seashell

A couple of years ago, Radio 2 did a feature where they asked various musicians what their favourite guitar riff was. Hank Marvin said Jimmy Page's riff in Black Dog. Respect! I'm sure Hank was an inspiration to Jimmy as well!

Hahaha, thank you!! 😊

Do yer worst 😝

OMG, I do that too!!! Black ones, obvs. In all seriousness, I do find them useful during the summer months if your fingers are getting a bit sweaty!!

I do it because I've seen other bass players do it, and I think it will give the illusion that I'm quite professional. 😁

Interesting perspective, Josie. Grace Slick is one of my favourite vocalists ever, but I don't really agree with her view on that. I think you can go on playing music(of any sort) for as long as you still enjoy it and can bring pleasure to others. Suzi Quattro anyone? She's not exactly ancient, but still rocking out. There must be other examples..I'll have to have a think...

Very much hope to make it this year. Won't put my name down just yet though, as I have some dep gigs coming up in May - as soon as I know exactly when and where they might be I will be able to confirm my attendance one way or another. Might even bring some gear this time! 🙂

Another late starter here! (First started learning aged 53) So glad you have discovered the joys of the bass. I'll tell you what worked for me.. it's not 'advice' as such because different people learn in different ways. But I went for private lessons from a tutor from day one and really loved my lessons. For me, nothing could beat that one to one input,. And a good teacher will tailor the lessons to suit your needs. I don't think I would ever have motivated myself to practice so much if I hadn't known I had another lesson coming up. I went weekly for the first month or so, then dropped it back to fortnightly. After 2 or 3 years I was just going every 2-3 weeks. I've only just stopped going for regular lessons 7 years on! I always knew I wanted to be in a band of some sort, but what I never expected was that I could actually earn some money out of this! I thought I would just be doing it for fun, but this year I have in fact secured a few paid gigs, which has been very welcome as it coincided with me retiring from my day job. So you never really know where this lark will lead you! If I had another piece of advice it would be .. don't worry to much about muting strings. I'd read all sorts about palm muting and other stuff and it started to do my head in a bit. It seemed like this was very important but I couldn't really work what to do. My tutor told me not to worry, eventually you'll be doing it without realising.. and that has been the case! Just learn to play the notes first and the muting (if required) will come naturally. IMHO and all that.

The swear filter makes it sound ruder than it actually is! 😮

One person's easy is another person's total pain in the neck. I am really hopeless with anything technical, and it makes me really grumpy even trying to attempt it. Luckily I am in a position where I can pay experts to set up my bass, alter my curtains, change my tyres.. all that technical shizz that I really cannot bear to do. I even hate changing my strings, but I can just about manage that without assistance. Takes me a very long time and much swearing though. It's obviously different if you are a bit hard up and/or actually like that side of things.☺️ Re the original question - I'd say £65 is a bit steep, but I'd be willing to pay it if I knew they were going to do a really good job.

Let's hear it for the ladies! Kim Deal, Divinity Roxx, Yolanda Charles and Sooze of course! 🙂 PS - good advice from Happy Jack as usual! x

Or indeed over 50!

The last of my little run of 6 dep gigs with the Stones trib band. It was a lovely one to go out on. Played at a local music festival. Last band on, outside in a pub car park. Nice little stage and pretty good facilities. Load in a bit awkward, but luckily I had a friend along to help me with all that. It was a really fun set. Everything went well, I felt pretty good about it all. Loads of people up dancing toward the end and storm of applause plus cries for more. What was really lovely and unexpected was that afterwards, the rest of the band thanked me profusely for all my hard work and presented me with a bottle of Jura whisky!! That was totally unexpected! I was really touched. I then recalled how last week one of them had struck up a conversation about favourite tipples, and I had mentioned Jura whisky. I really had no idea a the time that he was 'fishing' - he did it very subtly. It's been a brilliant opportunity for me. I think my playing has improved quite dramatically in a few short weeks and I've had a really good experience of playing at a variety of venues - all quite different in their own way. And now, back to normality... for the time being! 🙂

Two more gigs done as dep with a Stones trib band. Friday night was really brill! Pub gig, loads of punters in, great atmosphere. Screens were still on showing the aftermath of some football match or other, but no-one was looking at them. Everyone was watching us, hurrah! Absolutely played my socks off, and thought we all sounded great. Loads of compliments afterwards. Last night... not quite so good. Gig in a pub garden - absolutely freezing. Nice friendly landlord, but the 'gazebo' he promised was more like a nylon roof on stilts. No side protection at all - thank goodness it wasn't raining. Fair play to the punters who remained for the whole set. I wouldn't have! It was so perishing cold my fingers were a bit numb and I wasn't playing with any precision at all on the fast bits. Added to which, while we were waiting to go on and had stacked all our gear up at the side of the performing area, a dog whizzed on the keyboard player's speaker! I've heard of playing to one man and his dog, but never expected the dog to make his opinion known in quite that fashion 🙂

Great thread, I can relate to many of these! 😁 Last night, towards the end I was mainly thinking 'my toes are going numb, I wish I hadn't worn these high heeled boots'

Did John Entwhistle play one of them? ☺️

Halfway through my little stint depping with the Stones covers band. Three down, three to go! All went well. Loads of people in and all seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it..including a few die hard Stones fans, wearing all the appropriate gear.🙂 Many thanks to our own KevB for coming along! Really nice to catch up. A good friend (also a muso) was kind enough to give me a lift in his van and help me load in and out which was much appreciated. On the way home, we stopped for a curry which I paid for out of my earnings for the night. My friend declared this made me a proper musician at last. Another milestone reached! 😎

You know what, I really miss lojo in threads like this. He would definitely have had something interesting and thought provoking to contribute. Sadly missed 😞

Last night was the second of five dep gigs that I'm doing with a Rolling Stones Covers band this month. The first one had gone well - just a couple of little stumbles where they play things a bit differently to how I'm used to, but on the whole very good. Last night was really brilliant. Great venue in Brum. Very small stage, but plenty of room for the punters to dance. All ages, really nice atmosphere. Very helpful sound guy. But near disaster struck as I was loading in. Managed to trap my finger in the door of my boot! First finger right hand - my main plucking finger so to speak!!! 😮 So quickly got a glass of ice from behind the bar and stuck finger in that for a long time. Skin broken just under the nail, but luckily pad of finger OK although very tender. So I soldiered on and didn't even notice the pain during the first half (despite Paint it Black and Sympathy for the Devil!) but afterwards it was really throbbing. So spent the break with my finger in a glass of ice again and it was OK for the second half. It went so well - people smiling, dancing cheering. Some bloke wanted his picture taken with me during the break. He kept going on about what a great guitarist I was, and I suspect that he thought the guitar solos were coming from me, haha! I didn't disabuse him of the fact 😄Also, most of the members of the other two band I was in had come along as well and they all really enjoyed it. And I'm getting paid - which all helps to eke out the pension. Feel like a proper musician at last. Very happy bunny this morning, despite throbbing finger 😎☝️

I caught some of that. Very interesting although I hadn't been into the Orb much hitherto. I was impressed that he's collaborated withJah Wobble - one of my bass heroes! I'll have to look into Youth and his output a bit more. (p.s. I love some of the stuff on radio 6. As long as they aren't going on about band t-shirts all the time!! Could give a toss about t-shirts - most of them aren't cut for women anyway.)

Guitarist in one of my bands recently discovered Colter Wall. Young guy with a very mature voice. We've been covering 'The Devil Wears a Suit and Tie' in our set recently. It always goes down well. I tired to post the link but it didn't work. I'm just getting used to a new computer! I might try again later. 🙂

I think I'd put washing my hair at the top of the list, because I'm not about to play any sort of gig unless my hair looks right!!! 😤

I hardly ever do, but recently I've been having a little twiddle up there. The banjo player (don't, just don't) in one of the bands I'm in has had to take an extended break due to ill health. One of the songs we cover is 'Copperhead Road', where I usually come in on the second verse as per the recording. But in the absence of Mr Banjo, I've been doing a bit of twiddling up the dusty end during the intro and first verse so as not to leave Guitar on his own (we don't have a keys player). Then back down to familiar territory in verse 2 and beyond. It's all good fun working these things out. :-)

Haha, that's a good one 😄 I actually did nick a line that someone posted on here a while back, and used it with my old band once. I forget who posted it now, but to whoever thought of this, I thank you: 'Our guitarist has just had a request......but he can't do it because the guitar won't fit'😃

Yes, I find this one tricky as I'm doing all sorts of bits and bobs at the moment. Paying with 2 bands - one does 50's and 60's covers so that's straightforward enough. But the other one started out as a Country accoustic trio, but now does some originals which are mainly quite light hearted little ditties, plus covers of various things from Eric Clapton to Tom Petty via Nick Cave. All the more mellow side of the aforementioned artistes though. In addition, from time to time I get asked to do a bit of background plonking with various solo guitarists of my aquaintance who like to bring me in when they need a bit of ooomph. So that's usually originals or things like Bob Dylan and Neil Young covers. And then to get a bit more rocky, I've got some dep gigs coming up with a Rolling Stones Covers Band. So it's all really varied and fun, but difficult to explain in one sentence! :-)