scalpy

Like a lot of basschatters on here I have aspirations of making more music professionally and being bit of a blagger have seen the occasional glimpse of life on the pro side. I know I'm still a weekend warrior in reality but I'll share two observations. Working for a songwriting/ production team with a producer whose clients include McCartney, John Martyn and madness you realise there is no fuss. The computer goes down, no worries. The guitar sound is not right, no worries. The part the drummer comes up with isn't right, no worries. (He's played for grace Jones and sly and Robbie, he trusts his ability to come up with something else, he's put the hours in, both practising and listening) If I'm playing with that lot, it's quiet, it's relaxed and it's postive. Secondly with regards to gear. The drummer has an Audi estate full of gear, dw kit for heavy, mapex Jazz kit, two cymbal bags stuffed to the brim etc. the guitarist has a gorgeous les Paul, a baja tele and his strat is a bottom of the range squier with stock pickups and crack in the body running the entire length. When he plays it it sounds a million times better than my function bands guitarist playing his 63 strat that cost 5 figures. I take the gear in my signature and a takamine acoustic, an octave pedal and a ibanez synth pedal. If there's a problem with my sound I change pickups. If that doesn't work the problem will be my playing and the part I've come up with. Which neatly sums up both observations, playing in top flight studios with top flight people you have to be flexible, both in terms of attitude and musicianship. It's very difficult to articulate that on a forum.

Once was told by a punter 'I haven't had such a good time since I saw Gary Glitter'. Not quite sure what she meant now.

Krist novoselic on the nevermind album. Johnny colt- black crowes, southern harmony. Both crucially pick players. Can I play with a pick? Nah.

Off to band practice now, this will be mentioned immediately!

Really gone off playing in A major, despite many hundreds of great tunes in that key. Another fan of F#, a nice purpley key and Ab, green with a silver edge.

[quote name='molan' timestamp='1422351095' post='2671385'] This article doesn't talk about the key but it's a fascinating insight into the recording of the original. Also a great excuse for your keys player to use when he says that Stevie's clavinet part is impossible to play properly live http://homerecording.about.com/od/mixingyourmusic/a/mixing_superstition.htm [/quote] That's fantastic, thank you. Have written this tune out for several bands but those horns, man, perfection!

The show was called 'you bet'. It's up there somewhere!

I saw it too! Wonder if a clip exists and we'd all fare!

Another fan of the lmt500 here. Good bargains secondhand too.

Stagecraft is such a loose term. To me it covers how you get on and off stage, what you do between songs, the pace of your set, how you interact with the other band members etc. if I recall rightly there was something on the bbc website a while back saying 90% of a persons opinion of an act will be based on visual clues though so how you perform is crucial. And balance really important, but that varies depending on what music you're playing and to what crowd. Our function band is great as everyone moves, looks at each other and the audience and smiles, we genuinely enjoy it. But I also play with a singer songwriter and I have to tone it all right down (I have the opposite problem to you, my default setting onstage is to spasm like a scarecrow being electrocuted) and again that varies with which guitarist is with us. One would give Malcolm Young a run for his money, and I have in past done my usual thing and frankly it looked ridiculous. The other guy is statuesque at best and I have to take a bit more responsibility for visual entertainment. Anyway, the audience needs to see the right balance. If you're singer is good at performing, all you might need to do is tap your foot and the odd glance up.

[quote name='Weststarx' timestamp='1421944301' post='2666951'] Only a bloke would think about this as a problem... [/quote] Took me a few weeks to get used to it, not a problem now. My wife can't play guitar wearing hers though, it becomes an unwanted bottleneck slide on certain chords!

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1421328923' post='2659894'] Nope. I don't think anyone will be taking Mark Ronson to Court over that one. Not even vaguely similar. [/quote] Both uptown funk and really wild show mining quite a well worn seam of musical inspiration, both fun. Great to see the really wild show intro again, loved a bit of nutkins me on a pm. (Hums living in America to himself.....)

Taxi driver- Bernard herrmann. Bi polar score, just like the protagonist.

Every time I hear uptown funk I go away singing living in America!

We do a short pastiche of 'I've had the time of my life" but break into the blues brothers version of "do you love me?" Which has a little bit of mother popcorn in it, linking to "jailhouse rock" straight to "pencil full of lead" straight back to a quote of "time of my life". Does the trick. Love a bit of showbiz schtick me!

For me I've got to know the vocal. Which bit follows which bit etc. if I can hear it coming up I can just about cover it.

That's blinking marvellous. Not sure the video has stood the test of time but the bass playing is sublime.

Just had a trawl through jamareo's Twitter feed and there's a lot of love for uptown funk. He also mentions that 5 strings are uncomfortable to his fingers. Now that's taking the.....

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1420568459' post='2650757'] Me neither. The polish for 'Driving Licence' is Prawo Jazdy. This confused the Garda, who had been writing it down as the first name and surname of drivers they stopped. For a time he was Ireland's most wanted man. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7899171.stm [/quote] Love it!

The Brian Clough school of management. We talk about it then agree I'm right.

Don't call joss stone, Ellie goulding, ruby turner or Paloma faith singers on last nights evidence. Glorified shouting, not sincere, not entertaining. Sorry, gets my goat! Continued watching just drool over swift's guitar and rig.

Smile, learn their names and make no fuss. They won't be wanting a robo-pro just looking for a gig.

Blues Brothers soundtrack.

I'd be speaking to my tutor about this. If the title of your course is jazz performance then stick to that genre by all means, but if it's just bass performance then we'd have been told on our course to broaden our palette. If you do a bit of Parker and a bit of Jaco that's only a 40 year snapshot. Worst case scenario (and I'm not saying you'd do this at all) but examining 45 minutes of burpy back pickup jazz would be wearing even to the most enthusiastic of experts, and would only demonstrate you have the persistence to improve your dexterity after a while. Have you looked at the examination success criteria? Is there any mention of musicality and expression? (To clarify I'm not saying Blues for Alice isn't expressive, but I'd have thought you need to have more than one flavour on your plate as it were!)

Variety would be nice, not only of genre but of tempo and timbre as well. I'd definitely get a baroque piece in there, along the lines of a Bach cello piece. When you say solo, is that all by yourself or will you have accompaniment? (When I did my finals solo meant piano accompaniment if I wanted)