TimR

I auditioned for a band to stand in as a dep for a few gigs. I learned about 20 tunes (actually just ran over them to familiarise myself as they were tunes I knew fairly well). The only problem was the audition was with the guitarist only. No drums, no singer. The guitarist couldn't sing/didn't know the words. I was totally an absolutely lost. Tried song after song and we just couldn't make them work. After one song he asked me "Is that how you think it goes?" I said "Yes, we play that in my current band.", he just gave me an odd look. We called a halt early as it obviously wasn't happening and he said "Don't worry, I auditioned someone yesterday who knows the material and I'm going with him." Later I spoke to the bass player I was standing in for and he said "Oh, yes, sorry about that, he can be a bit intense." Sometimes it just isn't going to work.

[quote name='LayDownThaFunk' timestamp='1452029724' post='2945770'] Bloody hell there are some old people on this site. [/quote] Most of them old before their time. I played on Boxing night at a 'jam' session. I played a few numbers with some guys my age (mid 40s), then they went home and I stayed playing to midnight with about 12 guys and girls all under 25. The only problem I had was they didn't really know many 'standards', so it was a bit of a struggle. BUT then when I was 21 and playing with guys in their mid 40s, I didn't know many standards either. Unless we turn up to these events rather than sitting at home and complaining that music is dying; we won't pass on the 'old' music and more importantly, we'll become cynical and jaded and believe something is dying, when it just isn't.

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1452113611' post='2946686'] Nobody said they did. [/quote] Ah. Ok. I thought people were disagreeing with me. No worries.

It's unusual to only get 3days. Didn't Gary Moore learn the Thin Lizzy set on the plane on the way to the concert?

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1452112924' post='2946661'] Indeed. The fact that in the late 70s there was "The New Wave of British Heavy Metal" would tend to indicate that there was older British Heavy Metal before it. [/quote] I refer you to my earlier comment and Greame's Wikipedia link. Black Sabbath didn't turn up one day and say "Hey, everyone, this is something we've created at home and we're calling it Heavy Metal." It evolved slowly over a decade and artists argued over whether they were Heavy Metal or Hard Rock or whatever. Mainly because "Heavy Metal" was seen as a put down for a while. Doesn't mean that Jimmi Hendrix wasn't "Heavy Metal", or "Blues Rock" or whatever.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1452112369' post='2946644'] I'm really talking about rock guys playing 1.5 fest and fairs and 4 hour bar shows. Not lessons or orchestrations. Blue [/quote] I'm talking about all pro musicians. How much rehearsal would you want to do for a start up band before the first gig? I think anymore than 8 hours and I'd be climbing the walls. .

[quote name='pfretrock' timestamp='1452112030' post='2946633'] You're confusing me with someone else. I was with Bruce Forsyth [/quote] Ah yes. HappyJack then. Difficult to quote one person while remembering what someone else wrote.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1452111660' post='2946626'] I think the term pro means different things to different people. I play for a living primarily at the bar band level ( I think we have established that bar business in the States is different than your pub business.) I am not sure where this notion comes from that if you do thus for a living and it's a business it's no longer enjoyable? I think that's rubbish. When I started playing for a living , I became a better bass player and entertainer. It also became a lot more fun. Blue [/quote] It's not rubbish, it's just a sweeping generalisation. I know plenty of pro-musicians who teach for free and write scores for amateur orchestras for free. They love the sound and wouldn't get paid for a proffesional orchestra to play their arrangements. However, they have a very low boredom threshold when it comes to practicing. They get it right first time and don't enjoy playing the same tune correctly several times while someone makes mistakes.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1452110980' post='2946609'] The words 'heavy metal' are to be found in the lyrics of Steppenwolf's 'Born To Be Wild' (1968). [/quote] They are indeed. But which band were the first to call themselves a heavy metal band? It was an evolution, you can go back and say Jimi Hendrix and Led Zepplin were heavy metal, but that's retrospective. They just thought they were rock bands. The term hadn't been coined yet. The fact that pfretrock was arguing in his bedsit with Bruce and his mates demonstrates that quite well. .

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1452110112' post='2946586'] Is this another of those "you had to be there" topics? Back in the days when I shared a bedroom with Bruce Dickinson (no, really, I did) and one of my favourite albums was Sad Wings Of Destiny, I don't remember us all sitting around wondering what to call this stuff. This was 1979 into 1980, maybe 1981. I was in my early 20s and I was firmly in the "it's heavy rock, man" camp. Several of my then flatmates would routinely argue "don't you get it, this is heavy metal mate". The idea that no one called this heavy metal until the 80s is ludicrous. Maybe you had to be there after all ... [/quote] Motörhead were formed in 1975. I'm fairly sure 1980 was the 80s? I think you're splitting hairs. My comment was "by the 80s", not "it wasn't until the 80s".

[quote name='basexperience' timestamp='1452107092' post='2946535'] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/growing-old-disgracefully-lemmy-on-heartbreak-ageing-and-his-penchant-for-nazi-memorabilia-2142747.html ""We were not heavy metal," he snaps. "We were a rock'n'roll band. Still are. Everyone always describes us as heavy metal even when I tell them otherwise. Why won't people listen?"" I rest my case. Uninformed? The man himself said it angrily in 2010! [/quote] Just sometimes, when everyone is telling you something, you should just take a moment to wonder if they might just have a point.

[quote name='Roger2611' timestamp='1452103928' post='2946472'] If you have worded you question correctly then no, you can't use an input to take a signal out.....if you want to take a line out from the monitor send then yes that will work provided it is not a powered mixer and you are sending a powered signal out [/quote] He's taking it from the "monitor out" on the desk.

[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1452105024' post='2946493'] Why not pastoriusum after Jaco ? Arguably more inspirational to many, and more inovative. [/quote] I'm not sure he was a mythical character. Which is one of the criteria for naming elements. The only modern mythical characters I can think of are either Lemmy or Chuck Norris.

[quote name='basexperience' timestamp='1452103119' post='2946456'] Good call Lojo. Lemmy was utterly sick of telling people they weren't a metal band! [/quote] He may not have described them as such but Metal wasn't around when they started. Bands like Kiss, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motörhead where just Rock bands. By the 80s though, they were what we now call metal. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_of_British_Heavy_Metal

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1452091871' post='2946288'] You know, I probably didn't understand the word "recognisable" really well. From the last pages of this thread, I get the impression it's about "many people recognising", whereas I took it to mean something like "so specific that you'd recognise it under any circumstance (given of course that you'd heard the song before)". You Brits are a strange lot, using your own language in a way that you yourselves understand perfectly! [/quote] Yes. Kind of the bass line that the most people in the world would recognise. And not... The bass line in the world that you'd recognise the most. I assume?

As long as it's not a powered output! Line level is fine. The XLR inputs double as 1/4" Jack inputs so you don't need any special cable. (At least they do on the H4)

3. One is in the loft, one stays in it's hard case (I assume it's still there and hasn't been nicked at a gig while I wasn't looking), the other one I play. Always. None of them are Fenders. .

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1452079343' post='2946112'] I suppose Town Called Malice by The Jam... [/quote] I very much doubt it. Outside of the U.K. Is virtually unknown. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Called_Malice There's quite a lot of songs being mentioned here that hardly anyone other than bass players in the UK would have heard of.

[quote name='Kevin Dean' timestamp='1452006450' post='2945413'] Supposed to have a final dress rehearsal before gigging , I made it clear this was my only week off in the year so if no one could make it ill go on holiday , everyone put themselves out & the singer doesn't turn up , get a text 4 hours after week packed up saying they had tummy trouble & was only just getting better , Our guitarist had seen him walking down the road 3 hours earlier , I could see he had been on FB until the early hours . what would you do ? [/quote] This kind of thing used to happen to me a lot. Especially when finding gigs. I'd get a gig based on people's diaries only to be told that they'd forgotten to tell me they were going away on that particular date. Now I tend to be a bit more assertive when it comes to my availability. The band is no longer my first concern when booking holidays (it never is for anyone else). Edit: we have a gig in 3 weeks. Our singer bailed on Monday's new year refresher rehearsal on Monday morning. May be gigging having not played together for a couple of months now.

The pros I know don't even rehearse for their day gig. Maybe one initial day long rehearsal but that would be it. "Rehearsing until it's absolutely right." Might be where you're going wrong.

[quote name='Si600' timestamp='1452030520' post='2945787'] We have this discussion when it comes to choosing songs. On our obvious list we've got American Idiot and Pretty Vacant, on the not so obvious list we have Upstarts and Broken Hearts and Los Angeles is Burning. We've not had chance to try it out on a audience yet, I think we good enough to get by but the others aren't so sure, plus we've only got ten songs :-) [/quote] Yes. The band has to be convincing or the audience won't buy it. At JTUK says, if the front man can sell it you're on to a winner.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1452003127' post='2945373'] I always think the audience can be educated by bands...but not enough of them will or are capable of doing it which is why we get the same old stuff. This is my current reoccurring point that pub music/bands don't really help themselves and play too safe. On the flip side of that, they might not have the ability anyway... I don't want to hear the same versions by 10 different bands, myself, ...and after a while most punters will comment on the same thing. If a band plays the same set for 18 months and plays the same town/venues 5-6 times in that period, people will notice...and likely stop going. The easiest thing to do a lot of the times is to mix things up, but bands find this the hardest to do... Compounded by too many bands playing too many venues with the same stuff... [/quote] I'm not sure it isn't a case of the tail wagging the dog. The requests of songs we get asked to play is very depressing. We get a good reaction to tunes that other bands "don't usually play", but we also get a lot of blank looks. If the audience aren't up and dancing and singing there's little point in trying to educate them. They're there to drink and jump up and down. Which is why I suggest getting 6-8 tunes working and gig them and see if the audience are responsive. I've played too many gigs where the band 'don't do the usual stuff' and the audience just stand there tapping their feet and looking blank.

I think the difference here is he is stuck somewhere between originals and a covers band. The songs aren't going to be original, the audience will have heard them before. But they're not going to be the usual covers that people request. So, he won't be playing to people who aren't expecting to know the tunes like you do when you play originals. He will be playing to the "Play something we know" crowd. That's a very hard audience to play 'your favourite' tunes to.

I think you're just trying to run before you can walk. Spend some time learning the names of the notes and the frets. Just on the first 7 frets to start with. Only once you have that off; move onto intervals. Good luck.

Well you've actually just echoed my conclusion (the bit that you didn't quote).