Bassfinger

I am dyslexic and read music. I was taught properly as a youngster when my Ma made me endure piano lessons. Then as a teenager I took up the guitar off my own bat, and despite having binned the piano lessons a few years before was able to see how it related to music written for piano. Then as an adult in my 50's I've had to adapt again to learn to read stuff in the bass clef, but the memories are quickly flooding back and with a bit of reading around the topic I'm doing ok. I wouldn't say I find it easy, but lessons at the right age from a patient and skilled teacher taught this dyslexic to read music moderately well Conversely, I can't read tab to save my life. I can see full well how it works but when I try my brain just won't grasp it.

But go down that road and eventually every topic becomes a pinned post, and there is no reason or opportunity for further discussion.

Mrs Bassfinger. As aforementioned elsewhere, I started as a guitarist but an I jury has left me with no feeling in two fingers and only partial feeling in my thumb. I was struggling with finger picking, and Mrs B suggested that a bass guitar might suit better due to having a 3rd less real estate to cover with my tight hand. She was right. However, now that I am a bassist I take my inspiration from Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond. He also was not a bassist, or even a musician, but when asked to join Jethro Tull he rose to the occasion and effectively bluffed his way through 5 albums and several world tours.

To do that we'd need to establish cause and effect.

Even better idea. Can we ban the "I don't get the relics threads" threads?

Jethro Tull's Aqualung. So many styles, great lyrics, Anderson coming of age as a songwriter and Barre coming of age as a guitarist. I love every note. And it pains me to say that I don't really dig jazz.

Its guff. I've imported enough guitars from outside the EU and into it with zero consequence.

Disraeli gears. Learning all the basslines.

Three: One to change the bulb. One to play an accompanying bass riff. And one to superglue themselves to a train and tell us the planet will die unless the government makes some laws.

My Grandad worked for ITT back in the say and I still have half a dozen huge reels of leaded solder that he punted my way. My great grand kids will still be using it up when I'm gone.

I learned by arrissing about really. Playing along to songs, at first copying the bassline verbatim, but as I got better I started doing flowery little fill notes and riffs, and quite by accident walked into walking. I'm now trying to formalise my technique a bit with some reading on the subject.

This vintage look guitar thing does seem odd to me too. After all, no one buys pre rusted, artisan dented cars, or computers will faked aged yellow plastics and craftsmen painted coffee cup rings, so why the need to do such things to guitars? I don't have a downer if people dig that sort of thing, it just goes over my head.

To be fair, that example is dripping with social comment!

I took up bass after damaging my arm, leaving me with no feeling in 2 fingers and limited feeling in my thumb. I was struggling badly with the guitar after that - I could pick and strum so could do the basic stuff, but the more advanced finger picking that I'd taken years to master was no beyond me, which was very dispiriting. So on Mrs Bassfingers advice I turned to bass, where 33% less strings means less real estate for my working digits to cover, so, with practice, I'm hoping to be a better bass player than I ca be a guitar player these days. It looms like it might work. So if I knew then what I know now I'd cut out the middle man and go straight to bass. Having said that, I'm probably the better bass player because of my knowledge of other instruments, so I guess I can't give a firm answer.

Utterly meaningless, utterly brilliant...Millionaire by Queens of the Stone Age... Dead blow with the life from the low I'll be massive conquistador Give me sword, show me the door Metal heavy, shocked at the core Gimme toro, gimme some more Gimme toro, gimme some more Pressurize, neutralize Deep fried, gimme some more Space flunky, four on the floor Fortified with the liquor store This one's down, gimme some more Gimme toro, gimme some more Gimme toro, gimme some more Gimme toro, gimme some more Shrunken head, I love to adore B movie, gimme some gore Gimme toro, gimme some more B movie, gimme some gore Gimme toro, gimme some more Gimme toro, gimme some more Gimme toro, gimme some more Gimme toro, gimme some more

Lyrics went downhill from Rock Around the Clock onwards.

Of course. You haven't lived until you've heard my drunken rendition of Bat Out Of Hell, complete with me waving a white napkin about to emulate Meat Loaf's hanky.

I've always had low expectations, and I haven't been disappointed! Sure, when I was a teenager me and my mates wanted to be the next Black Sabbath, but made no real effort to play beyond school and the youth club. I've done a pub band stint well in the past, and one day may do so again in the future, but I play to pass the time, for the challenge, to be better than I was the day before, and for the simple pleasure of doing so. I'm a professional in another field, done well out of a divorce (ex wife was a company director and much wealthier than me, so it was a nice pay day when I discovered she'd been playing the pink oboe elsewhere), had extreme luck with a property sale, and not being one to waste money on stupid German cars have managed to salt away a fair bit over the years. I'm nearly 51, and when the mortgage is paid the month after my 54th Birthday I'm retiring, won't need to work at all. If I'd concentrated on music there's a small chance I might have made it big, but more likely I'd be the same age I am now but one helluva lot worse off instead. That being the case, I'm quite happy playing for my own pleasure without music being linked in my mind to bad memories of missed opportunities and failure.

This was so bad that I actually made an effigy of Brian May and burned it. https://youtube.com/watch?v=LqTS5lYFL3s

Don't expect a slice of the profits.

Careful doing that - racing stripes make for a much faster bass. When I did mine I couldn't stop playing thrash metal and ended up having to remove them.

Seeing as Lennon had Clapton lined up as a potential replacement for Harrison, perhaps the opposite could now take place - reform Cream, but with Starkey on drums and McCartney on bass. A sort of semi skimmed Cream?

I remember the Axe stuff, though it was a bit late for me. My Mum thought me a Hohner Les Paul, which looked lovely but which was a bit nasty to play die to set up difficulties. A mate of mine got guitar'd up at about the same time and went for the Encore Strat, which was a much better instrument, albeit not as nicely finished as the Hohner. By the time the Axe stuff came about I was in my 20s and had money and had moved on to Yamaha and Washburn. Didn't Axe do a guitar with a carrying handle cut into the body, or was that someone else?

Or don't buy a Fender.

I'm still very much learning having converted from guitar. I'm a dyed in the wool a rocker, from AOR through prog and hard rock and nibbling into heavy metal in my tastes, particularly earlier HM. However, some of the scales I've been practicing have had me tapping out some classic 50s-60s rock n roll bass lines this last week, over and over, consolidating my skills. If Mrs Bassfinger hears me play Rock Around The Clock again I'm liable to end up in hospital having a bass guitar removed from my skull.