Staggering on

Lucky you, I would love to land a gig like that! Are you using any type of amplification? Your choice of mic/pickup/amp may have some bearing on the strings that you use, some pickups make all strings sound more or less the same.

Decent crowd last night for a Restoration Jazz Band gig at a rented hall. This time we had a guest vocalist and she was fabulous, only had three rehearsals with her but she's a real find, she has done lots of musical theatre stuff but had never sung with a band and the audience loved it. Odd set up, we will move the drummer in next time, he couldn't hear us very well and at times we couldn't hear him, he's usually between me and the keys. A few flubs on my part but several compliments on the sound of my Shen SB100. As usual I used a Schatten Design pre amp mounted on my music stand, it has a volume control and I use the Bose to EQ my sound. First gig using my NUX wireless from bass to pre amp and very happy with it, after several years my Boss wireless started making strange noises so I replaced it with the NUX. All in all a good gig.😊

As a double bassist you become the coolest guy on stage by default, it's the bass. I must admit I have actually twirled the bass on its endpin at a gig about three times in the last nine years, I save it for very special moments.😊

Same thing in Ontario, there is a festival somewhere almost every weekend in the summer and then nothing except a few jams and the odd touring band concert from September to June. You nailed it with "subculture", I have only played festivals for the last two years and at first I was surprised when I saw hundreds of trailers and motorhomes at various festivals and then noticed that everyone knows everyone else and they migrate around on weekends almost as a group. Lots of jams for those who play and enthusiastic audiences for jams and shows. The thing that struck me most was how incredibly friendly everyone is, and unlike some other types of music, no ego issues. All the musicians, including the touring pros, will chat with you and discuss music, instruments and anything else. Great fun and I'm looking forward to next summer.

Over here most bluegrass festivals happen in small towns and rural areas away from the big cities and are run by local committees who are familiar with the bands available. In some cases I expect they may use agents for the big name touring bands. Our BL is president of the Bluegrass Music Association of Canada so he knows a lot of people involved in festivals and has played at many of them and this is an advantage for us. Canada is a huge place so we play mostly in central or northern Ontario. We have band members who live hours apart and get the set list ahead of time and then we do a few run throughs at the festival before we play our sets. Only three of us live close enough to have regular rehearsals and one of us (BL) heads to Florida for most of the winter, luckily we have enough experience to pull it all together when we need to. At this point we are booked at a big festival in Tottenham (Ontario) in June and will probably play at River Valley and Owen Sound. Sorry for the rambling post, but we are not the typical bluegrass band.

The real rehearsal was yesterday at 4:00 in the afternoon when three of our five piece bluegrass band met to go over some of our material and try a few new songs for festivals we are booked at next summer. With mandolin, guitar and me on DB we worked out some good arrangements of some traditional bluegrass songs and a few bluegrass arrangements of some non bluegrass ones as well, lots of fun and some nice three part vocals. The day started with a jazz jam at 10:00 in the morning with a guitar player and drummer that I have played with in several bands over the years. We are old guys (I'm 78) and the only one still gigging in the bluegrass band and a 7 piece swing/jazz band so we just call out a song and find a chart and have some fun. The guitarist has made some backing tracks with chords so we can jam along with that or just play without the tracks...great fun and always something to learn and work on with no pressure and no egos, we have no plans to play anywhere except in the drummer's basement. In between these two sessions I had my weekly hour long DB lesson and after two years my bowing is getting a lot better. I work on all sorts of music from Bach to jazz and my teacher is more than happy to help me figure out the best ways to play some of the jazz charts for the seven piece band and also work on some Simandl. This week he asked me to help out the bass section of his youth orchestra for their Christmas concert and gave me the music. Most of the 30+ students in the orchestra are too small to play cello and bass so he adds a few adults to fill out the sections, this will be the fourth concert I have played with them and it is fun and challenging for me, really looking forward to the orchestra rehearsals. It's an hour drive to the city where all this takes place and it was a long day but very satisfying and I always come home pumped and ready to start practicing. Next rehearsal is Monday night with the swing band, we have a gig next Friday. I consider myself very lucky to have so much music in my life. 😊

Best purchase was a set of Spirocore Mittel strings for the '70's Czech ply bass I use for bluegrass. It is MUCH louder and clearer with the Spiros and I can hold my own in acoustic jams which was impossible with the Obligatos that were on it and it sounds even better when it is amplified. I played it at four festivals this summer and it stays in tune in all kinds of weather conditions and is a joy to play.

Same thing happens if I try to log in using Chrome but it works OK with Safari (Bing). It's been like this for a few days. I am practically computer illiterate so I have no idea what's going on.

In our swing/jazz/Dixie seven piece (sometimes eight if we have a singer) band we usually play 3x45. Almost all of our music is from charts and the horn players (4) don't get many breaks and we don't waste time between songs so they get a chance to rest their lips at the breaks. The bluegrass band mainly plays at festivals and that usually means anywhere from one to three sets of 45 minutes. We might play an afternoon and evening set on one day or the sets could be spread out over a couple of days, most bluegrass festivals work that way and only the big name bands play longer sets. Over here in Canada back in the '70's when I had full time gigs it was 4x40 sets a night (9,10,11,12) six nights a week but by the '80's it had dropped to weekends only and 2 or 3 sets. Now it is the odd weekend and one nighters or a festival.🙁

Me too but in my case it's my DB and my Yamaha SLB 200 EUB...you never know what might happen with a big fragile wooden box. I also have a spare DB pickup in my gig bag. I'm a belt and suspenders/braces kind of guy.😁

I had them on my Czech ply bass that I use for bluegrass and they felt good to play and sounded OK but not very loud, they are recommended on many sites as a good string for bluegrass. I switched to Spiro medium, a very different type of string but also used for bluegrass, and got a real boost in volume and better sound and have stayed with them. They work well in acoustic situations and better than the Obligatos with a pickup, might not be the same for all basses of course.

That's what I was thinking, just about to post it but a bit late as usual.

A week late but here are a couple of photos from August 10 and 11 when Simply Blu played our last festival of the season, great venue and the best sound system we have used this year. Some well known touring bands and supporting bands and some great music and workshops including one for bass players which I attended and picked up a few tips and licks. We played three sets over two days and our last one on Sunday morning included a last minute gospel medley that began with a walking boogie bass line solo while I sang the chorus of Will The Circle Be Unbroken. I started playing the song that way as joke in rehearsal but the rest of the band loved it so we did it that way for the first chorus and then settled into the usual rhythm for the rest of the medley and the crowd loved it. Not all bluegrass fans would be happy with this version but this festival features everything from ultra traditional bands to some "newgrass" sounds and was a great way to end our festival season. I used my trusty '70's Czech laminate with a Canadian made Schatten Design pickup into a Canadian Traynor SB112 combo with DI to the house system, sounded great. That amp is quite popular in North America for DB. 😊

I enjoyed the video and was surprised when I saw the banner at the front of the stage. My grandfather Bartlett was from Yeovil and came to Canada in the early 1900's and I expect I am related to the Bartlett of the construction company on the banner. An uncle of mine did a lot work on our family history and met a number of Bartletts from Devon and I heard about some of them when I was in Yeovil a few years ago. Sorry to derail the main topic but it was interesting to see my family name on the banner. My son who doesn't have any children will be the last of my grandfather's side of the family in Canada to be surnamed Bartlett.

Do it. You will probably have a chance to play music that is not what you usually play and that is a good thing and although it can be a challenge and you will come out of the experience as a better player. Once you play one show word gets around about your ability and you move up the call list. I have found that is important to 1) show up on time 2) understand that the MD is the boss so do what he says 3) understand that you are not the show now, you are a supporting part of it 4) be prepared for a lot of "hurry up and wait time" at rehearsals 5) practice and really know your music. The best ones I have played have had a couple of band rehearsals before working with the cast so music problems are solved ahead of time. You will meet musicians that you don't know and that can lead to all sorts of good things, sit back and enjoy it.

Good band! I have seen that mic used for bands like this but the one we used was a different model, ideal for groups that often rehearse acoustically in a circle or semi circle. As I have said before, bluegrass is great fun to play and sing and not as easy as it sounds. 😊

Much better last night but even hotter than the first night. This time we tried using one mic (not sure of make and model) as suggested by the sound crew for all vocals and instruments except my bass ( bass to amp to PA) and no monitors, just what we could hear on stage and it was great! The bass was loud and clear on stage and we just moved in and out for vocals and instrumental breaks. We had seen other bluegrass bands using this system but this was our first try with it and we love it, we hope we can use a similar system next week at another festival. It's an old school way of doing sound but with today's advanced mics it is better than ever. I'm mainly a jazz guy but I have to admit playing and singing bluegrass is a lot of fun. 😊

Bluegrass festival gig last night. A little bit under rehearsed but no train wrecks, it was made worse by monitors that weren't loud enough. The sound guys at this venue are usually very good so we are expecting a better set tonight as part of a roster of four bands. I used my trusty '70's Czech DB and ran a DI from my amp to the PA. We are in the midst of a heat wave here and it was over 30C in the evening and very humid with no wind on the stage, forecast is for the same thing tonight.

Since I was 16 I have played guitar and then bass(EB and DB) I have been playing DB and EUB in a variety of bands for the last 35 years playing mostly jazz and blues. A year and a half ago after a jazz gig a guy in the audience asked if I ever played bluegrass and I said I had played a few folk and country songs over the years. That was good enough for him and now I am playing in a bluegrass band that played a couple of festivals last summer and this year we are playing at four festivals. I also still play jazz and a bit of orchestral stuff and some theatre shows but the bluegrass is so much fun that I'm really getting into it, not all bluegrass songs are just three chords and some have some tricky timing and of course I also have to learn vocals as well. I am playing with very experienced musicians and it has been a steep learning curve but a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to more gigs, who would have thought that at 78 I would be entering a whole new world of music? I have to admit that listening to bluegrass is sometimes tough to do, I listen to the best and learn the songs but don't listen to very much of it for pleasure but love playing and singing it. I really like a quote from Todd Phillips who is one of the most famous bluegrass and country DB players...'bluegrass is a lot better music than it sounds'. 😊

Another gig at a bluegrass festival last night. Only 4 of us (bass, banjo, mandolin and guitar) and we met for our usual one hour rehearsal just before our set and then had a lot of fun on stage with only a few minor issues. We have played this festival before and the sound was great, even better than usual with the perfect mix coming through the monitors. I had a bass solo in one song, quite rare in bluegrass, and nailed it and came home feeling very good about the evening. No photos this time but it was a lovely warm evening, perfect weather for an outdoor show and we will be back in early August for another festival. I'm mainly a jazz guy but these bluegrass gigs really keep me on my toes and playing with very good musicians is always a bonus and of course learning new songs is good for me musically and mentally. 😊

I saw that too but headed in another direction in my post. 😊

Here's one that I have...

A bit late but it's been a busy week. Last Thursday I drove 400km to Manitoulin Island to play at a bluegrass festival with a band called Simply Blu (dumb name, not my idea) that I have been with for about 18 months. We have 5 members, 3 of us live close to each other but the others are 3 and 5 hours away so we decide on set lists and the three of us rehearse and then meet up with the other two at the venue for a run through. All are seasoned bluegrass players and excellent musicians and the music comes together quickly and away we go. We played two sets on two days of the three day festival and had a good time with only a few bad moments. It was supposed to be on an outdoor stage but incredibly bad weather for all three days with wind and rain and temps in the 10 to 13 C range meant we played in a small hockey arena that was on the festival site, sound was a bit of an issue but we managed, good FOH sound crew. I also played a set with a band that needed a bass player. I had never met them before the festival but they sent me a set list and I learned the 13 songs and I met them the evening before the gig, we had a one hour rehearsal the next day before our set and it went amazingly well. That band is basically a family band, the leader and his three teen kids are the main part and a banjo player and I filled things out and we all had a good time. The highlight for me was the Thursday night open mic jam, I was the only bass player at the jam and spent a wonderful two and a half hours playing some songs that I knew and a lot that I had heard but never played and a few that were new to me. Luckily I also play guitar so I watched the guitarists for the chords but in bluegrass that is made a bit tricky because they use capos all the time, I had some nice compliments about my playing so I guess what I played was acceptable. Great fun and I learned a lot, I'm primarily a jazz guy so I'm still learning bluegrass. We have two more festivals to play this summer and I'm looking forward to them. I used my old Czech bass with Spiros and a pickup into the PA and it sounded great.

Third year of the musical "Five, the Dionnes" a show about the famous quintuplets born 90 years ago just a few miles from me. The previous shows were in a large old theatre in North Bay and I posted about them, but this year it was a lower budget fundraiser for the Dionne museum in a smaller hall with seating for about 180 and we had a full house. The seven piece band was squeezed into a corner but since most of us have played the show for all three years we managed very well. Most of the actors were returnees but the two new ones were very good singers and this was the best version we have done, lovely harmonies in many songs. The production is performed the way an old time radio drama would have been done with the actors reading from scripts and into individual mics and playing several characters with sound effects and background music and songs scattered throughout the play. The audience loved it and other than a bit of a bobble in one song I managed OK, two of the numbers start with a few bars of a solo bass riff and I nailed those. The photos were taken during the sound check in the afternoon, I used my Shen SB 100 into my Traynor SB112 and DI into the PA. All in all a good night. 😊

One bass player has a very good left hand shape, I'm the other one.🙄