Rosie C

Undertone's "Teenage Kicks" - a school friend lent me his bass and a couple of days later I'd learned Teenage Kicks and I was in the band. It's still the first bass line I play on any new instrument I buy!

I did check beforehand and they said it was fine but if the instrument wasn't capable of doing something the examiner could make no allowances. Which was fair.

It was very impersonal. It was a couple of years past the height of covid, but the examiner was sat behind the sort of translucent plastic curtain you see in supermarket butcher's counters. She wasn't at all friendly and didn't give the slightest bit of body language. In comparison the three (?) Rock School examiners I've had were all friendly and chatty - talking before the exam about things beyond the range of exam - do I play in a band? How long have I been playing the instrument? etc. and a warmer, friendlier dialogue during the exam, smiling occasionally, just little things that put you at your ease. The very first Rock School exam I did was "Grade 1 Acoustic Guitar" and I turned up with a guitar-bodied mandocello and the examiner was really interested in it as she played guitar, and when it got to the chords part of the exam we talked about voicings and how I couldn't really play an E minor, I could only play an Em/G. Anyone who likes to talk chord voicings gets a 👍 from me.

This one is very bitter sweet - on the band stand as part of the local Wassail yesterday, leading community singing along with the local singing club and male voice choir. We had about 500 in the audience all singing along. Sadly that's the last gig we're doing as a band, but there's some good memories. Sorry, it's a rubbish photo, but you can see most of my bass and my left forearm!

My previous teacher would not teach pop songs as she said "they are hard to play because they're so badly written" - she was a graduate of the Royal College of Music though, and friends with Alfred Brendel, so that's perhaps understandable. In contrast my current teacher is a professional jazz pianist and he's opened up so much to me - working out what you need to play in a piece, without playing all the notes. Chord substitutions, and missing out the less important notes in a chord etc. Improvising a left hand part and changing that depending on whether there is a bass player. All very useful for playing in a band, but perhaps not recommended for ABRSM exams!

I found a new 'shelf' for my Elf today

It is. I have to admit it's been a bit of a learning curve, but I'm getting there now!

The very last pub gig we did with our Renaissance-rock band was 18 months ago - as well as the usual early stuff we had a few of 20th century covers on the set list - Moonlight Shadow, Lightning Tree, All is Found, Meet Me on the Corner, etc. Once we'd played those the audience were asking for more songs that they knew. So we stopped taking any pub bookings as I'm not doing it as a job and I want to play music I'm interested in. We get fewer bookings, but they've been awesome - historic buildings, medieval fairs, etc.

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention the ritualistic sacrifice at the end of the evening! 😉

Oh, I so need those! Our speaker stands get yellow/black hazard tape stuck on the front-most leg for some gigs.

I tried it today. The first strange thing was my Kaka ukulele bass just doesn't play nice with the AH300. There's a high pitched interference that sounds a bit like RF interference. My other instruments don't do this, so I'm thinking it must be the Kala's pre-amp circuits. Anyway, I switched to my Squier Jazz which is a much better choice anyway. I actually didn't like the 15" on its own much, the sound was too muddy and felt like it was reacting slowly. I loved the sound of the 2x10" cabinet on its own though. That's definitely the one to take.

Celebrating the old ways! Pouring cider over the roots of apple trees and singing songs to bring a good harvest, scaring away woodland spirits by banging saucepans, drinking mulled cider and Morris dancing!

Awesome skills! Can I ask, did you glue the carbon fibre rod into the routed channel?

Playing at a local Wassail this evening. I'm right in front of the camera.