musicbassman

A little bit of New Year magic..............

Ha ha, just so painful to watch on many levels - the guitar 'solo' is pure shred. -- and watch this on YouTube and read the comments from the usual collection of useful idiots saying stuff like "What's wrong with this anyway? - I think it's just fine" and "Much, much better than the original"............

OK, so I'm just working through The Whispers 'And the Beat Goes On'. There's quite a few interpretations/demonstrations of the bass line on YouTube, and most players play the main riff using an open D, like Huw Foster does here. I personally find it more difficult to get accurate damping with the open D, so I'd choose to play this starting on the B on the E string, so it's all fretted. Have a listen, and maybe try this. How would you choose to play this ?

Yes, absolutely agree with this. For great demonstrations of pulling the beat (slightly behind) listen to any top notch bass player in a Country music band. It's a subtle art.

As some of you may know - I'm 65 and recently started playing again after a 15 year complete break. So I'd stopped when I was 50 after gigging regularly for over 30 years. Now I find times have changed from just 15 years ago - especially gear, but I also think the general standard of bass playing has improved considerably. The internet has been a big factor in this. I'm amazed at how quickly I've reconnected with playing - already back up to a fairly decent level, and pleased to find I haven't lost my ear. But as for finding a working band? - or even a decent rehearsal band? - drawn a complete blank so far, but I'll keep looking.

Best bass players in the world right now? Really? I don't think so. Maybe should be titled "Bass players who were the most influential in their day"

This is possibly one of the most intelligent, polite, helpful and well meaning forums I've ever come across, and Bass Tractors post just proves this. Long may it remain this way! By the way, best wishes to all for 2018, wherever you are and whatever you're planning/hoping to do.

Sorry to add fuel to the fire here, but on the (Dutch TV) clip above, it actually sounds like the opening bass line is B : Db : E to my ear. i.e. 5 : 6 : 1 * runs and hides *

Use an octaver during guitar solos? I agree with Osiris that distortion can weaken or lose the low frequencies seriously when playing live.

It's all here.............

"Mummy won't come out of the bathroom" - 'Screen Kiss' from Thomas Dolby, An entire theme, concept, plot or novel in seven words. Genius.

Isn't he a bit young? - I heard that Kevin's 17.......

That's great! Thanks.

Hi - before the BS site was updated there was a very useful feature where you could click on 'Go to first unread post' or something similar, and this led you to the first post you hadn't already read in a topic. Has this disappeared? I assumed the 'unread content' button at the top would refer to the specific post you were looking at, but this is just a general link. Any suggestions, as it's difficult to revisit a topic and find new content without this feature. Ta.

Historical: Beatles - Revolver 80's: Prefab Sprout - From Langley Park to Memphis Current: Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon.

I remember asking a drummer at an audition whether he could read. He blushed a bit and said he could, but not very well even now, he'd had to have extra lessons at school.......................................

Yes, and Amen to all of the points above - but one more thing........... at rehearsals.................PLEASE PLEASE don't keep noodling around on your kit whilst we're trying to check out harmonies, or checking chords, riffs etc - JUST SHUT UP FOR FIVE MINUTES.......er......please ??? It drives us crazy!

I remember quite a few local bands/musos coming unstuck at the millenium, including myself - we'd agreed a massive fee provisionally with an upmarket country club but then they hardly sold any tickets - I think they'd assumed that people would pay £200 per head without really thinking it through - so they kept delaying signing a contract (we'd played there before and this was a direct booking, no agent) and then the whole show ended up being cancelled early December. So instead of earning serious money we ended up with nothing................ a bad way to start the new century! This was one situation where an agency gig would have made good sense.

Back in the '70's, one of the bands I worked with had just started a 3 month tour of the USAF bases in Spain. My Wallace amp - which was considered the Rolls Royce of amps back then - blew up spectacularly on the second night and there was no spare amp to use. I won't go into detail of the convolutions we went through to continue with the gigs, but it was not good. Also, around the same decade at a University gig..............the band was just about to go on stage when someone knocked a heavy ride cymbal over and it hit the stage at the exact point where the roadie had carefully gaffered down three mic cables, severing all three..................... I could go on..........e.g.. arriving at a gig 100 miles away and realising my bass was still sitting in my London flat................ ...................................... arriving at a gig and realising the roadie had left all the mic stands behind - we improvised with the club's cleaners mops stood up in their buckets and gaffa tape.............I'm not joking..................

Well, I'm not usually a big fan of rock, but what about this from Cardiacs? If you're not familiar with this, then the legendary 'impossible to play' guitar solo is at 3.24.

You have to distinguish between 'entertainers' and musicians. There's a lot of pretty egoistic stuff on YouTube to wade through, and some of it is bxxxxy annoying, but as a learning resource it's still unequalled. Where else can you compare 8 bass players each doing their own covers of even fairly straightforward songs like Steely Dan's 'Josie' ? The general standard of bass playing is so high now compared to the average player 20 years ago it still amazes me, and I think the internet is the main reason. And some players are so good they don't need to go attention seeking - just check out anything where Rob Mullarkey is on the bass - what a supreme talent!

i did a lot of high-end function work in London back in the '80's. I can think of two occasions where the event overran so much with after dinner speeches etc that the band never played at all. Obviously we still got paid, but it did all seem a bit pointless.