bass_dinger

Ah yes, I forgot that option - signalling to the band, using pen and paper, before the gig. I guess that the flexibility is good to have, but I do wonder whether that extra layer of complexity helps or hinders the band.

Here you go. I find this version very helpful - it contains both the notation, and the tab and I can slow it down to 3/4 speed. I can see the offbeat notes on the first and third bars of this screenshot. And as we all know, offbeats are funky.... He has even transcribed the mistake (or tape drop out?) at 0'16". Wonderful.

Having thought about it a little, I now realise that the hand signals (and sometimes, vocal cues - "Let's sing the first verse again!") are not just for the band, but for others too. So, the person operating the words needs to know about repeats. The congregation find it helpful too, to know what to expect - and to see that other musicians and singers are animated and engaged by what is happening.

We do much the same. The third verse is always quieter. For me, it is predictable, and getting dull - but I suspect that the congregation don't realise how formulaic it is. Actually, I am not sure that the band consciously realised it either - so, it all felt very natural and organic when the planned spontaneity happened.

"If you are playing when I stomp my foot, stop. If I stomp my foot and you are not playing, start". Or something like that. Just to prove that I have watched the whole of YouTube, here he is, doing the end-stomp with the E Street Band - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6swgiM9vSEE 2'44"

Chip Shearin says that Chip Shearin played the bassline. Nile Rogers says it isn't Chic - 6'44" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkjJx6rYrOo So, both Chip and Niles say that the Rapper's Delight bassline is a little different to the original. I have seen a video of Nile Rogers saying that "they got some 17 year old kid to play the bassline in the studio", but I can't find it now.

So, it might have been good, and you missed out! In spite of what some may think, James Blunt is not all about hand signals at the end of a song, Mickeyboro . . . 🙂

Oooh, I struggle with this one - the short notes, the little spaces, the offbeatness of the whole track. I need to chop each bar into (I guess) 16th notes, and work out on what subdivision of the beat (1, e, and, a) the notes fall on. When I play funk, I play all the right rests, but not necessarily of the right length . . .

Interesting - and, for me, not something I have seen before. However, it feels more like the music that I play - the leader gives a rough structure, but we follow him (or her), for added repeats and dynamics that they will call for during the song. As for folk music, if that is the case, I plan to attend my local folk club's open mic session, and suggest that we play the okey cokey. "why did you stop, then start, then stop, then start?" "The leader stuck his left leg in, his left leg out, in, out . . . . . . "

Good point! Just as well I was not in the band - I would be midway through the next chorus while the rest of the band were starting to pack up . . . . It perhaps illustrates that signals work best when everyone knows agrees them.

Looking at this video of James Blunt, he appears to signal to the band "another repeat" (3'01") and then "desist, I don't want this any more" ( 3'02"). I was impressed that they managed to follow that sudden change of mind. So, how do others here signal repeated choruses or verses, extended solos, or quiet sections?

That is astounding. You are your own human jukebox, and a walking iPod.

So, did they ask you to do that before Covid19 started . . . ?

"Bass > LONG cable > Tuner > short cable > amp is all I need!" Fixed it . . . I actually have long cables already. Honest!!

TheGreek, you are not helping!! Let me swim in my own tiny fishtank of ignorance about the wider world of bass gear. Bass > cable > Tuner > short cable > amp is all I need!

I'll play. I always thought myself the very model of self control, but ended up replacing a broken acoustic guitar pre-amplifier with an LR Baggs Anthem, and bought an Ashdown Acoustic Radiator too. Oh - and Harley Benton CST 24. Plus both instruments were set up for ease of playing. I now have all that I need. So, this year, I will focus on using what I have, properly.

Thank you. It makes more sense now. I also see that there are only two major chords - D and G. The C chord is missing (perhaps substituted by the Em, which might be considered as an altered C maj 7 chord?). Maybe the C chord would have worked less well with the riff?

Define "impressive"! I think that I want my hifi to sound like the original recording - if I want soft and fuzzy, I can always throw a duvet over the speakers.... For me, the biggest revelation has been the purchase of Atacama speaker stands. The definition is better, more focused - and the music is easier to listen to, and less fatiguing.

Listening to this song, I heard that the chords were changing throughout the song - D, G, Em. However, each chord gets the same bass riff . Is there a musical explanation for why this static one-bar bassline works over three different chords?

I do wonder about the relative prices of the equipment. A good, hifi, turntable seems to be more expensive than a good, hifi, CD player. Less robust too.... With £400 to invest in a turntable and vinyl, and the same £400 to spend on a CD player and CDs, which would get you a better outcome?

Me too. Ebay is a good hunting ground for cheap music on CD, as are artist home pages. http://www.document-records.com/ are great for Blues completists who want recordings of old scratchy 78s. https://www.naxos.com/ are good for classical stuff, perhaps recorded by an obscure eastern European orchestra, which is cheap to licence and re-release. I think that I like the idea of vinyl, more than I like the sound.

I think that what we call a compact cassette, was originally marketed as a dictaphone recording device. Nakamichi managed to get a lot of mileage out of the format, but they were perhaps best suited for in-car entertainment, and for recording Radio 1's chart show - and for doing mix tapes for your mates. I still treasure my Best Of Shalamar, compiled by my mate Roger... "Home Taping Is Killing Music."

I did the same with a 12 year old that wanted to learn. He liked Fly me to the Moon; Flamenco Sketches by Miles Davis; and All of Me by Micheal Buble.... I had to tell his parents that those songs were beyond me!

I recently offloaded my small vinyl collection, because I rarely if ever listened to them. With a cheap Dual CS505 deck, and nowhere to store the records, it was an easy decision to fix my old Marantz CD52 player, and focus on that medium. However, my wife still has some vinyl and cassettes, which I thought that I could easily replace with the CD version. I was stunned to see how expensive CDs can be, especially when it was released as a limited run by an obscure artist. Contrast that to how easily available the vinyl version is. EDIT - everything is easily available, if one has the money...

Ah yes - if they had been invented 5 years ago, they would have called it "heat-activated low density biodegradable packaging granules", but we know them as a bag of popping corn. I find that it works best if it can be separated from the item being sent - nobody wants food-stuff in the slots of their tube power amp! I used ziplocked bags full of popcorn. "10 out of 10, delicious. Would buy again." I see that the wood grain on the packaging is better than that on some guitars I have owned! If it is 6mm ply, it is expensive to buy (but cheaper than a damaged instrument). So, I have been known to resort to a bit of skip diving . . .