ambient

Best is to get along to a shop and try a few. Stick with it too, maybe take a lesson or two off an experienced teacher. A 5 string is as much about the positional benefits it offers as it is the extra 5 notes. I can never understand why people take a 4 and a 5 to gigs. Unless the 4 gives something the 5 doesn’t ie fretless or other distinctive sound, just use the 5.

Music to me has always been about creativity and art. If I have been envolvd in playing covers then I’ve always preferred rearranging them. I’ve played in bands and on cruise ships where I’ve been expected to play stuff off charts, just replicating what was played originally. I see the point in this, it’s just not for me particularly fulfilling artistically.

Yes. I hate playing stuff that I have little or no connection to. It means that I limit my income potential, but I’m happier for it.

That's it yes, yes. You're aware of what they're doing. You know it's live and improvised. That awareness itself generates an excitement I guess.

How an audience reacts to a gig is quite a genre specific thing, I think anyway. What we're talking about is performance. There's an excellent book called 'Musicking' by Christopher Small. He defines 'musicking' as: To music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing or practicing, by providing material for performance (what is called composing), or by dancing. So either by going along to watch a gig, or by being a musician performing, we're all taking part in the process of 'musicking'. The book is really excellent, I encourage anyone who has any interest in music to read it, particularly if you do perform. There's another article that I was reading recently called 'Performing Performance: Interface design, liveness, and listener orientation', by Mark J. Butler. It's aimed mostly at the electronic music scene, but is sill relevant. Performance is central to what I do, and I guess to what we all on here who gig do. I'm personally very aware when I gig that people are watching me. Even though it's only me sat on stage with a MacBook and a bunch of effects pedals, I do make a definite effort to interact with the music, and to demonstrate my part in what they're hearing. I definitely don't dance or move about, but that's not expected. It would be expected though maybe in a rock and roll gig, and definitely would be in a more dance orientated genre. Which is my point. The article by Mark Butler describes how electronic musicians, and DJs sometimes over state their movements on stage, there might only be them on stage with a MacBook and nothing else, but they are still 'performing', and by the somewhat dramatic gestures they're showing their participation in the production of the music. I occasionally play gigs where I'm sharing the bill with laptop artists, sometimes they're using treated instruments too. Again, they're engrossed in what they're doing and their interaction is evident. They're not expected to get up and move or dance, but it's still obvious by what they do do, that they're not just checking their emails :). To reiterate, it all depends on the actual music that's being performed.

Thanks I wasn't sure if it was my phone or not.

I love that video Thomas. I think that's his Wechter acoustic? Have you heard the album? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Life-Jonas-Hellborg/dp/B00J8BUZUW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512690911&sr=8-1&keywords=jonas+hellborg

Maybe nothing to do with the site, I don't know. On an iPhone 6s when you insert a full stop or a new paragraph, something where you'd usually expect it to automatically change the next letter to a capital, it doesn't.

I didn't like the look of his not so new one. I owned an early model JP1. That was a monster bass.

My older brother had a tape of I think it was 'War'. I remember hearing it for the first time, and you're absolutely right, there was a track where a trumpet comes from nowhere.

I don't think there is an actual formula, if there was then you'd be able to follow it and become famous :). I'd argue that dire straits were a little different to everything else that was around at the time. Wasn't it mostly synth based pop? So along comes a guitar based English band lead by someone who looked very normal and down to earth. They were making records that wasn't your average 'pop' record.

For the record label it’s about knowing the market, and being able to identify which artists will succeed in their market. For the artists it’s an amazing amount of good fortune, being in the right place at the right time, and sometimes knowing the right people. Talent doesn’t necessarily come into it. The artist does need to know what they’re going though, and develop the right image etc.

U2 have been around for years and years. They haven't always been the height of boring, when they started they were quite exciting. New years day, the Joshua tree etc. Their music was perfect really for stadiums and huge arenas. I guess their audience has aged and mellowed along with their music.

Nooooooo! ? Actually whatever in this case. If it starts on C, where do you play it, 3rd fret A or 8th fret E? It would depend on what notes follow. Just a kind of route map, use whatever means you want for it, I’d just write notes on the score in pencil.

I’d personally go E-C. I’ve done a lot of arranging and playing of classical pieces. This would fit the range better I think for most pieces. before you start working on a piece, i.e actually playing it. Sit down with a pencil and paper, and map out the best way to approach the piece, fingering and actually where to fret the notes etc.

Jeff Berlin’s line to Joe Frazier whilst at university. I don’t particularly like Jeff Berlin, and hated the tune. None of which helped when I was learning it. Did it make me a better player? No, it just intensified my dislike for Jeff Berlin and the tune :).

I think I’d prefer a paper version to be honest. It’s battery won’t run down, and the worst that can happen if it falls of it's stand is losing the page.

Does this allow you to make notes and changes?

I’d rather hear music played well with emotion and feel by a band with little or no, for want of a better phrase....stage presence, than hear music played badly, with mistakes and no emotion by a band that are more preoccupied by what they’re doing on stage or what they look like.

Yeah, yeah that’s me. The fretboard is pretty much flat and the strings follow that. So yes, I can only really play the low B and the F strings. It took ages to a) get my bowing technique right, bearing in mind that I’m bowing at such a strange angle, and b) to find just the right areas on the string for the bow to work in a nice way. I’ve got some custom flat wound strings arriving from America one day this week, they’re currently being held up in customs. When they come it should hopefully make bowing like this easier, I’ll be able to slide along the string.

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I've done a few at Birmingham Rep. I agree, it is brilliant. A friend of mine did Blood brothers for quite a while, I'd sat in with him a few times, that's what got me wanting to do it. That experience served me well when I finally got asked. I agree with the poster about a volume pedal, it's incredibly useful. Stands and lights were supplied, as were headphones. There were TV monitors scattered around the pit area, so that we could see what was going on.