OldGit

[quote name='Rich' post='569177' date='Aug 14 2009, 04:06 PM']What, as in "Can I have more clarity/upper mids/2k on the baritone in the monitors please?"..? [/quote] Yeah, it sounded like "more baritone in the horn monitors please" to you but Paul knew exactly what I meant Oddly enough I got a call from someone for a horn relector after they'd been playing a gig with Panik PA this week .. His ears must have been burning.

[quote name='Dr.Dave' post='568991' date='Aug 14 2009, 01:25 PM']That said - I still think my open letter to sound guys would include 'Thanks for your help - hopefully we'll have more time to chat next time about how we can , together , make for a better show.'[/quote] +100 I did have that conversation with the great PA man that did our shows. It started out with "how come the fold back on your rig sounds so much better than anyone else's?" his reply was that one of his fold back wedges cost more than most whole PA systems with the clarity and quality to match. We then had a long chat about what we could do to make his life easier. This included the band understanding PA systems better and also what we needed to ask for in the monitors in terms of frequencies. It also included a brief explanation on on why audibility did not depend entirely on volume. So after that we'd ask for more clarity or upper mids or 2k on a particular instrument in the monitors rather than just "louder" [quote]Before you judge a man - walk a mile in his shoes * * - then if you still hate the bastard , you're a mile away and you've got his shoes![/quote] Love that saying

Yeah a phone call would certainly be the best option.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='568926' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:38 PM']We do always go down well, even if the dance floors never get packed but i think most of these people like to listen rather than dance.[/quote] And sit there with their arms crossed with a look on their faces that says "go on then, f@@@kin [i]entertain[/i] us"

[quote name='Rich' post='568911' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:27 PM']We had one bloke a few weeks back who had never worked with horns before. We have six of them... [/quote] Yeah thats another one I remember from Soul Destroyers days...

[quote name='Rich' post='568894' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:14 PM']I had that in a social club gig once. Drummer set up his kit, sat down, hit his (unamplified) snare [i]once[/i]... and an old dear's voice from the darkness said "Ooh, it's a bit loud...". [/quote] Yeas ago a local music shop had a 1x12 guitar combo box in the window with no amp and no speaker. It was labeled "The Social Club Special"

PM'd

[quote name='nobody's prefect' post='568747' date='Aug 14 2009, 10:31 AM']Hah, humppa can be fun to play,[/quote] Sorry, I guess that pun got lost in translation humppas = humpers + on mid week weddings. A lot of my "stand-in on standup" bass gigs are midweeks. It's cheaper all round (though my own band charges more for midweeks 'cos of the problems of getting off work)

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='568715' date='Aug 14 2009, 10:03 AM']We have preferred people, who are fab, but they're not always available. Sometimes you just have to take what you're given..[/quote] We are self contained these days but in previous lives (on sax mostly and covers bands) we had preferred people when we hired the PA in ourselves but the in house PA engineers were a very mixed bag ranging from really good and really nice to ogres with zero social skills and insufficient gear "oh so you really do want a mic per horn? I don't have enough". In the end I evolved a"self contained" setup to take: a good mic, stand and clip-on sound reflector so I didn't have to argue over hearing myself in the monitors. We had a standard shopping list of stuff to have in the different monitor mixes and if we got that it all went well. If they decided they knew better the show still went well but was a lot harder to do.

[quote name='nobody's prefect' post='568623' date='Aug 14 2009, 08:13 AM']Can't resist replying... My life used to have an annual cycle of summer with lots of wedding gigs and winter with function and small-christmas gigs. January and February were usually the quiet season, and the only time of the year when I could get plastered on early Saturday nights. I think most of the wisdom has already been freely given, really. I don't know if this is true in Britain, but here wedding gigs are bread and butter for people studying for a master's in jazz at Sibelius Academy, which isn't too shabby a place. We're really quite egalitarian here! One thing I'd like clarified is: how in the heck do you play more than one wedding per week?!! Here, it is not physically possible, despite Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. In real life, on cannot be physically present in two different wedding parties at the same time. Or are you people going to tell me that normal people get married on other days of the week than Saturday over there? It boggles the mind! Also, you don't know how good you guys have it playing weddings. You complain for having to play a soul classic? You have to get to the place all of TWO hours before the down beat? Here, the reality is this: you will start driving at about 1 pm. It can be 11 am or 3 pm if the wedding's in your town and the actual church stuff is set late, but never 4 pm. You set up your gear so that everything's set up and you can get away from sight before the guests start arriving. Because they haven't paid to see sweating, cursing musicians schlep gear. You get to eat from the buffet unless the gig was sold by a twat with a stick with metal twine on it, and now some c**ts will abuse the wine and beer buffet and make the music go all to hell. Now you get to the first part with options: cake can be had either before the couple's walz or after it. If it's before, you play the couple's waltz - it's always, [i]always [/i] a waltz - followed by parent-child waltz, followed by FIL-bride/MIL-groom walzt. Then you play a set of traditional dance music. Waltzes, polkas, tango, jenkkas, humppas, masurkas, foxtrot, perhaps a pair JIVEs or TWISTs if you're a maverick and maybe a set of two latin (rumba, son or merengue) songs. If the cake's after the couple's walz, it's 3 walzes, the cake, then the first set of 45 minutes at some point of time before the couple leaves. You can play more, but you can't claim those minutes against your later play time. The down beat of the first set can be at 8 pm, but it can also be at 11 pm. Whatever is the case, you're paid for being in the readiness to play and schlepping gear, not playing. So you'll try to pass the time in some sort of drafty back room with people with whom you get along, or not. Since a lot of the guys I played with were starving full-time musos, I'd play with the same line-up maybe twice each wedding season. (They'd always take a freelancing gig if it came their way, as would I - 'our band' was together for some years, and the one who couldn't make it due to previous engagement would get themselves a capable sub.) A few more words on the music: the couples waltz would in my estimate be in 60%-80% of the time be [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IA8MBbSgc4"]Akselin ja Elinan häävalssi[/url] this youtube linky also has a rough translation. I'd like to point attention to the lines in second verse:'We'll share the poverty, sorrow and joy of together, until away we sink into oblivion.' Combine this with a slow tempo and I never could see why people chose this waltz. I much preferred [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko8KS-ZowZg&feature=related"]Maijan ja Jannen häävalssi[/url] esp. when we'd booked the female singer for the gig (we had two singers who did about half and half of our gigs) or [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Mt98Sed0A&feature=related"]Häävalssi[/url] or [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFxfPDD_k_g&feature=related"]Metsäkukkia - woodland flowers[/url]. Häävalssi is Finnish for 'Wedding Waltz.' Now, for those who are not scotsmen, this muscular pathos may seem ridiculous, but you have to understand how it relates to our national narrative and history. The VERY English habit of portraying the attitude of not taking things seriously can ease social interaction, but, you know, giving one's own culture an unquestioned universal applicability is, simply put, neither very perceptive nor cogent. And we'd all like to thought of as perceptive and cogent, no? We still live in the world of [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs7nWKYyUFU"]Scottish Borderlands[/url] in some sense. Now, depending on the wedding, there would be one to five sets of traditional dancing music. I usually sold 'wedding waltzes plus 3 x 45minutes, would you like one set of traditional music and two sets of pop-rock-disco?' When one plays traditional dancing sort of music here, there are a few iron-clad rules. Firstly, one must set the tempo at something the elderly will be comfortable with dancing. From about [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjWK9HV8tIo&feature=related"]Kulkuri ja joutsen/Vagabond and the Swan[/url] to this [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NorgJ0zivAA"]Säkkijärven polkka[/url] or a little more. Chose this version, not the faster one by Viljo Vesterinen, as there's some imagery related to the lyrics. More specifically, the stolen Karelia. (GDDMN that revisionist history practised in Russia, backed by the state gets to me) Secondly, whatever music you perform, you must have a set of two in the same style and close in tempo. We call that set a 'pair' and we'd have specific pieces that were a pair in our repertoire. Thirdly, as regards pop music, play whatever. Make it well-known to please the peeps or less known as suits you. Don't play songs related to breaking up or killing your man / woman, though.[/quote] Waaaaah! No wonder thr suicide rate is so high! Must be musicians ... Having said that the "humppas," dance sounds potentially promising

[quote name='nobody's prefect' post='568668' date='Aug 14 2009, 09:21 AM']Have you seen the way Jazz Basses dress hereabouts? No decency in those slags, I tell you![/quote] ... and those Tyneside Precisions! Out on a Saturday night in all weathers with no covers!

After a 6 month bout of tinnitus a few years ago i always wear earplugs when I go to see a band but I've found them difficult when I'm playing. I've tried Heroes and ER-20's (and Boots foam plugs and, in dire emergencies, bog roll. The good bit is that if your partner and mates all have ear plugs in too you can talk to each other without shouting as those frequencies are audible, even in front of the stage. After the article in Bass Guitar Magazine I've had my impressions taken (Ormorods in Boots) and I'm waiting for my custom ECS plugs to show up to use when playing. We do a lot of talking to the audience and each other on stage so I'm hoping the general reduction in level will work better than the selected frequencies the ER-20's give and that I don't then end up playing too loud in the mix ... I have a feeling the "in head foldback" effect will make playing sax a very weird experience We will see

Sound Engineering is a thankless task though but it always raises a wry smile when I remember that, with "big PA" gigs the subtle nuances of how we sound are left to someone who spends their working hours immersed in 100+ Db noise and generally without any ear protection .......

And some of the audience have ears as well as feelings and would really like to hear something other than a dull thud in he chest from the Roscoe bass on stage

Try Talkbass?

[quote name='Shockwave' post='568522' date='Aug 13 2009, 11:20 PM']Cant we just borrow the croft for a day? Nuff room there. Rob.[/quote] Go ahead! I'll pop over

I occasionally play with a band where one member (a starvin' pro muso) takes Tupperware to take home some of the wedding food. She occasionally plays three gigs on a weekend and lives on buffet food for days

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='567862' date='Aug 13 2009, 12:32 PM']And the downside is of course, we cant hammer the bar as we are playing/driving etc. Its a cruel world but at least we get to eye up a load of drunk birds without getting smacked in the face.[/quote] Wedding Gig Rule 6b: Don't pull the woman in the big white pavlova of a dress, no matter how "friendly" she appears to be ...

there was a three part article on Alex-ander technique and bass playing in BGM's last three issues. It's a good read but a real life Alexander technique teacher would be a good place to go too. They work with musicians a lot and understand stuff about what we do that sports people don't. I also had a bunch of physio for tingling right forearm and fingers when I switched to fingerstyle and that was cured by standing up straight and pulling my shoulders back, "opening" my chest and shoulders. I have to do this every 45 mins or so when rehearsing and before an after performances (or during if I remember ) Working well so far.

[quote name='leschirons' post='567650' date='Aug 13 2009, 09:10 AM']And don't you just love that really optimistic " The meal will be finished at 8 p.m. sharp and the speeches will be finished by 8.30. Yeah right. I've done a few where we've started playing at 11.30 p.m. after the bride and groom had already pissed off.[/quote] When we get a wedding enquiry (even if we are not available) I send out a whole list of "wedding tips" including these two: - The [url="http://www.jellied-reels.co.uk"]Jellied Reels Rocky Barn Dance Band's[/url] Top Tip for a stress-reduced wedding day? Leave about twice as much time between everything as you think you'll need and about 3 times as much time for the speeches. This allows for all those things your guests will do like getting lost, getting a crafty smoke, catching up on the family goss, txtng m8s, nattering and dealing with kids' emergencies. Having plenty of time in the day is a nice situation. Too little can really add to your stress - and no one wants that. --------------- - Remember to plan some time during the day when you can get some time together (alone!) Say a clothes change or something like that. You'll be busy every minute of the day apart from that so you need some special time built into your schedule Obviously the first one is about selfishly ensuring things go to time and making sure the band isn't sat in the car park for 2 hours waiting to load in followed by a massive rush to get set up The second one because between us we've been married a lot, and done hundreds of wedding gigs and we know that sometimes by the end of an incredibly busy day with lots of booze the B&G will just be too, er, tired. Iyt also govees them a chance to just catch their breath and remember what the day is really about.

[quote name='Stu-khag' post='567821' date='Aug 13 2009, 11:51 AM']the chapter carpark reopened about 3 weeks ago- I think you are probably right about noise also- they are trying to extend licensing as well so probably would prefer to not P*ss off the neighbourhood- still, you can only ask I guess (1 bonus is they do have the best selection of german beers ever !) another option maybe is the musicbox rehearsal studios off penarth road??? that would I guess cost though and you might get a bit of cabin fever inside! nice place and they have a selection of orange amps- mmm [url="http://www.musicboxstudios.co.uk/"]http://www.musicboxstudios.co.uk/[/url][/quote] OK I've asked Chapter.. I assumd a rehearsal place will be fully booked on a Sunday. Worth a go though.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='567818' date='Aug 13 2009, 11:49 AM']What's the definition of 'failing' anyway?[/quote] Depends on who's writing the article I guess

Interesting article I remembered during the discussion on how rubbish promotors are, it's related.. [b]The Top Five Reasons You Will Fail In Music[/b] [url="http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=12479"]http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=12479[/url] "Too many musicians put too much energy and effort into talking about why things have not happened or why things are not working for them. Everyone has reasons, justifications and rationale to explain why they are failing, yet these same artists do not take the steps to problem solve, change direction, learn, educate or empower themselves with the knowledge and the tools to change the path. "

[quote name='Gust0o' post='567681' date='Aug 13 2009, 09:38 AM']I'm looking for a band for my wedding! Maybe I should save my pennies, with some cunning DIY? [/quote] Ha ha.. not a good idea.. You'll be too busy talking to Aunt Doris and catching up on family goss, accepting drinks from everyone and preparing to loose your virginity* ... etc [quote]I'm hoping, whoever we hire, might let me on for a token disco number... sobriety providing![/quote] Much better idea My band played 3 numbers at our wedding but we hired in another band to do the rest of the evening. I wanted to do the groom things and my band wanted to be guests and dance with their wives for a change *

[quote name='Stu-khag' post='567611' date='Aug 13 2009, 08:33 AM']I love chapter (it helps my gf works there also)... I can find out but my only concern for the place is that a.) its being refurbished with an opening at some point this autumn. b.) its an old school so its a bit echoe-y what with the big rooms and lots of shiny surfaces![/quote] Yeah that's my concern plus the parking problem as the car park is currently closed. Compared to an Hotel function suite it's way cooler and stuff but there's no easy "park and roll in" as you can get with Hotels.... I'll tallk to them and see where they will be by the Autumn. Again they may not be happy about lots of bass during the day on a Sunday....