lozkerr

I do the same thing, largely because I just cannot get on with tabs (and that's without their being wrong / tabbed for a four-string when I play a five / not having the rhythm done properly if at all / being broken into silly little chunks that don't flow / flippant comments from the author that they CBA working out fills etc etc). I suspect it's because I learned to read music when I was quite young and found myself instinctively following the stave when I was learning from a tutor book. Even when I find a good tab on Songsterr, I'll fire up MuseScore and write out a stave before trying to play it. It's been a wee bit o a slog, but it's helped immensely, especially when playing from scores that were written for a piano and having to transpose them on the fly.

Just spotted and leeched this. Thanks for making it available! It'll save me a lot of work.

Harry Enfield says that it's someone who is 'considerably bassier than yow' 😉

Ain't that the case. A text-book example of how to exploit the Streisand effect.... on second thoughts, that isn't actually a bad idea. Provided you don't leave people out of pocket, of course.

I had to stop and think where to put them. Over-use of 'like' is something that really irritates me, but i guess that's just my age. Young people's vocabulary doesn't age well at all - how often do you hear something described as 'right on' or 'chronic' these days? Eee, when I was a girl...

+1 for this. I would not be remotely surprised to see a few tedious hipster types turn up, iToys at the ready to vlog the whole ironicalised experience: "Hey everybody and welcome to my channel! Tonight me and Jemima are in the Underworld to see the global digital sensation Threatin - the awesome dude whose digital tour like literally broke the internet. This is a like totally exclusive gig with only a few selected attendees as you can see (waves camera around unsteadily showing a handful of hipsters standing around holding skinny lattes in one hand and their phones in the other). We're here to immerse ourselves in the like whole ironicalised experience. And hey, here he is!" Holds camera up as Threatin swaggers on, trips over a cable and limps up to the mic. The camera wavers as he howls his way through all the tracks on his latest digital album - Pole In Ur Hole, Drop De Dax, Oh Yeh Baby, Baby Baby Me At The ABC (Adult Baby Club), Gimme All Your Money, I Eat Ur Az, Yeh Baby Yeh (Don't Stop I'm Cummin) etc. "Hey, wasn't that just like so AWESOME? And look at this like cool merch! Cropped T-shirt (emblazoned with 'Thretin Behavior' and displaying ironic loose threads and pulls) only £49.99. CD artwork (CD case with a paper disc carrying a download code), yours for twenty-five pounds, exclusive tour poster (which has just one date on it) for thirty - this is just like so cool. I guess it's a shame you couldn't be here, but if you liked this, don't forget to hit Like and subscribe!" I now feel ill after writing that.

I'm happy to be old-fashioned in that respect; when something is pulled from Spotify or YouTube, I still have it to hand. There's a certain satisfaction in knowing that my music collection isn't subject to the whims of some faceless American data hoover. I like to think of it as sticking it to The Man, 21st century style 😊

I use a Boss eBand JS10 for learning by ear. I convert the song to an MP3 either by ripping from CD, recording from vinyl or converting a leeched YouTube video. As well as being able to slow the tempo, it has the facility to record small snippets which can also be slowed down. That comes in very handy when working out tricker bits where the bass isn't that audible. It's a nice, albeit pricey bit of gear. The only downside is the 3.5 mm headphone socket - the weight of an adapter plus headphone jack strains the socket making it cut out intermittently - but I hook that up to my practice amp's aux input and plug my cans into that instead. It works well.

I think you've nailed it. If you did a poll of random people and asked them to name a 'classic' punk album, I would expect most of them to name Never Mind The Bollocks. Or Dark Side Of The Moon if you asked about concept albums, Sergeant Pepper if you asked for a Beatles album, and so on. They might not necessarily be musically the best, but they're the ones people remember.

I've got 34 of those albums, some of which I've only listened to once or twice and most of which I missed the first time around. The only one I feel I did miss out on is Parallel Lines.

Piece Of My Heart, Dogs Of War and Valerie (Zutons original) in the song department. I'm also working through the Hal Leonard Bass Blues book I treated myself to on Chrimble Eve. I'm a fair way through it already, which has been a huge encouragement as it shows I know a wee bit more than I thought I did. I'm also working out some Passions basslines by ear. It's harder than I thought it would be, but I'm getting there.

+1 for Ultravox. I love their first three albums and still listen to them a lot. But when John Foxx left, he took the hard edge with him and the band became a shadow of its former self. I quite like the idea of an Ultravox tribute band, except that we'd be stuck with playing bloody Vienna at every single gig.

You could of course do both, in the interests of providing a balanced response.

I've just bought a lighting rig and a pedalboard. Does that mean I have to get the 115 cab I'm after before Hogmanay?

Aye. Props to the guy for successfully gaming the system - except that he's just made it a wee bit harder for everyone else and the band he hired are all out of pocket. Manipulative wee shite.

This, absolutely this. If I'm awake, I think I'm slacking if I'm not practising. Logic tells me that the day job and flat renovation should take precedence, but... bass!

My turn... best thing I've bought is my Fender Jazz V American Deluxe, closely followed by my Eden Metro. Worst... probably my Steinberger Spirit. It's a nice little bass, but the playing position is very different to the Fender. The original plan was to take it with me when I was on my travels and keep the practice speed up, but the different playing positions have meant that I just do finger exercises and work on new stuff on it, and polish it up on the Fender when I get home.

I thought that might be the case, sadly. Might not be a problem for a band, but drama's a different matter. I'm almost tempted to get back into it - without want to sound too much bigly, I was pretty good at it back in the day. Aye, balancing 750s was a bit of a black art. Our studio only had a single-phase supply though, so at a thousand watts a pop, they seriously ate into the juice available for general cover. I used to use them for things that needed stabbing beams of light - a cluster of them for sunbeams in an expressionist show, sometimes a couple to suggest the direction of the sun along with a general cover, a saltire using two at an angle with a blue wash and a fog machine, wartime searchlights and so on. Used sparingly, they were tremendously effective. Hm, my credit card's itching... just popping over to fleabay... X-fade --> GC/5

Red Dog seems to have gone phut. I noticed the Grassmarket branch was closed today, and their website says they're in administration. dub-a-dum-dum-dum... another one bites the dust ☹️

This trip down memory lane's made me wish I'd kept my lighting rig, but my partner - now my ex - insisted I got rid of it. Those were exactly the lanterns I had - four Patt 23, eight Patt 123, a Patt 60, eight PAR 56s and a couple of Sils. I had a pair of colour wheels for the Patt 23s, plus an effects unit and three telescopic stands with scaff bars. I had my own desk - after being given some horrendous rubbish by hire companies, I bought a Zero 88 24-way two-preset manual desk and a Betapack with a ten-metre length of Socapex. I'd hire more dimmers when I needed them, but that desk was mine and woe betide anyone laying a finger on it. I never got on with computerised desks - I was taught to take cues to match the performance and occasionally had to alter things on the fly. I had GAS (or maybe that should be LAS) too - I was always on the lookout for half a dozen Patt 750 beamlights. Lovely lanterns - they had far more punch than a PAR can, although they did need constant cleaning to keep the beam well-defined. I'll have to defer to your experience with LED lights, but I can well believe it. I've noticed lighting seems to be more garish these days. I'd be interested to know how well they fade, if at all - once the voltage across the pn junction of an LED drops below the threshold, out goes the light. How does it work - are the LEDs turned off incrementally, or can they actually fade properly? Oh, and according to the Lee swatch book I've kept, surprise pink is 194. LQ2: DBO

I can recommend two good books on the subject, if anyone's interested: Francis Reid - The Stage Lighting Handbook Robert Pilbrow - Stage Lighting If time and money are tight, I'd recommend starting with Reid's book. Both concentrate on theatre rather than bands, but the principles are exactly the same. My editions pre-date the LED and cheap demux era, but the methods of painting with light haven't altered.

117 steel and 103 straw were the colours I used to use for a general cover, to the extent that I'd keep a roll of each in my gig bag, along with electrician's tools, adjustable spanners, gaffer tape, baling wire and fuses, plus 63- and 32 amp sockets with bare tails attached. When you rock up to a village hall and find there's no lighting, the cooker supply is your friend 🙂