TimR

How do you put a price on creativity? That's not really 'work', many artists have made millions from a noodle that they've turned into a song. Doesn't matter how long you've sat at home puzzling and sweating over the fretboard, a tune could pop into your head while you're out for a walk with the dog. Hardly what anyone would call hard work. Most bass lines and drum parts are fairly generic, unless they're a significant feature of the song. The song would still work just as well with another bass player creating lines that fit. But it has been decided that the melody and the lyrics are the copywritable parts. You can argue how much of the melody the bass line is, but that should be fairly evident.

Try taking out the s of the https maybe you're logged onto YouTube or something. Or just strip it to www.etc

I think the Spice girls are all credited with all songs. Not sure how much they wrote individually though. As a bass player I think there is a distinction. When I played in an originals band we definitely had three styles of writing. 1. Guitarist would turn up with a song. The musicians would add bassline, drums and keys. Vocalist then took the song away and added lyrics. 2. I would sit down with Guitarist and we would come up with ideas together and structure the song together. 3. Free jam, playing off each other and see what popped up. If I had to apportion any credits then I would probably go for 1. Guitarist & Vocalist. 2. Guitarist, Bass payer and Vocalist. 3. Whole band. When that is decided, is the difficult part and when people have to have the discussion. If everyone in the band is honest and open that 3 way approach would work, if you have someone who is difficult in the band and a bunch of people who don't deal with confrontation you'll end up with all songs as scenario 3. whatever input anyone has made. Musicians aren't always the best people to discuss money and legal difficulties. 😆

We get the same. Every week we ask for members to email photos and stories in for the weekly newsletter and press release. We still get people complaining it's the same people who get included in the newsletter and local paper and asking why haven't they been mentioned. When they're told that we didn't receive their email, they then say they posted on Facebook... Often these are intelligent people who just aren't interested in putting in the small amount effort that's been asked to save one (very busy) person trolling through multiple places looking for information in order to get a press release together for a deadline. They then take offence at being told they have to email, like the others who were included, managed to do.

Having one guitarist in a band is bad enough. Finding yourself in a band with two guitarists is a serious misfortune.

It's the Internet.

I suspect he has an agent who people contact if they want him to work on their project. At that level people are personally invited to audition.

The other thing about Facebook is you can't embed email addresses. Default behaviour would be for someone to click on something. To email someone you have to copy and then paste into an email client. Easier to message or write in comments. Again that's automatic and now programmed into human behaviour on social media.

And certainly don't take offence over something that's not even targeted at you. That's what I find odd. It's an interesting debate, but not sure I'm going to invest emotionally in a few words on an advert for something I'm not going to apply for.

Maybe they're trying to weed out people who take offence at having things clarified to them?

So you'll be aware at the high number of people who don't read the instructions properly and ask questions that you've already answered in the final instructions email that you sent to all participants.

That's an assumption being made here. As someone who's organised lots of events, people miss things you write on social media. It's the nature of the medium.

Has the original Facebook post been edited and that been added in?

I don't get why anyone would feel it condescending. It's not aimed at anyone directly in response to anything they've done. If you feel its personally aimed at you, take heart, it's really not, scroll past.

They're clarifying their statement. Because people on social media don't read things fully. No one does. Whoever wrote the ad knows that and has presumably experience of that from previous ads. It's a wise corollary.

Ah no. You were quoting someone else. But I don't see anyone here feeling upset about the post, just saying that they wouldn't apply. My point still stands; they're reading things into the post that may not be there and certainly may not be the intention of the writer. And the post is short and direct as it's social media and you need to get your message across quickly, before someone posting a meme about a puppy distracts your audience. Which is my point, people will put their emotional spin on the written word and the writer doesn't always have control over that. If you're writing a business email, then it needs to be in unemotional language, if you're targeting a few specific people. If you're writing something on social media that's going to get 1000s of views, you may not be bothered how it comes across to non business people. But people on social media tend to be there for non business purposes. That's one of the problems with using social media for business.

Well, originally you thought; "Fair enough." and presumably scrolled past.

You need to ask what email address to send the application to?

Lemon oil doesn't have lemons in it. It just has lemon scent and sometimes yellow colour. It's just mineral oil. I suspect it prevents the wood drying out keeps it flexible, by sealing the board. The same way that linseed oil does on a cricket bat.

The problem with social media is people are usually multitasking and don't read things properly. Reiterating that it's important that people email is sensible. I've lost count of the number of times I've emailed out important event details to participants. Out of 500 people I will get a handful replying to the wrong email address, asking for details that are already in the email, the list is endless. The other problem is that people read things with their emotions, not the emotions of the person who wrote them. We see that here a lot - "You don't need to be agressive!" when no one is actully being aggressive. Just the reader is having a bad day.

Sounds like it's for a job. You'll be employed as a bass player, to play bass lines given to you. I guess they get a lot of people who want to have some kind of input into how the band is run, deciding which gigs they want to play, what they're going to wear to the gig, and what songs the band should play. When I joined my current band, I'd had enough of doing the above, and just wanted to turn up and play. Has worked for several years now, every now and again I'll make a song suggestion, and only once have I packed up my gear mid rehearsal and told the band to call me when they've sorted themselves out.

Only some people can cut them though. It's the same with anything that takes people's time. You decide how much you want to do something and charge for your time appropriately. If someone wants me to play a wedding its going to cost them a lot of money. I have to set aside a day a long time in advance and turn down any work that I'm offered for that day. Same with making a bass. Someone can only make one bass at a time. If hundreds of people are willing to pay £1600 for it, then you increase your price until only one person wants to buy it. If you have a factory churning out one every 40 seconds then people are willing to pay a lot less for something that has several copies and is not unique.

No one is objecting to expensive basses.

If I was touring or even playing twice a week, I'd happily spend more money. But I can't justify £1600 for a bass when £400 gets me something very good and durable enough to last long enough. At work we size our generators to do the job and to last for the expected duty. I've never heard of anyone stealing a generator from the boot of a car, generally because they weigh several tons and are bolted into the concrete. Regards professional orchestra players, they're playing several hours a day. I've heard professionals play beginner instruments and instruments worth thousands of pounds. They sound no different, they always sound like 'John the trumpet player.' However, they can instantly value your instrument and say what needs attention and whether you need a more expensive one because you're fighting to play the one you have. (Brass players and flute players will spend hundreds/thousands on a solid silver mouth piece.) We have lots of threads here about set-ups and other adjustments and changes. So at least some of us can tell when we have outgrown our instruments or they've drifted out.

There's definitely a law of diminishing returns. It also depends on your level of experience. You'll be able to tell the difference between a beginner bass and an intermediate bass, when you are at an intermediate level, and the next level up and so on. Can you financially justify paying for that difference, its all down to the individual. I stopped noticing any difference after £1600, but couldn't justify gigging a bass that cost £1600, so £400 did for me. The machineheads were rubbish and the pots have died. New machineheads were £50. Pots I changed myself for pennies. I also had issues with screws coming out of the strap buttons. But matchsticks and wood glue sorted that. Rough edges on the frets also needed a bit of attention.