musophilr

did a Songs of Praise in a rather old-style chapel on Saturday. We didn't have a drummer which didn't please me but we got away with it. They have a platform on which we had to fit a piano + player, trumpet, 2 violins, bass (me), singer, and acoustic guitar/singer. They also have an old-fashioned high level pulpit above the platform in which I placed the bass rig and the keyboard combo so we had the backline just above our heads. We placed 3 wedge monitors on the front pew ... but I heard almost nothing from them.

I haven't been here for a while but as I'm likely to be playing bass the next time one of the outfits I'm with appears in public I though t I'd look in. Here's 2 from recently: http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/musophilr/media/PR4_zps3e056aff.jpg.html?filters[user]=120582047&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0 http://s1202.photobucket.com/user/musophilr/media/PR5_zps4891c024.jpg.html?filters[user]=120582047&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1

I've been doing a little practicing over the last few months with a drummer & bass player (I'm the guitarist). If I'd had my way there would have been a keyboard player as well (preferably with a convincing Hammond sound). The bass player has quit as he's been spreading himself a bit thin. Would like to replace him, add keys, and get the project back on track, although it's too late for this year's target, which was the many festivals that occur in Suffolk over the summer. There's not going to be a lot of money in it, and if we ever got a pub gig it would be the last in that pub ' cos we wouldn't be playing songs with vocals, or covers. Into Focus, Camel, Bach, Händel, blues, jazz, hard rock, soft rock, baroque, renaissance

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1364744514' post='2030308'] They are what they are, in both looks in sound. Oddly enough, I can hear the difference in the notes very well here: [/quote] I never liked his sound either. Way too trebly, not enough bottom end grunt. I guess that's down to EQ ... maybe I'm saying I've never heard a Ric EQd properly. But however you EQ it a Ric is still as ugly as sin!

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1364741836' post='2030234'] That's the whole point of them I would have thought! [/quote] But they're as ugly as sin, and there's no mid range in the sound to define it. All you get is a dull thud plus a bit of 'plick' if you're using a plectrum. Nobody would know whether you're playing a B or a Bb. Horrible things!

For me they don't have [i]any[/i] kind of appeal. They neither sound nor look like a Jazz.

Just listening to Jesu meine Freude on Radio 3. Can't help thinking the intro bears an uncanny resemblance to the intro of Eruption (side 2 of Moving Waves). Or should that be the other way round?

I was in one until last weekend. I was only doing it because I believed I was going to get paid for it. I have other expensive (musical) 'hobbies' that are never per-se going to generate a great deal of profit, and I don't need playing pop covers to be another one. The only reason for me playing pop covers is to get paid for it. That band turned out ot be not interested in gigging and they only wanted to do it "just for fun". Pop covers isn't my idea of "fun" so I quit.

[quote name='seashell' timestamp='1364577605' post='2028449'] The trouble is, sometimes you don't achieve superstar status until you are past your best. [/quote] With the possible exception of James Taylor. He just gets better

I bought[i] Parcel of Rogues[/i] when it came out and I was impressed by him then.

[quote name='Wil' timestamp='1362674944' post='2003231'] Chris De Burgh. [/quote] He said whats the worst thing about [size=6][u][i][b]MUSIC [/b][/i][/u][size=3]not muzak [/size][/size]

+1 for packing up afterwards also: being expected to play for nothing or a pittance being expected to learn stuff without proper documentation (even a chord chart would be nice) band members that refuse to gig when it conflicts with a social arrangement insurance companies that want £x per year for you to drive in the rush hour for a day job, then they want £4x when you're the same driver in the same vehicle but going to a gig

[i]Footloose, Time After Time, Walking on Sunshine[/i] The first 2 because the bandleader won't give me a chord chart, or any dots for riffs which seem to be important (and the bass player never gets the feel right for [i]Time After Time[/i]), the latter because it has a thrashy-trashy rhythm part which I can't play and virtually no scope for inventing an interesting solo. It used to be [i]Islands in the stream[/i] because it was a crap chord progression that never went anywhere but fortunately it's off the set list now and it's STAYING OFF!

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1362233869' post='1997326'] My biggest frustration is when someone says we can't do a certain tune because we don't have a brass section, or a strings section, or a drum machine, and doesn't understand why when we pick a tune done by a band with the exact same lineup as us it sounds wrong. [/quote] Not quite the same here ... they pick a song and then say it sounds sh*t and not as good as the record, when the record had keys & a brass section and all we've got is 2 guitars one of whom occasionally doubles on keys to fill in some harmonies but is by no means a keys wizard. Or they pick a really cheesey song and then whinge 'cos it sounds ... cheesey. I get very pissed off when I'm asked to play a guitar part or riff that is clearly non-trivial but there's no dots, not even a chord chart, and the available recording is some crappy MP3 from which you can't tell whats going on in the music anyway. I'm getting to the point where I'll tell them that if they want me to play something they'll have to give me something I can read, otherwise I'm not playing it.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1359899250' post='1961733'] Why not do both? [/quote] You avatar is clever

I've seen them in different guises loads of times, and the size of the Wishbone Ash dept in my record collection is humungous. I've also seen Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash a few times, he's as competent as ever and he gets some good guys to play with him, but I wish he'd settle his differences with Andy Powell. There were few bands as tight as Wishbone Ash, and fewer that could create so much musical interest and interplay between drums, bass & 2 guitars. Enjoy them!

Need to replace my Focus est which is getting old and requirinf frequent fixes. Fancy a VW Polo 1.4 est ... has anyone any experience of them?

"Can Blue Men Sing The Whites" (Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band) Listening to Mayall, Clapton, Green et al isn't wrong but its getting your blooze second hand. Go for Freddy King, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf

Not for me these days. Used to have a couple beforehand once upon a time, plus smokes, but now I reckon I need a straight & sober head on to play properly. Maybe it didn't matter in those days 'cos the crowd was always pissed & stoned but I don't find myself playing to stoners these days.

VDGG were a good band

[quote name='Lfalex v1.1' timestamp='1358259729' post='1935752'] Fireball! [/quote] Yes that as well!

[quote name='jaydentaku' timestamp='1358255104' post='1935614'] The worst thing you can do, is put radio 4 on of a morning and listen To John Humphreys argue with politicians. He is a complete arse head. [/quote] True, dat. Tracks that used to make me drive like a lunatic include: Hocus Pocus Speed King Space Truckin'

[quote name='radansey' timestamp='1307132605' post='1255961'] I often get the urge to play the 'Money' bass-line during the offertory hymn/song. [/quote] I play guitar or keys in church. I'm the only musician they've got, and most of them are pensioners who like "old boring stuff". However a little classical guitar technique works wonders with playing traditional SATB ... you play the melody with the bass line and just enough of the inside parts to make some kind of sense out of it and they love it. They have an offering and I often use the intro to [i]Stairway to heaven[/i] (there's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold, and she's buying a stairway to heaven). One or two people recognised the tune, but I'm sure nobody knows the words as I haven't been asked to stop playing it yet. It's dull being the only one. I much prefer playing with other people, but if you set up a band in the chapel there wouldn't be much room for anyone else (even if you could find the musicians). Plus I'm sure if I played guitar in there the way I like to play it, I'd get excommunicated at least. I also help to run an ensemble called Joyfull Noyse, drawn from a variety of churches around here. I used to be their bass player until we got someone in who treats it as his first instrument, so now I'm let loose on guitar.

I've got the same guitar and amplifier as Jools' guitarist. Wouldn't mind having his job.

RBX 375. Job done