TimR

A number of my friends are university professors, head masters, teachers, and members of leadership teams. They live in a strange world called academia. Their Facebook posts make my eyes itch.

I think you have to take them on their merits. At a festival, you arrive with your bass in a gig bag, climb on stage, plug into the backline and play for 45mins. Then wander around the festival take in the atmos and have a few beers. For a NYE gig you have to turn up at a specified time hours before the punters, take an hour to set up, hang around until start time, play 3hours of music to 1am, an hour to pack down and then even if it's only 30mins away you'll not be in bed until 3am. The next day (a bank holiday) will not start until 10 or 11am.

A hobby is something I do in my spare time when I want to do it and how I want to do it. As soon as someone specifies what, when and how then I'm working for them.

I've been in negotiations for NYE for bands and not once has the venue wanted the band to play for free. If the only gig you're being asked to do is a gig for free then that does indicate how much your band is worth and what sort of gig you'll be doing. If the pub is selling tickets then you should be getting some of that money. No band, no NYE party. NYE you should have at least two or three enquiries. These are from people who want 'your' band because they know you do a good job. Remember you didn't approach him, he approached you. He's the one who wants a band.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1440583843' post='2852087'] I'm currently training someone to do my day job for 10% of what I get paid so I can be made redundant. That's called "outsourcing to India". Fortunately that's not likely to be an issue for bands for a while yet. PS. And I feel exactly how you'd expect me to feel, but it wouldn't get through the expletives filter. [/quote] Are people still outsourcing to India? Have they learned nothing. In 18months they'll be asking you to go back for 10% more.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1440582379' post='2852071'] There are many many 10 to a room guys on the sites in London but they are all doing manual jobs, jobs where the required skill set is being physically able to carry stuff around and nothing more, they are cheaper than a brittish worker with the same skills who will not live in the same conditions. I have a skilled job which has taken years to learn. I can't just be replaced by a random bloke in the street... If it was possible to replace me for less they would. Instantly. [/quote] I think you have just proved my argument.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1440582802' post='2852075'] but if you're a semi pro playing covers in a pub you get a payment, if you're good enough to draw a big crowd the pub will pay you more because you've justified the extra cost, if you're playing in an originals band, mid week to about 5 people you won't get anything, in other words you get paid what you're worth. I play in a punk covers band which I thoroughly enjoy, but to earn a living I would have to play in a, say, function band, all different styles, but I'm not good enough for that, so I don't expect to make a living from music [/quote] I would argue that if you've been asked to play a NYEs gig, you are worth considerably more than free beer.

[quote name='CamdenRob' timestamp='1440581301' post='2852060'] I would say good luck to them... I work in construction and they pay me the minimum they possibly can to get someone with the skills they need to complete the contract. I get a penny an hour more than someone who can't do my job. No-one would do my job for less because it is sh*t ... music is enjoyable and many many people are happy to do it for free [/quote] People would do your job for less. That's why there is a minimum wage in the UK. By playing music for free, you are effectively the same as someone who comes to your workplace and offers to do your job for less and sleep 10 to a room.

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1440581225' post='2852057'] it's the same with any hobby, it's unfortunate that you've chosen a career that other people enjoy doing, but as I stated you have to make sure you're good enough to do it professionally, for instance the guys who play football on a Sunday morning do it for free because they're not good enough to get paid for it, go up a notch and you get semi pros who need a day job to earn enough money to live on, why should the music industry be any different? [/quote] Because you should be compensated for your work. If people paid to watch Sunday morning players kick a ball about then they'd expect to get a slice of that as they are what the people have come to see.

That's a tough one because the 'wage' part is only one factor. I couldn't subsidise my day job by telling my boss, it's ok, I'll work for less for you and just work nights for someone else to pay my mortgage.

I think they'll want to see accuracy and control. Speed and complexity is probably overthinking it. If my dentist stuck his fingers in my mouth and started playing Chopin on my teeth I'd wonder what he was doing.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1440542325' post='2851859'] ... I have a guitarist buddy in his 40s that is always giving me the Beatles [i]"I don't get it " [/i]routine. I'm like if it weren't for the chain reaction the Beatles started you might not even be playing an *electric guitar and might not have that long hair. Blue .... [/quote] My point being; Why does he have to get it? Why do you have to make him get it? Why is it a curse? Most people understand the massive sea change they bought about. If the guy is still playing in his 40s and doesn't follow the Beatles then something else has influenced him directly other than the Beatles. Why does it matter so much to you? In my earlier posts I'm just trying to put some points of view from the other persons viewpoint. I'm not a massive Beatles fan. In fact I can't stand most of their material. Whilst I agree they changed the world, it was over 50 years ago and the world moves on.

Maybe Blue is missing what it was really all about. Not music but teenage rebellion. And so being told that the Beatles were the greatest and everyone should bow down and worship them is a bit like my Grandad telling me to listen to James Last.

He does claim to have a wisdom and perspective that younger people just won't have. A perspective maybe but I'm not sure where wisdom comes from. And a perspective of having grown up in the 60s is no different to people who were at the Electric Ballroom and other venues in the 80s. I'm sorry but I'm one of those people who don't believe that the baby boomer and 60s generation have a monopoly on pop culture.

Dexterity. Some two octave major and minor scales up and down at a fairly quick but even pace. Play each one using the different scale patterns across different strings but on the same root. They can hear and predict what they will hear but your fingers will apparently be doing different things.

I think the perceived arrogance is that you think anyone not born in the 60s hasn't had an equally important and influential exposure to music. I was born at the tail end of The Beatles and grew up in the 70s/80s and 90s. When there were huge changes in music. I started playing in the mid 80s and 30 years later I'm still playing. The guys in my band are of a similar age and have similar experiences. To claim we don't have a musical passion or a heritage because we weren't alive in the 60s is nonsense.

Highish. Anyway. Quite a few of the IM are played further up the neck. Maybe that's how he gets his speed. Something to do with string tension?

All interviews with him he smiles and says "Two fingers, people think it's three but it's two." And to be pedantic they're not strictly triplets they're two 8ths and a quarter note. "The gallop". But we know what is being talked about.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1440409524' post='2850349'] ... make it your own. [/quote] Arghh. That phrase makes my eyes itch! But yes. Don't spend too long on something that your band may drop after a handful of plays anyway.

[quote name='ubit' timestamp='1440409867' post='2850353'] I worked it out by ear when it came out at first. It has to be the only IM song I can play apart from the intro to Wrathchild. Steve Harris is a machine! [/quote] Learn The Trooper. It is the definitive IM bass line IMO.

Billie Jean.

Are you listening to the live version from Live after Death. It goes on for ages solo so you should be able to pick something from that.

[quote name='dood' timestamp='1439581379' post='2844230'] ... This post is more about single riffs for everyone from complete beginner to advanced playing, I think anyway! [/quote] That's what I thought when I read the first post but reading the replies, that's far from what has been posted I was expecting tunes like: Another one bites the dust The Chain Superstition (The keys part everyone plays on bass ) Money To name but a few. A riff is a repeating motif that the song is based on. Isn't it?

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1440359796' post='2850112'] It has always bothered me why Capitol Records in the USA put 'RECORDED IN ENGLAND' on Beatles singles. I know that the Americans had better recording techniques than backward Britain, but surely does it really matter where it was recorded? The Stones recorded a lot of stuff in the US in the 60's, but it never had RECORDED IN THE USA on the label!! [/quote] It's a legal thing. If you look carefully it'll be on every record somewhere. Brown Sugar has 'Manufactured in the UK by EMI' on it. Just more prominent on that one.

Just drink a barrel each.