lowhand_mike

yeah you're right funk and phil. hehe i was looking for the chicken sh*t way out. so either we get him to sort it and give him a slap to get his act together or just tell him straight and see what happens there after. thanks again all i'll keep you posted as to what happens.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='289998' date='Sep 23 2008, 02:27 PM']One point: The rtm gtrst is his brother...how does he feel about it? If anyone can talk your singer round, it should be his bro. Ermm...it's not the Gallaghers, is it? [/quote] thing is as far as i know his brother already knows as he has been told by his daughter and mates. but thats a possibility to see what he thinks. [quote name='Happy Jack' post='290013' date='Sep 23 2008, 02:40 PM']No worries - just email him a link to this thread! [/quote] er maybe not lol but that does lead me onto another idea which was to get a myspace page up with a comments section, next time we do a gig hand out the web address to get peoples thoughts and i'm sure it would get the message across.

[quote name='artisan' post='289980' date='Sep 23 2008, 02:10 PM']i know how stressfull this can be,my own band imploaded due to a lack of commitment from the singer. i had a talk to him about it & true to form he promptly threw this teddy out of his pram,which kinda killed the band off. that was in april. since then he's come to his senses & stopped being a tit & our band is up & running again,with a gig 4 weeks away. so talk to him, be honest & if he chucks a wobbler & storms off in a huff i'm shure that if he really enjoys been in the band he'll sort himself out.[/quote] yeah hearing ya, just a bit of a wuss when it come to confrontation. guess we just need to be frankly honest as its making himself look bad up on stage not just us.

got to say thanks guys as there is alot of useful suggestions in here, wether we get rid or give time will have to be seen. noelK i think alot of the songs have been chosen because they 'should' be in his range. wether its a case of us progressing past him i don't know but hadn't considered that. the 3 of us certainly feel that we could do better as a whole and as such are very critical of our own playing. but i see your point on not trying to do stuff outside the vocal range but i dont think there is much there that isnt sorry if i start repeating myself.

i find my ring catches on my g string occasionally seriously though it does sometime clang, but most of the time i dont even notice it. i cant take mine off though as it shrunk as soon as i put it on.

[quote name='Bernmeister' post='289802' date='Sep 23 2008, 11:50 AM']From what it seems to me, its either he's not to keen on the songs that you're performing or he isn't spending enough time on his own practising the songs. My reason for saying this is: Even listening to songs on the radio, sometimes songs you don't like you generally get a hook or melody that you remember & timing generally comes with familiarity from constantly listening to the song/s. The only other thing i can think of is that he maybe having problems at home which doesn't allow him to donate the time & attention to the songs he has to learn. It could be an arm around the shoulder time to see if he's having a problems at home before taking any action, if he's a close friend.[/quote] this did come up last night, as i suggested that maybe over time we have become lazy in our own practicing, certainly i have been practicing less recently possibly because of the down turn in performance generally but when it comes to our rehearsal nights i make few mistakes (yeah i know that sounds big headed but its not ment to be). he says he practices in the car as he does alot of driving so sings along to the CD's we have of all our songs but thats not really the right environment to practice and he's said he can't really practice at home. maybe there's the problem but it is up to him to get it right, we can't do it for him. also the bulk of the songs we do are ones that he has chosen or ones he feels he can sing, nothing gets through that he doesn't like.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='289794' date='Sep 23 2008, 11:43 AM']Any vocalist who needs the lyrics on a stand at a gig is not up to the job, IMHO. I appreciate that this is a sweeping generalisation, but it's one I'm happy to defend. Tell your vocalist that "It's not really working out, is it?" and get yourself a vocalist who can remember lyrics, sing them in tune, and present the right image for your band. Alternatively, you and your guitarist could learn to sing ... [/quote] welll the guitarist can already sing, and the drummer is an amazing vocalist, and can sing some stuff whilst playing drums but is obviously better at doing one or the other at a time. it is something we have talked about before. maybe i'm just being too polite

hmmm thing is the band isn't mine i only joined 2 years ago, it's the singers and his brother the rythmn guitarist. Lead has been with them for about 6 or 7 years i think and the drummer about 4. so from what they have said he used to be able to sing ok. i don't know maybe i just need to leave and find something else, though i enjoy playing with the other guys (don't even go there )

does it look like one of these?

[quote name='peted' post='289762' date='Sep 23 2008, 11:20 AM']I wouldn't hold any of these conversations behind the singers back. From experience, it can be very daunting to be approached by the rest of your band with an issue that it's plainly obvious they have been conferring about without your knowledge. Be open and honest, but don't be abrasive. Try to bring the subject up in a supportive manner. I would have thought that it is quite strange for someone to actually get worse with practice. Depending on what type of person your singer is, it might be worth either mentioning it to the whole band at rehearsal, or a one-to-one down the pub outside rehearsal, to ask if there are any issues outside the band which are affecting his performance? Suggest that you've noticed recently that he seems to be struggling with the material and ask whether he is unhappy with the songs you are playing or is he having a hard time outside the band which he would like to share? (all sounds very hippy ) Worst thing to do is to exclude him from any discussions with the band.[/quote] when we had our chat last night he was there, we all admit our mistakes when we make them, and if we fluff it he will say start the song again (in practice only) which is fine, i don't mind being told i am off or what ever though telling someone who sings that they can't just feels that bit more personal, i can practice and get better but if your vocals are dropping off then thats really hard to improve on, you can't just tune up you voice. and we or at least the lead guitarist did say last night that he HAS to be in tune but its almost like he doesnt want to admit it was out of tune. i dunno i like the guy but it is holding us back as alot of people who have come to see us won't come and see us again till we get this sorted (ie get a new singer)

well i said a while ago that our singer was getting worse. well the last gig we did was pretty awful, and while it is wrong to blame just one person for all the mistakes as we all made more than our share i feel alot of them could have been avoided and could be/were attributed to our singer. he has a folder with all the lyrics in front of him on a stand so missing words/verses/chorus is just not on but that happened alot and is very off putting. also the singers job is to be in tune, or at the very least close to in tune which is getting more and more unlikely. and timing is getting worse. we've been doing this for 2 years now so it should be getting better not worse. so theres the back ground, anyway last night we had a little practice, which wasn't great especially as the singer didn't even bring his lyric book so he lala'd his way through most of the songs that we did. after the practice it got "discussed" without saying straight the "you can't sing" simon cowell style which we (lead/drums/and me) felt would be a little unfair/harsh but he didn't get it, just saying we all had an off night (at the gig). all the people who came to see us said the band was good though we did make alot of mistakes which was unusual but the singer can't sing. so now what do we do as the singer just doesn't get it. i have suggested we get a small tape setup to record some practices so we can hear back what it sounds like in the hope that he can hear what he sounds like but will that be enough or do we just have to be straight as i/we can't do another gig like that with people walking out. we have another possible gig lined up but it is in a pub on floor level with the punters and it is always busy there so we won't get away with it. any suggestions? just to clarify i'm not saying i'm perfect by any means but i can at leaast play in time and in tune as can the drummer and lead.

yeah saw that, not a massive fan of single cuts but i like the wood, well i like all of them actually

that white one is sooo nice just wish i had a spare £700 kicking around, but i havent

[quote name='bnt' post='289211' date='Sep 22 2008, 02:57 PM']I can think of worse gigs for a bassist. The Rolling Stones, for example. If I was going to do world tours with a bunch of old fogeys, I would want a bit more out of it than a paycheck... [/quote] the pay check would do me fine thanks

[quote name='OldGit' post='289210' date='Sep 22 2008, 02:57 PM']Jellied Reels Rocky Ceilidh band for the last 15 years or so .. [url="http://www.jellied-reels.co.uk/"]http://www.jellied-reels.co.uk/[/url] The booking book has a partners and family induced limiter fitted - one Friday and one Saturday per month, unless the families can come too - festivals and fun days etc.. Loads of fun and loads of work .. and we're more or less fully booked through to October next year Currently between bands for my Sax side. Do the occasional session: There's some of my baritone on the Carole Mountain tune on the [url="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=36208246"]Modesty Blaise Myspace[/url] but as that's the single edit my solo's missing Then regular Dep on upright stick for Pluck and Squeeze Twmpath band (that's Welsh for humping, and Barn Dancing ) [url="http://www.pluckandsqueeze.com/"]http://www.pluckandsqueeze.com/[/url] Dep for a few other rock/folk outfits Various other things that have no web presence and a possible bass + guitar duo thing ...[/quote] keeping it simple then

Higher ground - the chilli's version The Awakening - les claypool/primus (well the bits up to the fast bit anyway) naked in the rain - chilli's hysteria - muse traveling without moving -jamiroquai and just recently sir duke though this rarely happens unless i'm bored at practice and certainly not at a sound check unless its just us there

[quote name='johnnylager' post='288976' date='Sep 22 2008, 09:48 AM']a bassist who can hardly get out of the house due to work / childcare commitments. Why are we not famous?[/quote] my god that sounds familiar well one band, Misguided (used to call ourselves misguided groove but its sounds really w***y and we don't play and funky stuff so a bit irrelevent) classic rock/early heavy rock covers, you know the sort haven't got a myspace page sorted yet as i'm STILL waiting on photos and trying to get some samples which both seem to be impossible to do for us for some reason

i've always said, and always will, if i ever stop enjoying the job that i do then it is time to find another job

[quote name='Waldo' post='287216' date='Sep 19 2008, 12:16 PM']I feel as though I should clarify myself some more: All my learning has come from playing with other people and by playing other peoples songs. I picked up the bass becuase of the chili peppers, I then went on to learn practically all of their songs. As a result I knew my way around the fretboard quite well (and had an arsenal of funk licks!) and my playing then progressed even more after joining a band. For me, the enjoyment came from my own self exploration of the instrument and I feel that had I just taught myself every scale under the sun, I'd have skipped out a major part of that 'exploration'. I almost see it as having all the answers and for me the enjoyment comes from figuring stuff out for myself, rather than having a set of absolutes, 'you should play this particular note in this particular key'. As I said before, I certinaly don't know any scales that you can put a name to but I do know which frets sound good in a particular context and this has come simply by self exploration. The one peice of classical theory that I know i'll have been using even without realising would be the idea of rythm and timing but to be honest, that would probably have been the first thing I'd have picked up anyway.[/quote] exactly the same for me, well nearly. and i think i said it earlier but i have started to look at scales and stuff and realised that i know more than i thought just not what they were called. and i apply the 'if it sounds good' theory. i do have to check things occasionally and get things to fit. i'm currently trying to learn sir duke and have a large chunk of it down (except for the speed) but there are sections that have trown me basically because they seem to be in a mode os scale i havent used or seen before, so in this case its going to take some work and having theory would make this alot easier.

i've never really under stood the seperate volume controls for each pick up, the blend setup is much better. nice that they helped you out in sorting it too.

whoa, that sadhana looks soo nice, think it would look better on me if it was 34" scale though as it would look a tad small. what do they go for?

could have sworn he was using an 8 string or 10 string in the last song (only caught that one was watching the footy)

though this looks sweet [url="http://www.stenmoremusic.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=66"]http://www.stenmoremusic.com/index.php?opt...=view&id=66[/url]

[quote name='Faithless' post='284513' date='Sep 15 2008, 08:54 PM']It smells like Ibby!... ;-) 'Pure' SR copy from image, except the body - couldn't find similarity on Ibby, though, maybe it a lil bit goes to JTK, doncha think like that, Mike? Cheers, Faith there ;-)[/quote] headstock certainly looks like a cross between the SR and the JTK/BTB one. the lower bulge on the body(bridge area) is similar to the JTK but i think overall its close to the SR range just not as rounded on the body edges. the lower horn is certain shorter and more stumpy than the ibby ones. but for the money they are going for on that site they look a steal.

this looks like it, though the body may be different on this version [url="http://www.jandd-guitars.com/jd-s4b.htm"]http://www.jandd-guitars.com/jd-s4b.htm[/url] certainly looks like a copy of an SR1000 or SR700, EQ is slightly different though as for price though i didnt find anything on a search for it