Tom Brookes Music

There's definitely a difference between being in an originals band and a covers band imo. I'm the bassist and main songwriter in my originals band, and the guitarist in my covers band. Like others have mentioned, playing note for note recreations of someone elses songs only has a limited appeal to me.....,I do have the discipline to do it, but don't want to! Hence in my covers band we're playing blues/jazz/funk versions of mainly old standards. Being in an originals band is much harder work imo.

Hmm they're playing Stoke this week I think. Worth a trip? As a motogp fan I was a bit of a JT fanboi!

I won't get drawn on the vast majority of this thread. There's an awful lot of incorrect and very confusing stuff though! Anyway, i saw 13/4 mentioned. Without hearing it it's hard to say for sure but I tend to find stuff like that will be 2 bars of 4/4 and 1 bar of 5/4. I once saw a piece written in 15/8....ridiculous and a nightmare to read given that it was actually phrased as a bar of 4/4 followed by a bar of 7/8.

I know a fair few scales......classically trained guitarist originally, then moved on to blues jazzy electric stuff so I've learned a lot over the years. My personally experience seems to be very similar to that of CamdenRob.....starting out, I wasn't hugely naturally gifted-struggled to play anything by ear etc so knowing the theory of how music worked and what notes worked over which harmony etc was my way of being able to function when playing with others. As the years have gone on, my musical ear has improved somewhat and especially on bass, I play pretty much by ear. Still though, when my band is jamming a new song and I'm struggling to get the bassline to work, knowing a few different arpeggios and scales that will work over the chords means that I'll usually come up with something that I can work with. I know people that have graduated from conservatoires that would struggle to work out three blind mice by ear, and would freeze if asked to improvise a five second fill. I also know people that are professional players that can't read a single note of music and their theory extends as far as knowing the difference between major and minor, but rock up at a gig, join in without knowing the key of the song and play all night by ear. In my opinion both approaches are equally valid.....the best musicians that I know combine both skillsets.

Sharing gear is the norm for me with the majority of my gigs on bass being multi band unsigned stuff. Usually to a small crowd in a shithole natch. Can't say that I'm overly precious about what amo I use....I've got a nice pedalboard setup with a di straight to foh. As for getting drunk before playing-ive never understood that at all.....spend x amount of cash on gear, band practices and x amount of time practicing to then get pissed and not be able to play properly or remember it the next is just nuts imo!

I used a Trace Commando combo at I gig last Sunday. Worst amp I've ever used!

There's quite a lot of slapping in my bands stuff....we're a sort of funk rock type thing. Not real virtuoso stuff, but I love playing it and always have a few people come up to me after a show to say how cool it was (honest!) I don't think that it's that I'm particularly good/original/musical with it (I hope that I'm a little musical with it) I genuinely think that it's something that people don't see that much of live from unsigned bands like ours.

Cheers for the replies, the whole, building up a fan base at gigs and giving out flyers to the next gig on the night will be in place for our next gig.....I'm going to look into Twitter more as it seems to be a much more direct way of promoting than Facebook. I'm also going to really look at how to be more savvy with our YouTube channel. ....and carry on gigging too!

Cheddatom are you the guy that I've spoken to at the studio? Do you own an ex Biffy rig? I'm the guy that sell Ant pedals etc! I'm also the bassist in The Rebellion.

....aside from here of course. We do the whole Twitter/FB thing, but I can't help but feel that they don't really help to reach a new audience and build a proper following? It's ten years ago since I did an originals band and I'd forgotten how hard it can be!

Riff Factory in Stoke on Trent is fantastic....and only 20 quid for 3 hours including a good bass amp guitar amp and drum shell setup. Ant Hulme runs it. Top bloke.

I play in an originals band. If we headline, I use my own amp (I still DI mind) if we don't headline then I don't use my own amp. I DI from my pedalboard to foh so don't care either way really.

Bump. Tomorrow night guys! Finish the weekend in style with a healthy dose of funk rock.

Well our first show as the new lineup went down really well. Come down to the Retro Bar in two weeks time for a huge dose of indie funk rock! Plenty of onstage banter too :-) tickets are £5 each.

Hey guys, my new band The Rebellion are headlining next Friday at The Full Moon. Tickets are £4.It's all original stuff, sort of Funk Rock/Indie type thing. The guys have been around for a year or so but we've written almost a complete new set since I joined in November. Come on down, it should be a great night. Tom

I think that the cab is 4 ohms . It's a very old trace with nothing on the back.

What will the power output be? I know that the speakers will handle it, will there be enough oomph there for me to hear on stage? My actual sounds goes from as Sansamp DI straight to FOH.

Yeah I'd considered IEM kits. Not going to be taking an engineer with us and at some venues I'd guess our first song will be the soundcheck so I'm so sure that it would be the best way to go... Thanks for the replies so far guys, food for thought.

Hi guys first post here (not sure what happened to my old account but it has died!) Basically I'm going to be doing a lot of gigging this year with my originals band. We are a rock/funk/indie thing. Anyway, I use a Sansamp BDDI as part of my pedalboard and always di straight to front of house....in my previous projects this has been fine (a mix of functions and other things where good monitoring was guaranteed. Anyway, keeping track of what venues have what monitoring in place is a bit of a nightmare given the number of different venues that we're playing at this year....I have an Ashdown electric blue combo that I use at home....I'm not sure if this going to cut it at some if the bigger venues (Islington Academy etc) that we're playing. Basically I'm not even sure what it is that I want....my FOH will still be coming via my sansamp, so just something that will allow me to hear my self on stage that is easy to transport would be ideal....I play a fair bit of slap and pop so something with clear mids would be nice!