dodge_bass

Perhaps…though given the thread is titled somewhat specifically ‘Newcastle’ perhaps generalising could be moved to another thread?!

Try rocking up to any musical situation bar a sex pistols cover band with this lack of ability….

Indeed. This Q was posed about 15 years ago to me in a different context about the meaning of ‘professional’. If you’re in a band that’s making enough money to make a living then it doesn’t matter how good (or in this case bad) you are. For the most part though we’re talking about freelance musicians who aren’t in a single band and therefore need a range of skills to make money from a range of different musical situations.

And if you wanted a skill set / job description for being a professional musician you couldn’t go wrong as a starting point with: Musical attributes: - Good understanding of the genres you want to work in - ability to read music - ability to read leadsheets - good ears & ability to play from memory / off chart - strong sense of time (!) - ability to work with a click - ability to improvise / create own bass parts (not necessarily soloing though that’s definitely a bonus) Non-musical attributes: Good reliable gear Driving licence & a working car Flexible EXTREMELY reliable and good at diary management Very good and setting goals and organising yourself (practice / preparation) Excellent communication skills That’s a quick blast off the top of my head after 20 years. There will be more

I sort of agree and disagree with this point at the same time. For me (pro player of 20years) I know if somebody wants a good job then part of that is being organised. So if they can provide a set list (and maybe parts or, leadsheets or recordings in advance) then I’ll take them so that I can be as prepared as possible. The result is that I can then be as flexible as possible on the day because I’m not asking basic questions like ‘what key’ ‘or which version’ and don’t have my head buried in the music. If a booker is like unsure of what the gig is, what the setlist is etc there’s a high possibility that it may be crap and therefore worth avoiding. So for me being super organised / prepared whilst being ready to be as flexible as necessary on the night are two sides of the same coin rather than at odds with eachother. Ive worked for 20years successfully and nobody has EVER complained about me being too prepared or knowing what I’m doing on the bandstand

I’m based about ten mins from Stanhope street

Me and @wateroftyneare based up here - drop us a PM, we don’t bite!

It’s great. Fantastic varied music scene, great day and night life, near the coast, near the hills, has a good airport, houses are relatively cheap, people are nice, loads of investment recently. Perfect place to be. Highly recommend. Been here 20years, we won’t leave.

Total rubbish I’m afraid. Not true at all.

I’m not sure I can function with no kidneys 🤪

Do you have your own DI for the Phatty? if so what do you use?

Neat - I’ve got an LS2 so I’ll try that. Just need a DI box for the synth.

Last Q - what sort of DI box for the synth? It’s a Moog Sub25….would a passive box like a radial JDI work? Or would it need to be active?

thanks for all the input so far everyone. So….if I sent two DI’s (synth / bass) to FOH and then from the output of the DI’s went into a mini mixer then I could send both signals into one bass amp and have the ability to adjust onstage monitoring via the mixer whilst FOH has complete control over the DI signals for the actual mixing. And if I spend time balancing the synth bass levels against the elec bass levels in the studio then in theory the FOH engineer just needs to turn on and set the faders at about same does that all seem sensible?

Evening all Have recently started to play some synth bass keys and keen to incorporate this into my live setup. Just pondering on practicalities for the live set up and would happily take an advice or thoughts.... My question is really - would it be better to use a mini mixer to send both my electric bass and synth bass to FOH or two separate DI's (electric / synth bass)? If sending two separate DI's I'm relying upon the sound engineer to be able to balance the two bass sends against eachother which I suspect might not be that good an idea....so even if my patches etc and electric bass are balanced against eachother doesn't mean the engineer will necessarily mix them that way. I feel like having a mini-mixer would allow easier tweaks to get the balance right but would an engineer want different bass types coming down one DI line? And if I did use a mini-mixer would that be detrimental to the sounds of both instrument as opposed to use dedicated bass DI's on each instrument? I dunno basically.... I'd love any thoughts anyone has or how you approach it if you do. Thanks!

Yeah, it's clearly an issue for them. I'll not bother using them again, most things can be bought elsewhere, it's just always nice to support (if possible) small independent retailers.

On the other hand I ordered something online a week ago and got a receipt etc through. Week later nothing. Rang them today. "oh we don't have that in stock". Didn't even apologise. Ok, so when were you going to bother getting in touch with the customer who's money you have and who's product you don't have in stock but happily took payment for and kept? Only takes an email or a phone call. Shame. Bass specific shops are really important but they need to function properly and not take money for gear they don't actually have - that's just poor.

Got me Wingbass from Mark - great comms, lovely fella, excellent packing and all as should be. Another top Basschatter. Perhaps if you folks weren't so nice I'd be able to actually save some money...! Thanks a million Mark.

A few drinks or about 8 months does the same trick - you stop becoming emotionally invested in the bass (i..e you've forgotten all about the gig!) and start to hear it more like a 'normal person'. That's the best point at which to evaluate your work...it's just a long time to wait is all!

Inner Game of Music is excellent as you note. So is Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner.

Agree and entirely disagree. The joy of music notation is a single non-instrument specific system that can be translated across multiple instruments but understood by all, as opposed to having a specific notation approach per instrument / instrument type. Learning different staffs is hard enough as it is! Notation tells you what to play but not where - as a player you're left to make those choices based on your own knowledge and experience. And that's a good thing as it allows you to understand the music and then make sensible musical / technical decisions about how to then play it. Tab as far as I'm aware was created for lute music in the C15th so it has a solid history behind it and is certainly a valid form of music notation. However, for me personally, notation is the winner because you will never be given in a professional setting (unless you're a lute player!) tab, it will always be dots. So, like it or lump it, the obvious notation form to learn is the one that all other musicians use because it only enhances your skill set and employability. That having been said if you don't want to work in settings (professional or otherwise) where notation is used then either playing by ear or using tab is perfectly fine too. We all have to make decisions based on our own personal circumstances. My experience is that learning to read notation as an electric bass player was singularly the best musical decision I ever made and kept me in professional work and paying the mortgage for about 15years. I'm going to however, put the cat among the pigeons and say that I suspect the reason so many tabs are wrong is because they're more often than not created by less experienced players for less experienced players. So mistakes are made because the tabber can't hear the part, can't work it out so approximates it etc. Which is fine...kind of. It's fine if it's a guide and the reader is aware of that and then fills in the gaps as it were. Also fine if the reader is like 'no that bits wrong, I'll correct it'. Where it's not so good (and this entirely applies to incorrect sheet music too) is where the reader takes it as the gospel truth and plays it note for note not knowing any better. I've played some pretty dodgy sheet music as well in my time so this is not a tab-bad, notes-good dualism rather a sliding scale of great-awful for both tab and notation depending upon the experience of the creator. Anyway, I got dragged into a notation debate again. It's really interesting but as has already been pointed out, different things for different folks and both notation systems are valid but not infallible. For example - I did a sight-reading live radio recording a few years back. All notated out, red light on, no rehearsal just read the dots. INTENSE. Got though it all though, bar one real stinker of a note which I was gutted about (as you can imagine). Anyway the MD gave me quite the death stare as we were doing it and at the end made a big fuss about having us go back and re-record that song again to edit it in. Guess what....same stinker of a note occurs. MD realises at that point it's his error for not checking the part properly and apologises. So there you have it!

I really wouldn't store anything in there - the changes of temperature on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis are really going to mess with any instrument you put in there.

There's loads of high quality Motown / soul / funk transcriptions on my website too: www.dodgebass.co.uk Enjoy.