T-Bay

My mate works for them he did his best........

Just trying to develop the use of a plectrum as a solely finger player, I have some cheapy Alice 1.5mm ones for eBay that work well. Got a range of others but found the skinny flexible ones very strange to use.

Have had another half an hour at it this afternoon and made progress. I just completely separated the two hands and just hammered out the rhythm faster and faster with my right hand (no sniggering at the back) and thenfor the last few minutes built the left hand into it. Not there just yet but have moved forward which is more than I managed the last few days

Agreed to some extent, this does work a bit quicker, well it will once I get my fingers up to speed! But we do tend to play most things faster than the original, it’s part of the band in many ways. Mostly it’s just a bit quicker but we are trying to work this one into a medley, if it doesn’t end up working we will bin it but I want to give it every chance first.

Thanks! The chorus is ok, it’s just that open run that’s killing me.

I think a lot, but not all, comes down to how staff are treated. If people are well paid and feel valued they will respond in kind. If people are treated like dirt and paid peanuts they will have very little loyalty to that employer. Why so many companies fail to see this is quite beyond me.

The annoying thing is the song is DEAD simple but we are playing it faster than the original as part of a medley, it’s Queen - tie your mother down but played around 145-150bpm. Working the speed up I can get it spot on to around 125bpm and then it just falls apart, the original is 132bpm I believe. So it’s A string 0-030 G2, I just get half a note behind from the off and can’t get it back. I will keep trying but at the moment it feels like my crappy arthritic fingers just won’t go any faster. What’s more annoying is that other stuff we play is just as fast and faster but the patterns seem to work fine for me.

I have wondered about that but it’s pretty simple in structure but distinctive. It’s just the damn speed. I will keep at it and play with the pick as well, not something I have spent any time but it can’t be wasted time either way.

I do keep dropping hints, the rest of the band know I am always prepared so if the worst happens I will just say it’s not a goer. It will be the first time I have binned one off. My fingers just seem to have reached a limit, I have been messing about and I think it’s probably 20bpm faster than anything else we have played and I am wondering if I have found the limit of my arthritis fingers. I hope not though.

Some people love ithe mojomojo but It really didn’t work for me, I even ended up having it checked as I thought there might be someth8ng wrong with it. But there always seem to be a few of them for sale second hand so maybe it’s just a bit marmite.

Awesome.

Learning a few songs for our new improved set and on one have just hit a brick wall speed wise. I did my usual system of starting slow and building up but have just got to a point where my it’s speed or accuracy but not both, three sessions (about an hour in total) has failed to get any improvement on where I was after ten minutes. Hell, I even tried a pick! Does anyone have any tips? Should I just keep at it? Try the pick more?

I got one not long ago after the unbelievably disappointing mojomojo which was just awful. I love it, just enough growl at the low end up to a more traditional distortion at the top. The click mentioned above is dead easy to sort- just whip the back off and flip the little switch to buffered and no pop. My settings are:

When will these be for sale?

I like the ‘security’ of the lines, perhaps it’s coming from a fretted starting point. I know there will be a sharp intake of breath at this but I also find that I can just feel the lines on the pads of my fingers which helps a lot when making big moves up or down the fret board. I appreciate this is a cheat but it works for me. I see the lined fretless as a stepping stone in a way. Even with all that I am not confident enough with it to gig it yet.

We always play some songs quicker at gigs. We realise this happens so plan it into the rehearsal time as much as we can. We will,play at what feels a sensible speed then deliberately play a lot faster to see how it sounds. Partly it’s the drummer who is the mildest guy you could ever meet but a complete,tee animal when he is playing, but we are all equally to blame really as we all like to play fast. It took me a while to realise why a couple of songs were a doddle in rehearsal but nearly killed me when we played them live.

I have on,y been playing for 18 months myself and gigging for 15 of those, if you need any more suggestions give me a shout. We have a set list of over 40 songs now, some trickier than others but none of them are really tricky.

What sort of music do you want to play? Loads of easy ones out there, she sells sanctuary, (the cult), teenage kicks, louie louie, with or without you, bad moon rising, dakota (stereophonics), pretty much any oasis, to name a few.

You could put a wanted thread up on here, chances are someone will have a spare you could get cheap.

This ^^^^^, I got one at Christmas and this sums up my experiences as well.

Why does it need to be a female bass player? Just wondering...........

Their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DownshiftLiveMusic/?pnref=lhc

Not sure how you count great but I know of a few in bands locally. Our lead guitarist has a female bass player in his other band and she is very good.

Peaches, The stranglers. Nothing comes close.

It’s bloody crazy isn’t it, just wish I had been able to see them live. I know they weren’t the best band technically but you know it would have been an experience!