josie

5 hours ago I would have said max 30 at gentle quiet little local OM, but just now (1:00 am) back from playing an OM jam at Bourbon Street Blues Bar in Nashville to 150+, and the first time it's been loud enough I could feel my own bassline coming back up through my feet from the floorboards. Life is good.

Nice! I got my Vintage acoustic so I could go around and play with friends who don't have bass amps (or any amps), but it has a deep gutsy resonance you just don't get from a solid-body. The perfect voice for low-down dirty blues. Plug it in and it just sounds like a bass - so on the rare occasions when I gig with it, I keep it acoustic with a mic in front. Explore and enjoy!

Four with a fifth in disputed possession: GMR Bassforce 5 (London c. 2010) Fender Jazz Plus 5 (USA 1992) Encore P clone Vintage 4 acoustic The fifth is a Fender Jazz Aerodyne (Japan 1992) which I bought in Nashville on my last visit to my son, which I he claims was for him, and I claim was so I had a good bass to play when I'm there. This is about to be put to the test, as I'm going over tomorrow and fully intend to bring it back with me. I may have to ransom it by getting him a good Fender P

Definitely guitar and not ukelele? I got my 3yo grandson a professional quality ukelele 2nd hand for £35 - not much more than the cost of a horrid "children's" one new - and he can already get a nice sound from it, and loves it. They can actually be played as small guitars. [attachment=226604:IMG_B2.jpg]

[quote name='MisterT' timestamp='1458245920' post='3006015'] Bit much for starting up but wanted to play something that I wanted to pick up day in day out. [/quote] Yes! There is advice on BC to start with a "budget" bass guitar and trade up later "if you get on with it", but I'm completely with you. Start with a "budget" bass and there's a good chance you won't get on with it. Start with a bass you're in love with, and if it's "too much for you" you'll grow into it. Hope it's going well.

1971 - that was my Pentangle phase. Danny Thompson on double bass.

I picked up an old second-hand Encore P for £95 from Johnny Roadhouse in Manchester last year. It's a perfect clone visually, looks very cool and plays surprisingly well for the price. It's a good enough copy that I can hear and feel the difference from my USA Fender Jazz.

The body shape and balance will also affect where the bass sits against your body and where your left hand (if you play right-handed) should be. My GMR is 35", 24 fret. Jazz Plus is 34", 22 fret. But the nut on the J+ is deceptively further away from me than on the GMR. When I started playing the J+ I was consistently 2 frets sharp on everything. It just feels and plays like the longer neck although technically it's shorter.

I was a finger-click away from buying his own Aria from Sotheby's auction last year. Probably could have got it for £6k. Could have scraped up the money somehow. Not the worst mistake I've ever made, but high on the list.

Great British Blues Festival in Colne this weekend. Stevie Nimmo and Robin Trower Manchester 06/10, Carmine Rojas with Ryan McGarvey Holmfirth 09/10, Walter Trout Manchester 18/10. You wait ages and then three come along at once

Good for you Stoat, and welcome! It's never too late - I started at 59. My teacher is planning to start classes specifically for older learners. I would advise finding a good teacher, he or she will structure your learning, and encourage you and keep you motivated through the slumps that happen to all of us. Also, get a bass guitar you really love, even if you have to stretch your budget. You won't be able to walk into a random guitar shop and shred, but hold a few, cuddle them, sit with them in your lap and feel if they fit your body, stand with them on a strap and feel if they balance. See the thread on buying your first bass: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/8009-buying-your-first-bass/ Do go for second hand, if possible with good advice, and a small practice amp will be plenty. The early stages of learning and practicing require a lot of repetition, which will help bed things into your memory. Try playing along with songs you know well, that will be another support framework. Stick to slow ones though and very simplified versions of the basslines - look up the chord progressions and do no more than a few root notes to start with. Once those are bedded in, add a few 5ths, and gradually build up when the foundations are solid. Best wishes on your journey! Let us know how it goes.

[quote name='bagsieblue' timestamp='1471947920' post='3117136'] Agreed - they are my favourite music based teaching book and my favorite teaching DVD. [/quote] I haven't listened to his playing yet, but he seems to have two modes. His book (which has influenced me hugely) is very clear that the role of the bass is to link and support. See the quote in my .sig.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1471949694' post='3117153'] Sounds like me. Bass is just a means to an end, a bass guitar is just a tool. [/quote] "You are just a bass player. That means you play the bass guitar. A true musician, like me, plays Music and uses particular instruments as tools to do so." Victor Wooten, [i]The Music Lesson [/i]

For me - I crossed the line the first time I got up and played an OM. It's a good community, most of the regulars play or sing, some don't and are equally welcome. I had been one of those for about a year before I took the plunge, and I was stunned by the warmth of response despite a lousy performance. I only realised then how different it is. On the wall of my music room: "Always remember, it is far better to be the worst musician in the room, than not to be a musician." Now I want to be a better musician. It's an endless road. Stepping onto that road is a defining moment.

Poster for American Bang (now the Cadillac 3) opening for Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders at the Fillmore West in 2009, framed with my backstage pass. Stash of blues festival t-shirts to wear to future blues festivals. But the best is my t-shirt from Kyla Brox / Virgil & the Accelerators at the Garrick in Stockport last year. One-off charity fund-raiser, I was the promoter and it doubled as my 60th birthday party

Good topic! The stress / anxiety reaction is there for good evolutionary reasons, and up to a point it's valuable - raises your alertness and reaction time. Beyond that, it can be paralysing. Controlled deep slow breathing can help a lot. There's a brain / body cycle which will spiral in either direction, and the easiest place to break the cycle is with the physical effects. If you practice breathing at times when you're not anxious, it will become easier to do when you are, and the physical relaxation will feed back to your brain to calm down. (I talk about this a lot supporting students with exam stress.) It's a bit different in an OM situation. My first OM (solo bass / vocal) was the scariest thing I have ever done in a fairly long and "interesting" life. It was a year of getting up to play regularly before I could do it without my fingers dripping sweat onto the strings and convinced that a microphone was a coiled rattlesnake, and I used to beg the organiser to put me on early so I could "get it over with". But everyone there kept encouraging me to fight through it, and I've finally got it down to the "good buzz" level. If it's only your third gig back I'm not surprised you feel that way! Hang in there, focus on the groove and if a few notes go wrong it will still be a good gig and your confidence will grow. Congratulations on coming back!

Welcome Felipe! Chile is my favourite country to travel in - where exactly are you please?

Showing myself up as a newbie bass player... my active-only GMR had developed a nasty buzzing noise, I put it down to my amp or cable and took it out to an OM. Same nasty buzz. Instantly diagnosed by someone more clued-up as a flat battery. Luckily there was another bass player in the room. Unluckily he plays a Beatle-bass (could not be more different to play - string spacing, action, everything) on a strap so long the d@mn thing was halfway to my knees. Well proud of myself for getting through two songs without it being completely embarrassing. Lesson learned.

When I got my first bass, Mr J appreciated that it was a good quality instrument, but apart from that he didn't really care. The "dining room" turned into a nice big music room and he didn't care about that either. Sadly, now that he is disabled and housebound, the ground floor has to be as he needs it, and the "third bedroom" (aka broom cupboard) is the music room. And if possible he cares even less. He doesn't even know I have the J+ - I haven't tried to hide it, he just doesn't notice things. Both my sons, on the other hand, would cheerfully steal the whole lot given the chance, and my 3yo grandson insists on carefully playing all the guitars every time he comes round.

[quote name='DaytonaRik' timestamp='1470826918' post='3108731'] The Cadillac Three feature a bass player (lap steel player IIRC) on their recordings but gig without one [/quote] Current live lineup is Jaren Johnston guitar and vocals, Neil Mason drums, Kelby Ray lap and pedal steel. Kelby played bass in their earlier 4-piece lineup, American Bang. (His first UK gig was in the Queens in New Mills on lead guitar with my son Chris Wood on drums, around 2002. I was there ) He plays bass and lap steel on the Tennessee Mojo album, haven't heard the new one yet. The high point of my last trip to Nashville was jamming with Kelby on lap steel, Chris on drums, me on bass Disclaimer: I don't actually like their music that much, I've just known them all since they were in high school together.

Welcome Rob! +1 for Scotts and Hal Leonard. You could also consider looking at the RGT Preliminary and Grade 1 syllabus - even if you don't have a teacher and don't plan to take the exams. It's well designed - everything in there is there because you need to know it to play well, and the booklets and CDs make it easy to follow and learn from. I found both the structure and the content very helpful. If you can find even one local musician to muck about with, it will bring you on no end. And fooling around and jamming can be a lot more fun and more rewarding than trying to cover the awesome basslines on your favourite recordings. Whatever you do, enjoy!

Carmine Rojas will be touring with Ryan McGarvey in October - 08/10 Gateshead, 09/10 Holmfirth, 10/10 Wolverhampton, 11/10 London. And a bunch of other European gigs, see [url="http://ryanmcgarvey.com/list-events/"]http://ryanmcgarvey.com/list-events/[/url] Possibly my greatest hero bass player. I've seen him play with Joe Bonamassa and hardly noticed JB all night. I've just got a ticket for Holmfirth :-))) Any other BC peeps going?

"Guitar Zero" is a great book about late learning. It's part Marcus' journey learning to play guitar later in life, part very clear popular science about the neuroscience: http://www.garymarcus.com/books/guitarzero.html Good to know that everything we were taught at school, about how late learning is impossible and the brain loses "plasticity", is just [b]wrong[/b]. My bass teacher says he prefers working with older students - he says we have better motivation and persistence than the youngsters. Well done you for taking the plunge, and welcome!

As said before, play with other people as much as you can. Play with musicians who are at your own level to get over being intimidated. Then play with other people who are way better than you, if you can, and they will lift you. If you have a good local open mic scene, go along a few times and listen and talk to the regulars, then turn up with your bass and see if you can sit in with them. That has worked wonders for me. To read: Victor Wooten's [i]The Music Lesson[/i] has transformed the way I understand music and playing music and playing bass guitar. Far more than any conventional theory or technique book. It will make you work to learn its lessons - which are Zen-based - it will get into your soul rather than just your fingers. I've been trying to play for 2 years, and only in the last couple of months have I started to be able to put anything like real music into my playing. The more you learn, the more you will know that you still have to learn. It's a wonderfully endless road. Enjoy your journey.