Dad3353

Good afternoon, Pete, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Goodwill and a sunny disposition go a long way, in my experience. If getting old counts as a disability, I'm now chronically reliant on others for even the most menial of tasks. Luckily, we're a family band (I drum, our eldest on guitar 1, our youngest on bass...), with a couple of long-standing family friends for guitar 2 and singing/front man. It's true we don't gig much of late (mostly due to my incapacity, but not only...). When we do 'go out', I set up my drums, which consists of me sitting on my drum throne unpacking my cymbals whilst the singer and or youngest empty the cases of their drums and set 'em up in front of me. I'm not averse to coiling up a cable or two when tearing down, but only after a reasonable hiatus as I recover enough energy to get up off the floor where I've been lying, flat on my back, trying hard to breath again. Handicapped..? Not 'alf..! Nevertheless, and despite all this kerfuffle, we're still performing sporadically, and there's a fine spirit of camaraderie which enables us all to pull together, laugh at the tough moments and enjoy even more the highs. It certainly wouldn't be supported (nor supportable...) in any other type of formation, and is not really to be countenanced for regular gigging, even on a one-a-month basis. I'd need ambulance support and a pair of nurses bearing oxygen to be able to tour..!

I don't think he uses echo. A bit of 'grit', perhaps, but no more than that. Maybe he was playing broken chords..?

Reading dots and sight-reading dots are not quite the same. It's not required to read 'on sight' to be able to appreciate notation, and it's extremely beneficial to read, even slowly. Sight-reading takes, typically, much more practise, and needs to be maintained, or it gets lost. Reading, on the other hand, only gets better and better, even if practising sporadically. There are not so many musicians that can really sight-read.

Good evening, Geoff, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share (but you knew that anyway, didn't you..?). What kept you all these years..?We've been waiting for a long while now to, at last, tip the balance between the 'old fogeys' and the whippersnapping upstarts, and now is maybe the time to declare that 'Oldies Rule..!' (Now, where did I put my glasses..? I had them on a minute ago, before making a ... What did I make..? Tea..? Coffee..? Dunno, now; anyway, it's time for cocoa, isn't it. Isn't it..? No..? Well, what time is it, then, and have you seen my glasses anywhere..? )

Good evening, Laura, and ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Wow, your wrist must be quite sore ... ... All those autographs to sign..!

I send them personally-autographed photos of me playing, and a '50% off' voucher for my forthcoming album. They also get a link to my 'merch' site if they want tee-shirts, mugs or kitchen towels monogrammed with my logo. Bulk discounts are available there. It's a bit slow take-up for now, but the seeds are sown.

Yes, OK; I'll let it rest. I understand that if it's always been done that way, everyone that does it that way sees it as fine. If it was to be re-invented, though, there are, in my small-brained opinion, other ways of doing it which have advantages. It's not that I don't understand bars (and music notation in general...), it's just that there are so many ways of improving stuff that can't be done, or, apparently, even considered, because it's already 'out there'. There are 'ergonomic' keyboards that are much better, in many respects, than the standard one on which I'm typing here; the heritage of the typewriter is difficult to cast off, purely for its ubiquity. Similarly for notation, I reckon. Never mind, I'll just continue to read what's written and slowly shake my head from time to time. One day the world will thank me for sowing these small seeds. One day...

... and I suppose, like me, you're being 'followed' by a whole host of young photogenic damsels, too. I must be doing something right, but I wish I knew what..!

Nowt to be so proud of. I've just looked at my stats (for the first time...) and see that I've chalked up just over 8,000, and my stuff's rubbish..!

OK, keep the bar lines. Why, though, do we need to tie notes over 'em..? Give the notes their real duration, and play that. I don't see why bars, if they're giving the pulse, as you say, must only contain a rigid, bastard, count of notes. What is the fundamental reason for not having a note length going beyond the bar line..? What purpose does that practice serve..?

Just as 'eye candy': my bass...

Splendid; well done you..! Although I can already hear the feathers ruffling; in other topics here, how every string has to have its own saddle..! No, my Verithin bass hasn't, either, and my cloth ears don't pick up the difference..! Old school 'thump' guaranteed, I'll bet, and you'll not be doing much 'slapping' either..! Strings are a personal choice, of course; I chose tapewounds (Rotosound Tru-bass 88...) over a decade ago, and they suite the style of bass very well indeed. Just sayin'.

They laughed at Galileo, too.

It was a pretty daft idea in the first pace, keeping the 'C' scale as a reference, and ignoring the black notes. Once they became 'allowed' (by the church establishment, I believe..?), the notes should all have been given individual , non-ambiguous, names, so would span 11 notes (A-L...) instead of 7 (A-G...) presently. There are so many instruments that don't have a distinction (guitars, basses, slide trombones, chromatic accordions and harmonicas, plus all the violin family and more besides...). One would need to keep keys as such, for harmonic reasons, but not use sharps, flats or naturals any more, just the unambiguous note name. Too late now, I realise, but it was a daft idea, and a missed trick, I say.

OK, OK; keep the pulse, or syncopation or whatever, keep the bar lines, but play the notes at their written length, that's all. Why do they have to slavishly fit into this artificial frame of bar lines..? What, musically, would be the difference if a dotted semibreve was written instead of a semibreve tied to a minim..? That's the key factor for me, not the lines as such. It's the tied notes I don't see a reason for.

How does that work with tied notes, then..? What happens to 'pulse' there..? OK, keep the bar lines (although, as a drummer, I've never 'pulsed' with 'em...), but leave the tied notes out. If a bar is 4 beats (for instance...), and a note last 6 beats, use a dotted semibreve, instead of tying a semibreve with a minim over the bar line. Why not..? I agree (and wrote as much...) concerning referencing a place in the piece ('OK, from 152, fortissimo please...').

Think yourselves lucky, then, and make the most of it. But you do wear red satin waistcoats and bow ties, surely..?

Not an expert in the field (although our eldest is starting to make his own instruments...), but I'd say there's more potential in luthering than in a commerce, if you're any good with wood and stuff. There's a commercial aspect, of course, but I know what I'd be looking at in your situation. Disclaimer: When we bought our ruin cottage, I started up a TV shop in the nearby town, as the previous bloke had retired. I held on for three years, and folded it before racking up debts I couldn't honour; luckily enough we like potatoes, as that's all we could afford for nearly a decade. No-one has opened one since to fill the 'gap'. The 'market' shifted away from the local source to the box shifters. Lesson learned.

Not quite a rant, but a couple of frustrations which have 'bugged' me ever since I started to 'read' the dots, all those decades ago. I realise that it's been invented, and that it's now too late to do anything about it, but, if it was to be re-invented, there are a few things I could suggest to make it more palatable. Here we go, then... Accidentals. What..? I would have not based the stave on the key of 'C', but given one line/space for each note, right from the start. It's true I play drums, and read pretty well for that instrument. Do we have accidentals for a drum score..? No, we don't. There is a line/space for each element (snare, bass drum, hi-hat etc...). There's a simplification worth considering, no..? Yes, the staves would be slightly wider, but when one reads a note, it's that note, not a sharpened or flattened one..! Next 'anomaly': bar lines. What..? What, exactly, are they for..? If a note is to be played for a certain length, just use the symbol for that length. A bar line..? Oh no..! Now we have to 'tie' the note into the next bar, to get the n° of beats in the bar correct. What for..? Just play the length of note written, and the beat will take care of itself. I can see the point of having a numbered reference, for when the conductor says 'OK, from 152, fortissimo please...'. What other purpose do they serve except confuse things..? Play each note as it's written, the length that's written, and dispose of this extraneous clutter. That would get more folks interested in playing music from dots, instead of deciphering a redundant and out-dated code. There, I've said it, and it's tired m..... Zzzzzz Zzzzzzz Zzzzzz

... and I would have to completely disagree with you here. Just as with bands, there are good DJs and less good ones. Some are experienced in weddings and the like; others less so. I played weddings for years (on drums, mostly...) in the '70s, before discos came in, big time. Almost immediately, the bottom dropped out of the wedding gigs. The DJs were able to vary their set, add personalised requests, animate, afford a light show, and for far less than a decent band. There are duds, of course, and 'cowboys' doing indifferent stuff, but to say that DJs can't cut the mustard is just plain wrong, in my experience from the '70s, and since. There are very dicey 'wedding' bands, too. I would agree, though, for more 'corporate' events, such as dinner/dances; the bands doing that are more like Big Bands, though, often with podiums (OK, they're music stands really...), and an MC and mandatory formal dress code. DJs don't get those gigs very often.

Just for the record, my main guitar amp is a valve Fender Bassman 50; my guitar cab is a Fender Bassman 2 x 15, the speakers in there now are 2 x 300w Beyma. The combination works quite well.