paul_c2

If I hear "its a standard" it normally relates to jazz standards, but the term could be applied to other genres in a similar way. I'm by no means an expert but as I understand it, a decent (jazz) musician would be expected to be able to play, and solo over, hundreds or thousands of tunes, ranging from very well known ones to much less well known where you might need prompting or looking at some music, but only for about 30 secs then you'd be expected to "get it" - having a good ear helps here too!!

I don't think it was ever a "trick" - they probably wouldn't check into the USA, but out of it, with a bass, they'd need to see evidence of ownership prior to the trip (ie you'd need to prove it was already yours, not bought in the UK). Do you have a receipt for that crappy old bass? With the serial number and description of the new one??

Volkswagen pleaded guilty to the criminal charges relating to this, and have a comprehensive programme in place to recall and/or modify the affected cars so they comply with the regulations. Additionally, in some markets, they have offered direct compensation to owners and a trade-in guarantee. In the UK, because recalls are only required for safety-related issues, there is no compulsory recall but VW have committed to modifying cars at no cost, if the owners want it done. (There have also been independent studies and modified cars have reduced performance and fuel economy).

Yes

Having looked at the details, the way they cheated was to have the computer sense a certain set of conditions which corresponded with the test cycle, and configure the engine to produce low emissions for that short time - at other times it emitted far higher emissions. Since that is disallowed in the regulations, its definitely a cheat. I think there's enough factual evidence out there to prove this alone. To cement the situation, VW themselves admitted to it (eventually) and the USA regulator, amongst many others, took action against them. Those two things on their own are not insignificant events in themselves.

Emissions checks, in one form or another, have been around since 1970. We're on Euro 6 now, I'm not sure what you mean when you say "its new cars the the Euro emissions apply to" - cars since 1992 would have had to comply with the relevant emissions standard of the time to be able to be sold. Volkswagen dieselgate is interesting - since its now been proven they "cheated" the standard, I wonder if it renders those cars which fraudulently obtained their pass ineligible to avoid paying the higher rate of congestion charge etc.

Fortunately, electric cars do this brilliantly - they still need energy, its generated (mostly) by fossil fuels, but it moves that generation (and thus the local pollution impact) to somewhere else.

Part of "being good" (IMHO) is being able to quickly/smoothly see and understand the relationship between 'shapes' on the neck, intervals and actual note names. Its possible to get by in certain situations without 'getting' the relationship at all - for example if you're playing a riff-based song over a 145 progression, then simply shifting around and playing the riff will work, even if you don't know the notes. (You'll probably at least indirectly be knowing the relevant intervals though). In a way, modes are all about the subtle differences in the "shape" of a scale, for example a mixolydian scale is a slightly different shape to the ionian scale; and that translates to the intervals you are playing. In my simple example, the interval between the 6th and 7th of the scale will be 1 fret/1 semitone; and the interval between the 7th and the octave will be 2 frets up (or 3 down on the next string) because its a whole tone interval. And if you know your notes, you'll also know the scale (for example let's say you played G major (ionian), then G mixolydian) went from having one sharp, to no sharps. (And by extension, any mixolydian scale has one less sharp/one more flat, than the major scale of the same note). But you don't need to know the complexities of the notes. But if you're reading music, or sight reading, then knowing/recognising this when you see it and being able to equate it to the change of "shape" is really handy and useful. You are what you practice - if you are in situations where you're using modes all the time, and/or reading music all the time, then these aspects will naturally be absorbed and be recalled, gradually. If you're not in a situation where you need to do it and are simply approaching it as an unrelated (to your playing) theoretical exercise, it is potentially confusing and I'm not surprised its daunting. If that's the case, then I'd ask the question "why do you want/need to learn this?" and if its daunting then do a more progressive approach than simply trying to take on ALL modes in ALL keys as a theoretical exercise.

I had a 4x4 but never really needed the 4WD, even for work - and I worked on a farm!!! If it needs anything towing, use a tractor; if you're just going out to feed or check on the cattle, take the quad. The roads are generally gritted where I live, and if it gets bad on the roads, its normally so marginal to have conditions where a normal car can't cope but a 4x4 is okay, to even a 4wd getting into trouble (all cars have 4 wheel braking.....etc) I'm sure others like the apparent security it brings though.

I hear you; I've just part-exchanged my diesel for a petrol (of the same make/model car....but this time an automatic too). I think my next will be a hybrid.

We have a (vaguely) similar situation, albeit not in London. These days gigs are planned to the precision of "The Italian Job" (the first one, not the crappy sequel) and we deliberately go into, then plan our route out of, busy city centres and various events which inevitably attract big crowds. For example, the PA is now this: https://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Behringer-Eurolive-B205D-Active-150W-PA-Monitor/CEZ

As I see it, its simply a case of "you are what you practice" (substitute practise, for listen to, know, blah blah). "I do find myself slipping back into the major scale" - so you're accustomed to this; so its no surprise that the others will sound weird. Put simply......use them when you want to "sound weird"! You could analyse the theory and say "for that chord progression, for that chord or phrase or section use this mode blah blah but its more intuitive to kinda just know what a mode would sound like, and if its suitable (or if you want it to sound a bit dissonant etc) or appropriate, so you'd use (for example) Phrygian when the chord only suggested a normal minor (eg aeolian mode) or even major ionian. In other words, just experiment and do the relatively simple theory task of finding out what the "normal" mode would be over a bunch of chords, then use either that one instead of just major/minor; or deliberately use a different one for effect.

Bland. Nothing the Ting Ting's didn't do 10+ years ago. All IMHO, of course....

Only because, by CONVENTION, bass guitar players tend to use 1 finger-per-fret all the way up the neck. The scale length of a cello is much shorter, so its quite possible, (indeed its preferable because of the tuning in 5ths) to depart from 1 finger-per-semitone except for the lowest few positions/half positions. And of course, you don't need me to tell you that the position on the neck for playing the C major scale is different than Db, which is different than D, Eb, E, F etc etc etc Whether this makes the cello harder to learn - I'm not sure. Its more "stuff" to learn, but then that extra stuff enables you to play things that a bassist would struggle with - so the same music might end up easier to play on a cello than a bass.

I don't understand what you mean - on ANY instrument, there's different fingerings for different scales if they contain different notes. But if the scale was a mode of another (eg the natural minor scale is the aeolian mode of a major scale) then (because it contains the same notes, at a different start position) the fingering is the same. But that applies to every instrument, not just bass/cello. Of course the fingering pattern on the bass (tuned in 4ths) won't work on a cello (tuned in 5ths). But.....the fingerings on a violin translate to the voila, and to the (upper positions of) the cello, because these are tuned in 5ths. Just like the fingering of scales on the 4 lower strings of an electric guitar translate to those of the bass guitar. Maybe there's a difference simply due to CONVENTION of what people learn first on each, for example while I know what you mean by the "box position" major scale, there's other ways to play the major scale on the bass - and plenty of practical situations where you'd use one of these alternates. And there's other ways to play scales on the cello other than the one learned first, where the root is under the 1st finger.

That's upside down, if its tuned in 5ths instead of 4ths then you won't "run out of strings and have to move up the neck" as quickly. Think about it - on a bass the interval between the same position/fret from first to last string is a minor 10th. On a cello this is a major 13th. So you can play a greater range on the cello without needing to shift positions. The reason a Cello is not tuned in 4ths is because it doesn't need to be tuned in 4ths.

I am left handed but play right handed. I am seriously considering switching over to play left handed. When I was younger, there was a bit of an issue getting left handed guitars but I don't think its such a big deal these days, now that guitar quality is better and also I have a little more money to spend etc. And I can always just turn it upside down and try it out "strung wrong way round" is fattest string at the bottom, not the top. When I played drums, I had lessons and the teacher didn't take too long to guess that I was left handed (but playing right handed). He picked up that I had a stronger left hand side. Maybe doing it "the wrong way round" or "the other way round" means you're stronger on certain techniques etc and it could offer some advantage. I kinda stuck with drums right handed - I could have swapped it all round and tried it left - but I read something where if you eg turn up at a gig with a borrowed kit, or other stuff, you'll be stuck (or take ages swapping someone else's drumkit over....)

I used www.sightreadingfactory.com which is good because it gives you graded sight reading examples (which also allow customisation) and also sounds the notes so you can play along with it. The tuning is a bit off from A=440 (its probably A=432, for understandable reasons) but that's not a major issue. When you have run out of the 20 free ones, deleting the cookie will work.

Different (but similar) muscles doing a slightly different action. It was only a suggestion anyway, so no worries.

I work in a call centre (kind of) and HAVE to play the bass at work:

Jesus wept, 7 paragraphs consisting of one sentence each?

I think its the same speed achievable (with familiarity of each....), and here's why: If you play with a pick, each up and down of (say) the index finger produces 2 notes - the upstroke and downstroke of the pick. If you play with fingers, then each up movement of the finger produces a note, and while that finger is going down again (ready for the next 'up'), the middle finger produces a note. So its, effectively, a very similar movement which determines the maximum speed. In theory playing with 3 fingers would be 1 1/2 times quicker still, if you could develop the technique to the proficiency of playing fingerstyle with 2 fingers. But in practice I personally hardly ever use 3 fingers, so I can't play at 1 1/2 times the speed of 2 finger playing. Maybe a bit quicker, but any quicker and its too rough/out of time to be practicable. I might be able to learn if needed, and I've no doubt that others can and do master this.

Its probably worth saying also that there's some bits where you can't afford to make, or it would be wholly inappropriate, to make mistakes. For example a really quiet section, or where the bass is prominent but with another soloing at the same time; or an important intro or section. And then there's some bits where its complicated, or a lot going on, etc etc where its actually not massively critical all the notes are 100% there but a bit of "organised chaos" is quite alright.

You'd think that would be an easy question to answer but in fact it requires more consideration! For example, I think its an unforgivable sin to have done a gig with every note perfectly in tune and in time; but with a drab soulless performance given. I'd much rather someone put their all into the music, to make it expressive, emotional, varied their touch and tone, used dynamics etc etc and the odd mistake crept in here and there because you're trying your best, rather than sleepwalk through all the notes and think you did okay when in fact it was quite dull to the audience.