ambient

I guess this is related to a question posed by someone I know on Facebook recently: ‘do you consider yourself an artist or an entertainer?’ I started off by playing original music with various bands, I then began playing in covers bands, and left original music behind. I did stints on cruise ships, and played in theatre pit bands. It was during my music degree course - that I’d enrolled on to get better at playing covers - that I realised I much preferred creating original music. Apart from the occasional jazz gig, it’s all I do now. I’ve moved into teaching music, I’m currently training to be a lecturer in music at BCU. I simply get far more pleasure and a greater sense of achievement from creating something original than I ever did playing sex on fire at Rob and Julie’s wedding reception. The only thing I would like to do more of from my past life, is musical theatre, I really did enjoy that. We’re all different though, as long as you derive pleasure from your musical pursuits, that’s all that matters.

I prefer creating to reproducing.

I noticed yesterday that they’ve added a tuner to it too with the recent software update.

There was research carried out by Christopher Raeburn in 2003 that suggested it. They were looking primarily at music students. I think the think the boredom aspect maybe applies more to those who’ve made it?

‘To rise above the nerves, distractions, and stressful circumstances of a performance, to feel as though nothing can get to you, and when the moment of truth arrives, play the way you know you can. To be, in a word, bulletproof.’ Noa Kageyama, Violinist, Performance Psychologist, The Bulletproof Musician

Depends on your knowledge, but I look at the structure of the song: intro, verse, chorus etc. I then work out what’s going on harmonically. I want to know what key the song is in, and I want to know what the chords are, the bass line will pretty much be built from the chords. Most pop and rock songs are built following recognisable chord progressions. Something bluesy will probably be a I/IV/V. From that I know what the roots are, and can hear what the other notes are, they’re usually diatonic (from the chords/scales), with perhaps the odd passing note. If I know the chords I can busk if I forget the actual line. As with anything else, it’s just practice.

Does anyone know of one please?

These are nice basses. Congratulations on your new instrument.

I believe airplane holds are heated and pressurised nowadays. It helps reduce stresses on the metal.

I’ve gigged using a very cheap - sub £100 - bass borrowed from a friend. My custom WT was having some work done to it, a friend asked me to dep for his jazz band. I spent an hour or so setting it up, filed the bridge saddles, and changed the strings. It was perfectly playable.

Assuming they were properly in tune too. There’s a Stones song I had to learn a few years ago. I can’t remember now whether they were sharp or flat, they certainly weren’t at concert pitch.

If you’re only playing by yourself, just tune the strings to one another. Harmonics works best, 5th fret of one string to the 7th fret of the next string.

It’s not often that I’m blown away by something enough to post a review of it, but this pedal-sized gizmo is simply fabulous. I’m a huge fan of Darkglass products, I’ve already got three of their pedals on my board. I wanted something for silent practice without plugging my bass into my interface and opening up Logic Pro. This obviously ticks that box, but it does so much more too, and it does it brilliantly. I don’t like the sound of my bass on its own through headphones, that’s why I’d use Logic Pro, for the amp sims. This little object comes with a comprehensive library of impulse responses from various cabs, preamps, power amps and microphones, that you can mix and match to suit your tastes. There’s also a library of pre-built rigs from Darkglass artists that make a great starting point. You can save up to five of your favourite rigs, that you simply recall using the touch-sensitive button - there’s an LED that lights up to show which slot you’re using. There are also various EQ settings and a noise gate that you can select and drop into the signal chain. I believe you can use third-party impulse responses too. You need to download the Darkglass Suite to access the IR library, and to make adjustments to the settings on the Element. It’s available for Mac and PC from the Darkglass website. There’s also a very handy app available from the App Store and its non-Apple equivalent. I found the app really useful and very easy to use. You simply connect the Element to your phone via Bluetooth. Thanks to a recent firmware update the Element can also now be used as an audio interface for recording. Logic Pro recognised it straightaway, it sounds equally as good as my Focusrite Scarlett. I don’t think you can use the IRs from the unit when it’s used as an interface, which is a shame. You can also stream music from your device to the element, again using Bluetooth, enabling you to play along with whatever your streaming. You use the centre of the three touch sensitive strips to adjust the balance between your instrument and whatever you’re playing along to. The outer two strips are to control the volume level of the two headphones outputs. I think it will really come into its own in the studio, or for live work where there’s no back line. The quality of the impulse responses is simply fantastic, so just use the DI output on the left-hand side of Element, choose your virtual rig, and you’re away. There’s also an aux-in socket on the right hand side, which I believe can be used for a second instrument, though you’d need to use a jack to mini jack adapter.

Your physical symptoms were very similar to mine. I would take to the stage, along with a random assembly of other students to perform the part I'd learned, and literally shake, or freeze. My hands wouldn't work properly, my mind would go blank. I twas a group performance, all individually being marked and critiqued by different lecturers. My poor performance generally effected that of the other students. My GP prescribed Propranolol which helped enormously with the physical symptoms, it counteracted the effects of too much adrenalin. For the psychological effects I used a mix of cognitive behavioural therapy, yoga and meditation/relaxation. I tried hypnotherapy too, that didn't work for me. The Alexander technique is also apparently useful. Barry Green's book leads you through the steps of cognitive behavioural therapy. He describes there being two 'selfs'. Self 1 is the individual, self 2 is the negative chatter taking place in the brain. The nagging voice telling you that you're no good, you're going to f**k up, you shouldn't really be there, etc. A friend used to have terrible performance anxiety that he cured by taking up improvised drama.

Exactly. There are various reasons why the anxiety is there.

Exactly

The Inner game book is really good, highly recommended. There are a few books worth checking out, some have been written with specific instruments in mind.