ambient

Have you considered just having, if it's possible, a maple veneer ?

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[quote name='Muppet' timestamp='1473156482' post='3127397'] I hear this quite often and I'll admit now, after 30 years of bass playing I have no idea what a 'chart' is! I dep a bit and get given a set list and the keys that they are in - is this a 'chart'? I have a short attention span too, so I tend to string all the songs together in a playlist and run through the playlist a few times giving each song more or less equal attention, noting down the starting chords to form my own cheat sheet. I find that with many many songs, as the Jack Bruce example, the chord sequences can be anticipated. Or maybe I'm just being asked to learn really boring song...! Steve [/quote] I'd at least expect the chords, as a starting point. Ive depped for bands where they've done different interpretations shall we say , of songs. So the chords I've worked out from the recording have been wrong. Also a lot of people will tell you what key a song is in, only they're wrong. Having the chords makes the job a lot faster and easier, and more accurate. Ideally I'd want the dots. That's the only dep gig I would do, it's acceptable on those to sight-read it anyway, so there's nothing really to learn.

I'll just reiterate what others have said. They're great for playing chords, melodic lines, soloing etc. In my solo stuff I use the high C all the time, usually up past the 12th fret. I don't use the high C so much in my jazz gigs, though it is really nice to end a song on a nicely voiced chord. I get a lot of nice comments about doing stuff like that. A lot of jazz guys, like Matt Garrison, Janek Gwizdala, Hadrien, I think Richard Bona, have their 5 string basses strung with a high C. Check out some players, people like John Patitucci, Steve Lawson, Neil Fountain, Jared Lees or Anthony Jackson, John Myung in. There's a whole load of bassists using a 6 string.

Do they give you charts to learn off, or have you got to work them out ? I wouldn't bother if they didn't.

It's free, just take advantage of it. The good thing about it is people can just go on and listen to stuff. They don't have to download anything, or subscribe or register.

It's a great way. Look at the people who use it. Olafur Arnalds, Harold Budd, Steve Lawson, Eric Whitacre, they all have Soundcloud pages. It can look as professional or otherwise. Add a good biography, and photos. Link from it to Facebook and other sites. I think it's brilliant.

A friend of mine plays trombone. It's a fantastically expressive instrument.

[quote name='FinnDave' timestamp='1473062939' post='3126409'] I'd rather watch paint dry than spend even one fraction of a second worrying about the visual appearance of my machine heads! [/quote] I've heard people criticise the clip on tuners for making their bass ugly, spoiling the aesthetic of their headstocks. Maybe try the Ibanez knurled knobs that they use on their Gary Willis models ?

[quote name='ixlramp' timestamp='1473071753' post='3126507'] Yves Carbonne and 12 string fretless [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPwMoiKaNOY"]https://www.youtube....h?v=hPwMoiKaNOY[/url] [/quote] Yves is an amazing player .

Just play scales up and down, using both fingers. That's the easiest way.

Birmingham city council used to have a New Years eve thing. I played there about 15 years ago. There was an estimated 10, 000 people there.

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1473015961' post='3126113'] You have to give something people want, you have to provide something that they really want to come out and see, then they'll come. It takes time and effort. Lots of both. There are thousands of bands playing their thing every weekend out there. [/quote] Exactly this. Why should someone travel, spend money to come in, and pay money for over-priced drinks, to see your band ? They have to have a reason to do this, a need to do it. You have to be doing something different to what the others are doing, in my opinion anyway.

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1473013625' post='3126067'] You live in London. It's a much more diverse and desirable destination for musicians than other areas of the country to be fair. I'm not sure it's representative of every institution, as much as I wish it was. My local college currently has 3 bass students across 4 years and as such, has a bass tutor who teaches across two local universities and three FE colleges, as there are so few players studying the instrument. This also seemed to be the case further afield when I moved for Uni. When I was there (at a large traditional red brick uni with a large music department) not long ago, I was one of 3 bass players. Me and another in my first year and one in the third who left after my first year, cutting the number down to two. We were heavily outnumbered by music tech students who worked heavily on electronic music production and software such as MaxMSP. I'm not trying to cause an argument, I'm just stating that there are two sides to every coin, as much as I'd like it to not be the case. [/quote] That's just bass players though, there's always fewer bass players than guitarists. Where I studied for my BMus there were 12 bass players in my year, and maybe 60 guitar players. I teach part time at a local Yamaha music school that has over 200 pupils, mostly youngsters all loving learning to play instruments. I really don't think that music played by 'real' instruments will ever be replaced by laptops. There are too many genres of music reliant on guitars and bass etc.

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1473006733' post='3125982'] I think you're missing one of the saddest points made by your own observations... The 'next generation' will be more interested in music like electronic music or acoustic material and probably less interested in 'bands'/traditional musicianship. Covers bands 20 years from now will either be a guy with a laptop and a launchpad blasting out classic dub tracks or a guy with an acoustic and a looper covering Ed Sheeran. [/quote] Have a walk past your local music college, you'll see that's plainly not the case.

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. 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 think people are just incredibly lazy nowadays. Sitting at home with a laptop, you can access pretty much every genre of music imaginable, without having to leave the comfort of your armchair. You don't even have to us the phone for your Saturday night take-away, there's an app for it. I also think that live music isn't the be all, and end all that it used to be for people. Plus there's so much of it about. It seems you can't go into a pub for a quiet meal and a drink now, without being drowned out by a band playing classic rock covers at ear splitting volume levels.

Nice, the the words bass solo are anathema to many on here 😊.

It looks like a really nice book, must have taken ages and ages to compile. The price reflects that. Tbh I was only vaguely aware that Gibson built basses, i guess most people have heard of their guitars. If you can get Amazon to sell it, then you're probably on to a winner with it.

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1472920720' post='3125376'] That is really nice. I know where we can buy 4string sets of piccolo strings, bug does anyone know of any 5 string sets? [/quote] I bought a 4 string set of D'Addario EXL280s, and added a separate .065 as a B string, and a .018 as a C string.

Here's a really beautiful example of piccolo bass. A fretless this time. This guy is amazingly talented. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?sns=fb&v=IEulWe8eDwM&app=desktop"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?sns=fb&v=IEulWe8eDwM&app=desktop[/url]

You've already got access to Garageband, why buy anything else ? It's simple, to use, and good quality A tutor of mine at uni had the iReal app on his phone, if I recall correctly that has backing tracks, never used it myself though, so I could be wrong.

Check out the music teachers uk website if you're having problems finding a teacher.