bass_dinger

If they are good instruments, they will retain value. So, relatively fewer people play violin now, compared to 1680s, when the city of Cremona was able to support a whole violin making industry. Yet those Amati, Guarneri and Stradivari violins still sell. That's down to quality. Now, if we were talking about Hello Kitty guitars, their popularly will fade once all the people who remember that phenomenon pass away. That's down to fashion and fads. The question is, are 1962 Strats Cremona, or Hello Kitty?

More Than Words, by Extreme.

...if only for the ironic title of their inevitable acoustic album. Welder Boys, unplugged.

I used to use my household insurance, but was slightly worried that they never asked about the instruments in question. "A guitar " is not the same as "a 1995 Lowden O22 with custom neck and L R Baggs pickup ". So I will try the options specified here

I have heard of whole bands leaving a church because of mishandled sensitivities. In fact, half of the structure of our band is built with the rubble of other churches cast-offs. It's sad. I am comforted by the knowledge that these things happen in phases. For a few years, my church has a reasonable band, but soon we will have different leaders who will want to do things differently. Soon, it will be @Sardonicusturn to play in a better band - perhaps even in his own church!

I guess that they were not thinking, but acting. It's the sort of solution that works for employers - they give people money for their time, and can decide what specific role someone should fulfil. However, it does not work well where the teams are volunteers, and the leadership is relying on goodwill. For me, the test is whether the leadership are taking responsibility for their decision. Do they turn up to the rehearsals, and give guidance to the bassist? Do they discipline and advise those who do not practice? Do they give people in the band authority to make those same decisions? I have often thought how I would respond in a similar such situation. I hope that I would be able to thank the leaders for allowing me to serve, and tell them that I am happy to make space on the rota for the new talents that the leaders have identified. That's a polite way of saying that I am leaving, but making clear that it is their responsibility to fix the issue that they have caused. PS - WTF? When Talent Fades?

I am often inspired by colour charts. When one has to name 127 shades of beige, or dark blue, the imagination runs riot. Pick a range with double names. Citrus Blue; Emerald Coast; Mint Blue. Then you can drop the colour and combine two nouns.

That's the one. Job done.

Slightly off topic, but a violin has a bar underneath the bass side of sound board, a sound post between the top and back of instrument, directly under the treble side of the bridge foot. So there are internals that need changing, too.

I am reminded of the quote about Leppo, the fifth member of the Rutles: "His influence [on the Rutles] was so immeasurable that no one has ever bothered to measure it." So too with the recorder, on @Newfoundfreedom's musical life.

"Since I got this bass, I have been unable to put it down....".

Did you get a bum deal?

I played a two-manual Kawai organ with a one octave pedal board. The chord book that I had showed not only the fingerings, but the degrees of the chord and the suggested bass notes. So F minor 7th showed that the 3rd was flattened, that the notes were the same as A flat 6 (but different bass notes). That taught me scales and some music theory. When I see a chord, I still convert the spelling to a piano keyboard format, and "see" the bass notes and chord tones.

Please Sir.... what is the ramp for?

Those of us who do not use our fourth finger, have a role model...

Tutorials tell beginners to use the little finger, because many players do not. As you can see, many musicians manage without, with no real detriment. As for us being artists, that is kind of you to think of us in that way ...

It took me 25 years to properly use my left hand little finger - and even now, I sometimes look at with surprise to see it getting involved in playing... I used to use my right hand ring and middle finger to pluck. I managed to break the bone in my hand attached to my ring finger, and over the week I relearnt the bass using my index finger. The other two fingers were straped to each other to aid healing. I never returned to using my ring finger, as, after the bone healed, the finger was 1/2cm shorter, and kept missing the string due to the lack of reach! So, one can adapt.

Proficient Japanese girl band playing technically difficult maths rock.

Is that not still importing an item, though? Surely the fact that it is in bits, and hidden underneath your socks, does not remove the liability to pay tax and duty?

If you tune her bass guitar in 5ths, then the cellist will be playing a fretted pizzicato horizontal cello. A bass, tuned in 4ths, will be different from the cello, and it is that difference that opens up the new possibilities. Grade 7 at 14 tells me that she has the capability of learning the new layout, and if she wants something different with an extended range, offer a 5 string.

I want to create a walking bassline for Dance Monkey. Chords are F#m, D, E, C#m. So, is the key A, or C#m? I know to play a leading note (one tone or semitone?) below or above the root note of the next chord - so, F#m D F#, E, D, C#, D. However, what would work for the D to E? Chromatic notes?

What a palaver! It seems to me that you are very much having to make things happen yourself, with those instruments - your own loops, your own frets, your own string care regime.

A wife who is 30 years younger? Very Rock and Roll!

Odd - I would have thought that a violinist would be the best way of stepping out to mandolin. It has the same scale length, the same narrow neck (which encourages single notes or double stops rather than chords), and the same tuning (which means that relative note positions are already known). Thank you for your kind words! Yes, they can be loud, especially with double strings (which are intended to help increase the volume). I use a red Jazz III xl pick, which is more mellow than the black version. I have also used a wooden plectrum (too dull). Generally, I think of the mandolin as a melody instrument, rather than a chordal instrument. I think of it as a plucked fretted violin, rather than a smaller guitar. For me, it is that different tuning, and the difficulties of playing chords, which make for the new possibilities.

I have started to play the mandolin again. Mandolessons.com is a great resource. The website has the facility to sort tunes by key, and difficulty. From that, I found easy tunes in G, with sheet music and tablature. Each tune is recorded with mandolin, or guitar or both, normal speed and half speed. So, I am learning stuff in G, reading the music - effectively learning scales and note positions by learning tunes. After sight reading in G becomes second nature, I will move to C, which will involve changing the F# to F - one new note. Then onto F (the B of the C scale will be flattened to the B flat of the F scale). So, I will learn to read music properly on an new instrument. For me, I won't be learning chord shapes - I have a capo and a Lowden that covers the high register, and my £40 German Democratic Republic instrument cannot compete, tonewise. Instead, I find that the tuning in 5ths is more logical than the 4ths and a 3rd of the guitar, and teaches me the fingerboard, ready for a better instrument. Who else here plays bass and mandolin?