ambient

My notation is extremely untidy, I wish it wasn’t, but so is my handwriting.

That’s people for you.

I’ve met people in all manner of locations all over the country, mainly people from on here and not just buying but selling too. I don’t actually like meeting people, but it’s peace of mind.

I prefer to meet somewhere too, in this case he wanted to try them, which I understand. I fully understand your caution, let’s face it, you’ve no idea who these people really are, they’ve just answered a Gumtree advert. It’s a not like this site or even Facebook where you have more of an idea of who they are from the way they’ve interacted with you in the past. This guy was also messaging me through Facebook, but his profile didn’t look right, it looked fake; basically there was nothing there, there’s even less now because he’s disappeared from there. It was an obvious scam. The name he used on Facebook was Derek Pinkham, the name he was using on his Gumtree messages was Jack. He sent me links to a website and to a profile on various music production/songwriting sites, the profile name there was Jack Chicago. This is what set the alarm bells ringing for me; Jack Chicago lives in America. If you advertise something and either Derek Pinkham or Jack Chicago contact you, then ignore them.

That's it, it could be a hacked account, stolen card or just an unauthorised account. Anyway, I've told him if he wants them then he'll have to come and collect them and pay cash, which is actually exactly what my advert says.

Unless he uses a hacked PayPal account though.

I think you're absolutely correct, my guess is he'd use either a hacked or unauthorised PayPal account. I sent him a message last thing before bed last night telling him that it was collection only, he could spend as long as he wanted trying the monitors but payment was to be made in full before he could take them away. Anyway, I then did a little research. He uses two names, that's not unusual I guess an artist name and a real name. The artist, or in this case producer/writer name is Jack Chicago, who according to his website, he actually sent me a link to this, lives in America. I'm not going to get scammed, so I've repeated my previous message to him that it's cash on collection from me only.

I'm no stranger to selling items, both on here and via Gumtree. I am well aware of the potential risks, and generally advertise items as cash on collection only, especially where Gumtree is concerned. I'm first to admit that I'm perhaps a little odd, but I do find other people strange and difficult to understand. I'm selling a rather expensive pair of Genelec studio monitors. They're advertised as cash on collection from me only. That way the buyer can see them, and hear and test them before buying them, it also protects me from unscrupulous buyers paying with PayPal then claiming there's something wrong, getting their money back and hastily disappearing, which does happen. I had someone contact me, he's really interested in them but lives somewhere in Kent. After a few emails back and forth we agreed a price, he was going to collect them from me on Monday evening. He then decides not to do that, but he wants them posted and he'll pay the postage. Many more emails back and forth and I agree to post them, and he agrees to pay me by PayPal friends and family. I was going to send them via Royal Mail Special Delivery so they would be tracked, signed for and fully insured. Last night he sends me the delivery address, I send him my PayPal email. He doesn't pay me so I don't send them. Tonight I get an email asking if they've gone, erm no, you haven't paid me. His reply "Oh, OK, would you accept 50% now and the other 50% when you've sent them and given me the tracking number?". My reply......."Nope". I genuinely don't think the guy's trying anything untoward, but you do seriously have to wonder. He really expects me to just post an expensive pair of monitors, bearing in mind he hasn't even paid the £50 postage yet!

The best thing is to transcribe lines yourself, use them along with the chords in the lead sheets. That’s how I learned anyway. It is an art form, one of my tutors at uni showed us a formula for creating walking lines, it sounded like a formula too, there was very little beauty in it. A good album to transcribe from is Bill Evans live at the village vanguard. The way it’s mixed puts the bass on it’s own in one channel. Scot LaFaro is the bassist, wonderful lines.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_music

But what they produced, was it pop or soul? i did say I’m probably completely wrong, anything like this is anathema to me.

I would say that Motown derived from soul, Motown itself isn’t soul. Soul itself derived from gospel, jazz and blues. I am of course probably totally wrong, I personally dislike most popular music, my posting is just based on what I picked up in the musicology module at uni, when I could stay awake 😊.

I think there’s an awful lot of crossover with singers anyway, what one person would class as soul someone else would describe as pop. To me at least soul is heavily blues influenced, I’d have described most of the singers mentioned as alternatives to the role as ‘queen of soul’ as being pop singers, for me at least they don’t fulfil the remit for being soul singers. Is Motown soul? I’d argue no, it’s pop; it doesn’t have the earthiness of soul.

Isn’t the ‘queen’ title there because of the longevity of her career, and the massive influence she had on so many during her time? She didn’t just appear and then disappear just as fast.

I hate pigeonholes.

Phil was one of my tutors at uni; an excellent player/tutor. Steve Lawson also does things on the Scot’s lessons site.

You only ever benefit from any lessons if you’re willing and able to go away from the lesson and practice what you’ve been shown or study what you’ve been told. If you can’t do that then any lesson is a waste of time and money. There’s nothing annoys me more personally than someone arriving and the second thing they say after saying hello is sorry, but I haven’t picked my bass up since last time I saw you. Just having lessons in themselves will serve no purpose at all.

Practice so your pick strokes have the same dynamic. Just sit down and practice going from one to the other.

It’s just me, I hate cars 😁.

There are three large stores in Birmingham; PMT, Fairdeal and there’s a Guitar Guitar. I’ve never set foot in either of them. We used to have a couple of real; i.e. not chain store shops when I was a child, I never went in them either, my mom used to go in while I waited outside. I have been to Bass direct, quite a few times, I bought stuff from Mark before he even opened the shop. I like that the staff there actually leave you alone, if you want something then you ask them. I hate; as is often the case, walking in somewhere and immediately being approached by someone, as well meaning as they are, it annoys me. I prefer shopping online. Something I did notice reading through this thread, totally off-topic, the amount of people who mentioned having to take into account petrol and parking charges, why not catch the train or bus?