BigRedX

Thanks. I have found myself able to this through years of simply playing and writing actual music, as opposed to practicing scales and "musical exercises".

Speaking from personal experience, it absolutely gave musicians who weren't playing "conventional" blues-based rock or using conventional instruments the realisation that you didn't need to fit into the norm in order to be able to play live or release music for public consumption. I formed my first band in 1975. Our instrumentation was 2 acoustic guitars fitted with pickups, a homemade solid electric balalaika all going into a 10 watt practice amp via a couple of practical electronics fuzz boxes, a bon tempi-style wind powered chord organ, and a home-made "drum kit" composed of tambourines and cans and anything that sounded good when hit, all held together with clamps acquired from the school chemistry lab. There was no way that we could have preformed in public with these instruments, so we contented ourselves with recording at home, almost entirely for our own enjoyment. When punk came along, we realised that there might actually be other people who would enjoy the recordings that we were making, so we started putting out albums free on anyone who sent us a C60 cassette and an SAE, which we would return recorded complete with a photocopied A4 sheet as the cover. We put out 5 "albums" this way and were asked to contribute to an actual vinyl compilation EP which was played on John Peel's Radio 1 programme, and ultimately led to the band putting out a retrospective CD compilation on Chicago's Hyped To Death label in the early 2000s. The band even played some gigs in the early 80s, admittedly to mostly baffled audiences; but at least they didn't bottle us off stage as would have undoubtedly have happened in the pre-punk days.

Everyone is still confusing learning scales (I already know scales and the notes that make them up and where they are on the fretboard and keyboard) which I agree is an invaluable skill, and learning how to play scales which I find of no musical use at all.

IMO Off Topic is for stuff that isn't music related, and General discussion is probably the best place for this question as almost everyone will actually see it. Back when the single was originally released, The Osmonds were on a UK TV program demonstrating how the Crazy Horses effect was done, so if you can track down that you should be able to extract the sound without anything on top of it, as the record itself has drums over the intro which you would need to mask out. IIRC the device used was a keyboard with a Ribbon Controller (could well have been a Yamaha, they were keen on ribbon controllers) mounted along the top which was used to modulate the pitch of the sound and created the over the top vibrato at the end of each "note". You could probably do it in a DAW that allows you to draw in the controller data to manipulate the plug-in synth of your choice. Good luck.

Would you care to expand on that, because it is not my experience at all. For me practicing playing scales has never allowed me to be able to do anything other than play scales. To be able to play anything that I'm actually going to use in a song I have to practice that.

Probably because the man himself is dead and can't prevent it being released. The bits I saw on the iPlayer were very dull indeed especially compared with other filmed Bowie gigs.

But practicing playing scales only gives me the speed dexterity and muscle memory for being able to play scales. Not for being able to play anything of actual musical value.

Thank you. Exactly that. Saved me having to type a post.

But IME it services no musical purpose in the context of any song apart from some widdly widdly guitar solos, all of which would benefit from the guitarist playing an actual TUNE instead.

Your post came while I was just posting mine. I already known where the notes are on the fretboard, but for me how I would play them in a scale and how I would play the notes I want from that scale in a piece of music are two entirely different things.

So what are they? IME practicing playing scales just means that I am good at playing scales. It doesn't make playing actual musical pieces any easier for me, and therefore I can't see the point.

Can someone explain to me what the point is of learning to play scales?

I pick up my bass (or guitar or sit at the keyboard) and try to be able to play whatever it is I need to be able to play but can't. Otherwise I work on composing or arranging new songs.

IIRC the valve in the Behringer unit in question didn’t actually do anything and was illuminated by LEDs behind to make it look as though it was working.

IME you have to go to at least 36” on the low B string before scale length alone makes any improvement to the sound and feel of the string.

I think most lyrics are rubbish, so I’m more tolerant of songs song in a foreign language, since I can’t understand the words I won’t know if they are crap.

Used to have a Traben Phoenix 5-string (the one with the flame bridge and fingerboard inlays). Looked great. However it wasn't particularly well made - lots of sharp fret ends and the pan pot failed after a couple of months. The 35" scale did nothing to make the low B sound any good. And I found the fingerboard inlays very distracting when I was actually playing it. I took it out as backup to a few gigs and it always got appreciative comments.

I'm not much of a fan of D'Addario bass strings, so I'm getting Newtone to make me a 4-string set of the Axion Strings with standard Bass ball ends. That should sort it out. On the whole I find that Rotosound are pretty much incapable of making anything other than 34" 4-string sets.

Hurtsfall will be playing at the Maze on Saturday February 16th as part of the Dark Edge night supported by Beck Stacey The Facebook event page is here I don't have any recordings of Hurtsfall to share yet, we're still mixing our debut release, but expect an amalgamation of Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy and The Associates in a 21st Century style! I'll be using my Burns Barracuda Bass VI if anyone is interested...

In Isolation will be playing at the Fiddlers Elbow in Camden on Friday February 8th, supporting the excellent Northern Light Exposure. Here's the Facebook event page In Isolation sound like this: and Northern Light Exposure sound like this: It would be great to see some Basschaters at the gig. I'll probably be using one of my Gus basses and Line6 Helix. Come and say Hi!

And maybe play a Burns bass... or

For some reason the "standard" gauge of a set of short scale strings tends to be a bit lighter than the equivalent 34" scale set. For example I recently bought a set of Rotosound short scale things for my Burns Sonic, the gauges were 40, 50, 75, 90 whereas the equivalent 34" scale set is 40, 60, 80, 100. I found I was back to the problems I had in the 80s when I had great difficulty getting a decent note out of the E string on that bass. If the scale length is shorter than you need a heavier string to achieve a comparable tension when tuned to the same pitch. I have a set of Axion Custom Works strings on my Burns Barracuda Bass VI the heavier gauges give a much more comparable feel to a 34" scale set, although IMO the E string could still benefit with being a bit heavier.

So not because Behringer brought out their model D clone at a fraction a Moog's price?

But no-one needs two aboves.

I like lots of boxes. All the ones I receive get reused when I send out stuff I've sold on eBay.