Graham56

Does he get ribbed by the rest of the band?

Are you listening through headphones?

I practice using headphones and they pick up everything. All the little finger hits etc.

But when I play live (remember that?) none of this comes through, especially against the sound of the band and the drunks in the audience. I don't record, so there maybe more of it coming through then.

But I do find the headphones useful, in that they force me to improve on these details of my technique. Especially as I'm playing roundwounds after about ten years of flats. You get away with LOTS with flatwounds...

Cheers

Graham

OK, I give in. What does NWOBHM stand for?

North West Old Blokes Happy Memories?

97, and my beat alignment was disappointingly off.

I kept expecting it to throw a chair at me...

A drink placed on top of an amp? I've had many serious altercations with people (band mates, friends or just drunken punters) about this...!

You're doomed. Now she'll realise just how much you've spent on this stuff...

None of this helps if the drummer plays with his head down and eyes shut. 😞

My P-bass goes 'Dink' quite often - it's the sound it makes when the headstock hits the cymbals on a cramped stage...

Oh, and Jim Lea's bassline to "the song" is a really nice, melodic one, with a lot going for it.

Well I've been offered a gig on Saturday, entertaining the punters at an outdoor Christmas market. A mix of lowest common denominator covers with about half a dozen supermarket Christmas songs thrown in.

Of course I do have some pride, so I told the band leader...

Hell yes, I'll do it!

Now for a course of back exercises before gigging comes back...  😂

Lucinda Williams

Alex Harvey

Nick Cave

Open a shop?  😂

I though 'Honk' was the noise a guitarist makes after they've been told to turn it down by the rest of the band...  🙂

You have to tune them sharp as well...

...and then the band will break up anyway! 😂

We often finished with Highway to Hell, accompanied by much drunken bellowing. (From the audience, that is...)

Trampin' (Patti Smith)

Go Wild in the Country (Bow Wow Wow)

Listening to music through an F-4 amp? (Sorry, wrong Phantom...)

Maybe look at it from the recipients' view?

I'm not a songwriter (I don't really have the creative streak necessary). I admire those that have it, but I don't. I'd try to flesh out ideas sent by someone else, but I'd need that start point. Perhaps some of your band-members are like that too.

I'm happy to be sent ideas to consider, but I'd feel swamped if someone sent me 24 ideas at once. What the hell am I supposed to do with this lot?

I'd also wonder about how serious the ideas are. Has the sender really spent some effort on them? Or are they just firing off idle noodling?

I'd prefer maybe only three or four at a time. Then I could devote my limited creativity to each one. It would also make the sender focus on what they consider to be the best ones.

Cheers (!)

Graham

Do I get a second go?

How about Rhiannon Giddens?

Rachael Price with Bridget Kearney on bass (Lake Street Dive) - pretty much anything she sings

Patti Smith  - lots of bassists, currently Tony Shanahan

I've used a Korg Pandora into cheap headphones for years. Doesn't sound terribly great but it's good enough for practice.

I also stream recordings from iTunes into the Pandora through the aux input. I have a preset on the iTunes EQ section that drops all the bass out of the recording so allowing me to play along with a clearer sound.

Apart from allowing me to play into the night, one good thing about headphones is that they pick up the clacks and buzzes from less than perfect finger positioning. Forces me to pay attention to this -  which is a good thing.

Cheers, 

Graham