TrevorR

That’s so good! And it’s important too. It an be a slog and wearing, can’t it. I know that it has been with our lad.

Running late again on updates. Lovely communion service on Sunday night with a nice mix of carols and choruses. The set list for the service was: Great Things Holy Forever Make Room Seasons (piano and vocals) Communion - by Brooke Ligertwood, lovely song with some nice alternating 4:4 / 3:4 bars in the chorus for a wee bit of prog worship!! Mary Did You Know - modelled a bit after the Mary J Blige version Trust In God I do enjoy playing the Phil Wickham songs - they seem to encourage me to break out the plectrum as that just kinda sounds right for the rhythms in the bass. Not a very regular pick player but it just seems to work in the context of his tunes. Seasons is a lovely song with interesting words. We decided during the rehearsal before the service that it would be nice really stripped back so was just piano and vocals in the end. Mary Did You Know was fun too. Such a gentle mellow song, and again lyrics that capture the mystery of the Christmas story. We later funked it up as an outro instrumental after the end of the service. It was doubly good as we had a sax player for this week. Cool. And of course, the church was looking nice and Christmassy, which complemented the vibe very nicely!!! My Sandberg VM4 was my trusty companion for the service. Love that bass!!!!!

It’s been a bit of a jam-tastic week… Last Thursday was the third Country & Roots Jam near me. After the last one, a couple of guys asked if I fancied pulling together a few songs for this Jam. Nice to be making some local connections as I’ve been out of the local scene for years. We ended up playing the Luke Combs of Fast Car (which is nigh on identical to the original!), a tune called Jersey Giant and a version of Justin Timberlake’s Mirrors in a country style (thte singer had found an AI version on YouTube and we based it on that). Lots of fun. I also played on a couple of other tunes too - Me & Bobby McGhee and another one I can’t recall now. Here’s a couple of vids… And last night was the last Monday Night Jam of the year over in Woking , so it took on a decidedly Christmassy feel, of course. I got roped in to play on a couple of tunes… Driving Home For Christmas and Fairytale Of NewYork which was good fun, if a wee bit ropey here and there. However, I’d colluded with a few chums to sing a “Christmassy” version of a Black Sabbath tune - “War Pigs (In Blankets)”, if you like!). I heard it when I downloaded The Barenaked Ladies’ Christmas Album last year and decided that I HAD to do it at this year’s Christmas Jam. So a festive version of “War Pigs” . See what you think (I’m no lead vocalist…)

No “worst” and no contest for absolute BEST for me - my Sandberg VM4 in Marley Blue bought in January. I just love this bass. In fact, it’s pretty much kept both my Wals securely tucked up in their cases all year. In fact, it’s so good, I’ve got a Superlight on order which will hopefully make it onto next year’s thread!!!

I just glanced at that as I scrolled past and for all the world it looked like a teeny tiny Sandberg bass in Lozz’s HUGE hand!!!! 🤦‍♂️

Very very nice! Enjoy!

Unexpectedly saw The Australian Pink.Floyd Show last night when a chum offered me his wife's ticket as she got herself double booked. Have to say that they put on a cracking show, including the whole of Wish You Were Here - which is my fave Floyd album.

Is that similar to the “Bass Tommy Gun” - so beloved of Phil Lynott? I’m not sure there are official records of the number of audience members killed or badly injured during Thin Lizzy shows because of this. This move may have been less precise and targeted but sprayed significantly more charisma across whole sections of the audience. Bass Sniper: Bass Tommy Gun:

Wise words!

That would be my vote! Love my SB700!

One from earlier in this year at the regular Monday Night Jam I go to. Having fun grooving to the Ceelo Green/Live at Darryl’s House version of I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do). Can you tell I love my new Sandberg?

Ouch! Hope it heals up soon. Reminds me of when I put a scissor blade right through the fleshy part of my right thumb a week before doing a college musical which included 3 slap songs! Still got the entry wound scar 40 years later.

That’s a good approach and really helps develop the ear. It was, after all, how the old fogies among us like me learned - playing along to the radio or to records. There’s absolutely a degree of innate skill involved there but a lot can be achieved by practice ad studying the right things - over time, of course! And being thrown into the deep end at something like a jam really sharpens up the skills and focuses the mind!! 🤣 When I was in my 20s I would play in the worship band at church, led by a friend of mine on acoustic guitar. He was quite disorganised and rarely knew what songs we were going to play until the Sunday morning. Often he didn’t know what songs he was going to do next during the service and wouldn’t necessarily start them up with the correct chords or in the right key. So I had to learn to busk/jam along early on and me and the keys player spent many services squinting at his left hand to work out the key and chords! Also, learning to play songs from chord sheets was helpful in terms of working out how to link notes and chords together on the fly. In terms of learning and developing skills, the things that were really the lightbulb moments for me were… Learning the major and minor scales and, in particular the shapes related to them on the fretboard, Learning and getting an innate feel for what different intervals sounded like - third, fourth, fifth, major and minor sevenths - that just takes lots of practice and repetition, but the BIG one was… Understanding the harmonised major and minor scales and how they related to common song chord structures. That is (not sure how much folk have looked at this) understanding how the standard chords in a particular key are made up from notes of that scale and that the pattern of major / minor chords is the same across different keys. Knowing that, for most mainstream rock/pop, if you’re in the key of G, the most likely chords to come up are G major, A minor, B minor, C major and D major really - or if you’re in A then it’s A major, B minor, C# minor, D major and E major - really helps navigate the way through a song you’re not familiar with. And of course, that’s where the understanding of intervals helps identify the next chord. Starting to understand the commonly used chord patterns was a huge thing when combined with the above. Al the last country jam I ended up playing a few songs I’d not heard before and it was really helpful when the guitarist said, “It’s a simple 1 -4-2-5 in G…” (i.e. G major, C major, A minor, D major) and I immediately had a mental roadmap for the notes I should be aiming for to begin with.

I was just wondering that.

They were bloomin’ brilliant, weren’t they! Such a fun sounding band. And I can attest to how good Lee’s old Fender sounded through the Kemper. He was using at the gig they did at Pizza Express Live last year too. Nice little setup for a very bijou stage.