Witters

Wild night of swing and blues jamming at the Downend Tavern, Bristol last night. The place was full of musicians many wanting to play (we have a reputation of allowing people to join us onstage, give them a chance to blow). We had three extra harmonica players, Sean The Horn McBride on sax (damn fine player, stupidly good) plus the full band - busy. I was feeling a bit under the weather having just discovered a rather uncomfortable cheese intolerance so was grateful to step back and let others have a go. Punters loved it, best reaction we’ve had there. Next time there may be a flautist...apparently. How cool would that be?! Thanks to @Rich for coming down, sorry I wasn’t more chatty, hope to see you soon; and the first bassist I ever worked with when I moved to Bristol 40 years ago was also in the audience, nice to catch up. Back to Ed Sheeran today 😩 with the bonus of some “lute n vocal” practise hopefully.

Lol! Brilliant! Remember Thud! and Mr Grins? Wanna pen? Buy a pen for a fiver and get these four beers free! We had the large room and decided to crank up my fender twin and your 900watt rig. Poor old Phil didn’t know what hit him and bits fell of the ceiling. It was LOUD! awesome!

Shared to my Facebook page, who knows where it will go!

Ymail.com?

How do prospective guitarists contact you?

Just spread the word. I posted on five Facebook sites, went through my contacts diary, advertised on here and I’ve had a very good response. Once people see what you want and what you are (provide a video maybe) they seem willing to help. It’s been great. People recommend people who recommend people. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by everyone and have a number of people for audition...where are you based and do you have any more details? Number and frequency of gigs, pay might help, location, rehearsals, your expectations, etc Best wishes Mark

Go for it! G’wan. I wasn’t sure about fretless when I first tried, took a while to get used to it but I really like it. I’m waiting for the next payday and confirmation from @Rich for our Boys Bass Day Trip.

@StringNavigator you sound perfect for the band I play in, although the commute looks a little long.

Thanks. I’ve asked, we shall have to see.

Thanks folks! sounds as though the Ibanez will be the way to go! cant find the one on here, but that’s ok. thanks again folks!

Anyone got one, tried one? http://www.ibanez.com/products/eb_detail18.php?year=2018&area_id=3&cat_id=2&series_id=51&data_id=161&color=CL01 Having tried @Rich unique Yam fretless for a few days I am now considering the above, or maybe an ESP version at half the price(ish). https://www.espguitars.com/products/9854-b-205sm-fl-ns?category_id=1963318-b-series Any experience with either maker’s fretless basses? What do you think? I’m leaning towards the Ibanez but that’s only coz I have one leg shorter than the other.

Thanks Happy Jack! Lol

Thanks Ray. Yeah, I know, but new job, newly married both etc. That’s why he is leaving. Perhaps you could come jam with us one day?

Hi folks, Bristol/Bath/Devizes area (or anywhere nearish if you are willing to travel, perhaps we can gig over your way?) The Phil Prowse Blues Band need a new bass player. Age is fairly immaterial as long as you have energy, but we are 45+ if it matters. We play high energy swing blues with lots of other stuff thrown in when we feel like it. Current line up ... vocals/harmonica, guitar, keys, bass, drums. You need to be able swing, walk, improvise and funk. There is plenty of room to be creative as a lot of what we do is improvised around a blues structure, though we do play tunes with set arrangements as well,. We are also bringing in a number of well known tunes but turning them into blues numbers and you will have input to that. We gig once or twice a month (pubs, small festivals, private parties) and being Blues you won’t make a living from this, however, it is great fun and a damn fine band (ask Tim Walker, he is on here somewhere and is the man you will be replacing...get all the dirt from him.) We tend to play long sets....up to three hours but usually 2 to 2 and a half hours! You could also ask @Raymondo who saw us at the Wotton under Edge Blues Festival recently. We are on youtube ... (there are other tunes on the channel and we will be filming and recording the upcoming gigs for airplay and anything else we can think of). If you are interested then please contact me! thank you for reading! At Rich’s suggestion here is a link to our appearance at The Bradford Roots Festval January 2018. This is pre-keys and re-edited by a fan of ours in Turkey! Unfortunately, no footage from the Wotton under Edge Blues Festival a few weeks ago! this video takes about 40 seconds to kick in due to my editing ☺️ *ahem*

Thank you for this, very helpful. The link you provided is really quite unsettling, how those with severe problems cope, I have no idea. Anyone even slightly curious should try it. Your English is much better than my French and your “advices” come across very clearly. I will keep all advice in mind as best I can.

Not seen the film in its entirety, thankfully, but I’ve seen snippets and heard a couple of songs. It’s not just you. I don’t like saying negative things about anything but I really don’t like what I’ve seen; dull and predictable will do nicely. Then again, it’s all personal taste. If someone wants to learn those songs I’ll teach them because it means something to them and gets them into music. Hopefully, I can help broaden their musical education as we go!

They’re great, aren’t they? Goes to show just how good the original is when you see it covered so well....or something like that! I can’t imagine anything like this being written these days. Back to Fragile at the weekend and try those bass lines.

Excellent @josie! Thank you. Some great responses and advice. I know where my half term is going!

Sorry to hear that, but I agree, it’s all “Under the same umbrella”; we are all trying to find ways to help each other. All ideas, thoughts, concerns, suggestions are welcome. The more we talk about these things the better we are able to support each other. Having had a quick read of the definition of “dyspraxia” how do they cope with playing an instrument? How do they respond to music? Sounds like a greater challenge than dyslexia (I have no idea), but I guess dyspraxia comes in different degrees, too?

Fascinating! I will make notes and share. As an aside, my favourite period is also Baroque, particularly Bach. Another area I’d like to spend time studying! There is a wonderful Masterclass by Benjamin Zander of The Boston Symphony Orchestra on the famous Prelude from the 1st Cello Suite on youtube.

This is great, folks! Thank you.

A conniption? What a great word! Did you know there is a Conniption Gin?

I am noticing a growing number of dyslexic music students coming my way. Now, I know very little about this aside from changing the colour of paper music is printed on or over-laying coloured sheets, or covering some of the music. My guess is dyslexia comes in various forms/guises and my approach will need to be tailor made for each student. Anybody here dyslexic? What helps you? How do you approach learning? As a teacher how would you want me to adapt what I do for you? Do you have any experience teaching students with dyslexia? I will be researching this over the coming weeks and would love to hear your experiences. Many thanks Witters

Ok you wonderful people, could I trouble you for your thoughts, please? As you may know I am a guitarist, primarily, but I enjoy bass enormously and am hungry to learn. I’ve been teaching many years and playing for longer, consequently I have a fairly extensive knowledge of repertoire across a good few styles. I can also remember most of the struggles I had when learning which helps both myself and the students, hopefully, when they face similar problems. However, I don’t have this experience as a bassist even though I can happily play my way through most of the grade syllabus (apart from the slap pieces which I’m working on) and some arrangements of classical pieces. All good fun but not much use to an eleven year old struggling with basic technique! Can you remember your early bass experiences? What issues did you face and how did you resolve them? Are there any good books available? There are a few “must have” guitar books, but only a few....Ralph Denyer’s Guitar Handbook; Solo Classical Guitar volumes 1 and 2 by Frederick Noad; The Acoustic Guitar Bible by Eric Roche; Creative Guitar by Guthrie Govan. They cover technique from zero upwards. They also cover theory, scales, chord construction and pretty much everything you need for each style of guitar, and they are well written. I’m looking for advice and thoughts on early experiences, however, all thoughts etc are always welcome. Many thanks for your time. It’s Friday and Rich is kindly loaning me a fretless! What better way to end the week? 😁🍺