMayhem will let them use the sound room in the back. Gerald got Kyle’s dad a great deal on some ship investments (Schiffsbeteiligung) his first year on the job, so Kyle lets the guys use the room as sort of a thank you for helping out his old man.

Last Thursday, Harry broke the news to the guys that his wife had taken a new job in China and he was leaving the country for an undetermined length of time, possibly forever. It just so happens that Gerald had some new of his own to share that night as well. After apply ten times to be on the list for Open Mike Night at “One-eyed Joe’s”, the band was scheduled to perform two weeks from Saturday, two days after Harry leaves for China.

It was the big break they had been waiting on and now they did not have a bass player. Open Mike Night at “One-eyed Joe’s” is a highly sought after event in New York City. Agents for record labels such as Columbia and Atlantic come in to check out the new talent. Gerald has dreamed of playing at “One-eyed Joe’s” since he was fifteen. What was he going to do?

The weeks came and went in a flash. All the guys met up at the airport to bid farewell to their long time friend. Harry’s wife Ching Ni was feeding DoggieBits to her little rat of a dog, Honeypot. She took that dog everywhere she went; they even purchased an extra ticket so she could ride on the plane with them all the way to China. Harry was sad to leave his best friends, but happy for his wife’s success. Gerald begged Harry to stay, just for two more days. Harry told him China was so far ahead in time zones that they were late already. Harry, Ching Ni and Honeypot in her special doggy travel case boarded the plane and left for China right on schedule.

The rest of the guys headed over to MusicalMayhem as usual for Thursday night. None of them spoke on the car ride over. When they got to the store there was a small crowd of people gathered inside. When they stepped out of the car, they heard what everyone was listening watching. It was Derrick Bristol, the fund manager from Gerald’s office. He was cranking out some of the best bass a guitar has ever known. Gerald knew what he had to do.

The next morning at work, Gerald approached Derrick in his office. He complimented him on his performance the night before and filled him in on the “One-eyed Joe’s” dilemma. As it turns out, Derrick had applied for Open Mike Night as well, but was put on the standby list. That is the list that you get on to get on the list. Therefore, he was more than happy to fill in on bass guitar for “Jizzy Sniper”.