Bilbo

I am not, by nature, very techy although I am also not imtimidated by technology but I see a real flaw in this 'tool' in terms of application. From what I can see, if you cannot play, say, a harp, this thing lets you play the sounds of a harp and so on through all sorts of intruments. Fine, I get that. It may be a midi usb interface thingy, i don't really care. What interests me is HOW DO YOU LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT?!! A couple of the players in the video were obvioulsy used to playing guitars ane had formed guitar chords with their left hands and were arpeggiating with their right. So, if I am interpreting that correctly, if you can play guitar, you can play guitar on it. Is there any point to that? If you want to learn how to play a convincing violin, vibrato soaked part on it using an iphone, I would respectfully suggest that this would take weeks, months and years to perfect, just as it would a real violin. If you patch it into a PC and want to play The Flight Of The Bumble Bee or Giant Steps or Comfortably Numb etc etc, you ain't going to get there any quicker than you would on a 'real' instrument. In addition to all of the above, it still sounds like a synth which, with all its wonders, cannot seriously replicate an acoustic instrument. OK if synthy things are your bag but, if not, they will more likely irritate than inspire. It's probably more than a 'toy' but I guarantee that most musicians who buy one will play with it for a couple of hours and then lean it up in the corner of the room where it will remain for years as they take out their real instrument of choice. A comparison, for me, would be the Roland HPD15 handsonic percussion pad. Thousands of sounds, touch sensitivity, lots of techy potential but you almost NEVER see one being used by any percussionist. They are fun, they are useful tools for sketching the studio but, in real life, their uses are limited. As or fun; more likely time thief. I will not be buying one.

When guys like Gallagher slag off things like he does Jazz, he isn't posing a legitimate critique of the genre, he is having a go the way most of us do down the pub, having a dig, taking the piss. It isn't there to be analysed or agonised over but to be laughed at, ignored and forgotten as soon as it is spoken. I had a blind friend once (he has since passed away) who remembered everything you ever said. He was a pain in the arse! I think NG comes across as a sound bloke and as grounded as rock star celebrities get.

He is an ordinary git who, because he is famous, is expected to have insight. He just likes what he likes and takes the pish out of everything else. It's what most people do. He's alright (even though he doesn't 'get' Jazz)

More Giblin yumminess! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSV2qdD-nDk

I am on Cubase Pliocene......

It's a start. How do I create and audio file out of a midi one?

I always wonder about people like Christopher Cross (great voice, not a pretty man), Ozzy Osbourne (charismatic in every way except reality), John Denver (great voice but a bit nerdy) etc; they wouldn't get a look in today but, in their day, the video side of things was much less important. As I said, it has to be the whole package nowadays..

PS look up Charice Pempengco on youtube singing All By Myself and tell me that talent shows can't recognise talent (she was discovered via a talent show in the Philipines).

I may be in a minority here but I cannot see the problem with these shows (the Voice or The X Factor). They are about the full package; voice, looks, dancing, body image, presence etc. So what? THAT is what the world of pop music is about and anyone who thinks it is about integrity or pure artistry is kidding themselves. If Waynetta Slob got up there and sang like a God, there would be a discussion about whether or not she could be cleaned up and rendered presentable. If not, end of story. There are dozens of old artist of yesteryear who were great singers but who, for all sorts of reasons, never made it 'big' in any mainstream sense; instead they had long careers as 'B-listers', cabaret acts, musical theatre or in other marginalised genres. For someone to make it in the [b]mainstream[/b] music industry, they have to have the whole package. It is not really that different in Jazz (the source of all purity). Every Jazz festival is nowadays headlined by what I call 'nearly Jazz'; Gregory Porter, Jools Holland, Van Morrison, Jamie Cullem etc etc - if you take a genius musician like, say, Kenny Wheeler, you cannot expect the kids who love to look at and dance to Justin Beiber to sit there, stroking their chins, watching a portly 70+ year old in a cord suit and loafers, standing there playing his horn, even if it IS magic. Same with Rock. Imagine a man with Albert Tatlock's looks and Graham Bonnet's voice? Would he be selected to front a reformed Journey? Of course not. In a world of visual imagery, the look is part of the deal. These shows are looking for mainstream artists and there are lots of different formulas for what that looks like (that is the art of it) but, to me, the approach as some integrity in it's own field of operation (those battles in The Voice last week, for instance. I knew who won every time because, prejudices aside and with a small degree of subjectivity, the better singers came out on top). For those who pass through and who 'lose', there is still an industry that can accommodate them e.g. Jonathan Antoine as a classical tenor, Rhydian Roberts in musical theatre, Susan Boyle in her field etc. These people are all perfectly credible and certainly have as much right to be out there as I do but they are unlikely to be on MTV any time soon. More to the point, lots of the winners have disappeared into obscurity for the same reasons. Voice aside, they could not cut it..

Mine's gone awry. It started with the image in mind but ended up somewhere else entirely. No time to start over so it will be submitted but the only Inspired by' bit is the fact that it started there!!

All of them!!

I mentioned this before in another thread but I am struggling with some annoying traits with my VSTs. If I set up a VST and it seems fine when I play it back. I then stop the track and, when I play it again, I have click on each midi track to start them playing again. This means I cannot record against any midi track that starts at beat one of the first bar. Also, whatever level I set it at, it always plays back at some sort of default volume. What am I missing, guys?

My point wasn't to make you like them,mate, but to show where Snorker Poppy comes from conceptually. Nuffink new under the sun.

Tribal Tech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzkDbBljZWU Steve Coleman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOs1keTcGo4

Return To Forever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apq1A7bnrKI Weather Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwywj2y9s8g

It's great that everybody loves these guys and they are highly competent but I think they are pretty unremarkable (I got 2.23 in). Tight but it's all very Weather Report/Zawinul Sindicate and just another in a string on techno-fusion/funk clever barstewards. Weather Report/Mahavishnu/Retrun To Forever followed by Tribal Tech/Al diMeola/Frank Gambale followed by Steve Coleman's Five Elements etc etc. Similar issues to Dirty Loops. It gets harder and harder but not necessarily better and better. Doesn't do it for me; lost of musicians but not that much music I'll go back occasionally and maybe a light will go on one day but, in the meantime, nah.

Mmmmm. 3.5 hours is a meeting or a gig or a flight or any one of a thousand other legitimate things that could make responding on Basschat potentially problematic. Not much sympathy, I am afraid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk_CghlLAr4

My teacher did the same, skej21. Dan Quinton (Otis Grand and The Dance Kings). I think the counting thing M@23 mentioned above revelas an aspect that you touched upon. The I er and er 2 er aspect of counting is a great means of explaning the idea of written music but it is NOT a tool you should use whilst actually reading (you would have no chance). You need to get the rhythms in your head so you are 'seeing' them as phrases rather than reading each note. Think 'word' rather than 'letter' or 'syllable'.Proficiency comes with practice (and it is worth noting that, if you don;t maintain the skill, you will lose it).

I am now a few years in with this bass and play regularly with some of the UK's greatest Jazz musicians: Art Themen, Jim Mullen, Alan Barnes, Nigel ORice, John Etheridge etc etc. The bass never lets me down; I do , but the bass doesn't . Here is a more recent sample... https://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/estate

Congrats, Bleat. I voted for you

The idea that the composition is a soundtrack for the image is only one way of looking at it. It could be a reflection of the emotion that it generates in you or a memory it invokes, for example. People of different ages will experience things differently:did the train take you on holiday or did it take your parents to a Nazi death camp and so on. The potential for variety is one of the wonderful things about the challenge.

I don't think it really matters what you gauge the works with. It's entirely a matter for you.

I always liked this monster

Anyone arranging a Jazz jam will be aware of the wide range of skills available in a room full of fledgling Jazz musicians and will manage the event with everyone's needs in mind. If the playing standard is low, the tunes will be mostly diatonic, two, three of four chords and well known material like blues changes, Canteloupe Island, Watermelon Man, Summertime etc. As the standard improves, the tunes will get harder and harder but still with the ability of those present in mind. At the end of the day, no-one has any investment in managing a train crash so calling 'GIant Steps' for a room full of beginners would be stupid. My advice? Learn the changes to a twelve bar blues in F and Bb and learn how to read a simple chord chart. A good starting point would be Jamey Aebersold's play-a-long series (I think a lot of them are on Spotify now, although the accompanying books won't be). And, if in doubt, talk to whoever is leading the session. They are generally approachable people and will answer all of your questions about 'protocols' and do all that they can to get you up there and playing.