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I'd also add, that if you do want to focus on things like dynamics or smooth legato playing or whatever, it's probably better to spend a short time per session drilling exercises like scales/arpeggios where you focus just on that skill in a simplified context. That might appear to contradict what I said above but I think the short time is key. Do it only until you feel concentration waning or you've plateaued for the day. Try playing a C major scale up and down at p, then f, then after a while introduce mp, then mf. Do it legato, and do it staccato. Try doing it up and down one octave with a steady crescendo. Then up and down with steady diminuendo. Think about how your fingers are contacting the keys before and after the notes are played. Get your wrist angle right. I guarantee that kind of focus will help you when you go back to playing actual pieces where you're having to think about more aspects at once.

Gorgeous bass!!! I’m sure you’ll play it more now it is in good shape! Although I mostly play my MK basses I really love my ProIIe too. Sometimes I think about selling it because of the good money they go for nowadays but I just can’t. I know I will regret it! I’ve restored mine too, it was in bad shape when I bought it in 2005. The J-Fets were broken too and they are very hard to find, I finally found them and bought 2 spares just in case… And yes, Paul is a great luthier, I’m glad he took over from Pete with the same passion!

A few more pics

I'm not a pro-level musician/teacher so take what I say with a pinch of salt, but yes - I think only a minority of early-stage learners will play a piece 'perfectly' no matter how much they drill it. It's just not an efficient way to build up skill, you need a variety of exercises and challenges that involve as much of the brain as possible so one circuit isn't carrying the whole load. My own experience regardless of instrument is that improvement comes from moving on and learning coordination/phrasing/dynamics more holistically over many pieces. Sticking with your footballing analogy, it'd be a weird method to just drill one skill session after session. Pace of learning just won't increase beyond a certain point so you may as well move on to something else. Benefits of playing many pieces, all inter-related of course: 1. Rapid improvement per piece, keeps you motivated. 2. Builds versatility by practicing essentially similar skills but each in a unique context. 3. Improves sight-reading. This is huge, not just for the skill itself but what it means. You are decoding and finding the musical message in real-time, not just the black squiggles themselves but including the sense in the phrases, which means your ear is being tested in numerous ways. 4. Pattern-spotting between multiple musical pieces in succession, helps with reading, harmonic/scalar/rhythmic theory, general ear training, dexterity. 5. Going back to a piece after a break doing others gives you a fresh look with new musical perspectives and a chance to avoid baking in bad habits/mistakes that then take ages to undo. 6. Versatility gained here helps playing with others, and will translate e.g. from piano to bass! Edit: 7. Forgot this one, but avoids fatigue! As alluded to above, practicing one thing again and again is more fatiguing, relates to efficiency/rate of improvement. That bit of the brain is knackered now and won't get any better for a bit, move on to something else. Learning a new piece you're not just focused on coordinating fingers, but also all the sight-reading stuff (theory, reading, musicality etc). You're spreading the cognitive load!

Slightly smaller monitor?

The critical mass I only use flat out - i use it for the 'hey teacher leave them kids alone' bit of brick in the wall. I think it sounds horrible in in ears where you can hear it perfectly, but in the PA into an audience, it sounds great. Like you, I don't like pitch correction and I don't use it, I do the BVs but also do the high bits of some songs (beatles songs etc) where I fade in and the singer fades out.

I've tried using pitch alteration in Audacity, up a third, and it didn't sound right at all, nothing like me actually singing a third higher, are harmonizers different from Audacity?

Thanks man!

I wouldn’t change a thing. She’s doing just fine

I must admit to struggling with these. I've tried a VoiceLive 2 and the Critical Mass and just hated the sound of them. It may be me and lack of patience but they all seem to go from doing nothing to full on Pinky and Perky in the tiniest tweak of a setting. I can get a much better effect (to my ears) by using reverb and delay on the mixer. My lead singer gets a bit more reverb and I put a bit more delay on my voice which does fill everything out and makes it sound like more than two of us. I just pull out of notes I know I can't hit. Most of the time the audience are singing along anyway which helps. I do have a dislike of any hint of pitch correction in recorded music which makes listening to most current pop a no-no. So dislike of these things on my own voice is probably a personal taste thing. For me it takes the human voice into the uncanny valley of not quite human. I don't really understand why it is applied by record producers to singers who have good, or great unaided voices. I've officially turned into my dad

Thanks guys! It's an Squire Active Jazz.

Sounds like she's got a little drive and a slight delay on her sound. No bad thing. My only criticism is that the longer notes aren't sustaining very well. Looking at her nails, they may be too long and she's playing very flat-fingered, which can create that sort of sound. Otherwise, maybe the bass just has very old and dead strings. A new set would brighten things up and increase sustain As @Geek99 mentioned, what is that bass..? (It looks like one of the modern active Squiers to me...)

Crikey that’s had almost as many mods as my 1972 Jazz which I consider to be a Frankenstein, certainly not original. The buyer, if any, is buying the provenance only.

I only tried the one…didn’t feel like trying to find someone to unlock another one.

What bass is she using ?

Motorbikin' - Chris Spedding