scalpy

Orchestral players often say it's better to play a wrong note in time rather than a right note out of time. And whilst you can never underestimate harmonic knowledge and especially a capacity to work around primary chords, having a good rhythmic vocabulary is just a important. So like a drummer learns stock grooves, (the drumeo YouTube channel is excellent for demonstrating these) it's worth spending time learning the standard rhythmic patterns associated with certain genres. So you might start with straight 8ths for run of the mill pop and rock, then learn to accent common groupings, 3+3+2 maybe, then accenting the 4+ in the first part of a two bar phrase, and expand from there. It's dead easy now to get a drum machine app and program different kick drum patterns to lock in with. If you internalise these rhythms through consistent practice you can free up brain space when playing with others and enjoy playing music!

Happy Jack's video has been super useful for me, use a selection for it before any lengthy practice/rehearsal/gig. No issues since, thank you Mr Jack.

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1459801951' post='3019882'] I like his playing but I'd have to hear him playing jazz on a little Gretsch kit before I'd let him join my band With brushes! [/quote] In a modern drummer magazine back in the 80s/90s there was a story about Zep being on the same bill as James Brown. Apparently Bonzo sat down with the various drummers in the group and goes 'you play like this' to Clyde Stubblefield, and 'you play like this' to Jabo Starks, impressing them suitably. I do admit I've not heard this story repeated anyway else. There are numerous accounts of him buying a toy kit for his son Jason when he was small and demonstrating how to drum on it, and sounding pretty much as dynamic and huge as he was on his regular kit. He had such an ear and touch for rhythm that I don't doubt tiny jazz kit and brushes would be far out of his reach.

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1459811029' post='3019997'] Marcus Miller with Luther. No over playing, perfect slap bass to give the record some edge and that what Luther wanted. .its not complicated and thats whats so great about his playing on tis masterpiece of a soul record.. his playing on this record is just WOW. Iconic bass line. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNj9bXKGOiI [/quote] Ready for the luvvie darling anecdote?! A friend of mine engineered one of the Luther/ Marcus records at AIR Montserrat. It's intimidating enough recording with this guy but when he's just told a story about what he and Marcus got up to with a sampler and a Caribbean cleaning lady at 6am it's very hard to lay down the perfect take.

My dad played Eb clarinet for the national youth wind orchestra and also played bass and guitar. Started me on all three, but the clarinet didn't stick. My mum went to dartington and the guildhall and triple majored in voice, piano and conducting. Whilst she was at college this funny Indian guy used to give her lift home in his rolls Royce. Turned out to be Ravi Shankar. They always talked about great musicians like Demi-gods and I just had to be involved.

Nice touch about the handles.

Ditto on the not knowing about the football. We had a gig last night and the game was put on after our soundcheck. Just got this sinking feeling knowing that the first half at least was going to be hard work and then just hoping people would stick around after the 'sport' finished. Plus there's the issue of slightly more drunk punters than usual being a little more testosterone-y than typical as well.

[quote name='gary mac' timestamp='1459010079' post='3012843'] It's a toe curling moment for me, whether I'm a part of the audience or as a band member. I just hate it. [/quote] This

Really enjoyed that.

I play with one guy who thinks he's quite the raconteur. He isn't. Sometimes I wish he didn't do any 'showmanship' as the rest of the band stand there for what can be minutes at a time whilst he mumbles about himself and saying 'please enjoy' before every number.

They gave us Buena Vista Social Club, we giving them the Stones. Fair swop?

Oh my word geek heaven. Thank you. All probably knocked out in an afternoon between 4 others calls as well.

+1 for bjork. I've always found I pay more attention to the lyrics with female singers. Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin have to be on my list. Favourite male singer, despite the fact he launched Mustang Sally on the world: Wilson Pickett.

Mcalmont and Butler- Yes (I know Bernard's done loads of good stuff but that was a waste of a good partnership)

The Black Crowes at Wolverhampton Civic Hall in 95. Guitarists had 3 matchless stacks each. Insane. But when I was 14 there was a world record attempt at Hereford Leisure Centre that involved as many musicians as possible playing the same song for as long as possible. Shawaddywaddy were the time keepers as it were, I seem to remember the drummer being incredible. However, every wannabe rock star from the sticks rocked up, there was Marshalls and Mesas everywhere and it was a proper p*ssing up the wall contest. My ears literally imploded from start to finish and I didn't have a clue what I was playing the entire time. (Established my career early on)

A Levi's advert was my introduction to the Clash. Took a while for the penny to drop about the rest of the bands catalogue but get it now and am very grateful I got hear them, by hook or by crook!

Thank you,makes sense.

Anybody know why they stopped making the 60s P? I lusted after the sonic blue with tonerider tone control example mentioned above.

If you haven't already get something like an iReal pro app. Practice walking basslines, which are fantastic for putting all those scales and arpeggios into good use. Walking basslines also serve as a fast track into soloing over chord changes etc. Then in iReal you can change the genre so you can work on creating basslines that are suitable off the cuff, preparing you for working on sessions or with singer songwriters. Lots of people on here ask about reading, please don't learn. I'm not the greatest player by any stretch but I can read well and get at least 30 gigs a year out of it, as better players can't read, I want my work to keep coming in!

Definitely in-ears if you're touring with your own sound engineer. Whilst I've not done theatres of quite that capacity, normally more like 250-400, I've yet to experience a house engineer that has the skill set or inclination to fine tune the bass players monitor mix. The other thing to consider is what will be the least amount of work for other people. If you can be self sufficient, monitor yourself easily and get everything loaded without getting under people's toes you'll have covered most bases. Decent 500w head, good quality 112 and and good di should be top of the shopping list.

Hendrix on All Along the Watchtower. As if the three solos, all round general arrangement and reinterpretation wasn't enough.

Jazz funk, or 'groove'. Music only musicians listen to, belongs in the same category of human innovation as guilded lilies or cosmetic implants.

Each band I play for has a different approach but I've had to learn a few tricks for the one I organise set lists for. It's a function band, so we do the standards and do a few medleys and mash ups, and stuff in unexpected genres to keep things interested. As well as keys and tempos being mixed up we try and get a good balance between female and male leads and whether it's a guitar driven song or horns. My soap box subject is the amount of time it takes to go from one number to the next, I have a rule of thumb that we start the next number before the audience have finished clapping the last. However, we were knackering audiences out for a while so the first quarter of the set (of 2 hours) is mid tempo and not too in-yer-face. Once they've had a drink and we've got them rolling we cane it to the end!