ambient

True, anywhere outside of London will be cheaper with regard to living expenses.

He gave me a bass to try that he was selling for Dave Swift a few years ago. It was up for sale for over £8k. I really didn't want to even touch it, but he insisted, so I did very, very, very, very, very carefully :)

Yes, though I believe both, depends on what you play.

I know a guy who’s studying his Masters in jazz bass at the Guildhall. Birmingham conservatoire have a brilliant jazz course, a friend of mine did his degree there. They even have a little jazz club of their own. I did a workshop thing there earlier this year, they have brilliant facilities, it’s only a year or so old.

Definitely! At the end of the day, it’s you that has to be happy. ICMP started in Acton as Basstech, Guitartech and Drumtech. I used to go once a month as a teenager for a lesson. I think where they were is where BIMM moved to? I auditioned at BIMM in Bristol at the same time as auditioning for ICMP, the audition at BIMM was a lot easier. Its been 3 years since I graduated now, the courses keep evolving. I was there last year as a guest speaker, and the course had changed since I’d left. I’m guessing it’s changed again since then, so it’s definitely best to go along, look around, meet the tutors and get a prospectus. Another thing to consider is ICMP have just moved into brand new and purpose built premises. Where they were before was good, but a bit of a compromise.

ICMP you study a different genre every 6 weeks. It takes you through blues, into rock, RnB, funk, jazz, fusion, metal, soul etc. There were modules in year two that I enjoyed, where bass was treated as an instrument rather than a role, they were very good. I recommend the course, it was definitely life changing for me. They have open days through the year. The audition was very tough. It’s a two part process, there’s an initial audition to see if you’re up to taking the full audition. The full audition has various sight reading tests, aural and transcribing tests, a harmony and theory exam, and a chance to demonstrate your personal skills by playing a solo piece of your choice.

I did my BMus at ICMP, and can personally highly recommend it. It got my onto the path that I’m currently on, just started my PhD at UoB. A friend started at BIMM and left, doing his final year at ICMP. His opinion was that the ICMP course was far better. If I had one criticism of the course; this is just me personally, it lacked a little bit of customisation. It was kind of this is the course, these are the modules. I was starting to do solo bass stuff, and be a little more experimental by year two, there wasn’t really the provision for that. It was the amazing composition tutor who kind of became a mentor for what I personally was doing, rather than the bass tutors.

Just catch a train.

Do not use my Hermes, they’re awful. If it’s small enough then you’d have to go a long way to beat Royal Mail special delivery, it’s tracked and insured.

Isn't ProTools like that now; subscription and cloud based?

Standards as in standard repertoire, not necessarily jazz, but common songs or numbers for that genre; could be jazz but equally they could be blues or soul, punk even I guess. In rock it’d be alright now or you really got me. Valerie is standard in most function bands set lists, that kind of thing.

I’ve got a transcription of what is hip if you want it. It was an exam piece at uni.

Bits of this are about 3 years old, other bits were done in the last few weeks. An earlier version was released by a brilliant new cassette only label called RTR earlier in the year, they release some beautiful music; this, or rather the earlier version was just on a sampler that they issued: https://rustedtonerecordings.bandcamp.com https://soundcloud.com/user-987830578/abstract

It all depends on your requirements. A 5 has always made more sense to me than a 4 string, not just because of the extra low notes, more so the positioning thing, especially on reading gigs where you can pretty much stay in one position on the neck and concentrate on the part. A 6 string is fantastic for soloing and chordal stuff; I personally love the chord voicing possibilities that a 6 allows.

It’s easier if you play notes rather than frets or string numbers.

It’s a publicity thing. I saw at least 8 or 9 people sharing this on Facebook last night.

Can you check them out in advance, just to see you’re not wasting your time? Ask if they’ve got YouTube videos or whatever.

It’s entirely up to you. I do occasional solo bass gigs using an apogee one into a MacBook into the PA. It sounds great. If you’re using a Mac then you’ll at least have GarageBand, that has some great amp sims.

Nothing wrong at all using studio monitors instead of an amp/combo. Some Apogee gear only works with Apple so you need to check that it's OK for whatever computer you're using. I use an Apogee One which is cheaper than a Duet, if it's just you then a One is perfect. I use Adam monitors which are amazing and didn't cost the earth.

Something else from recent times. https://soundcloud.com/user-987830578/piano-and-string-thing-in-34

Nice track! I'm tempted to get a Status S2. I used to own a Modulus Q6 that I foolishly sold a few years ago, I doubt I'll easily find another like it. I like the sound and feel of graphite, and the Status basses look very, very nice.

Maybe they’ve had a breakdown or something, so your booking is unavailable?

Thank you .