ambient

I honestly listen to a hugely varied selection of music. I was at uni yesterday, travelling there I was listening to Messiaen and Mogwai, coming back a bit of Dream Theatre and then Peter Gabriel's 'Live blood' album. Just now I was listening to Thom Yorke's latest album 'Suspiria'.

Me and a drummer friend did a NYE gig 7 or 8 years ago like that. The venue wanted a band and booked a duo, so the duo hired us. It really was most odd, well paid though. We only found out on the night when we arrived; the guy took us to one side and told us.

There is a volume limit you can override it though. I thought it was only for music, maybe try it. Settings, music.

Maybe pour some rice crispies into a bowl and add milk just before you start playing?

I had to do that a couple of years ago. My bank were brilliant, I'd spent weeks messing about with PayPal and eBay, NatWest refunded me in a couple of days. I just had to send them screenshots of the transaction and email correspondence.

It was cheaper for me to commute each day for the three years of my degree.

It's been like it for quite a while.

My feedback is only 14, I’ve been a member for about 4 years, just never sold or bought much from there. The most recent thing I did buy was from a guy with 1,000+ positive feedback. I bought an Apogee audio interface, when it arrived it had a lot of scratches and marks on it, even though I’d emailed him asking him about the condition prior to buying; he’d told me it was perfect and as new. The feedback thing is just an indicator.

True, anywhere outside of London will be cheaper with regard to living expenses.

He gave me a bass to try that he was selling for Dave Swift a few years ago. It was up for sale for over £8k. I really didn't want to even touch it, but he insisted, so I did very, very, very, very, very carefully :)

Yes, though I believe both, depends on what you play.

I know a guy who’s studying his Masters in jazz bass at the Guildhall. Birmingham conservatoire have a brilliant jazz course, a friend of mine did his degree there. They even have a little jazz club of their own. I did a workshop thing there earlier this year, they have brilliant facilities, it’s only a year or so old.

Definitely! At the end of the day, it’s you that has to be happy. ICMP started in Acton as Basstech, Guitartech and Drumtech. I used to go once a month as a teenager for a lesson. I think where they were is where BIMM moved to? I auditioned at BIMM in Bristol at the same time as auditioning for ICMP, the audition at BIMM was a lot easier. Its been 3 years since I graduated now, the courses keep evolving. I was there last year as a guest speaker, and the course had changed since I’d left. I’m guessing it’s changed again since then, so it’s definitely best to go along, look around, meet the tutors and get a prospectus. Another thing to consider is ICMP have just moved into brand new and purpose built premises. Where they were before was good, but a bit of a compromise.

ICMP you study a different genre every 6 weeks. It takes you through blues, into rock, RnB, funk, jazz, fusion, metal, soul etc. There were modules in year two that I enjoyed, where bass was treated as an instrument rather than a role, they were very good. I recommend the course, it was definitely life changing for me. They have open days through the year. The audition was very tough. It’s a two part process, there’s an initial audition to see if you’re up to taking the full audition. The full audition has various sight reading tests, aural and transcribing tests, a harmony and theory exam, and a chance to demonstrate your personal skills by playing a solo piece of your choice.

I did my BMus at ICMP, and can personally highly recommend it. It got my onto the path that I’m currently on, just started my PhD at UoB. A friend started at BIMM and left, doing his final year at ICMP. His opinion was that the ICMP course was far better. If I had one criticism of the course; this is just me personally, it lacked a little bit of customisation. It was kind of this is the course, these are the modules. I was starting to do solo bass stuff, and be a little more experimental by year two, there wasn’t really the provision for that. It was the amazing composition tutor who kind of became a mentor for what I personally was doing, rather than the bass tutors.

Just catch a train.

Do not use my Hermes, they’re awful. If it’s small enough then you’d have to go a long way to beat Royal Mail special delivery, it’s tracked and insured.

Isn't ProTools like that now; subscription and cloud based?

Standards as in standard repertoire, not necessarily jazz, but common songs or numbers for that genre; could be jazz but equally they could be blues or soul, punk even I guess. In rock it’d be alright now or you really got me. Valerie is standard in most function bands set lists, that kind of thing.

I’ve got a transcription of what is hip if you want it. It was an exam piece at uni.

Bits of this are about 3 years old, other bits were done in the last few weeks. An earlier version was released by a brilliant new cassette only label called RTR earlier in the year, they release some beautiful music; this, or rather the earlier version was just on a sampler that they issued: https://rustedtonerecordings.bandcamp.com https://soundcloud.com/user-987830578/abstract

It all depends on your requirements. A 5 has always made more sense to me than a 4 string, not just because of the extra low notes, more so the positioning thing, especially on reading gigs where you can pretty much stay in one position on the neck and concentrate on the part. A 6 string is fantastic for soloing and chordal stuff; I personally love the chord voicing possibilities that a 6 allows.

It’s easier if you play notes rather than frets or string numbers.