timloudon

It was put to me thus by my live production tutor (I live in Leeds): [i]'If you look at the gig listing for any given night, there's a good 20 to 30 bands playing. There are plenty of venues, but the thing that's thin on the ground are punters. People simply can't go and see that many bands in one night, and since there's rising costs of living they are less likely to spend the time and money going to see a new band at a small venue.'[/i] This of course means that smaller venues simply aren't making the money. I've been told that Joseph's Well no longer exists for this reason, along with a few others. It also means that bigger venues or bands are charging big money for tickets. For example, I saw that Extreme are playing at the new Carling Academy, but the tickets were listed on one website at £70! I'm as much a fan of 80s hair metal as the next guy, but I'm not sure I could fork out that much. I'm not personally up on exactly what's going on, and how this is exactly effecting the industry, but it doesn't look very good.

I did start reading that sentence thinking he was talking about scores, I had to read it twice. This is fascinating. The question I want to ask is does this help in any way when trying to improve one's sight reading? Surely the mention of looking too far ahead and 'overloading' the brain, among other points, could be useful pointers. Planethead, Where did you find this article? Was it in a journal?

I wish I knew as well. It sounds like a good one. I learned the bass line a while back and my Boss OS-3 couldn't handle anything below a low A, but the bass on the recording goes at least to a low F#. Although I seem to remember it sounding like he turned it off for some of the sections. Does anyone know of a pedal that can handle that kind of really low note?

This article by George Webley is pretty much the advice given by jakesbass. But it's still insightful: [url="http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct98/articles/sessionmusic.html"]http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct98/arti...ssionmusic.html[/url] I'm no pro myself (I'm currently studying, and get plenty of unpaid work within the college), but I think flexibility is pretty important.

This is god advice. It's always good to have a practice where you can talk, it's the most frustrating thing when you're trying to get a point across and you can't even hear yourself speak. I've also found that if I'm playing in a pretty heavy band, practicing a heavily distorted song with a clean tone (including the guitarist/s) makes the band so much tighter. However, if you can't get the other members to shut up, I usually find a taser works well.

A good place to look is on people's blogs, and online magazines. I've been in the same position as yourself recently, and there's only so much normal library research can do for you. check out 'http://www.futureofmusicbook.com/', it's a good source with some interesting ideas. Also, check out publications like Rolling Stone or Q- anything really. Just make sure you click on all the relevant links you can, bookmarking along the way so you can reference them properly. It's easy to get lost on the internet this way.

What exactly does 'Master Build' mean?

This is an interesting thread! I'm currently studying at Leeds College of Music, which I'm surprised to find hasn't been mentioned yet- maybe I chose the wrong institute. I'm studying what's called 'Popular Music Studies'. It's a combination of group and individual playing with modules on the industry, cultural theory, experimentation, journalism etc... I'm actually just about to start a case study on the 'validity' (a word used very loosely) of the study of popular music at HE. It's an interesting subject. I think the issue of whether they are worth your time is entirely down to the individual. I've found that the main benefit of being at an institute is meeting other musicians/producers with which to work. I know that these are the people who I will be conducting work with later on in life. I've met plenty of people who I know are going to be incredibly successful. It's also shown me many different pathways to follow in terms of career, giving me a glimpse of a world i didn't know was out there. Also, as has been mentioned before, it gives me many transferrable skills. However, there are of course downsides to this kind of education. It's costing a LOT of money, something that incidentally, can work as an incentive. I also know very well that having a degree in music will by no means secure a job within the industry. I agree that it's not a way to guarantee that you'll be a good musician. I think that it's all what you take from it. Lots of people have already made this point, and I totally agree. What's everybody else's thoughts on LCM? Has anyone else studied there?