Piggery Bandana

as before only 5??? In order of their appearance and subsequent effect on my playing:- Sting - Yes they were pop songs but very very few of their tunes were what you could consider "throwaway" in musical terms.... he has a remarkable way of doing something clever in nearly every police song.....big big influence. Micheal Anthony - So you wanna play rock music??? Fell in love with Van Halen and whilst that was in no small part due to EVH and DLR, Micheal Anthony was the building blocks for all the rest of the bombast.... As said previously VH loss is Chickenfoots gain.... Billy Sheehan - The biggest leap ive taken in terms of style, technique and approach was following DLR's "eat em and smile" album... have devoured everything Billy sheehan has come up with, absorbed shed loads of his stuff into my style and can safely say that i still know only 5% of what he knows..... I can now sit in a 3 piece band and when the solo kicks in ... you will not notice, all because of mr sheehan. Mark King - Took a left turn after Mr sheehan and as per everyone else was astounded by what he does and how he does it.... Never really mastered the slap stuff but love his fingerstyle stuff.... a true funk/fusion monster. Geddy Lee - Got into Rush late - about 10 years ago - what the hell was i thinking?? Getting into geddy has given me another sheehan esque push.... There are plenty of others but these are the significant influences in chronological order.

Almost speechless ..... Class!!

There is no way of 100% gauging this one IMHO...... As someone above has already stated "if the song is good enough, catchy enough and has a good chorus" it wont really matter ...it will go down well.... If its an angst filled dirge about teenage depression might be as well saving that for the CD tho! We do obscure cover versions within our set ... EG a journey album track (album is a bit like a CD for younger readers :oP) called "edge of the blade" We have had countless people saying to us after a gig "you should record that one its amazing"..... admittedly we have never offered to put em right (but how many of you guys would?) I think the rule has to be ... try the tune live and if it clearly a dead spot in the set ... save it for another time.

Best one we had was at an outdoor festival in Ramsbottom, Lancashire...... A drummer friend came along and was walking down the hill when we started playing Journeys "Seperate Ways" ..... he said "It sounded like 100 cannons going off when the bass and drums kicked in! HOOOOOO HAHHHH Ill take that any day of the week!

The one and the same .... how ya doing bass bunny?

Am from Bury in North Manchester ... been playing for nearly 30 years (shiiiiteeee thats depressing when you see it written down).... Had tons upon tons of guitars including Tobias / Fenders / Aria / Westone (aint everybody right?) and even a Gordy Headless (which was stolen dammit!!) I now use a Fender Geddy Lee Jazz and a Yamaha Attitude Special (the one without the scalloped frets but with the ridiculous PA breaking sub woofer pickup.... It certainly gets unruly guitarists attention .... which is summat we can all appreciate innit! Also a never ending stream of Amplification the most impressive rig ever being a Peavey Digibass head (one of the best ones i ever had sadly!) and Power Amp powering a rig of; (get this for overkill) - 2 No 2x15 Peavey Bass Bins; 2 x 4x10 bass cabs (used these for Mid Range left and Right); and last but not least 2 x 6 x 6 Peavey Clusters (for high end!)..... Went all the way down to a Phil Jones Bass buddy cos my back was buggered!! (Wonder how?) Now use a TRace Elliot 2 x 10 combo (one of the new range ones ) and am chuffed as fork..... Its a monster.. Huge fan of Geddy/Sheehan/Jaco/Mark King.... basically anyone who can PLAY..... Hates - straight 8 bass lines that could be played using 1 finger on each hand but Likes - AC/DC cos im a hypocrite! May your god go with you!

Hi there - first posting (do i get a prize??? - or am i officially beyond all hope now!) Billy sheehan does a whole thing on his dvds about patterns all the way up the neck in each key ... which i have used to some effect for the past 20 years or so..... All the patterns are moveable and are linked to (although i understand nothing about!) the modes. Not an answer as such but another pointer to maybe find either answers and a way to incorporate it into your playing. Good luck .... you will have a kreskin moment, it will all make some kinda sense and bingo!!! you will be off and running pastoriusing all over the place.. Peace and good will to all musicians ...(not guitarists tho they are sods!)