Feel like exulting some.
Last night was a special occasion as the lady who organizes many of the area open mics was celebrating her 55th. Instead of the usual 6-9:30 run the sets started at 3:30 and several notable local musicians showed up to participate. After the last set we had another open jam and, as the only guy who brought a bass, I was tapped for thumping duty.
As usual, I didn't know the songs called out except in a general sense, but all I needed to know was the key. There were two rhythm players but they were also sharing a mic for backup vocals (the organizer sang lead; she has a killer voice) so their crowding together made it hard for me to spot the chords—so I faked it. I kept my focus on the right hand keeping a solid groove, and let my fretting hand noodle around in the key, sort of melody-following up and down the fretboard with a little run or two thrown in as the mood took me. I know I flubbed a few times, and wasn't always on the correct chord root, but I was in key and in the groove, and had a lot of fun.
Afterwards several people made a point of telling me how much they liked the bass lines, including a couple of said local notables. There was also, as usual, a lot of "wow" over how great the UBass sounded. One of the better-known musicians is now planning to get one of his own. Now, I know there was probably a measure of "be nice to the n00b" involved, but it still felt very good and I was floating on the proverbial cloud nine all the way home...still am, a little. I love guitar, but bass is also really doing it for me and I enjoy the feel of thumping out a solid groove.