cdog

I totally agree with you @sean on point 3 in particular: if you couldn't write it out you don't really know it. I also agree on understanding theory, and I think that this can help to learn stuff faster because there's a framework that you can drop the structure into. I have to be careful talking theory in my band though because that's not a language that the guitarist speaks. He's still great though, just can't communicate with him in that way.

Another thing I think about is that lots of great bass players are strongly associated with a single bass that they used for most of their career: Duck Dunn, James Jameson for example. If they managed with a single bass who am I to need loads of basses. I guess it's because instruments were more expensive back then, but did the gain anything from from having a single bass?

Bringing this old thread back to life, and kind of following on from what @SumOne was saying, I currently have 7 and find myself a bit overwhelmed by them all. When I'm at home I end up playing one for 10 minutes, then swapping over to another, then another and get more obsessed by their different tones than with getting on with playing. I wonder if other people find this and how you deal with it?

I agree Chris, but I do get great protection from the foamies, it's just that the top end gets cut much more than on fancy plugs so I am sacrificing on my experience of the quality of the sound rather than protection for my ears. Foamies will cut up to 38db which is more than any of the fancy ones could last time I checked.

I really hate it when things are too loud and after trying some £20 musicians earplugs off Amazon that let far too much treble through for me I have found that I quite like using cheap foam plugs, they reduce the volume massively but I can still hear enough. Is there a better brand of foamies that anyone uses? Also, I'm starting to do backing vocals now and I'm not sure about singing with earplugs in as it seems to be really loud. Does anyone know anything about that?

I'm currently borrowing my Dad's lovely EB Stingray. I'm a bit scared to gig it lest anything happened to it as it's over 20 years old and immaculate, but my Dad's keen for me get some use out of it. 😐 For my current band my Sire V7 is just perfect and I can't dial in a better tone with the Ray. That's probably a topic for a different forum though....

@MichaelDean Total sidenote, but.. I'm total barefoot shoe convert for 8 years now so give it time. After trying a few brands I have settled on Altra, specifically the lone peak. They are trainers but super wide and comfy and more cushioned than vivos so less harsh on your feet. Can't see myself wearing much else from now on tbh.

Yes it's a great venue. I'm struggling to get in with other busy Leeds venues. We've played packhorse and crank studios which were nice but it's great to be somewhere that people can find you easily rather than being stuck in the top room of a pub. Any ideas gratefully received. Chris

Played Northern Guitars in Leeds on Friday with Heisenbug. Northern Guitars is a great venue in a busy area of town so plenty of passers by stopping and coming in. Crowd seemed to appreciate our all originals set. Chasing after more bookings now... Check out the crazy drum kit! VID-20250607-WA0014.mp4 VID-20250607-WA0015.mp4

Totally agree, don't practice mistakes, and sleep is the magic sauce. I realised I missed out step 0: make a playlist and listen to the songs as much as possible. Timings are interesting: I've found it quite easy to intellectualise harmony as it is lots of number relationships and I've learned about the theory, but I've not gone through that process with rhythm, probably because I've never been through formal training. So I don't have a clear mental model to slot timings into, I tend to learn through repetition. My plan is to learn how to use music notation for timings so that I can map what I'm learning onto that, like I do with harmony. I think I'll be able to remember timings much more easily when I've mastered that.

Wow, that sounds like a really useful tool. I'll try it later, thanks.

Hi, After playing in an original band for a few years I've just joined a covers band and had quite a few songs to learn. I developed a method which is helped me to learn them really quickly which is 1. Listen to the song and write down the arrangement on a sheet of A4. 2. Find somebody playing the song with bass tub on YouTube and make a note of the chords and any key rifts that are important to the song. Look for repetition of key riffs or phrases on the bass and write this all down in tab alongside the arrangement, see below 3. Once my sheet has got everything on it then I play along with the tab video a few times just to make sure I've nailed the timings 4. Find a version of the song on YouTube that has the base removed and then play along with the record like that referring to my sheet 5. Play along to the recording without the sheet. Has anyone else got a systematic approach that they use? I have found that I can learn multiple song in a day relatively easily doing this which is much faster than just playing along to the bass tab for me. Chris