dodge_bass

39 minutes ago, TimR said:

 

You may never be called to play like that. I haven't in 40 years of playing semi-professionally in pit, jazz, function and originals bands. 

 

I mean you'd never audition for a funk gig if you don't play funk music well, and if you liked playing funk music, then you'd be able to do those things. It's self fulfilling. 

 

Triplets are something that trips up a lot of people.

 

How are your 'internal' dynamics, that's not just playing loudly or softly for a whole bar, it's placing accents on individual notes and paying attention to note lengths. A quarter note can be played legato (sounds for the length of the quarter beat) or staccato (sounds very short). Muting is another essential technique that separates the amateur/beginner from the more advanced player. 

Slightly tangentially - there’s been some really interesting posts from Ed Friedland recently about the role of a supporting bass player as opposed to a ‘superstar DJ’ bass player (all bells and whistles and looks great for 30secs on Instagram) and how important that is. Lots of food for thought about the differing roles of a bass player (and making money from it!). 

16 minutes ago, Fishfacefour said:

It's telling though that there are literally zero bad comments about Newcastle in this whole thread. 

 

Shsss! Don’t tell everyone or they’ll all want to move here 😂

52 minutes ago, lownote said:

Maybe we could open this out.  Are there some places that are more - or less - magic, and others that are ghastly s***holes? Or is everywhere a bit of both depending on our personal experiences? Personally, as discussed, I adore Newcastle, my missis loathes Sunderland based on having to live there, and I loathe the whole of Devon based on personal experiences. But I like Warwick, and Norwich is nice, but Ipswich isn't. Is it possible or even sensible to generalise? Maybe not. And not least because places change with the years.

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

1 minute ago, bass_dinger said:

 

And that is why I asked the question....

 

Surely if he can do it, why do others of us need to practice, learn music, study chord charts, and nurture a good attitude?

 

I guess that Sid V had a short career in a single band that was more about attitude, and less about the technical aspects of the music. I would say that he was primarily a professional entertainer, and not so much a bass musician.  

 

 

 

 

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

12 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

Hmmm. The estimable and worthy qualities outlined over the previous 4 pages of this thread are all well and good, but this fellow made a living out of playing the bass...

 

 

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 

19 hours ago, TimR said:

Flexibility.

 

I meet a lot of amateurs and semi-pros who need everything mapped out and organised to the nth degree. Parts rehearsed to death. Set List written down a week in advance. Where's the parking? What size is the stage?

 

Music isn't like that. Playing live you have to be ready to improvise to react to changes when it goes wrong. Being on stage is no place to be if you can't cope with that.

 

I do meet the odd pro like that but they're good, really good, and people smile at their eccentricities. 

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 

17 minutes ago, Davebassics said:

Ahreet?

 

Proudly born and raised in Newcastle. Lived just off stanhope street, 5 minutes walk to St James. Used to hear the crowds raw on a Saturday afternoon. Magic. Moved to the coast when I was 4 or 5 and moved to Yorkshire for Uni and never quite managed to leave. I'm currently saving to move back up but let me tell you, in certain areas, the North/South device isn't as wide as I would like it to be! On the coast where we are looking, I'd say its roughly £100k cheaper than an equivalent on the South Coast (where my other half lives and where my main office for work is). It's difficult to say definitively. It is cheaper, but not as much as I would like!

 

Do we have a Geordie corner here on basschat? Would be canny to make some friends prior to me move up there!

I’m based about ten mins from Stanhope street

15 minutes ago, Davebassics said:

Ahreet?

 

Proudly born and raised in Newcastle. Lived just off stanhope street, 5 minutes walk to St James. Used to hear the crowds raw on a Saturday afternoon. Magic. Moved to the coast when I was 4 or 5 and moved to Yorkshire for Uni and never quite managed to leave. I'm currently saving to move back up but let me tell you, in certain areas, the North/South device isn't as wide as I would like it to be! On the coast where we are looking, I'd say its roughly £100k cheaper than an equivalent on the South Coast (where my other half lives and where my main office for work is). It's difficult to say definitively. It is cheaper, but not as much as I would like!

 

Do we have a Geordie corner here on basschat? Would be canny to make some friends prior to me move up there!

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

22 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

Newcastle is great. (though there are more than one dark skies location in the UK)

Different from Yorkshire, different from the Central belt. I'ld happily live up or around there.

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. 

On 06/01/2023 at 04:42, Chris2112 said:

Great town but dangerous, full of violent yobs and drunken idiots. It is well renowned for it's nightlife but like most things, it ain't what it used to be. By the standards of most places in the UK it's one of the better nights out, if not the best overall, particularly because all of the nightlife in the city centre is fairly densely packed in. You don't have to go far to see a lot. 

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

22 minutes ago, MrProud said:

Stop faffing about and buy another noble 😆

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

10 minutes ago, Boodang said:

I often use a small mixer live with my basses (I usually have at least 3 basses at a gig), but if I have the opportunity to bring out the Moog phatty as well, I'll run a separate di for that as foh eq/comp etc will be way different. 

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

19 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

 

Yes, you use the returns as instrument inputs.  It's one of their recommended setups:

 

 

 

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? 

31 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Sending to lines independently can easily lead to problems with monitoring, unless you've done a fair bit of prep work beforehand.

 

If you're running your bass through backline (with a DI to the PA) so that your bass rig supplies the monitoring you need, then running your synthbass through the same backline gets rid of that (potential) problem.

 

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! 

23 minutes ago, binky_bass said:

Had the exact same thing happen, even after phoning them up first to make sure it was in stock after hearing these stories regularly. 

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 07/06/2022 at 11:56, ern500evo said:

Another excellent transaction with Mark and the guys at BD. Ordered an Aguilar OBP3 pre amp on Saturday, had the sales invoice on Sunday night(over a bank holiday weekend!) and the pre amp arrived this morning. Can’t knock that 

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. 

Stil available? 

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. 

2 hours ago, Newfoundfreedom said:

OK, I'm just reviving this thread, because I've had a couple of drinks, so please forgive me if I ramble. But I'm just re-watching a performance of my band from a few weeks ago which we recorded. At the time I thought we were rubbish and was mortified at every little mistake. But watching it back with fresh ears, having had a couple of sherberts, I think we sound great. Maybe because the drink allows me to get out of my own head and stop listening to the bass and my own mistakes, and listen to the band as a whole. I don't know, but now the mistakes sound almost imperceptible, whereas at the time they felt enormous! 

 

I don't know if I'm explaining myself very well. Please don't think I have a drinking problem or anything like that. I like the occasional social drink, but when I do drink it feels like I can be more objective of the band because It allows me to listen to the music as a whole, rather than just listening for my own part and my own cockups. It's almost like being a member of the audience. 

 

I don't usually drink before or during a gig, because it makes me really sloppy. But I wish I could find the confidence in myself and the band that I get when I listen back after having a few. 

 

Maybe there's no wonder that so many artists have a problem with drink and drugs. But that's probably a discussion for a whole other thread.

 

I envy those of you who don't suffer from anxiety  I would really love to love being on stage. I love being in a band! I love the creative process of making music and writing songs! I wish I could learn to love performing. I keep hoping it will come one day. I'm generally really confident in life and any social situation, so I don't even understand my own anxiety at performing. I'm hopeful it will come with more experience. 

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!

13 hours ago, ambient said:

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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

On 03/03/2022 at 13:02, Nicko said:

I completely agree.  The fact that a notation reader has to translate a note name into one of several alternative finger positions isn't an efficient way of writing music for stringed instruments.  A piano player, trumpet player and many other instrumentalists of course have no choice where to play a note anyway.

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.