fusionbassist1

stringsdirect.co.uk give a bulk discount and are around £28 usually per pack from what I remember. If anyone knows of anywhere cheaper online that'd be great though as I need to get a load in as well.

Nothing I can add to except I've heard from a few tutors etc that Spain is apparently a rather common choice for musicians and they hear it more than you might possibly expect. I also heard that Blue Bossa and Autumn Leaves are also favourites and I can believe it so I can imagine that chosing something that you perform, play and articulate well but that isn't as common as muck like the above two standards clearly are would be a good idea. Your credentials that you used during your application forms where to get you the interview, the interview's where you need to stand out and show promise and ability. If you're one of 50 people who played Autumn Leaves you can imagine how much more of an uphill battle you have to get a place. Tunisia looks like a good choice due to it being a tune with swung and straight rhythms, a cycle of fourths in the B section, un-diatonic chords and various "world" music influences. Good luck with the audition, I'm sure if you prepare as much as most people who are serious about college do then you'll find the audition fine once the nerves (if any) are out the way. Ben.

I change my strings about every 6 weeks haha! Have you tried the Elixir strings? They're coated to have a more consistant tone for a much longer time so they might suit the way you play and how you prefer not to change all the time. They feel strange to me due to them being coated but I'd suggest you try them out because they do last pretty long from what i'm told.

I change my strings really often but find that initial tone a bit harsh for the first day and a half of playing or say one rehersal after which there's just so much definition and a good balance of note and zingy bite to the sound which I really like; makes pushing harmonics jump out a lot less work too. I'd have though with a name like funkmaster (and obviously a funk fan) that you'd change your strings more regularly than joe bloggs?

Long before I got into the nerdy bassplayer scene where the 'best' players are being praised and pointed out all the time I had been exposed to the basslines on school's out through my dad playing the album all the time. The pisstake of West Side Story (Gutter Cats vs The Jets) is really fun to play; especially after recently playing a fully orchestrated production of the show its self. Great, original bassplayer! PS - if anyone feels like throwing themselves into a pit (no pun intended) of dispair in terms of sheet music and musical acrobatics then I can't highly enough recommend hunting down the music for West Side Story!

As i'm sure it's been said in this thread already, for almost £1000 you could get an incredibly nice piece of second hand bass porn from the sales section of this forum. You might be lucky to get a nice P bass that has a bit of history behind it. Keep in mind the re-sale issues with trying to get rid of a Fender that you bought new, you'll be losing half that £900 straight away when selling it second hand. We all like to think we're going to hold hands with our prized bass for ever and ever whilst walking into the sunset but it usually doesn't work like that unfortunately; due to the powers of GAS.

Oh yeah I don't for one second think that the paper's ratings aren't a sturdy guide but when I don't have any other feedback on some of these unis it's at least a nice rough bit of help that gives me an idea rather than my UCAS form being full of guesses and courses picked out of a hat. A lecturer from Bangor University whom I play bass for in his jazz trio has just suggested that a good starting point would be to decide if i want to go to a straight up uni or a conservatoire. He says a university will be far more academically driven and less performance based which might suit me better due to me really dissliking the preassure on exams and irrelevant skills that i had with my music tech A level and certain aspects of my other music qualification. With that said though i'm not a bedroom musician who just wants to play, i consider myself a musician first and a bassplayer a just a specific detail thereof; I don't want to be surrounded by a load of metalheads who just want to shred as it wouldn't be a step up from college at all.

Thanx for having a look at the topic guys. I want to go away from Wales purely because I see Uni as a fantastic way to move away from home and with Wales being so full of social pockets and friends of friends I think it'd be a waste to go to the capital (no matter how good their Uni and courses are meant to be) to only end up sharing diggs with some people I grew up with and work for companies owned by people I've known for years; there's not enough social or proffessional expansion there for me as I've been gigging up and down the country for quite a few years now. On the note of how much cheaper I'd get my Uni by staying in the country it really doesn't bother me about how much everything's going to cost as i believe if there was ever a reason to jump into tens of thousands of pounds of debt then my future is exactly that reason. I'm looking at Edinburgh now due to it being nice and far away, in a culturally awesome place and it ranking pretty good on the uni ranking table. Anyone got any ideas what they're like? [url="http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/gooduniversityguide.php?AC_sub=Music&x=24&y=7&sub=M"]Uni Ranking Table[/url]

Hello Everyone, I'm basically completing my personal statement n all that jazz within the next week (or so I hope) in order to apply to do music in University. I've already had some places suggested to me over the years but I was hoping that by having a quick scan on would possibly turn my head towards somwehre promising in the country that i might not have thought of. I've already looked at the courses at (some successfully and some not so successfully) Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff and LIPA so far. If you have any feedback about any of these places or anywhere else in the UK that does a Music degree (BMus, BA with or without Hons and i'm also considering things like jazz, performance and world musics etc) that lasts 3 to 4 years then that'd be great. Knowing where NOT to go would be handy too, to be completely honest Thanx very much.

I do indeed love mr pusher but i'd like to point out that the album that that video's taken off is a weird one in both concept, playing and sound. Some other videos with his more electronic side showing and less "out there" kind of playing.... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZUKBCupZaA"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZUKBCupZaA[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLcxve603-4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLcxve603-4[/url] His solo's in some of his IDM songs really show his breakbeat influence i think as he has a quite percussive, punchy sound and he uses a lot of fast 16th note rhythms that kind of bubble away like breakbeat drums usually do. I'm sure he picks with his pinky and his thumb or something weird like that, any ideas? I love his work but i've never dug out any articles of his to really find out what he plays n stuff.

really great sounding band, nice how there's a hell of a lot of them together without it sounding like a mess in any way at all and with a really nice grove. Not too keen on the bass player's solo though :/ mainly because of him playing right up high on a C (or higher?) string and with a tone that doesn't please me 'ickle ol' ears. Sounded tight as anything in the grooves though.

+1 to that. Nothing bad could come from learning a song and trying it out in my opinion. It'll be a great experience for your band getting out of your comfort zone, facing a challenge and generally it's just more time you've spent with each other playing music which is never a bad thing. i recently played hit me baby one mroe time by ms spears with a drummer and a pianist as part of a jazz trio and we where all suprised both how well it worked and how quickly we got it together haha.

I did NOT know that ! I've never been to a bass bash so it always slips my mind to check when they are....I live in North Wales so I thought doing something while i'm way over at London might be a good idea. AA's route finder says i've got a good 28miles to get to the bass bash from the albert hall's general area....... i'd really like to go! Just depends now what details i'm given about the times for soundcheck etc i suppose; i've never been late for a gig in my life so i'd rather not do so for the first time at the Albert Hall! Although a bass bash would be as good a reason as any i can imagine.

Thanx guys, whether it turns out to be a good gig or not it's certainly one to check off the list of things to do as a musician for me. Is the Bass Gallery near t'Albert Hall then? Any other suggestions of palces i can go to actually see/play some music while i'm there? Cheers, Ben.

Hi guys n gals, A gig a did about a month back in Birmingham for a choir on a "just come in read the dots" kind of basis has turned out to be arather prosperous as they're now performing at the Albert Hall next month. I'm on a gap year to network my arse off, get a substancial repetoire of classic albums under my belt (I'm trying to shift my gigging to recording ratio more over to the latter as I really enjoy recording work) and memorise standards etc and seeing as i'll be there for the day of the performance and either that night or the night before depending what day we travel down I might as well see if there's any clubs/jam nights/cool places i could pop round to either with my bass or without to just get my face around and get a tiny little insight into what's on offer in terms of that kind of stuff if i ever end up in london for uni or sometime in the future. Yes i am a stupid fart who takes stuff a bit serious but there is indeed no rest for the wicked The performance is October 10th and i'll either have the night before that to mooche about or the following afternoon or the evening of the 10th after the performance depending on what they plan. All of this could be thrown out of the window if they say they'd like to rehearse every second of free time there is but it's good to plan ahead. Cheers, Ben. P.S. I was at PMT Music Manchester last week and got into a really good chat with one of the staff and the rest of the staff there where really helpful too, even let me try out a fairly pricey Orange setup they had there so thanx to any of them if they read this post and although it was only my third time there I'd still highly recommend them to anyone in the area.

Sine today, Hit me Baby One More Time by the naughty schoolgirl that is Britney Spears. As part of a jazz trio, i should point out.

I'll second/third the thing about maple being mroe than rosewood. I got a solid maple neck (lacquered) on my jazz and I asked generally to my local guys what i should expect the longevity of the frets to be in comparison to the neck as I like the idea of having a bass for a good while so it looks battered and really is MY bass. He brought up the point about how tricky it is to re-fret lacquered necks due to them needing refinishing after the job's done which obviously should point to the fact that it'd cost far mroe to have a maple neck done than rosewood. I'm with you on this on, they're jobs worth paying decent money for but missleading/incorrect prices aren't going to help how prepared you are to give work to a company.

Thanx a lot and yeah those recordings where just done on a washburn that i routed and put DiMarzio pickups in but I no longer have the bass and don't use that account at all. They where a set of ultrajazz pickups and I highly recommend them even though I'm not using them any more due to them leaving when i sold the washburn. The recordings where from a few years ago I think, just DI at a friend's house. Jazz bass all the way now A guitarist i was with today pointed out also that any work I do for telly will involve passing on names and fees down to hmrc too. Annoyingly i did a studio session for soem television series only last week so I better get on the case; i never thought twice why they wanted my National Insurance number. Thanx once again everyone for pointing out how important the whole tax thang is and showing it's not THAT complicated.

Music for chameleons [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7K62hTCJVY"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7K62hTCJVY[/url] Makes me feel there's still hope for welsh bassplayers.

Ok then. I must admit amidst all this I have lost sight of why exactly i should declare myself officially self employed exept out of fear of being rodded my mr tax. I guess that's just it though, i'm going to have to do it someday and i suppose it's time to be a grownup and realise not all my money's going to go into my pocket from now on....*sigh* Anybody had any experience or advice in how to go about such things at 18 or should it really not matter as the whole tax ordeal is a learning curve i'm going to have to get through at some point in my life regardless? Thanx once again for trawling through such a boring subject for my sake

Ah ok so come the end of each financial year I'll just plonk a load of tidily arranged receipts on my accountant's desk, have them do their thing, pay and then be happy 'bout the money knocked off as expenditure? I think I've got it now, all i plan to do is check out how to set myself up as self emplyed, talk to people I know who are self employed to get tips on keeping records etc and then also find me an accountant and see what i need to do to get them involved and when exactly i should do so. Plan!

I guess i now know what must be done I meant 'anal' in terms of how meticulous i need to be in terms of collecting and keeping receipts and for those kinds of savings it is clearly worth doing! How does it work in terms of paying 'your' accountant as in is it an annual thing or a pay-them-when-you-use-them kind of basis?

Thanx guys that's really helpful. I do indeed know at least one person in my general area who's a musician with an accountant but any suggestions in the north wales (or there abouts) are would be a great help. So i'm gonna set myself up as self employed then get me an accountant (which i must point out does indeed make me feel grown up ) and basically start being really anal about getting receipts for just about everything so to make the accountant's life easier and also save myself some money by not having him/her do it at a £50 an hour rate then i guess? Do i need to collect all the receipts/invoices/etc i have knocking about from past jobs for any reason or just keep them in a safe place incase mr tax man decides he hates me at some point during my life? Thanx again.