ambient

Do thye not give you lead sheets ? Jazz bands are usually pretty cool with musicians having charts on stage. Here's a copy of the lead sheet for it. [attachment=226679:unnamed-1.jpg] [attachment=226680:unnamed.jpg] Apologies for the reflection on the photos. Screen shots looked a lot better, but the site wouldn't upload them, so I had to faff and take photos with my phone. If you want to PM me, I'll email you the PDF.

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1472515340' post='3121797'] I know this post is old, but that approach isn't much use if you live in Aberdeen and don't care about Fenders. [/quote] True maybe, though I did once travel from London to Edinburgh to collect a bass. I think it was about £40 for the return train fare, booked about a week in advance, and I did set off about 6 in the morning.

[quote name='4000' timestamp='1472496263' post='3121600'] Yep, walnut facings (see below). There was another, with slightly less figured walnut facings, which I played prior to ordering mine. I played your Jazz too! [/quote] Sorry, this is totally off topic I know. How does something as amazing as that sound ?

[quote name='blisters on my fingers' timestamp='1472505183' post='3121713'] Thanks for the replies anybody used a finish on a fretless rosewood fingerboard ? [/quote] Jaco .

I can honestly say that I've always been extremely well looked after every time that I've been in.

I have over 20 years experience as a professional musician, bass player and private music tutor. I graduated from the prestigious Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, with an honours degree in music performance in June 2015, having previously successfully completed their HND/BTEC course. I am currently studying for a masters degree in music (composition), at Goldsmiths University of London. I specialise in teaching 5 and 6 string bass techniques. I have been playing 6 string bass for the last 15 years or so, studying privately with Steve Lawson. I also teach music harmony and theory, sight reading, aural skills and mush technology. I am based in Birmingham, but can also teach via Skype. I charge an extremely reasonable £10 per hour for members of basschat. Please PM me for details.

A lot of time, people give up on 5s because they have the wrong mindset from the start. We tend to think too much, instead of just letting go and playing, we're looking at the bass as a 4 string with an extra string. It's not that, it's a 5 string. I play most of my lines starting at the 5th fret on the B string, so that's my low E note, low F I would play at the 6th fret etc. Bb at the 1st fret on the A string I'd play at the 6th fret on the E string. If I have to play anything high up on the G string, then it's all there under my fingers. Scale length in my opinion makes little or no difference. I gave up on 4 string basses about 20 years ago, I've since played a myriad of basses, some 34", some 35", even a friends 33" scale 6 string. Again we're thinking too much about the instrument. It just requires a slight alteration of finger pressure to adjust across the strings. One of my students has an Ibanez 6 string that cost him something like £500 brand new, it's an amazing instrument, cost doesn't really factor in to it too much. A well designed bass is just that. Ibanez and Yamaha make some amazing 'budget' instruments. We tend to be quite lazy, and also tend to play patterns, get away from playing patterns, and play notes. Know what the notes are in the lines you're playing. I bought my first 5 string on one Saturday, and used it the following Friday. I'd mentally bought it weeks previously, and had just visualised playing lines on it. It made the whole process a lot easier. Plus I was playing notes on it, not just patterns.

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1472418416' post='3121029'] Never heard of the banana idea before. Interesting -I might try that! Like a few others here, I wear towelling wristbands when it's hot and humid. I think they look quite cool too (black, obvs). But the thing that happens to me when I get nervous is that my little finger goes all stiff and starts pointing up in the air. Sometimes it's all I can do to get it to bend back down to the fretboard. This didn't happen on my last couple of gigs though, so maybe I'm getting a bit more confident! :-) [/quote] Bananas, Pomegranate, there's quite a list of foods. [url="http://www.tandurust.com/alternativetherapies/natural-beta-blockers-foods.html"]http://www.tandurust.com/alternativetherapies/natural-beta-blockers-foods.html[/url]

Lots of flexibility and patience is needed for wedding and other function gigs. You'll arrange everything down to the minutest detail weeks in advance, then on the day the bride will change her mind about something. You'll need to be able to just accept that, and to be able to be flexible. Playing times, set lengths, where you set up, the times you set up, they can and invariably will change, often on the day. Just grit your teeth sometimes, smile and enjoy the occasion.

Make sure that you thoroughly prepare for the gig, it helps your confidence if you know your parts properly. Bananas act as a natural beta blocker and can help to combat nervousness, as can meditation techniques. Don't drink alcohol, but keep hydrated drinking water, pomegranate juice is helpful too.

Never know, the singer may get you some work at some time in the future. "Hey Mrs singer, fancy playing at our party ? Don't suppose you know of a band to play too do you ?". It's a microphone they're going to use, that's all. Most singers that I know, generally always use their own mic anyway, they're funny about them.

I can maybe understand the age thing if they're all 14, 15, 16 or 17. It would be a bit odd for someone old enough to be one of their grandparents came along. However I do find it bizarre when they impose an upper age limit of 40, when they're in their 30's, and are looking to do function gigs. I'm lucky to play with some amazing (they'd hate me for saying this), elderly musicians. The one jazz band they're all retired, their ages go from 60 to mid 70s. The other has a guitarist who's 85, the youngest is a lady sax player who's early 60s. Then there's me younger than them all by a quarter of a century. They're great, they accept me and my weirdness, we have a laugh and we play some amazing music.

If they're playing to a click, otherwise it could possibly be a right car crash.

[quote name='Biglump' timestamp='1472301113' post='3120161'] Oh yes please. I'm trying to learn to read whilst stuck indoors. And thanks to all the posters for the rest of the ideas too. [/quote] Here, hopefully you'll be able to see it OK. Let me know if you can't, and I'll see if I can scan them and email it to you. [attachment=226534:unnamed-2.jpg] [attachment=226535:unnamed.jpg]

A friend of mine lives in Bristol. His name is Al Swinger, he's really rather good. Has gigged with Steve Lawson. He's on Facebook.

[quote name='cb1' timestamp='1472174611' post='3119182'] Well true to a certain extent. But a bassoon player will not be able to tell you which is the best position to start in and where there are 2 or 3 ways to play a phrase they won't have a clue. Also with reading on Bass or any other rhythm section instrument interpretation is very important as opposed to being able to read the part 100% accurately - would a trombone player be able to help you with that? I don't think so. [/quote] We'll agree to disagree, after all where I choose to play a part, you may choose to play it somewhere else. It could be down to the number of strings on the bass for instance. Also the position that you choose to play would vary from piece to piece, depending on what what was happening. You're after all learning to read music, not learning to sight read or play a particular piece. So that's slightly irrelevant. Notated rhythm is just that, it's notated rhythm. Interpretation is down to the player, in context of what's going in the piece, it's also why you have other marking and text notated, e.g. showing dynamics and articulations, accents, staccato, spiccato, tenuto etc. The note head can be used to show whether the note is actually played, or just felt etc. Hammer-ons and slurs are easy to notate. They're all common, especially to string instruments.

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1472131375' post='3118756'] Fair enough, I guess pure ambient soundscape stuff is the exception to the rule Si [/quote] Lots of classical music too.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1472118564' post='3118624'] I think when I go for car insurance next time and they ask what I do for a living, I'm just gonna link 'em to this thread he he he he!!! [/quote] You don't mention musician do you ?

[quote name='cb1' timestamp='1472155521' post='3119015'] It does have to be a bass guitar teacher [/quote] Not necessarily. Notes, and rhythm are common to all instruments, pianists, trombone, bassoon, tuba, cello, double bassists would all read bass clef. My second year at uni, my reading class lecturer was a pianist. In fact it was a violin teacher taught me to read music.

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1472129947' post='3118742'] Funk I get, it's a genre....but not into groove? That seems odd, because surely groove is present in all music?! Punk music without groove is just really crap, out of time medicore punk music for example?! Si [/quote] I rarely listen to anything with a regular rhythm section. The occasional jazz record maybe.

It's just down to using it. I had a Zon 6 that was 16.5mm, I could comfortably go between it and my Yamaha TRB6 that was 20mm. Don't think about it so much, just play it. Sometimes we think about things too much, creating barriers between us and the playing.

There was a thread that I started last year about bands being too loud. I did a lot of jazz gigs for a guy last year, some really nice gigs with appreciative audiences. I always felt we were too loud though, the music lost its intimacy and dynamic. After one gig in a marquee where we couldn't be loud, the guy turned to me and said "wasn't that nice, I could hear every little nuance of the music". Ok so that's jazz, but I think it applies to most genres.

I've left bands before due to volume issues. It's stupid, once your hearing is damaged, that's it. In general we play too loud, it's not necessary.

Preferably able to sight-read. It's for a community swing band gig on Saturday 4th September, No pay, but there will be food and drink, it's a birthday party. I said that I'd help out, it's a friend of mine that organises/conducts it. I now have a paid gig offer, that will lead to more work.