RhysP

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1473214007' post='3128055'] You know where most guys that are limited to only music they enjoy. In their bedroom and rightly so. Blue [/quote] Or out gigging & playing only music they enjoy, like I did for many years.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1473166984' post='3127573'] TBH I don't know any "licks" I haven't written myself. I might possibly be able to half recall a handful of the songs played during my brief stint in a covers band a few years ago, but I spend all my playing time working on songs in originals bands, so that's what I know and can play. [/quote] I'm the same. Apart from the first few years when I was first learning I've never really learned any "Famous" bass parts - I never saw the point of wasting time learning something that I'd never ever have to play. A lot of these "essential" bass lines are from songs I can't stand anyway (Rhythm Stick, Town Called Malice, pretty much all Soul & Motown stuff). I always found it far more enjoyable to just play stuff I enjoyed rather than what was thought of as essential.

That's pretty cool.

I went the other way. Started out playing bass & played nothing else for many years. Got into guitar after I stopped gigging as I find that bass is a pretty boring instrument to play on it's own.

This is why I could never play in a covers band, I just don't have the discipline to learn a load of songs that I don't like & have no interest in. I would find it a pretty miserable experience.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1473111898' post='3127105'] Indeed. I'm still not convinced a death metal band who stare at their shoes all night would be a particularly enteraining act. Presumably they interact with the crowd in some way. [/quote] For lots of people the music is all the "interaction" they need from a band, they don't want or need any more "entertainment" than that. I'm one of them.

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1473086243' post='3126742'] Yes. People come to see a band to be part of the atmosphere and part of the action. Why should they come if you're not making them part of what you do? Talk to them at breaks, be friendly, make eye contact and smile during the show. Basically perform and draw them in. . [/quote] This very much depends on the genre. I wouldn't expect to go & see a death metal band, or somebody like Steven Wilson, & have them smiling & throwing cheeky winks at the crowd, or telling crap one-liners in between songs.

[quote name='planer' timestamp='1473089541' post='3126782'] You gotta love a trombone [/quote] No you haven't.

[quote name='gelfin' timestamp='1473021741' post='3126207'] He's touring with Wakeman and Rabin in UK next year. [/quote] First date of the tour is Cardiff. But I'm sure you know this.

[quote name='Geek99' timestamp='1473021777' post='3126209'] Went to pmt in brum and bought a linden 3/4 classical as it had a fairly narrow board, sadly they only had blue Won't stay in tune - new strings needed perhaps [/quote] Most cheap children's sized guitars are pretty terrible at staying in tune. The fretting is usually pretty inaccurate as well so playing a chord that sounds in tune is difficult even if the guitar is "in tune" I went through a lot of different small sized guitars looking for one for my step daughter many years ago. They were all sh*te. I was really glad that she decided not to carry on with it.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1473016025' post='3126114'] People are funny with gigs, if you can sell them a ticket a few weeks before for £2 they'll travel half way around the world instead of losing that £2! [/quote] Really? I've wasted so much money on buying tickets for gigs I didn't bother going to over the years that I gave up going to see live music completely last September (in fact it's exactly a year today, the last band I saw was on September 3rd 2015 - I remember it well because I walked out of my job the day after). I haven't missed it in the slightest if I'm honest, which is odd because going to gigs was always one of my favourite things.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1473008877' post='3126005'] It seems like if it comes up in a conversation that your in a band they feel obligated to ask where your playing. They'll get the time, place and date from you, knowing they have no intention of actually coming to the gig. Blue [/quote] This is very true. The old Facebook event thing is totally useless as an indication too - it's one thing for somebody to click "Interested" or "Going" & another thing entirely for them to actually turn up.

[quote name='skej21' timestamp='1473006733' post='3125982'] ...or acoustic material and probably less interested in 'bands'/traditional musicianship. [/quote] Er, surely somebody with an acoustic guitar is more "traditional musicianship" than somebody playing in an electric band?

I don't think the people that stay in and watch X Factor, The Voice etc. are the sort of people who would otherwise be going out to see live music, and to use them as an excuse for poor gig attendance is both lazy & way off the mark IMO. These "music" programmes are no different to Strictly, Bake Off, Sewing Bee, Masterchef or any of the other multitude of shows that follow a similar format. Whether it's music, dancing or cakes doesn't really matter to the people who watch them at the end of the day.

Ebay, Gumtree, Facebook selling groups & on here, but for the best part of this year I've had zero success in selling anything.

I would think you need slow blow fuses for that.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1472664882' post='3123093'] I got Guy Pratt - probably because after just three questions I got annoyed with the quiz and left it. [/quote]

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1472586228' post='3122424'] It was infants, junior and high school in my day. [/quote] Same here, not all this stupid year/grade stuff. Same as all this high school prom & year book bollocks - if you want that then f*** off to the States.

When I started playing back in the late 70's there were only a very small number of people in my school that played guitar, bass or drums. The vast majority of the people I was in school with had no interest in it at all, it was viewed as something that only the weird, unpopular kids did.

[quote name='BassTractor' timestamp='1472547345' post='3121925'] Good plan! The ML's a steal, don'cha think? For me it's on hold now, as I need to have the money ready for a white Odyssey desktop - should they release those. That, and I'm hoping for a Maxilogue, which would fit my use better (4 or 5 octaves and 8 voices at the very least). [/quote] Yeah, it's a cracking little synth for the money. I'd buy it just for the little oscilloscope. :-)

I still really fancy one of these, and a Minilogue. If I manage to sell my Gretsch I might treat myself.

For lots of pop & rock bands, at all levels, image is at least as important as ability. I remember reading an interview with Stuart Hamm once where he said he replied to an ad for a bass player for Cher's touring band. The first question they asked was "What do you look like?". He didn't get the gig.

[quote name='Shaggy' timestamp='1472388022' post='3120701'] Before Great Divide / Bible days - just a school band we formed at 16 until 18 called "Nifty Wood" (not very punk, I know) Very raw - only the lead guitarist had decent gear - but two really fantastic singer / songwriters in the band, we split when 2 of us went on to Uni Boo was just plain Mark until we heard his Mum call him "Boo", and it inevitably stuck! I kept a cartoon he did of me (pic below) as it always makes me laugh [/quote] Awesome! Do you still keep in touch?

[quote name='TrevorR' timestamp='1472287020' post='3120019'] This thread got me thinking about changing musical tastes... When I was 16 my absolute fave bands would have included: Electric Light Orchestra, Thin Lizzy, Gordon Giltrap, Doobie Brothers, Yes and Horslips. All still high up on my listening list today. Others would have been right up there too. Pre-hair metal Whitesnake is now on the "Meh!" pile (though I still love Neil Murray's playing on those tunes). However, Led Zeppelin, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Gillan (silly metal phase) and a good chunk of 70s Deep Purple, although top spins then, I now find pretty much unlistenable! How times change. [/quote] I'm the same, most of the music I really loved back then (lots of jazz fusion, prog & heavy rock/metal stuff) I just can't listen to these days.