bass_dinger

Is that a 5 string Ricky? I had no idea that they existed!

I practice at home two or three times a week, so when I arrive at the rehearsals, it sounds like I don't need to rehearse.

I never adjust my tone, balance or volume controls. Instead, 15 years ago, I set them where I liked them, and put a spot of nail varnish on each knob to show me where they should be.

In the last episode, they will perhaps unmask him. "You thought that he was a useless duffer. In fact, you have him in your record collection . . . "

It is an operating system, used on Tablets (of Stone) . . .

Is this still available? I wanted to try a D'Addario set, but the B String especially!

A free Hiscox 4-unit rack case, to whoever can pick it up from Swanley (Junction 3 M25), and do so with a smile and a friendly wave.

We have a white-majority band, and a perhaps 30 per cent of the congregation is black. So, it would have felt inauthentic to do a reggae version of anything in the service. However, we did mess about one rehearsal and came up with a pretty convincing version of "Your Love Never Fails". I would like to try it in the service one day - perhaps during Black History Month, play songs in the style of reggae, or Motown. Oooh - and, and for Fathers Day, some AOR-style songs. We do try to mix it up - a lot of the Rend Collective songs end up sound like bad bluegrass music, so, we try to use different styles. The only thing that we fail on is old hymns - it always has to have some funky beat under it, even though the people for whom we are playing it do not necessarily want that.

On the day, I was okay. In fact, it went rather well. No midweek rehearsal, just three musicians (drums, bass and keys or guitar) and three vocalists. Some songs were different in the service than in the pre-service run through, but we seemed to adapt to the new style very quickly (after one bar of hearing the guitarist's strumming pattern). Listening back to a recording of one of the songs, I found myself rather liking the riff that ran through the chorus (and then realising that it was me who had played it...). Onto next week, and we have been asked to play this by someone in the congregation who seems to quite like it . . . It feels pretty much driven by the bass (double-stopped with some 10ths and minor 10ths) and the drums - high-hat especially plus Hammond organ, minimal acoustic guitar, and a huge drum and bass sound for the chorus. I know what I will be practicing tonight (and in the 80 minutes prior to the Sunday service)! Any advice? In particular, is there any chorus effect on the bass?

They were on the face of the previous bass guitarist, knocked unconscious and left on the floor during an earlier set.

I have an SWR Workingman's 12 with a similar "front shelf" on it. I had no idea that it was designed to hold drinks. . .

The weekend approaches, as does our traditional Sunday Morning (afternoon?) time for playing. Are we all still playing? Have we seen an increase in the size of the band, and congregation, as lockdown draws to an end? For me, I am feeling a little burnt out. However, we have been blessed by a new guitarist with huge experience and I am hopeful that this will reboot my enthusiasm and drive. However, I have reached the point where I no longer feel that I can play at funerals and memorial services - I find the emotion too great, and it is a difficult way to spend a day off of work. I nevertheless want to support those who have suffered loss, and am struggling to reconcile my own needs (for a nice day off), with the desire to support friends.

I am told that he was known to lay on the floor of the studio while he played - clearly, he took his back care seriously!

yes - I often ask myself "Am I good enough to play a bass recorder?" Thomann do a bass recorder for £85. That's bass guitar territory!

Your teacher was probably waiting for you to get the notes right. Then, lesson two would have been "creating a good tone"! If Primary School Assemblies had sounded like Fushan Elementary School Recorder Ensemble, then more of us would be playing recorder now - there is even a bass recorder (played here by the tall people at the back - so, just like a bass guitar in that respect). Rossini : L'italiana in Algeri / Fushan Elementary School Recorder Ensemble And here, one of the better recorder channels - Sarah Jeffery / Team Recorder - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/SarahJefferyMusic

I was wrong - it seems that Ian Anderson did play the recorder (according to the Wiki page on the recorder). Paul McCartney did so too, on Fool on the Hill.

Ian Anderson, of the group Jethro Tull, is a self-taught flautist of huge ability. The recorder is a wonderful instrument, whose reputation has been sadly ruined by a million awful School Assembly recitals, and hundreds of thousands of cheap sub-standard instruments. Indeed, when I found that my synth had a recorder patch, the first thing that I did was to play "London's Burning", using the pitch bend function to play it out of tune, with a different error for each note. The video that was shared shows how versatile the recorder can be.

Good advice! I took a while to look at the possibilities, and it seems to the inside of a tuning peg, rattling in sympathy with the notes. I will try the other options too, when time allows. Thank you so much for your clear advice.

My Washburn XB500 has a rattling truss rod - or at least, something inside the neck is rattling, whether it be the rod, or the channel that supports the rod It does it mainly when I play a B flat on the G string - so, a sympathetic vibration. It may instead be a rattling fret, or a loose tuning peg. Is there anything that I can try at home - say, a quarter turn on the truss rod, or gently hammer down the frets - before I take it to a luthier, or source a new neck?

£500 would buy a lot of lessons. For me, that would be the preference - but, I probably need £500 of lessons! A case? Better cables?

Oh, go on then!! Do please share it.

Good thinking! I will try this. I find that a lot of the material is very busy, and the bassline, too simple, or too buried in the mix, to be of any musical use. I also play other songs, to increase my dexterity and technique. Last Sunday, the bassline to "Let Your Yeah be Yeah", by the Pioneers, found its way in some new song (the title of which escapes me. As do the lyrics...).

I am learning to learn better . . . . Most recently, I am trying to play by ear. Put on a track, and play along. Last week, Let Your Yeah be Yeah by the Pioneers. I was chuffed to get the chord changes, and the bassline too (although I lack the nuance and feel). I have also found my two notebooks and music folder. In these, I list the songs I worked on for a each day, and each page has an entry for the songs themselves. All this allows me to return to make notes about my shortcomings and learning needs for each song, and to return to my previous learning later than week. This stops repetitive noodling of the same half dozen favourites, and allows me to stretch my ability.

It is good that you can laugh at this. Because the alternative (rage, and frustration) would damage your own wellbeing, and not change the Learner's attitude. Thanks for sharing . . .

Someone in the audience tried to set fire to it, after hearing the introduction to Mustang Sally once too often?