ambient

I’m doing my masters at the university of Birmingham. I’m focusing on composition, I do know that the instrumental/performance course is excellent. A lot of the classes and tutors are at Birmingham conservatoire, which is housed in a fantastic brand new building, complete with its own jazz club. I was there for a workshop a few weeks ago.

I always include a thank you card too, and original artwork photographs. People seem to like recycled where possible, sleeves etc.

A lot of people, depending on the genre that you’re in, like the artisan approach. I handmade a stencil for some CDs a couple of years ago, and used spray paint.

Bandcamp, gigs and social media. I had CD-Rs printed and just burn them with whatever album people buy. My last album was on cassette which sold really well. The company that did the cassettes does CDs too for a very good price, including artwork.

But said spouse would be in the privacy of my home, not on a public website

What I would do is contact the manager/owner of the mystery shop and complain to them. What I wouldn't do is start a post on here or Facebook or Twitter. That's me though .

There was a thread a while back. I personally was truly shocked how many people do, or should I say how little value so many people attribute to what they do.

People are willing to play for nothing, that’s the problem. I remember when I was a kid I used to love going along with my parents to the local football club social club on a Saturday night. They always had a band, which was the attraction for me. It was always a busy night, loads of people there. Then the guy who was the entertainment secretary left and someone else took over who was hopeless. They stopped paying the bands as much, so they couldn’t get decent ones. Some were truly awful. Just duos; an organ and drummer. Consequently people stopped going. This was late 80s early 90s.

SSD drive, yes, I use a basic 2012 MacBook with just 4gb and it's never let me down.

I use a 2012 MacBook Pro with the standard 4gb of RAM. The only upgrade is the hard drive was replaced by an SSD this time last year. I run the latest version of Logic Pro X which in my opinion is the bargain of the century considering what you get.

When I was studying at goldsmiths we had a lecture from J. J. Jeckzalic from the art of noise, he’d previously worked with Trevor Horn who had bought one of the first fairlights which was used a lot on the frankie goes to Hollywood stuff. It was quite an interesting lecture, he talked a lot about the fairlight. It is quite an iconic sound.

Are you sure you’re not the new bassist?

Reading doesn't give you the emotional content and subtleties is what you said. I pointed out that in my opinion it does, and used orchestral musicians sight-reading and playing often very difficult pieces full of emotion as an example. How is that taking your words out of context? The guy wants to learn to play lines, maybe that's all he wants to do? He's probably not concerned with anything, just playing lines. If the line is written out then it's all there for him. Life's too short, and I'm too busy to argue on line with people, so won't be making any more comments.

I agree he’s very musical in his slap playing. Really don’t like him though, and that’s really expensive. Even if you live in London you’ve got travelling costs there, then drinks and maybe something to eat: I only paid £40 for my Steven Wilson ticket for the royal Albert hall, with Richard Barberi supporting.

There was an elderly guy that I was kind of friendly with a few years ago. He was actually a friend of my dad's, he took up playing drums after his wife passed away. When he discovered that I was a bassist he took an interest in what I was doing musically. One summer when I was on holiday from uni, using the excuse that he was in a gigging jazz band that was in need of a bass player he managed to obtain my phone number from my dad. Anyway, the band weren't very good, but I'd gotten involved and was desperately trying to find an escape. It was the second or third rehearsal where someone commented on his drumming abilities. He shouted something, threw his sticks across the room, walked off and sat sulking in his car. I just sat there thinking what the hell have I gotten involved in? He did that a couple of times. In the end I just stopped going. He kept phoning me, and he'd turn up at the coffee shop when he'd know I was going to be there. He did the same thing with the various bands he played with.

I would disagree. Personally speaking I learned to read music as I was learning to play, that made it easier for me. I actually didn’t realise that you could play any other way. I expected to join a band and be given or be able to buy written out bass lines. Playing with the necessary emotion whilst sight-reading from a chart is about interpreting the chart from the annotated instruction. Also if you know if it’s a funk piece you’ll play it differently than if you know it’s a rock song. It’s also vitally important to listen to the ensemble as a whole whilst playing/reading to pick up the correct vibe. Personally I think it’s an excellent idea to learn to sight-read from the beginning of setting out to learn an instrument. So many people put it off, then when they decide that they want to learn to read music they struggle. With regard to the OP, you’re never too old. I’m teaching a guy who turned 80 last August.

So orchestras around the world are playing without any emotion or subtlety?

That's where I think it is now tbh.

Three to five days usually. I’ve had lots of stuff off them over the years.

It's a really nice bag, lots of room for storage and well padded.

Thanks everyone for the brilliant replies, much appreciated. I bought a Fusion Urban direct from Fusion. I’m really happy with it. I like the external padded thing that you can move around. I bought the guitar version which is excellent. So nice that I can carry my bass around and not need to worry about bumping it when I walk through doorways or along trains.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/jamey-aebersold-jazz-play-along-Books/s?ie=UTF8&page=3&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3Ajamey aebersold jazz play along