bassintheface

Don't some of you guys ask for say 5 or 10 lessons up front? It works well for a few guys I know. The committed students never miss!!

'While my guitar gently weeps' in the school hall aged 15. The drummer was pretty dire so I pretty much spent the entire 20 min set keeping him in time, mouthing "one, two, three, four". Binned him soon after!!

I think he term 'made it' or 'making it' means different things to other people. There's clearly people on the lists above that have 'made it' in quite a big way - if they love their job of playing for Billy Joel for example. I don't know about you guys, but I think I would consider myself to be at least on my way to 'making it' if I was earning all of my money from doing what I wanted to do in music. I mean, playing bass in a band I was involved in writing the songs for. If I had to do something else (but still involved in music), then I don't think I would be completely satisfied. I'm thinking along the lines of - say your first love was playing blues guitar and that was your dream - 'making it' would be earning your money and being a successful recording / touring artist. If you were still playing music for a living, but say in a band that didn't really get your creative juices flowing - say as a guitarist for a pop type solo artist, then would you consider yourself to have 'made it', or would that be a case of doing whatever it took to play music full time to hopefully ultimately give you the basis you need to indulge your true love of blues guitar? I know guys that really love the bands they are in, but actually work for known bands as guitar techs and drum techs. Have they made it, I don't think so. yes they're working in music, but it's not 'their' thing and what they really want to do.

I was in a band who supported Julliette and the licks when they toured the UK a few years back. Great guys and a great bass player called Paul Lill. Had an awesome JPJ type custom made Jazz. It was surreal standing at a bar chatting to Juliette Lewis about General life stuff. I kept thinking 'Brad Pitt has nailed you' for some odd reason!! ; ) I also had the motor home scene off 'from dusk till dawn' going through my head! She was really really nice and friendly though.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1406070134' post='2508158'] If sending via post, I`ve used Interparcel. Their economy service is sent via UPS. So far I`ve had efficent reliable service from them, and usually, although only quoted for 2-day delivery, most times they`ve got there the day after collection. [/quote] This. In a hardcase it's especially easy. Pack the internals around the guitar with foam, bubble wrap etc. I then wrap the whole case in loads of bubble wrap and stick loads of fragile tape over it.

get hold of the PA company / sound guy's contact details and send over your tech rider and stage plan etc, inc channel list and monitor requirements / mixes etc. You may or may not (read probably won't) get everything you want, but they will at least be forewarned and you'll be thought of as being organised. Take a copy with you too. Also, check what gear is being provided re backline (if any). Are you an originals band? When I did my festival bit years ago (Guilfest, Get Loaded in the Park, larmer tree and others I've forgotten the name of), we had our 'girls' (now wives) going around dishing out stickers (literally sticking them on people) with our band name, web address and our stage time details - it worked as the stages were always rammed when we got on! Also had plectrums made with the web address on them too and a few other goodies to dish out - loads of EP's, badges and stuff. Oh, and take plenty of water, a hat and loads of wetwipes!!

I did 3 reviews yesterday and have just had 15E. Nice little bonus towards something!!

ha ha !! Not for this forum I don't think!!

not technically last night but Sat, and it'll take a biggy to beat my gig on sat!!! All started pretty normally - lovely castle hotel venue near home for a nice 40th. Massive blag with a sound limiter in the room (which was a massive 'great hall' with stone vaulted ceiling. Nightmare for our engineer as the venue hadn't even tried to help the sound by reducing some hard surfaces....ah well) Anyways, we set up, sorted the levels in soundcheck and didn't once trip the limiter, though we close on a few occasions with some big chords and harms. As we finished, there was a bit of aggro outside - turned out a lady had tripped, fallen, smacked her heard on the stone steps and was unconscious. I ran out (I'm a first aider) to see if I could help. Got rid of the drunk "are you ok" shouty type people and was left with hotel staff and the injured lady's daughter (who was sober thankfully) Anyway, we rang an ambulance - she was drifting in and out of consciousness and trying to sit up, we got her sorted and off to A&E. Her (rather attractive) daughter then thanked me for helping etc and asked for my number so let me know how her mum was the next day. No problem there I thought. Get home to a few txt messages off her saying cheers etc, she asks if I'm single and fancy a drink sometime, I politely decline and explain I'm married etc She then tells me to check out her twitter page and to follow her - I do and it turns out she is a FULL ON PORN ACTRESS!!! I kid ye not.......... and yes, she's in videos on websites, the works..........

I did the Broadway version 2 weeks ago. No rehearsals until the day of the first show. Went ok actually! MD made a few changes so plenty of pencil marks on my music. We played the 'LSOH' tune as the 'outro' to the end of the 1st half and end of the show and each day, played the end of the show version in a different style. We did Latin on the Sat and reggae on the sun. Bit daft, but fun nonetheless.

leads, strings, pedals and tools go in a metal 'stanley' toolbox which I bought for £35 11 years ago. Its done hundreds of gigs and still going strong!! Amp is in the Aguilar gig bag type carry case, the cabs are in separate wheeled flightcases. Basses in hardcases All 'band' stuff is generally flightcased - have a road trunk wheeled thing for XLR's and power, mic stands go in a mic stand padded bag, mics and clips in a flightcase box, lighting in another, X32 is flightcased and PA speakers have JBL padded covers. The other guys are pretty similar.

Cheers all! Some sensible and helpful suggestions / reminders - and some that I pretty much do anyway, such as a few pencils and rubbers. I have a music stand and clip on LED light if required. My TC Polytune will mute and my cabs are flightcased so I'll take just the one and sit it on the flightcase. I'll make sure I've got some water / chocolate too! I had the pad this morning, though I'm working all day everyday in the week, so I can only look through it over a couple of evenings. Pretty standard stuff by the looks of it, but will still do as much prep as I can - and yes, the coda in "Suppertime" is up the 'dusty end'...... I'm looking forward to it, though I just wish I had more notice, as I'd rather a couple of rehearsals with the band and maybe a full show run through before doing the gig, so it'll be full 'eyes on' I imagine!! Just going to spend some time listening to the tracks on youtube - we're doing the Broadway version, with a couple of songs from the film version. I'll let you know how I get on! Cheers.

It is difficult! I can play a sing on acoustic guitar and sing quite happily. Give me a bass and anything more complex than a 4/4 dotted crotchet quaver rhythm and it all falls apart! Harmonies are a nightmare. I know so many bassists that find it difficult. The vid I think that people are referring to is Yolanda Charles at a bass show somewhere playing the melody to 'stand by me' and singing it, then moving on to counting whilst playing different rhythms. Just keep practising it!!

Good to hear as I'm not familiar with it one bit. Maybe I should familiarise myself with lots of popular musicals and get hold of and learn the bass parts so I can do more depping! I used to do a similar thing years ago with orchestral tuba repertoire and got hold of tuba parts to many of the 'standards' - great experience whilst I was doing my a levels.

I've got my first musical theatre gig this weekend. Had a last minute call from a friend of mine - she's head of music at a local(ish) secondary school and also runs a large performing arts academy for kids through to adults. They're putting on "little shop of horrors" this weekend and the guy she was using to play bass was struggling with making rehearsals. I'm quite looking forward to it, although it doesn't leave me much time to learn anything with working all week and other commitments, but I'm getting the pad dropped off on mon, so at least I can have a quick look at any potentially nasty bits in advance, top and tail the starts and endings and read the rest on the night! - I can only make a rehearsal on the day of the 1st show. It's difficult when I don't really know any of the songs! It's the Broadway version apparently. It's meant to be a sell out (guessing lots of proud parents) in an 800 capacity theater. We're playing in the pit and it's a full production with good techs and sound system. Thankfully, I'm mates with the other musicians, who are all great and will help - the guitarist is the singer / guitarist in my function band, the drummer is one of my good mates and the keys player is a mate who I've done a few gigs with previously - he's done all sorts over the years - played keys for Echo and the Bunnymen, The Lightening Seeds and the Ordinary Boys etc, so I'm looking forward to playing with them! Any tips from you regular 'pit' players? I've done pit stuff before as a tuba player for things like "brassed off" with Terry Hands and "the full monty", but not in a 'rock band' type setting without a formal conductor. We're just getting visual cues apparently........... I'm thinking I'll probably only need to take 1 of my DB112's, as there's a full line array in the theatre. Anyways, any tips from you regulars will be greatly appreciated.