mikel

Did we all not do the I hate later with Jools thing to death about 6months ago? Just re read it and save us all a load of grief. Please.

C. Always. If you are an originals band constantly playing in front of an audience that knows you will not expand your audience by any significant amount. No cash in it but playing to a big crowd pulled in by another band might be just the spark that gets you noticed.

3 hours ago, Davo-London said:

I'm not a fan of any bass solos.  Bass solos in Jazz tend to be from the how-many-notes-can-I-get-in-a-bar and lets-play-notes-at-the-end-of-the-fingerboard school.  It's never exciting, emotional, rarely connected to the song etc.

Try playing the melody but in a disguised way with few notes.  Make sure the drummer is still with you.  Then you might have something notable.  If you are playing an URB, then the beauty of the URB is in the tone of the instrument.  Play less so you can hear the tone.  If you are playing an electric bass are you playing it straight or are you making any tonal nods to an URB?  Or focus on an interplay with the drummer as this is more interesting for the audience.

Sorry to rant

Davo

/\ This +100. The best solos, on almost any instrument, are not a w*nk fest. They enhance and add to the mood and melody of the music.

3 minutes ago, BrunoBass said:

Don’t get me wrong, I look after my stuff too. My thread was more that my basses are, in my opinion, merely functional objects.

Well yes, but that is my attitude towards them. We are a partnership, I look after and take care of them and they do the same for me. I keep them looking great and sounding great. If I didn't I would simply wait for a string to break or a pot to fail and that would be a different attitude.

I take care of my instruments and equipment. If I dont and they let me down at a gig then I cant blame anyone else. I look after them, they look after me, its a partnership.

1 hour ago, Coilte said:

Yeah...only wimps warm up...not macho rock and rollers !!  Personally, I'd rather be an injury free wimp than suffer from all types of physical problems further down the line.  Not saying that warm ups prevent injury problems, but they certainly help to reduce the chances of experiencing them. Prevention is better than cure....even in "Rock and Roll"...and in ANY day. 😉

https://www.notreble.com/buzz/2011/07/07/health-fitness-for-the-working-bassist-–-part-3-warm-up-exercise-tips/

All fine and dandy by me. If you have the time or the inclination to do warm up exercises then good for you. I am very much a semi pro/pub band player. If I were a pro musician or indeed part of the act was dancing and gymnastics then I would "Warm up" but as I am not going to put my body under any undue or unexpected strain then no.

12 hours ago, Bleat said:

I take drugs and drink loads of beer to get myself in the mood*

 

 

 

 

 

 

_{* not really.}

/\ This. Its Rock and Roll FFS. Warm up? In my day blah blah blah.

9 hours ago, Reggaebass said:

I know it’s a bit different,  but I had a similar experience with my  Fender P , which the shop found in their warehouse, it was 8 years old , in its case and still had the tags on , i bought it reduced as , new old stock 🙂

I would say that was new. If its never been played then its new afaiac. You could buy a 2019 bass from a shop that 30 people have tried out.

The Commitments, by a country mile. Great music  and great Irish humor, whats not to like.

Agreed. Music, for me at least, is about emotion, and if you cant even put some into a live performance then whats the point. Shouting the name of the venue now and again does not count as a live performance, or generate excitement.

19 hours ago, ead said:

Have you stolen my identity

Shhhhh, the wife has no idea.

Close to the Edge. Back in the day I played it so much I had to buy another copy. Now I have it in every format. Relayer would be a close second. The only band I have seen in concert more often than Yes would be Jethro Tull.

I would turn down the offer. I would say I was made up to be asked, and loved playing with you guys, but you already have a drummer who is a band member. I would add that If the drummer ever chose to leave I would be more than happy to step in.  That way you leave all the doors open without making any enemies and you keep your reputation as a good guy and someone who can be trusted.

It could be that too much technology allows too many people to mess with the sound. Any experienced musician/band knows how to get the sound they want. Set up and soundcheck, get the volume and balance right, job done. May need a slight tweak when the venue is full. Put everything through a PA, especially in a pub gig situation, and it simply adds more complexity. A "Sound engineer", usually a mate or someone with little or no experience of using the complex equipment, can and probably will continue to play with the equipment for the whole gig. They are also a prime target for punters who think they know better about how it "Should sound".  Keep it simple. If the gig is big enough to require sound reinforcement then use it, If not backline and a vocal PA will be fine, cost less to hire and less time to load in and out.  We have never had an issue with punters at a small to medium gig.

On 14/08/2019 at 14:37, DanOwens said:

We're in the studio in September to record original songs that we first wrote around a year ago, and have subsequently re-wrote over and again, but that's because since the rest of the set is covers, we no longer need to rehearse them. Instead we spend our rehearsals rewriting songs after we've performed them.

The thing is, we have the time to do this and everyone is on the same page; a discussion happened and we all agreed that spending rehearsal time on these tunes was the best use of our time. We gig whatever the last rewrite was, or if we haven't had long on it then we'll gig the previously written version. I know other people don't work like this, but rewriting is an important way of improving material. 

Possibly. It is certainly a way of changing material, improvement is subjective surely? If you all feel it needs changing was it any good in the first place? Not taking a pop, just my thinking. The originals band I am part of had this discussion a while back. The three songwriters are very open and allow the individual musicians to come up with our own parts, based on the feel the first hearing gives us and how we interpret it. Their take is its a band, we all have input, we are all equal and first impression of a song, based on emotion, is the way to go.

Our bassist back in the 70s had a Ned. What an awesome beast it was. Talk about heft. He played it through a Sound City 100 watt valve amp through a WEM 2x15 ported cab, it was areal chest shaker.

On 19/07/2019 at 16:33, EliasMooseblaster said:

Probably the same way that various companies can offer unpaid internships without, apparently, falling foul of minimum wage legislation. It's within the letter of the law, even if it is a d!ck move.

Aye, cos being an "Intern" sound much better than "Desperate unpaid lackey."

On 11/07/2019 at 11:34, cheddatom said:

As someone who's struggling to make a living in music part time, it's quite frustrating to read ads like these, but obviously there's more than one way to look at things. If this was marketed as an "experience" for youths coming out of college/6th form, looking to start a career in music, I personally think it'd look great. I'd have persuaded my parents to buy me a train ticket to Edinburgh and give me a bit of spending money, and gone for a month of fun and experience (if I could sight read)

 

EDIT: Anyway, ignore me, the POV of myself at 18 years old is irrelevant because I was stupid and naive and stoned back then

 

Well, yea, but its the thin end of the wedge is it not?  If you are good enough to pass auditions for, and perform in an event as big as the EMT, then you should be rewarded for your skills. They are saying, in effect, that the gig is so big and noteworthy that musicians should pay to take part.  If it were a free concert I would agree, but bearing in mind tickets are expensive and the venues full money is not an issue for the organisers. They devalue the event and musicians in general by expecting talented people to work for free.

"A great day for freedom" from the Live in Gdansk album by Dave Gilmour.

He has played some superb solos over the decades but the solo on GDFF wrings every drop of emotion from a very poignant song. I just played it in the car waiting for a meeting and I am not ashamed to say the tears were rolling down my cheeks. Mr Gilmour has the gift of playing just the right notes at just the right time to enhance the emotion of a song and bring it to an edge so sharp its easy to cut yourself.

15 hours ago, paul_c2 said:

Simple answer: yes.

More involved answer: I don't know if its the correct term, but there is a thing I call "rootless voicing/chord substitution". For example, I, with my guitarist hat on, sees Cmaj7 on the chord chart and play Em. If you heard the guitar in isolation, it would sound like the tonal centre is E. But if my friend on the bass plays a big fat C, then it sounds like the tonal centre is C and that the flavour of chord is major 7.

That's one example - you can see how it extends to 9th and 11th (and beyond if you want) chords quite easily. After all they are stacked 3rds.

The other one is 6th chords. If guitarist sees (for example) C6, he can play a 7th chord of whatever the 6th is. The 6th of C is A and the chord will be Am7 (because that contains the right notes, and the same notes as C6).

You see what happens though, you simply end up arguing minutia and musical theory.  If it sounds good then it is good. If a musician cant play along with others, and pick up a song as they go then that is another thread altogether. 

For me, playing anything by Free or Bad Co, the old adage "Less is more" always works. The space they were brave enough to leave in songs is what makes them special.

All that matters at this time is the imminent gig. Band practice has to be focused on that one goal. As above, email the other members, including the singer, and agree on the current arrangements, get everyone to have their parts up to speed for the next band practice so the whole set can be gone through and any problems sorted. The final practice should simply be a run through of the set to sharpen everything up. Arrangements can be played with at a later date if it makes the songs better but for the moment the gig comes first.

Don't know and don't really care. Probably as many bassists who don't read as there are guitarists. The originals band I am in only the guitarist is a reader. The keys player never learned to read music but can play anything. Play him a piece of music or hum it to him or suggest a part and he is on it. Makes no difference to me. If you can play well enough you are good enough to be in the band. Creativityreumps technique every time for us.

19 hours ago, neilp said:

I don't think music is necessarily getting worse, but for me, recorded music is certainly getting less enjoyable. Autotune, protools, all of that has taken almost all of the humanity from it.

This. I do miss music that may be less than "perfect" but moves me with its pure energy and sincerity.

5 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

As some of the regulars on here may or may not know, I now live in Bulgaria, having made the break from the UK 4 years ago (hence the forum name).

I'm a newborn bass player, now I'm my mid 40's, having not really played since leaving school at 16.

I've tried joining / starting many bands over the years in the UK, but due to very busy work / life commitments, nothings ever really got off the ground. 

So, quite randomly, I met a few other British musicians out here in my local area. Now this might not sound like a big deal, but this is central, extremely rural Bulgaria, not a holiday resort. So the chances of us meeting in the first place are extremely remote. Plus my wife is the singer, having done the club scene in the UK for many years singing and running a karaoke business. 

Anyhow. We decided to try and get something going a few months ago and after a bit of hard work and rehearsals, we've done several gigs in the past few weeks.

We decided, as a band (especially given the local pay rates) that it was never going to be about money, so we may as well try and raise some money for a good cause. So all the gigs we do go towards raising money to support a charity helping children in care here in Bulgaria. 

Tonight we played a local, extremely rural bar in a small village, which was probably 80% Bulgarian, 20% British (due to our promotion) audience. 

It was an absolutely superb gig. Outdoors in the heat of summer (30C degrees at 11pm) and the audience, both Brits and Bulgarians were brilliant, and we managed to raise a fair few quid for the charity. (zov.org.uk if anyone's interested) 

So here's the icing on the cake.

After the gig we were given this by the owner and staff of the bar. It's a framed, printed bit of paper which is absolutely worthless at face value, but to me it's priceless. 

It says.

Thank you MissEducation (our band) 

Keep doing good things.

Bulgaria is as much yours as it is ours. 

From Krichmata (the pub) Lesicheri (the village) 

Best payday I've ever had! 

 

Superb, that's what I call a glowing endorsement. People can be wonderful, even to strangers. You are now locals it seems.