Grangur

Fair point there that Chris makes. If you've made it this far without reading, what do you believe reading will give you that you don't already have?

Is the new music likely to entertain the punters and keep the customer happy? If yes, give it a while to settle in.

[quote name='curlysam' timestamp='1509226434' post='3397480'] Ah are you local to Cambridge then? Haven't lived here long and was wondering if there's a "best" music shop in the town, the two big ones seemed to be Miller's and PMT - couldn't work out if either of them were big chains or not though. [/quote] I live south of Cambridge, in Bishops Stortford. I know Cambridge pretty well. PMT is a national chain that sells gear for more contemporary music. I'd forgotten about them. Miller's is in th town centre and is more geared towards classical music. For details of teachers you could ask in both.

If you don't have any joy here, you could ask in Miller's in the town. Otherwise, you might find someone who does Skype lessons.

I didn't into playing bass at all until I was 50. So you're probably well ahead of me. I too have been learning to read. To get started you can use www.studybass.com. Also we have a thread here of sheet music to help learn sight reading. Good luck with getting started.

Met Sam today and he bought a Warwick Corvette from me. Reluctant sale, but I know it's now gone to a better place where it will be played to a far better standard. Good coms. Sam is good for his word and paid by bank transfer, which is nice. Thanks Sam!

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1509043235' post='3396305'] I was sacked by a band a few years ago, largely 'cos the guitarist said I wasn't putting in enough effort. He owned the van, the PA, the singer's expensive mic, and therefore the band. The catalyst to the sacking was my repeatedly playing one note in an Eagles track at odds with the recorded version, no joke. I kept doing it because I preferred it, he got really wound up every gig. Amusingly, I was asked back once they realised that 'lack of effort' equated to "generally playing what the song needed" as opposed to "riffing the f**k out of every song", which was apparently what every other bassist did at audition. I politely declined Key point is that I know one of the bassists that auditioned and he was pretty furious to be knocked back, saying with a straight face that he was a much better bassist than the band were guitarist/drummer/singer, which was probably true. [/quote] There is, of course, the possibility of being too good. You might intimidate them by having the ability to play what your imagination tells you is right. Maybe having an imagination is bad too?

[quote name='markdavid' timestamp='1509032974' post='3396205'] Thanks for the replies. Another question and apologies if this is a dumb question as I am a bit of a theory newb, each Major scale has a relative minor scale for example C Major has A minor as its relative minor scale, the key of a song is generally determined by the notes and what scale they correspond to, if C Major and A Minor share the same notes then how do I know if a song is in the key of C Major or A Minor ? [/quote] This can sometimes be difficult to know. The key signature is the same so you won't find the answer there. The general way to know this is to look at the written musical score and look at the last note of the whole piece and if it's in A the piece will end on an A. But in our world of TAB and chord sheets, we can't really be certain about this. Edit: There is one thing you can do; listen to the sound of a Major scale and you'll find it sound "happy". If you then play a Minor scale it sounds "sad". So, if the piece sounds sad, it's Minor, if it generally sounds happy, it's probably in a Major key.

[quote name='The Jaywalker' timestamp='1509028200' post='3396157'] Yeah, don't get too hung up on modes. Way more confusion than they're worth, especially if you're just starting out with theory ;-) I have no idea why modes always seems to be the initial "go to" for music theory for folks from a rock/pop/band background - when it's of such little practical value and causes no end of confusion by being poorly (or incorrectly) taught in most material I've come across. Dorian is a scale and should be learned in its own right. It's relationship to the "parent" major is irrelevant in practical application. Uptown Funk is D minor and uses Dorian.[b] Thinking of C major is pointless here.[/b] Chord tones and common chord progressions are much more valuable to learn, plus scales that fit with them. Major, Natural Minor (Aeolian), major and minor pentatonics and blues scale will see you through a huge amount of rock/pop stuff - which might be all you need. How much further down the scales rabbit hole depends on what music you want to play, jazz etc [/quote] True, but it's always used in lessons because it's all Naturals - no sharps or flats. In any case, every "wrong note" is only a semitone away from a "right note". For a good book on theory, it's worth taking a look at "Music Theory for the Bass Player" by Ariane Cap. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Music-Theory-Bass-Player-Hands/dp/0996727604 https://arisbassblog.com/

I just went through the motions of sending a bass to myself. It's odd. You fill the form, then you get a page that tells me that you'll be contacted with a quote. And now I'm waiting.... I'd rather do the Interparcel, Parcel2Go thing and see the prices and choose the service that I like the look of. Add to this that it seems if I want to send it, I've got to take it to Chelmsford, which is 20 miles from me. Give me Interparcel any day.

Here's a good video: [media]http://youtu.be/UnoIfTtGpdM[/media] Here's another to help you not worry too much about learning too many types of scales and Modes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCaSVtt3Ou8

If I may be so bold, if I were you I'd work on understanding Major scales, before you get on to Modes. A Major scale is a Major Scale because of the intervals between notes. The C Major scale includes only the Natural notes: C D E F G A B. The D Major, because of the intervals goes: D E F# G A B C# So here, you can see the Major scale has the intervals W W S W W W S, where W = Whole Tone, and S = Semi-tone. [b]C Major: C [/b] C# [b]D [/b] D# [b]E F [/b]F# [b]G[/b] G# [b] A [/b]A# [b]B C[/b] So, here you can see a Whole tone is 2 frets, a Semi-tone is 1 fret. [b]D Major: [/b][b]D [/b]D# [b]E [/b]F [b] F#[/b] [b] G[/b] G# [b]A [/b]A# [b]B [/b]C [b]C#[/b] [b]D[/b] So, here you can see the intervals between the notes you play are the same as in the C Major Scale.

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1509004146' post='3395872'] You know the rule - if you haven't met one - it's you! [/quote] No not me! I keep practising in the breaks in rehearsals. I think I'm getting quite good now. Well, it was going well, but they just fired me! Said their old bass player is coming back! Funny thing is, he died.

Sorry for making light of your situation. I've never heard of MBE. Why would a buyer ever have the final say in what carrier gets used? My guess is, if (s)he lives right near a drop-off point for M.B.Etc, then it could be very convenient. If it were me, I'd tell the buyer, "regretfully, I have no experience of using M.B.Etc,. My preference would be to use UPS(?) I promise I will take every precaution to make sure it all goes well, but I trust you're happy to accept the risk in the unfortunate event that things don't work out as we would both wish."

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1509002544' post='3395856'] drummers do that too [/quote] Are you certain there are no bass players out there who never stop practising their slap chops through every minor break in the action? Thankfully we don't get to meet them too often.

For theory you might like to give Ariana Capo a go. She's written a great book and has vids to support it. https://arisbassblog.com

[quote name='SpondonBassed' timestamp='1508963019' post='3395718'] Cheers Grangur. Great post. [/quote] Thank you for kicking it off and reminding me to do the search I've intended to do for years.

They offered me an MBE but I turned it down. It's too expensive parking up in London just for a garden party.

There are a lot of songs that people think as coming from "The Blues Brothers". Sadly, I don't believe anything originates from that film. I used to listen to the tracks and think "I'm sure I know this from somewhere else". So I looked some up and here are some of the tracks and their origins. [b]Peter Gunn Theme[/b] "Peter Gunn" is the theme music composed by Henry Mancini for the television show of the same name. The song was the opening track on the original soundtrack album, The Music from Peter Gunn, released in 1959 as RCA Victor LPM/LSP-1956. [b]Gimme Some Lovin'[/b] - Spencer Davis Group 1967 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcxYX8KPhGk [b]Shake a [/b][b]tail[/b][b] Feather[/b] Written by Otha Hayes, Verlie Rice, and Andre Williams, this is a song originally recorded in 1963 by the Chicago-based group The Five Du-Tones Does shake your tail feather mean get moving or move quickly or something? ... Nope, it means shake your ass. It was a song recorded by several artists. [b]"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love"[/b] is a song written by Bert Berns, Solomon Burke and Jerry Wexler, and originally recorded by Solomon Burke under the production of Bert Berns at Atlantic Records in 1964. Burke's version charted in 1964, but missed the US top 40, peaking at number 58. Wilson Pickett covered the song in 1966, and his version (which explicitly mentions Solomon Burke in the opening section) made it to #29 pop, and #19 R&B in early 1967. Other notable versions of "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" were recorded by The Rolling Stones and The Blues Brothers. "Let Us Go Back to the Old Landmark", also known as [b]"The Old Landmark"[/b], is a gospel song. Sometimes credited as "traditional", it was written by W. Herbert Brewster and published in 1949 in an arrangement by Virginia Davis. It was recorded by Brewster's own group, the Brewster Singers, and by many other gospel performers including Edna Gallmon Cooke, Clara Ward, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and The Staple Singers. Later recordings were made by Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Some of the recordings credit the writing of the song to Adeline Brunner (as A.M. or A.H. Brunner). It is featured in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers, where it is performed by James Brown with the Rev. James Cleveland Choir. It also appears on the film's soundtrack album. [b]Minnie the Moocher[/b] http://youtu.be/8mq4UT4VnbE "Minnie the Moocher" is a jazz song first recorded in 1931 by Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, selling over a million copies. "Minnie the Moocher" is most famous for its nonsensical ad libbed ("scat") lyrics (for example, "Hi De Hi De Hi De Hi"). In performances, Calloway would have the audience participate by repeating each scat phrase in a form of call and response. Eventually Calloway's phrases would become so long and complex that the audience would laugh at their own failed attempts to repeat them. "Minnie the Moocher" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. In case you're wondering, the "hoochie coochie" is a catch-all term to describe any of a number of sexually provocative belly dance-like dances. [b]Sweet [/b][b]home[/b][b] Chicago[/b] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8hqGu-leFc "Sweet Home Chicago" is a blues standard first recorded by Robert Johnson in 1936. Although he is often credited as the songwriter, several songs have been identified as precedents. The song has become a popular anthem for the city of Chicago despite ambiguity in Johnson's original lyrics. Numerous artists have interpreted the song in a variety of styles. Still, you have to give it to The Blues Brothers, they gave us some good versions of all these songs. While I'm at it; an old blues fav of mine is "Little Red Rooster". The Rollin' Stones gave us a good version. Howlin' Wolf covered it, but the original was written and performed by Willie Dixon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfJVeHKVcE8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW4FE8WkvuM ...and, as he's no longer with us, as of 2017. http://youtu.be/LOxiSJsjjU0 Hope you enjoy these.

[quote name='steantval' timestamp='1508868124' post='3395015'] Is that the old or new £1 coin ? [/quote] It was the old coin at the time. I'd still try it with the new one. Pup height isn't too critical IMHO.