TimR

Roger Waters seems to be popular at the moment...

How about Norman Watt Roy?

That's usually why we transpose. Did have a car crash at one gig in a band I was in. At the practice before the gig the singer asked if we could try the song in another key. We tried it but weren't sure it was any better. The drummer provided the setlists with keys and intro musician written next to the song, so we had an instant view of how the song started. So I kicked off with the iconic bass intro in the key on the list which was the key we always played in... and then the rest of the band came in... unfortunately some of them had made note of the proposed key change on their music during the practice...

Assuming the original is actually in Eb. Quite often songs were slowed down and sped up, sometimes the band tuned to whatever piano was in the studio (or not).

Yes. It was 7am!

The song is in concert Eb. If there were piano or Brass parts, the pianist would have to be playing in Eb. Any Bb Brass would play in E. This is why a lot of motown is in the flat keys. It's easier for the Brass to play.

Yes. Never learn a song note for note until the band have jammed a verse and chorus a few times and agreed it will work. Then all go away and learn it properly. You can get through several ideas per rehearsal that way. Plus when people turn up having not looked at any songs they don't like, you can decide where their priories lie and decide on your priorities to suit. I'd always consider it a bonus if people suggested a load of tunes I already know and know will go down well at gigs. Means you get on the road quicker and can introduce new/more complicated material at your leisure.

If you get a 'cheap' unit to try, it needs at a minimum compression, threshold, and gain. If you don't understand compression it's a good idea to get some free mixer software and play with some free plugins to see how it works.

I have Lozz's Keely Bassist and it's always on. In particular its good to have the amp gain high so your soft playing is still loud but soft and rounded and as you get louder and dig in, the attack and hard dynamics still come through but don't overdrive the input. It's a case of using it very subtly.

Yes. Neither of those are benevolent dictatorship. They were just out and out dictatorships. You don't even get that in a workplace without ending up with a high turnover of staff.

In my experience there's always two people who get together with an idea and then go looking for band mates. From then on in there will be one person who does the lions share of the work and the other person will claim it's their band. 🤣 I'm not sure any band is run as a pure democracy, as if 3 people want to play a tune and the remaining 1 person doesn't then those 3 are often overruled by the minority. I don't know what you'd call that when all referendums must have unanimous vote result.

That's psychopathic narcissism. You need a certain element of that to be a singer.

Benevolent dictatorship. Someone listens to everyone's ideas and makes decisions and leads. I want to be in a band with a leader who has vision and direction. I've been in too many democratic bands where actually you end up with a random bunch of songs and each member doesn't really like many of the songs.

20 gigs a year for a 4 piece gig requires a lot of coordination. Especially if anyone has a family. That's pretty much every other week. If you've always done 20 a week then anyone joining will be aware of that. But someone being in 2 bands won't be able to co-ordinate at that level. If the band has slowly increased gig levels then there will become a point where giging isn't sustainable unless you get deps in.

Resistance is futile. I suspect it's DC resistance in the same way as speakers have DC resistance in 4, 8, 16 ohms etc. Is there a frequency/impedance chart that shows how different frequencies give different outputs. That would be a good place to start.

Seems to me the OP's band don't have the confidence in their abilities to get past this point. I have played in bands on both levels but currently our guitarist needs a lot of persuasion to step out of his comfort zone.

'Learning' is an interesting term. The first priority is can the singer sing, do they already know the tune, or is it easy for them to learn, and do they like it. If the singer doesn't meet any of those criteria you're in trouble. Next, no one needs to spend hours 'learning' the tunes, take away the 10 songs and everyone 'bare-bones' them. Works out verse, chorus, mid sections and form. Don't worry about intros, endings, how many times the verse is repeated, solos etc. Just get a very loose version of the song together. Then you all come together and jam the tune and maybe decide a key. Only then do you decide whether it's going to work and whether you should go away and learn it more closely. After that you come back together and sort out fine arrangements. A lot of the time you can get very weary if you decide on a tune and learn it note for note only to come to the practice to find out no one else has done their homework. So it's important to have everyone with the same approach. With the above approach you invest the minimum of time on a tune and so don't have a big issue if it doesn't work out.

You may never be called to play like that. I haven't in 40 years of playing semi-professionally in pit, jazz, function and originals bands. I mean you'd never audition for a funk gig if you don't play funk music well, and if you liked playing funk music, then you'd be able to do those things. It's self fulfilling. Triplets are something that trips up a lot of people. How are your 'internal' dynamics, that's not just playing loudly or softly for a whole bar, it's placing accents on individual notes and paying attention to note lengths. A quarter note can be played legato (sounds for the length of the quarter beat) or staccato (sounds very short). Muting is another essential technique that separates the amateur/beginner from the more advanced player.

I agree. I'm thinking of the people who aren't organised and then fuss over inconsequential issues. If I'm given a setlist. I don't need to know what what order the songs will be in until the night. If there's parking close to the venue, there's parking, if not I'll drop my gear and park after. I'll not try and blag parking or throw a strop. If someone in the band or a booker has booked a venue, I trust them to work out stage requirements.

As a session player?

Flexibility. I meet a lot of amateurs and semi-pros who need everything mapped out and organised to the nth degree. Parts rehearsed to death. Set List written down a week in advance. Where's the parking? What size is the stage? Music isn't like that. Playing live you have to be ready to improvise to react to changes when it goes wrong. Being on stage is no place to be if you can't cope with that. I do meet the odd pro like that but they're good, really good, and people smile at their eccentricities.

I think a lot of very well known musicians and actors are. They play a part on a stage, have a manuscript, know what they're doing. But once off stage they're lost around people. That's not a problem if you're in a band of people you've known for a long time, but don't think it works very well if you're depping, or doing session work.

That would require a thread of its own, but the ability to get on with the rest of the musicians for the length of a project. If you're not a people person you, and they, are not going to enjoy playing together. But then you'd have to ask why do you want to be a musician if you don't like being around musicians. So maybe that's a moot point. Maybe you don't need to be 'nice', but you need to be able to fit in with them. I suppose you don't actually want a 'nice' bass player if the rest of the band are psychopaths. But guess those types of bands don't last long.

I think at some point that becomes essential. That applies to all walks of life where someone is customer facing. People will put up with a fair amount of nonsense if the job is getting done, but if the nonsense starts getting to them they'll look around. Word of mouth is about reliable workers who are easy to work with. The world of music, is of course, littered with exceptions to this, but they are exceptional musicians.

ZTT is now owned by Universal Music. Holly Johnson escaped the clutches of ZTT a while ago. So suspect he no longer has publishing rights. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/dec/15/holly-johnson-the-power-of-love-frankie-goes-to-hollywood-ztt