seashell

A great night of quality bass playing! And lovely to see some other BCers there. Steve is hoping to do another one in a couple of months, so I'll be trying to drum up some support for that.

Who's Carter Beauford? :-)

Oh good stuff pantherair. Hopefully I'll see you there. I don't think we've met IRL have we? I might wear my BC lanyard although probably not with the ID holder on it.

For me, two is the optimum number. I wouldn't want to go down to just one, as I like having a 'spare'. I hate the thought of not being able to play every day, so if anything happened to the trusty Fender P, I've got the Ibanez to fall back on. Plus I like having an active and a passive, although I get on better with the passive. And at the moment I've got them both tuned differently as I'm practicing songs in different tunings and it save faffing about. But I don't yearn for more. I feel my bass family is complete! :-)

I am disapointed to see there are no complaints against the bass player. I think you need to up your game a bit, Far0n!

A combination of muscle memory and humming the bassline in my head. Also, if I can't remember a rhythm I will sometimes put some daft words to it like 'sausage-and-tomato' and that helps. For example, whilst learning 'Gigantic' by the Pixies recently the words that kept going through my head were 'and [b]one [/b]motor boat, and [b]one [/b]motor boat'. No idea why thos words occurred to me, but it helped me stick to the rhythm. Sorry, I don't think I've explained that too well!

Managed to change to drop D mid way thru jam night last night. First time I'd done it in front of an audience and I was a bit apprehensive tbh. But it was easier than I thought. If I was doing a 'proper' gig I would have preferred to have taken 2 basses but I thought that would be a bit of overkill for a jam night! I woukd resist anything morr complex than drop D though! :-)

[quote name='paul_5' timestamp='1368643521' post='2079710'] Awww Shell, don't spoil [i]all[/i] our fun! [/quote] Lol : D

Another thing that might be good would be to have the logo/slogan on one side towards your shoulder so that people wouldn't have to stare directly at your breasts in order to read it! :-) Could only be done with some designs of course.

Ooh there are some good ones on Zazzle, Debs, Thanks for that - I might have to get out the credit card. I won't be buying this one though: 'Warning, Low Frequencies May Moisten Panties' If I wore that, people would think I was in need of a Tena Lady!

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1368629325' post='2079449'] Sounds like you had a blast Shell I agree you have to rock it up more if you have supporters The collapsing drum kit is one way to end a challenging song [/quote] Yeh it was loads of fun thanks, Deb I had some nice texts from a couple of my friends today as well, so I think they did genuinely enjoy it. It's the first time I have felt really high after a gig in the same way as I would after a drama or comedy performance. Just hoping I can avoid the inevitable come down that usually follows!

I quite like witty slogans on T shirts and wouldn't object to a Fender headstock design either. BUT I currently do not own any T shirts with slogans on and the reason is that they always seem to be printed on really naff T shirts which do not suit a woman of my shape. They always seem to have really high, tight, round necks which look hideous on a woman with a large chest. And at my age they make me look like a batty old volunteer in an animal shelter. So, Luke, if you have any option to think about the style of T shirt as well, please consider V necks, low cut round necks and more fitted styles. (I'm probably a niche market though )

Really great jam night last night. For the first time I was actually brave enough to encourage some friends to come along, and a little posse from my drama group turned up. Well, since they were all actors I felt obliged to put on a bit of a show. So I made sure I really rocked out as much as possible. I had a blast - really got into the posturing rock chick role. This was however at the expense of musical accuracy, and a few bum notes ensued especially during our rendition of Heart Shaped Box. I convinced myself that it's supposed to sound a bit off key anyway. There were loads of people in - they all seemed to be enjoying it. We could see some of them singing along to a couple of numbers. My little posse of luvvies went wild with cheers and shouts of 'more'! It's great having some plants in the audience! Drummer and I were up for 2 slots with the new band and one slot with the old band. So we did 9 songs in all - goodness me, that's nearly half a set! Drummer was right on form - as were the rest of the band in fact. But drummer in particular was really giving it some wellie. Towards the end of the evening the ricktey old pub drum kit had taken a bit of a pounding and bass drum started to creep across the floor. We were up with the old band doing 'Cars' by Gary Numan, when the bass drum moved out of drummers reach and then the whole kit virtually collapsed. I'm sure he did it semi- deliberately as we always get the ending to that one wrong as none of us are ever sure when to stop. We found that a collapsing drum kit makes quite an effective ending! I had to play the last number (our 'original' blues song) standing directly in front of the bass drum with it sort of propped up against my leg. This had the effect of obscuring the drummer from view, and placing me directly in front of a large mirror on a pillar in the bar so every time I looked up I could see myself! It was quite off putting. Note to self.. wear more lipstick next time! Anyway, a great time was had by all and I feel pretty chuffed.

Come on you Brummies, you know you want to see this! Get yourselves down to crossroads (ie the Kings Norton/Cotteridge border ) for some tasty bass action!

Debs, so glad your last gig went well. On to better things now - yay! :-) Hope you're not suffering too much today. Those furry alarm clocks can't understand when you need to sleep in! :-)

[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1368180438' post='2074088'] Need as many open strings as you can get, so your left hand is free for sticking up in the Air, Saxon style. [/quote] Top answer!

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1368136655' post='2073797'] Open strings take you out of the "position" that works throughout the neck. I'd recommend practicing all the scales using open notes. Also, simple walking bass lines in the keys of F, Bb, and C so a 3rd will be an open string. [/quote] My bass teacher makes me do this! :-) It's been really helpful. I find it a lot easier now to use open strings or not depending on the song.

So are the keyboard guy and singer going to join the band then? It's great to have a soulmate in a dodgy band, as I am finding with our drummer. :-) Maybe with these new guys on board you can all help guitarist raise his game?

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1368118080' post='2073477'] Practising by playing along to recorded music can be challenging - [size=4]not least because the recording - by its nature - is always the same. You get used to this and start to take various cue points along the way.[/size] [size=4]But when you come to play the number with a real band, the bloody swine won't play it like the recording! Not only this, but they won't even play it the same way twice in a row! So your carefully-considered performance disappears under a vast crapload of incompetence! [/size] [size=4]Heh. Maybe not quite that bad, but that's essentially my experience. Nothing beats rehearsing in meatspace. [/size] [/quote] I am finding this to be true on my musical journey! Very, very true. Truer than a true thing. I wouldn't mind if they actually said 'Let's do it different from the recording, let's do X instead of Y'. But they don't seem to know that they [b]are [/b]doing it different from the recording. (Except drummer who is turning into a real ally). Sorry Mr F for diverting your thread, it's just that the above struck a chord. (Pun intended, arf arf!)

[quote name='Lynottfan' timestamp='1368029002' post='2072267'] Great little venue that, if its the one in Cotteridge? owned by mad irishman Tom iirc, we played their a lot, headlined a couple of shows for him to, happy days. Might try and make this. [/quote] Yes that's the one! PM me if you decide to go and perhaps we can meet up. Tower of Song is right near where I live, but to my shame I have never been! Although I did meet mad Tom in a little gig in another Brum pub once.

Is anyone going to see the Steve Lawson/Yolanda Charles gig at the Tower of Song Birmingham on Sun 19 May? Let me know if you want to meet up.

I'm not hugely into people's gear (yet!). Although if I see a bass player on telly now I do try to spot what sort of bass they're playing, out of curiosity. I guess I'm just not all that techie really.

And there's a snippet in BGM about it!! With a pic of the esteemed Steve Lawson. And you can just about see Bluejay in the background!!! :-)

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1367333992' post='2064355'] Ah, c'mon Debs - we can share a room to save money! You might even enjoy it when you get there! [/quote] .. and he'll bring his euphonium!

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1367333266' post='2064337'] Hasn't she heard of subservience ? [/quote] Oh dear Dingus, there you go again Hasn't she heard of a night down the pub, that's what I want to know.