zbd1960

ugh SAP/Concur... yuk. It's just as bad if you have to use it in a big organisation. It never integrates with anyone's IT systems despite what the snake oil salesmen say. Stupid business managers buy it without getting a proper technical assessment then IT spend years trying to get it to integrate with systems. I became convinced that the reason the bean counters liked the expenses system was that it was so difficult to use that most people gave up claiming

Have pity on us cellists (and double bass players). It is common to have a different string type on the A or the A and D string from the G and C string. A set of say Jargar strings - a 'medium quality' string is about £140. I have Spirocore tungsten on my G&C and Larson on my A&D. Cost is pushing £300. You can't really afford to experiment - all you can do is hope. There is a scheme for conservatoire cello students, other than that pay and pray... People tend to experiment with their A string options as it's the cheapest one at around £40 (the C on mine is around £120). The bonus I suppose is apart from the A string, the others will last a long time.

ugh the 'plays by feel' thing... freestyle jazz? That translates to me as someone who doesn't understand musical structures / forms, get things wrong, makes it up and calls it 'playing by feel...'. Is everyone else meant to be telepathic when he screws up (sorry, 'plays by feel')? Some forms lend themselves to improvisation, others don't. If you are in a group that improvises, then there will be procedures to flag what's going on (two foot stamps or whatever). As someone said earlier, the guy is gaslighting. Definitely good to escape I think.

I read a piece on the BBC News web site about this yesterday. The original case was dismissed by a judge saying the words were too generic. This was appealed which is the position it's now in... My view is that that 'copyrighting' words is nonsense. I'm unconvinced about tunes as well... In earlier times, it was common for composers to 'borrow' from other composers.

It will be highly specialised and will almost certainly require specialised packing

I left an orchestra awhile ago due to the bullying nature of some people there. Sometimes you just need to be true to yourself.

I bought something from Japan for the first time a few weeks ago - a film back for a medium format camera. Very straightforward and surprisingly quick. Even with cost of airfreight was cheaper than buying in UK/

Unfortunately, you're dealing with a surfeit of ego and one where that ego is more important than the music. If he's not open to sensible discussion, there's only one way it's going. I suspect "other musicians are OK with it" translates as dealing with it was deemed too difficult. I really don't understand how he expects other players to telepathically determine what he's doing. It's an outrageous level of selfishness.

More updates, including carving to reveal accent layer.

This. I left an orchestra because of that. Too much petty snide comments, to much ego/bullying by a few ruins it for everyone else.

I'm an experienced choral singer - I hadn't sung a note in my life until my mid 30s. I have no problem singing in a concert as part of even a small choir. However... ask me to sing solo.... and plot gets seriously lost. Our recorded voice is always a shock as it's not how we hear it through the bones in our skull - I hate hearing my speaking voice. All you can do as other have said is try to get used to it... Might be worth having some lessons from a singing teacher that specialises in musical theatre as they will be more focused on solo performance

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Playing an instrument requires muscle memory. If you've learnt it 'wrong', it takes time and effort to straighten it out. I'm speaking as a cellist here as I'm more proficient on that than bass... but you need to slow it down to a point where you can repeatedly play it correctly. You then up the tempo by 5 bpm and repeat... and keep doing that until you reach performance speed. You need to retrain your muscle memory. If there's a particular group of bars that's a challenge, start playing the last one of the group, get it right, then add in the bar before. Get that right and add in the bar before that... That way you are playing into something ou know you can get right. Hope it works out for you.

I like some jazz, but one of the things I don't like - and which is one of the things which I think gets jazz a bad name - is the type of gig where EVERY number requires EVERY player to take a solo in turn in some misplaced concept of democracy. You then get a forrest of notes thrown at you, which might be technically very good but about as musical as being hit with a brick. I much prefer it when it is much more mixed up, just an appropriate solo...

... whilst wearing an extravagantly styled cravat...

Friend of mine served over 30 years, now retired. Yes, it's shifts, but pattern is fixed and known months ahead. Only issue will be if something comes up towards the end of a shift and it runs over and little can be done about that. Whether that woudl be an issue would depend on which shift it was

I've played in numerous orchestras and ensembles. I would say it is more likely that an instrumentalist that plays the bass line is going to be more observant with regard to timing and rhythm. I think it's for the very simple reason that the bass instrumental parts will have more focus on rhythm and harmony, and less on melody. I also run a saxophone ensemble and whilst there are some good players there, some a lot better than me, I'm the only one with a lot of experience of playing in groups (and some have none). Whilst they are getting better, they tend to be unaware if their timing is off. It's another set of skills that takes time to develop.

Finally, after a Covid hiatus back to Feb 2020 the local Rock School has resumed. As those who've read my scrivenings will be aware, it's not my usual sort of musical haunt... I took the view back at the start of 2020 that joining th elocal one was the way to both learn to play bass and get some playign experience in a 'safe' environment... So, in Feb 2020 I went for my trial session with them. I was about to head to NZ, so expected to start weekly sessions with them in April 2020. Lockdowns etc hit and the venue they use has only just permitted group activities to resume. So, last night was the first adult session. I think there were 4 tutors on duty - my bass teacher (who's also a drummer), a drummer, and a couple of guitarists. I think there were 10 'students'. I'd say all the students were 50+ and I don't think I was the oldest. What's interesting, is we don't realise that we are making progress. Because there are some absolute beginners, it was simplified lead sheets with words and note/chord names, which is not what I prefer, but I understand why... Although I'd never played any of the pieces we covered (3 of them) and whilst it was basic root notes, I was able to keep up, realise when I'd made an error, and ended at the right time, so I'll call that progress.

It's great to see youngsters taking an interest in something and pursuing it. I don't care what it is, so long as it's something. Most people now don't pick up anything - whether that's an instrument, playing chess or a sport, photography, astronomy, bird watching... Instead, the majority are glued to various electronic devices and that's about it. There have always been youngsters who are good at things. My younger nephew was very proficient on guitar and trumpet in his early to mid teens, but it stopped when he went to uni. I suspect, like many, he will go back to them when he's somewhat older (he's mid-20s now). When I was at school we had plenty of people who were grade 8 on various instrument - violin, cello, French horn, bassoon, oboe, classical guitar... As long as they enjoy it and are doing it because they want to, rather than hot house parenting

I was working on something without the music at the time and the guitarist insisted on telling me 'A#' etc and I thought - I cannot believe this piece is in C# maj, Db maj is far more likely... When I checked online later, yep, Db... but guitarist was fine dealing with 7 sharps... Maybe he wants to try D# major if he's that keen on sharps...

I decided to remove post.

Yeah, it's my inner IT geek and too many death-by-powerpoint presentations that makes me critical. The underlying messages are interesting and tbh no surprise to anyone who's a musician

Nice looking thing - I'm a sucker for nice interesting pieces of wood.

Ugh, someone's learnt how to use MS Visio to prepare slides for PowerPoint presentation.... Death by vaguely not-quite-useful infographics... How can 'attending live music including live streaming' be a thing? You're either 'attending a live event', or 'you are watching a streamed event' I don't think you can regard those as quite the same thing... ymmv One of the best presentations/lectures I ever went to was at an IT technical conference where the guy did a really good job on the subject of 'how' to present data. Unless your audience really understands the base data well, bar charts and graphs convey very little to most people.

Where's the groan emoji when you need it?