musophilr

@ them that use rigid picks ... any string wear? I'd rather grind the end off the pick than unravel the windings off an expensive set of strings ...

Any Tudor choral church music Steve Hillage - Palm Trees James Taylor - Daddy's All Gone (and probably several others of his)

I used to think a fadeout was because the lazy bastards couldn't be bothered to come up with a proper ending, but icastle is right: "if the 'original' band played that tune live then they'd need a way of finishing it just the same as a cover band does." Ergo it must always be worth buying the live album as well as the studio album to see how they did it. Some riffs are so glorious you don't want them to end and a fadeout is like a gentle reduction of the drug intake you've been on until you can learn to live without it. I've always enjoyed the process of designing the finish to a song: massive thump to finish, segue (perhaps with nicely orchestrated key change) into next song, play the last bar of this song then straight into the next one, or even a live fade ... it's a subject I'd like to bring up with the party band I'm auditioning for in a few days time. Would it impress them to show I'm thinking about such issues?

Stiff ones or floppy ones? Many guitarists use flexible picks. I don't. With a rigid pick, I can control dynamics by how hard I grip the pick. With a flexible pick, I can't. I guess that's why I've started using rigid picks for bass without even thinking about any other alternative. If only my fingernails weren't so fragile I wouldn't be using pick at all for bass.

I got a couple of red Jazz IIIs today. They are very nice. I've no idea how long they will last though.

See what you miss if you restrict yourself to local open mic nights!

We have disagreed and parted company, but have attempted to do so on gracious terms. I wish him well with what he wants to do, but I can't be part of it. I'm still pissed off that I put effort into progressing the project and it came to nothing.

Chord chart for [i]Knockin' on heavens door[/i] (simple example): [font=courier new,courier,monospace]4| G | D | A- | A- |[/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace]4| | | | |[/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace]| G | D | C | C |[/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace]| | | | |[/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Intro = verse = chorus, repeat [i]ad nauseam[/i][/font][/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Edited: I usually use 2 lines so that a chord change within the bar can be shown as eg[/font][/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif] [font=courier new,courier,monospace]| D E- |[/font][/font][/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace] | / / / / |[/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace]2 beats of each except that on this site it knacks up the spacing. .txt files in notepad or courier new in Word are best for this sort of thing.[/font]

Lee Sklar used to play a fretless. Try some of the stuff he did for James Taylor. Then there is the bloke who played for The Band.

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1328744437' post='1532193'] Oh dear. Who is this chap? [/quote] 'Tis better that I don't say. Apparently there are many like him. I wish him well on his own.

He's got talent and good songs. Likes my contributions (on bass, keys and guitar) and production ideas. Wants to gig, has known from the start that while I don't expect to make a living out of it [i]per se[/i] still less to get fame & fortune out of it, I can't afford to treat it as an expensive hobby and it must break even at the least. 1. Tore a strip off me for daring to attempt to understand a song enough to write out a chord chart for it (instead of playing the first thing that comes into my head and getting caught out by an unexpected chord change). 2. Expects me to contribute my own compositions to the act (which I didn't because I started getting the suspicion there was something wrong going on). 3. Finally makes it clear that by "gig" he means unpaid slots at open mic nights. The words [i]time of[/i] and [i]waste[/i] come to mind. This isn't the first instance either.

There was no need to to that to a vintage axe. Any old modern thing would have sufficed. I bet he hasn't improved the tone of it.

[quote name='razze06' timestamp='1328713294' post='1531533'] Would you think that stringing one of my bass with thicker gauge strings and tuning BEAD would make any sense? [/quote] depends on if the neck is strong enough and the truss rod can be set accordingly. consult your tech.

[quote name='razze06' timestamp='1328712640' post='1531519'] Those of you who regularly play a 5 stringer, what you find are the main advantages? Do you use the extra 5 notes much, or is the availability of certain low notes in certain positions? [/quote] for me- the latter most definitely, it saves me from having to use the first 4 positions where the frets are too far apart If you play reggae I suspect the lower notes on the B string could be good dub-wise ?? As FZ once said: "You'll love it. It's a way of life"

It's always good when music makes such an improvement to your life BTW Discreet is kinky isn't he

Just a thought: Bach solo cello stuff, but on a fretless bass ?

If the spec is Grade 8 and you turn up with the Rockschool Grade 8 book and play the music correctly then IMO that should work, so long as the pieces are of the required length (I haven't timed them, perhaps you should).

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1328550377' post='1528943'] And that is why the comparison between tribute acts and a virtuoso violinist doesn't hold water - any classical musician worth his salt is not merely copying another musician's performance. [/quote] Point taken, but how's about this? Until recently (ie the development of recording technology) there were not the same kind of benchmarks. A piece of music was the way you last heard it played, and you couldn't A/B two people's renditions of the same piece unless you had them side by side to play it for you. And once the composer had gone to the great gig in the sky, the only reference you had was what was written, maybe with notes left by the composer or those who knew him well. So you weren't expected to copy someone else's performance and in any case you had a written spec for the music. Listening to Radio 3 on a Saturday morning tells me that there is a variety of acceptable ways to do a piece that's been written down long ago. I think that's not quite so with rock music, While it may be notated after the originator has played it the definitive spec is not the dots, it is the recording. I concede that for some musicians there are a variety of recordings so for example there is the original studio version of [i]Smoke on the water[/i] and there are also many live versions but I'm guessing that if you were going to do a DP tribute you'd try to emulate the studio recording. But my point was that if I could copy Ritchie Blackmore's solo and make it sound just like him would I not have developed the same technique and agility that he had when he played it? And if I could copy Nigel Kennedy's version of [i]The Four Seasons[/i] would not that also mean that I had developed the same technique and agility? You can always ask "why do so?" - in either case - but if I did this would I not have learned something and improved my playing by doing so? You may not like that I did it, you may not see the point but to suggest that I was somehow second rate as a guitarist or a violinist for doing exactly the same thing as other people who are reckoned to be first rate musicians just strikes me as being a little odd. Is it a bit like saying the first person to score a distinction at Grade 8 is better than the next person who has studied to make the same achievement? Or does that analogy not work because the Blackmore solo and the Kennedy 4 Seasons are original works?

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1328540350' post='1528684'] There's a huge difference between performing someone else's composition and slavishly copying someone else's performance. [/quote] There is indeed a difference, but if you respect the original musician for his feel and technique, then a good copyist must also have very similar if not exactly the same feel and technique. Natch, he lacks the originality, but originality isn't part of the spec.

I don't hit it, I play it. Fingers preferred but plectrum helps to preserve fingernails for when needed on guitar. 5 strings, fretted. Used to play 4 strings fretless, but I'm so used to having the extra string that I get lost on the 4 string now. The 4 string bass hasn't the tonal grunt of the 5 string anyway so that's another reason to prefer the latter. Roots, arpeggios, scales ... whatever the music requires!

I got some GYC cables from Jack White's in Ipswich, about £20 each, they had a straight jack plug on one end and a 90 degree plug on the other ... AND one of those velcro things that stops it getting ravelled up in your gig box. IIRC they're marketed by JHS. I've also got some cables that I've had for almost 20 years. Still working, mainly 'cos not abused.

As time goes by, the people who did the originals of what we like and grew up with either die or retire. If the music is any good it will pass into the category of "that which may be done by those good enough to do it". In exactly the same way as some musicians learn to play Mozart or Glenn Miller, so others will learn to reproduce Beatles, Stone, Floyd and other classics. That's already happening. Why berate a guitarist who does well at playing David Gilmour's guitar parts instead of writing his own? Do we put down a virtuouso violinist who's good at Vivaldi because he hasn't written his own concerti?

That's a lot for acid innit? Or has the price gone up?

You remind me of when Private Walker was selling knicker elastic at something like 2/6 a yard and someone says it's only 6d in the shop and he says "You can't get it in the shop can you?". Same here: you want to see Floyd played live but unless you go to a tribute gig you're stuck with listening to the records. Loads of people go to see JS Bach's music played live but they don't complain that he's not there on stage ...

There's one here [url="http://soundcloud.com/phil-aka-pip/"]http://soundcloud.com/phil-aka-pip/[/url]