cheddatom

They're not quavers if they're not original cheese flavour!!!

Yeh, I know, sorry, I didn't mean to go round in circles. I was kind of just commenting on the sheer quantity of mates some of you guys have. Our good friends will turn up, but that's about 20 people at the most, maybe another 5 or 10 family.

What the hell is that you're holding in your avatar?

There are different words for the same and different things, so this is a bit weird to talk about but.... You can use a loop/switcher to kick in or out several effects at a time. So, if you had a wah and a OD that you always used together, and quite often wanted the option of turning them both off at the same time, you would buy a loop. I like to switch between two effects settings, each of which consist of 2-7 pedals, so I use an A/B loop switcher. Basically, if you feel the need to do some switching you can't do at the moment with your feet, you will know exactly what kind of looper or switcher you need.

dood sold me a CA amp and the deal all went swimmingly! Cheers!

How does anyone have time for that amount of practice?!? I suppose I have other priorities, but, if I was Janek's (for example only) girlfriend and he was practising 10 hours a day, I think it'd get to me. 10 hours bass, 8 hours sleep, 6 hours actual life? I suppose I spend 8 hours at work every day doing something I don't enjoy, so if I could do something I love for 10 hours a day and make a living.......... Still, I can't imagine sitting playing the bass for 10 hours. I never play for more than an hour really, unless it's with my band.

[quote name='acidbass' post='154644' date='Mar 10 2008, 03:50 PM']It's not to everyone's taste[/quote] Zing! Carry on Bass Chat!

I've got a TE 18" cab that's somehow broken. I'm sure it's an easy fix. Are you a DIY type? Want to buy my massive cab?

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='154629' date='Mar 10 2008, 03:33 PM']And make sure you don't get sand in the vaseline.[/quote] I thought we were going to use marmite?

No idea, can we see a transcription or is that illegal?

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='154598' date='Mar 10 2008, 03:07 PM']Sad but true.[/quote] Yeh

[quote name='BOD2' post='154591' date='Mar 10 2008, 03:02 PM']Getting back on topic, Janek's article was about practicing for modern improvisation - quite specifically.[/quote] This topic has morphed out of your control!

[quote name='mcgraham' post='154574' date='Mar 10 2008, 02:42 PM']I would say that is an entirely real and plausible issue we face as improving musicians. However, I would like to point out that technical ability on its own is transparent; it is not creative, it is not egotistical, it is not proud, it's just ability.[/quote] I don't agree that technical ability is transparent. I'm not sure about the actual brain functions and etc, and it would be interesting for someone who knows to come on and post? But, I thought of learning the bass like building up a set of habits. I would play the same scales over and over again, or practice the same hard/fast riff. Especially when improvising, I would have a few little "runs" that i'd like to do, and I could play them in whatever key and sound semi-impressive. Obviously the idea is to build up an infinite number of habits, creating a sort of infinite creativity. Anyway, that didn't work out, so now every time I play something i've heard myself play before (unless it's a song i'm working on), I stop and play something else. I don't know if i've explained this very well, but what I mean is that technical ability always comes with the bagage created by the learning process.

I had a quick listen at lunch time ehre at work. My speakers are crap so maybe I should check it out at home. It's quite cool. I went on your myspace to hopefully download some music to listen to in the car but your songs aren't available. Is there anywhere I can get them?

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='154568' date='Mar 10 2008, 02:36 PM']I know I've been on this f*cking thread too long when I find myself agreeing 100% with Bilbo! Well put mate.[/quote] BBC and Bilbo, sitting in a tree, J A Z Z I N G

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='154549' date='Mar 10 2008, 02:23 PM']Goin back to the painting analogy, I agree that practice improves your bility to make marks on a canvas. You can practice painting in all styles and become very accomplished. You could also develop some pretty firm ideas as to how to paint in a certain style. What would happen if someone who had never painted before picked up a brush and started slapping paint around? It would not be as good technically, but it may be just as creative. It would certainly be different and less likely to conform to any known styles. Hell, it could even be more creative than the pro's picture![/quote] Yeh, exactly. I fail to see how studying Pablo Picasso, or Vincent Van Gogh would have helped Tracy Emin f*ck up her bedroom. Not that i'm a fan of her work, it's just I think there is a valid point here. I personally did spend a lot of time learning all the theory I could stomache. I've forgotten it all now, but my hands still remember. I suppose if this is what everyone's going for, then fine, but I really doubt whether players that practice 10 hours a day until they can play faster than they will ever need to will ever be able to forget their theory. I find it hard enough to play something unconventional, and this frustrates me. I suppose i'm one example of a player sufferring the detriment of learning theory as it has deffinitely limited my creativity in the past. I'm my no means a technical/fast player though. EDIT: Wow, we're replying fast on this thread!! I just wanted to say that I don't think this is subjective. I think we can probably generalise and say that if you want to create music that sound original, or is unconventional, then learning music theory and complicated/fast techniques can be detrimental to the creativity required. Obviously, if you're the fastest most brilliant bassist in the land, you can play anything. Whether or not you could have written it........

[quote name='finnbass' post='153478' date='Mar 8 2008, 03:28 AM']You simply cannot keep replacing a full stop with the acronym 'lol'.[/quote] This gets on my tits, but I thought it was bad form to point it out. lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='154528' date='Mar 10 2008, 01:58 PM']Not read the whole thread then? [/quote] I did read the whole thread. BBC was talking about creativity, so he was basically making the a similar point to the one i've just made: "Also, I think that being highly conscious (which is different to having the knowledge) of music theory/standard practices etc, can mean that you often forget that you can play whatever you want - the notes you play don't have to conform to any scale or key or mode or whatever." I can't speak for tBBC but I guess he's refferring to writing, gigging musicians whose songs and stage persona he loves, rather than saying "I actually think that technical ability may hinder bass playing" he said "I actually think that technical ability may hinder creativity", which makes a lot of sense to me, and doesn't contradict what i've said.

IMHO you don't want a subtle phaser 'cos you'll never hear it on stage. I would also recommending combining the phaser with a little overdrive. I have no experience of the pedals you're looking at though!

I don't think anyone has suggested that practicing more will make you a worse player, or that complicated/fast techniques will detract from your abilities. That's obviously ludicrous. What is slightly more sensible, is to suggest that practicing the same things over and over so that you can do them at full speed can create a certain repetetiveness of style. For example, when I find something I want to play but can't quite do it, I will play that over and over again until I can play it. From then on, for the next week or so, I find this technique, or shape, or specific run or widdle creeps into my playing to such an extent that it gets a bit repetetive. My guitarist spent 6 months learning a nuno solo, and now that 1 shape/run tends to appear in a lot of his solos (obviously in different keys etc). Has anyone else experienced this? Also, I think that being highly conscious (which is different to having the knowledge) of music theory/standard practices etc, can mean that you often forget that you can play whatever you want - the notes you play don't have to conform to any scale or key or mode or whatever.

[quote name='Machines' post='154333' date='Mar 10 2008, 06:49 AM']Sheesh you people are SO impatient. I will do the draw tonight.[/quote] It's exciting!!!!

This is a great thread, with lots of good ideas so ta for that! I don't think anyone has mentioned radio. Local radio stations will announce your gig if you ask them, and if they have a rock show they could well do an interview or session as well, and this could help get people in. I have very little to add to this. Sadly, we're one of the many bands without a following. Reading this thread I found it strange that "obviously you'll still need 50 mates there" and "make sure your 75 mates only come to the most important gigs" seems to be common place. Now, I know i'm not the most popular guy in the world, but I did think I had a few good mates. How the hell do you guys get 50 or 75 friends to turn up to a gig?!? We do well if we get 25 mates to turn up!! Maybe our mates just don't like the band, but, they're still mates, and you think they'd turn up for the few important gigs we beg them to. I should get some more friends!

I had guitar lessons, but i've never learned any bass techniques from anything other than myself, and watching some live bassists. I'm sure my technique is technically crap, but I only have a desire to improve it when i've written something that challenges me. It's my/my band's writing that improves my playing ability, because I know what I want to play, and sometimes I can't play it. This will drive me to practice for hours on end, but I can honestly say I could never spend 10 hours playing the bass. Guit*r maybe....... I suppose these sorts of techniques and lessons etc are more for the type of person who wants to be as good as they possible can at playing their instrument, like classical musicians etc? I'm just happy being able to play what I feel I need to play. I know it's a bit late in the day, but I've read through all of this thread and I can't believe some of the posts. The only person who has been personally insulted is BBC, which is just as well 'cos no-one else can take it. I thought Janek made quite a bit of sense with his posts, but kept saying that the OP was missing the point of his article - the OP was about one small specific bit of his article which is obviously not going to have much to do with the main point of the thing. Questioning the honesty of an article writer is always fair, and when Janek replied, he didn't seem so certain and specific about his 10 hour claim, not that it bothers me either way. I've never seen Janek around here before so I don't know how it's possible to miss him?!

I would swap the comp and OD at the end of tayste's list so that your playing dynamics will still effect the OD. A blender could be useful if you're missing some low end and/or punch. I like my barge concepts blender, but i'm sure they're all similar.