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To me, there's a fundamental difference in learning, or writing, songs, and learning Music. To me, rudiments, scales, chord tones, time signatures are the basics, the bread and butter, the meat and veg, the Lego blocks. The more different Lego bricks one has, the more varied structures one can create. The more different produce is in the larder, the more interesting recipes one can cook. If one only ever wants bacon sandwiches, it's not necessary to have tons of herbs and spices. If one is only going to build fire engines, red bricks would be what to have lots of. I'm quite pleased to have spent all those years studying and playing rudiments, it has made me a better drummer, which is what I wanted. I'm equally pleased to have worked out for myself, then extended that meagre knowledge of scales, chords, harmony and solfège, as it enables me (I was going to type 'empowers me'; both are true...) in playing guitar, keys, bass and many other virtual instruments. Is what I 'create' Good Stuff..? A moot point, but rather irrelevant. It's what I create, and that suffices in itself. My recipes are varied, too; although I have the staples covered, I can improvise a meal in many different flavours, all very tasty (well, mostly...). I'm currently concentrating on ornery 6x2 Lego bricks, as I use 'em when building my balsa 'planes, but Our Littl'un uses any and all the various bricks to make all sorts of Stuff. Scales are useful to those wishing to do more than just 'songs'. It's a different approach to Music, Life and Everything. Your Method May Vary; we're all Winners (well, I am, at least...). Peace.

The piquant irony surrounding Mr Fingers' choice of stage wear during his employment in The Boomtown Rats is that he'd play a gig in his pyjamas, come offstage, get changed into normal clothes, go home, take off his normal clothes, put on a different pair of pyjamas and go to beddy-bos. His mother Mrs Dymphna Fingers commented at the time: 'He's got three pairs of sleeping jim-jams and seven pairs of stage jim-jams. Holy Mary, Mother of God,, that's ten pairs a week in the wash. I can't keep up. 'He should have gone for the 'big game hunter' look like his Da suggested. All I'd have to do is blanco his solar topee once a month and I could have a normal life. That Bob Geldof comes on like a nice lad but he's got shifty eyes, the little feck'.

Unused line from "Stuck in the middle" apparently.

Geldof Caves In: Payday for Fingers Johnny Fingers and Bob Gobshïte in happier days The world reeled on Friday as the longstanding cash-driven feud between Britain's Favourite IrishmanTM Bob Geldof and formerly pyjama-clad pianist Johnny Fingers (real name John Moylett) came to an end in a welter of grudging agreement. Fingers has long claimed that elements of the Boomtown Rats' hit record 'I Don't Like Mondays' were of his composition, unsurprising since the song is more or less an extended piano solo with occasional instrumental stabs. By contrast, the world's whiffiest pop star has resisted requests to share in the deriving financial bounty, having insisted that the excessively pessimistic ballad formed entirely within his own head. The mordant yet ultimately meaningless lyrics certainly carry the authentic Sir Bob Geldof stamp of saying nothing very much in a loud, hectoring voice. Mr Fingers - long since accustomed to wearing normal daywear - has lived in Japan for some time and it was from the land of the rising sun that the spurned ivory tinkler launched his High Court bid to wrest sole composing credit from Mr Geldof. Eventually the matter was settled out of court and Mr Finger's name will be added to the copyright. Some might assert that authorship of the drab, overblown ditty which did as much as anything else to drive a stake through Punk's heart is nothing to be proud of; they would miss the point. It's all about the money.

Practising scales helps you to find your way around the neck and to hear the interrelationships between notes and chords. If you are a root note player, you can probably get away without learning them. It depends how far you want to take your music. I haven't really practiced the bass for about 5 years, at least not in a systematic way. My practice time is currently spent on learning to read guitar music.

Mint on white 🤤

It sounds like you have a pretty good practice routine. You will always be learning, at least you should be, and that's a good thing. I started playing when I was 14 and was gigging at 16 and I'll be 73 this year and I try to play every day and I'm having fun! I gig and rehearse with two bands and I learn something every time I play.I have several hundred songs from the two jazz bands to work on, lots of method books and a big collection of music including some classical stuff and I work on something new every time I play.Most of the musicians I play with are very skilled and experienced and I have to work hard to get close to their level. That's one of the great things about music-there is always something new and different to work on.If you're bored with your practice routine you can always find something challenging to learn. I played a gig yesterday and now I'm going to go over a few of the bits where I wasn't happy with my playing, I will try a few new bass lines and see if I can figure out better fingering, always a challenge on DB. Like everyone else I have had my share of difficulties in life but music has certainly helped me cope and given me great pleasure.As I have said before on here, we are so lucky that we have music in our lives and get to make music with others or perhaps just for ourselves. Didn't mean to go on so long, time to play some bass.😄

I think so long as the tune was something the punters knew, and wasn't being completely mangled, they wouldn't notice who was playing it! However, if it's world class musicians playing something unknown your average punter would just leave! In December I saw a notice at my local pub saying a Dutch band were playing there. So I went, and this band were playing, just in the tiny bar; they were most certainly world class musicians, but they were playing proggy originals: I was awe struck for the 1.5 hours they played. Sound was perfect, at a reasonable level - most certainly not too loud and most definitely a head-and-shoulders above what you'd normally hear in Knighton. Especially as it was free! However, a steady stream of locals walked in, ordered drinks, didn't even glance at the band, didn't even pause in their loud shouty conversations, and just left to go and have more shouty conversations just like they did every single other Friday and Saturday night. One even asked me what the band were like - I said they were excellent musicians and well worth listening too; he said "don't know the song" and promptly went outside. It just makes me think that the majority of folks don't actually like music as a thing, especially if there's any complexity. Don't know why - laziness perhaps? But judging by how music is treated in schools, and by our broadcasters - where music will only appear at prime time as X Factor, or in that weird stuff they do for Strictly where a tango has to be done to something by Madonna just in case folks feel a bit challenged - it's not surprising. However, it appals me that a majority of the population are missing out on so much creative endeavour cos they don't realise that the effort you put into properly listening is repaid in spades!

What a stinker!....

I think some English folks are rather too hung up on things being rubbish if they're not in English, cos foreigners are obviously stupid and need to be spoken to more loudly, and obviously patronised heavily...😉 However, there's a whole world out there that's not English - it'd be daft to just confine yourself to one bit of what's available! After all, it's the music that counts - singers have been conning us all for years that they're the most important!

Because they'd re-recorded the drum and bass. stinky poos trick if there ever was one. Ozzy was never more than the people behind him. Whether it's Geezer Butlers lyrics or Randy Rhodes relaunching his career. If it wasn't for them, he'd just be sitting in a Wetherspoons.

Imagine the familiar scenario of a pub which puts on live music, but whose clientele are largely uninterested. Now imagine either an established, internationally successful and well known band, who would likely be unrecognised by the general public, or a group of similarly qualified, but anonymous musicians, were to perform there, playing a standard covers set of Sex On Fire, Summer Of '69 etc. An example band might be Journey. Example musicians could be Pino on bass, Tom Scholz on guitar, Darrin Mooney on drums and Danny Vaughn on vocals. Would the audience perceive something different to an average pub band? Would they react differently? Would they enjoy it? Would they carry on staring at their beer and wishing there was no band, so they could have a chat? Interesting proposal for a reality tv show.

Neigh chance

In the event that no MP3 is forthcoming, simply insert an electrical probe well up your guitarist's chuff and intermittently actuate it with a Boss FS-5U Unlatched Footswitch, about £26 from GAK, Andertons, etc.

Afternoon all.. Im Matt from southen on Sea. just stumbled upon this site whilst looking for info on my Bass Amp on line. figured i would sign up and say hi! I currently play in frequantly in a 'southen' metal/ hard rock band just for a bit of fun. A kids and family life come before dreams of being famous... I have a Trace Elliot Amp and use a 15" celestion 250W in a hertke box.. had to replace it from the pervious owners use. did have a 4x10 but sold that on as I dont use it and the local studio has a couple knocking about so when we do get together i use that. My Bass is a Lefty Dean Edge5 black. love it best one ive played. and for what i do its way over qulified for the job but hey i like the sound and the way it plays. Well that me

Dad is wise.

63 jazz fiesta red matching headstock-all original

There’s no end to the man’s talents

Also tell everyone where you're based! Sounds like whichever decision you make there will be two good drummers still available and we all know that good drummers are like rocking horse poo!

U2's system of simply splitting it four ways has a lot to be said for it.

I wouldn't say I'm an aficionado by any means, but I own a B7K (which I understand is very similar tonally to the B3K?) and an AO, and got to have an extended noodle with an X recently: I think they serve slightly different purposes (for me at least). The B7K/3Ks are very much an "always on" pedal - they just do something buttery with the mids that gives my bass a lot of presence and makes me cut through a mix with two guitarists. It's fantastic. I feel the AO and X serve to add a bit of grind on top of that when needed. I find the difference between the AO and X is that the X is a much more trebly and abrasive sounding pedal, whereas the AO seems to have more focus in the midrange. As a result I think the AO feels more part of a mix whereas the X comes above it at the expense of mids. To my ears the AO sounds like a smoother grind if that makes any sense? I think the AO is more versatile whereas the X is more a one trick pony, however it does its one thing amazingly well. The caveat to this would definitely be that I didn't find the X user interface particularly accessible, so there's a fair chance my lack of understanding stopped me from exploring its abilities completely. I honestly think it's very much a horses for courses thing between the two. The X doesn't do it for me but I can see how for someone who wanted that particular tone it is perfect.

How about a bit of 'Out of the Box' thinking..? Innovate with a three-drummer band..!

Don't know what a 'sewer hero' is on the English version though....

I like the idea of the modular approach of the Barefaced Two10s at 4/12ohms. I have 2 of these, but could make it up to a 610, but I don't need that much fire power. The portability gives max versatility and they are so well designed that it's a breeze to carry each one. The colouration is very pronounced to a particular vintage sound and doesn't change massively between my two amps, Ampeg V4B and Mesa BB750 running flat imho. But its a sound I like a lot

Only one way to settle it. Fight!

Another wonderful Sunday afternoon/early evening gig with my throw it together see what happens jam band. New venue and they loved it, landlord begged for another set so we busked out another half an hour. The whole place singing back at us. Lovely stuff.

Zoot Allures another one of my favs....

One doubts Sir Bob dipped into the till but there's some amusing stories about the recording of 'Do They Know It's Christmas' here on Rolling Stone.

I'll repeat as the origional reply was removed, I was only trying to be helpful, there's no need to be a large appendage

I dont fully agree with that. If you were going to talk about the history of the motor car, you would do a piece on the Model T Ford. You may not go into the technical aspects of the car but you would do a section on it. I feel the Fender Precision was at the forefront of playing and shaping the role of bass in music and how people added bass in music transitioning from double bass to electric bass. You wouldn't go into the technical details of the bass like woods, pickups etc. but certainly its birth, its impact and importance.

@MoJo, you were probably just having an off night. If you've been playing fours exclusively for a while, having the five could feel odd and it probably threw you even when you went back to the four. As with all things music, practise and familiarity is the key. A good five is handy to have around in my opinion but it obviously depends on your priorities and what you want to do. It's not an age thing - I just got delivery of my 60th Birthday bass and it's a 6 string, 32 inch scale fretless. Now I've never played fretless while singing lead vocals before but the temptation to take it to the gig was too much. The playing was fine but the excess of strings and lack of frets apparently causes you to completely forget all your words - who knew! By all means, stick to the fours if that's what you want but for me at least, variety is the spice etc...

So, it's a personal thing. Some people perceive a benefit (e.g. me), some do not (you). You can know all the notes on the fretboard without them meaning much if the relationships are not well known - without the relationships they are just letters, IMHO.

That's what gigging's for, isn't it?

I thought I didn't like 5s - but it turned out I didn't like 5s with narrow bridge spacing. As soon as I tried a wide boy it all clicked into place.

Flies all green and buzzin'

Played a pub gig at a regular spot last night. They demanded an extra song after the encore so we chanced our arm on "Walk Like an Egyptian", which we had not played live before and only got right for the first time at our last practice about three weeks ago. It was probably the best number we did and there were a couple of people stood on top of the bar doing the dance for it!

Acacia Strain? Is that something giraffes suffer from?

I remember seeing a video recording of a pub jam night (I think it was down in Folkstone) where Brian Nash of Frankie Goes To Hollywood got up and played The Power of Love - while not necessarily "World Class" it was actually surprisingly good. Edit: Here it is (and it even features Steve Monti of Curve / Jesus and Mary Chain on drums).

Bande de racistes..!

Outrageous isn't it? Japan's music would have been, I hesitate to say 'nothing' but you know what I mean, without Karn's extraordinary and imaginative bass work. Imagine 'Visions Of China' with just ploddy root notes. Exactly.

@crunchman I picked up a Westone Concord on here a few years back. It had been around the block, but feels lovely to play as it’s just that bit lighter and easier on the fretting fingers! The action is quite high on mine, but that’s fine as I use it for rumbly-punk sounds. Maple board is slick, and the PUPs are nice, load, and boomy.

...checks to see he's actually on Basschat with all this filthy synth chat...

What the heck I'll share. Small outside gig, Gopro over the bass players side. 7/10 fro enthusiasm 5/10 for the bass playing Wal action!

What bright spark thought this was good TV ? There's a reason for their 27 year obscurity and it's f*cking rude to exhume the dead