xilddx

[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1330169068' post='1553617'] I do still really enjoy music in what i expect a similar way to everyone else. I enjoy the feel of a hooks or riffs that stick in my head, i like the chilled feeling i get when listening to pop/ jazz ballads, and i love the hair on back moments like you get at the end of stairway to heaven when it really kicks in! But i then analyse what is it that they have done, dynamics, articulation, tone, production, choices of notes ect. This then gives me the opportunity to create something with a similar effect consistently. I've often been a band leader and i always bring my idea of using dynamics to really change the feel of a song. Subtle changes can make a big difference and make it much more exciting for the audience. It also means when performing, even if i have learnt 80 songs that month it is easier to remember the song 4 weeks ago because i can have a quick listen and say "ok thats A minor and i start on the 3rd and descend to the 6th and its a funk feel." Just works well for me and my terrible memory. Sorry if i've repeated myself, but i feel this explains my approach much better [/quote] The only way any of us will know if your approach works is if you post clips I reckon

[quote name='EdwardHimself' timestamp='1329950076' post='1550407'] PRS SE. That is the "budget" range, typically £3-500. [/quote] They are nice too. I had a SE double cut semi, it was very nice. It felt a bit 'dry' to me though, if you know what I mean. There are amazing guitars out there for £300-£500. The OP needs to go and try LOADS of them and get what he really likes. Also depends on whether a trem is required too. You need to spend more if you want a good trem that stays in tune. No issue whatever with going straight to electric. No way I would have felt like I needed to learn on an upright bass before going to an electric, right? Right.

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1330119698' post='1553174'] It's true [/quote] Welcome to my world

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1330116481' post='1553127'] Damn. Can't make it again. I am in London but that's because we're playing at the 12 Bar Club... Thinks... what time are you on and how long does it take by tube from TCR? [/quote] Isn't this the second time this has happened? On at 9.30-10-ish mate, you'll never make it Have a wonderful gig, and I will get to see the DVATTs at some point soon too I hope.

Two weeks to go I would LOVE to see some BCers there! For one thing it makes me play better And this one is an important gig for us and may influence our future. Cheers! Nx

I got one for my POD X3 LIVE. It was £50 very well spent. My POD bottom is still in fantastic scuff-free condition! However I didn't really notice any tangible improvement in my tone.

[quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1330075221' post='1552207'] I have been sessioning for an artist over the past 8 months and I have been laying down some funk lines and gospel chops for his forthcoming album that will be released in April 2012. It hasn't been mastered yet so I can't upload anything yet, but we had a giggle remixing I Wish/Stevie Wonder with my lead singer when we had a couple of hours to burn at his studio. The bass tone is a bit raw as I am sure I was direct into the desk to cut time. I am pretty sure I used my MTD 535 on this session (sounds like it!). Enjoy! [url="http://soundcloud.com/andrew-hartley/nation-stack-i-wish-andrew"]http://soundcloud.co...k-i-wish-andrew[/url] [/quote] I don't dig on this kind of music, but I enjoyed it. You have really great feel, I really like your tone, lovely sense of timing too. You just sound confident and completely at ease, I can almost see you smiling while you recorded it. The only thing I don't like is that little funk major/minor 3rd trill lick, almost every funk player does it and I simply can't hear it as being musical, it's like a great big dollop of tomato sauce on your juicy and perfectly cooked organic rib-eye. Other than that, superb!

[quote name='hamfist' timestamp='1330074848' post='1552199'] I find it all so depressing, especially observing how the whole "scene" has changed over the last 27 years that I have been gigging. Ultimately though, so many people still want to play more for the love of it than for money (although the dosh is a nice bonus). However, venue owners/promoters/whatever are [u]never[/u] doing it for the love of it. Making money is always the prime influence. Making music is, and always will be, a creative love and expression for most people doing it. This isn't going to change so, as a group. musicians will always tend to get done over by the money-makers. The drop in numbers of folk who are actually interested in seeing a live band is also shocking. Of those who do come along, half of them seem to turn their backs on the band and dance, as if the band were simply like a DJ. I'd never, ever do this if I didn't love simply making live music with bandmates so much. It's like torture sometimes Might just go and top myself now. [/quote] You depressing bastard. Most small venues and promoters I know do it because they love good live music and wish to please their clientelle. You can't do something like that just for the money, have you any idea what a small venue owner, or a private promoter, have to do and deal with, and still make little or no profit? Your surmise is pure conjecture and based on a depressing and cynical world view.

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1330088630' post='1552509'] Dum, dum dum dum, dum, de-dum de-dum dum dum. [/quote] Interesting! 9/8 is a cool time sig.

Examples if possible ..

[quote name='leftyhook' timestamp='1330024019' post='1551693'] Dear me. I think we all need to lighten up. [/quote] Thanks doctor.

[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1330023207' post='1551675'] Damn hippies [/quote] What do you say when someone says to you "Say something!" ?

[quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1330016999' post='1551535'] Interesting approach. I'd rather listen to the music and feel it. The whole reason for having a solid theoretical knowledge is that it should be internalised so that you can just play without thinking about it,yet it is always there in your subconcious and helping to make life easier for you. [/quote] Welcome home Paul This is exactly what theory and technique are for. To facilitate the expression of the players feelings, to be able to play what you hear in your head (the result of your life and experiences) with minimum mental and physical effort and therefore move toward a true representation of yourself and how you interpret musical information and situations. I have some technique and 30 years of experience, but very little academic knowledge. However, I am told my composition and playing is expressive, even sometimes quite wickid, and fit very well with the songs I'm given. I simply can't play what I think is wrong or unsuitable, I can't actually play it, my body and mind won't allow me to. A good note will thrill me and a bad note will kill me - but I don't really know WHY they are right or wrong, I just FEEL that way, I often see them as colours or temperatures, sort of. I get far too emotional about very small nuances. I'm talking too much hippy bollocks now aren't I

[quote name='Earbrass' timestamp='1330018669' post='1551577'] Only a bit? Must be one of his good days. [/quote] Cheers. Chin chin

[quote name='Mog' timestamp='1330018487' post='1551571'] Come on Nige, thats comes across a bit condescending. Art in any form is entirely subjective. Theres plenty of 'great art' which was produced by talentless graduates. [/quote] It wasn't meant to be.

[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1330017447' post='1551542'] [b]21 so not really what i would call young[/b] The trouble is Doddy is a lot of the music i get in a studio environment is very undeveloped. But in the jam situation a lot of what i play is what i have been practising in a similar unconscious method to what you describe. Which is why i practise a lot so that i have many choices wherever i am on the bass [/quote] It's what I call very young I don't want to undermine your approach, but meaningful art comes from the emotions, experiences, philosophy, and articulated with the approriate techniques that the artist chooses. Great art can not come from technical analysis and execution alone, you just end up with an Athena poster of a sea, and a chess board, and a semi naked lady riding a swan into the vivid sunset beyond the chess board sea. It's meaningless rubbish, but lots of people like it because they see it as representing a set of common fantasy objects, same with a lot of music, it can be popular but not great in terms of quality.

[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1330016477' post='1551520'] It really depends on the music. I normally start by listening to a drum loop or pattern then get some rhythmic ideas form that. If thats not available then i will create something that will fit the genre the band leader is aiming to create. For example a lot of female songwriters i work with write a ballad with just piano and vocals. Then they say "i want it funkier." So i add rhythms i find interesting (i believe these are a combination of ideas my brain has retained from listening/ playing to music and things in everyday life). Harmonically usually from chord tones and scale. I get idea's on how to use them effectively be analysing the content that other players have played and just play what fits the chords and melody. [b]I guess i take a very scientific view to music and I'm the same way in life in general.[/b] [/quote] I think you're right. It's not the only way though. I would guess you are quite young too?

[quote name='thunderbird13' timestamp='1330016345' post='1551514'] This willl probably get lost in the "Silddx Onslaught" but it is an interesting point which has caused me much frustration - what is it a really good player can play something stupidly simple like 8th notes on the 5th fret but it sounds so much better than me playing exactly the same thing. I looked at technique ( which contributes t it ) but TBH my technique is quite othodox. Then it hit me someone like Steve ( who I've also had lessons with ) is playing from inside him , not in some mystical sense but its just more confident and self assured than someone like me. Just as in the same way as me speaking in front of a crowd is going to sound better if I sound conficent rather than speak in a thin wobbly voice [/quote] This is what I'm talking about. Every note is important, every note should have a reason and contribute to the whole. Every note or phrase you play should be felt and articulated. Good technique and confidence is what really helps here, along with knowing WHY you are playing that note or phrase. Can you sit and play one note repeating at one tempo and get deep inside them? If you do that for a while, you'll notice that same note is different every time, you can control those differences, and if you know why you are playing a note and what you want it to do, you can express something much more fluid and communicative.

[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1330015343' post='1551498'] In answer to both. When i watch a performance i am watching the body language and listening for articulation and dynamics. The combination of these 3 things is what i think expresses musicality and what i see as the difference between a good performer and someone who's not quite there yet. I work on all 3 of these so i can put across what i guess can be described as a simulation of emotion. Say i'm playing a song that was written about pain; despite the fact i am loving the performance i can still get the idea of pain across using the combination of the 3 things suggested before. Same if i'm really not enjoying the gig i will play and have the body language to suggest i am. It's all fake but importantly its consistent. [/quote] Interesting. What I'm getting is that you seem to be able to technically analyse a combination of body language, articulation and dynamics and ascertain whether that music reflects a theme or emotion. It sounds very cold and mathematical. Can you really do this, or is it something you wish to be able to do? How do you approach writing bass lines or music? If your bandleader came to a rehearsal with a new song, how would you create a bass line for it?

[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1330013182' post='1551434'] I stand by my belief that "music from the heart is hippy bollocks" and your not going to change that. End of [/quote] How do you know what you are saying through your music then? How do you enjoy music? Do you get any emotional reaction to music, or do you simply analyse it? How do you discern whether a performance is good or bad or meaningful?

TBH, I find many people very amateurish with organisation, comms, letting people know what is going on and what requirements there are, punctuality, etc. You could not operate a business in this way. So many people have so few skills, they just seem to expect it all to go right on the night. This is everyone, musicians, promoters, venues sound engineers .. I usually find the promoters are the most organised, they have the most to lose.

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1330008846' post='1551338'] The best pub gigs round here have a very good selection policy..in that they police their line-up carefully. That way, you find many turn up every week and they know the criteria and standard is good enough. In that sense, the venue has the audience already..the bands bring along theirs..and you get a rammed pub. It works. [/quote] Exactly, that's what most of my Kit Richardson gigs are like. The variables are the day of the week and the time you play that affect audience size. But the venues are known for quality live original music.

[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1330007455' post='1551315'] what if they want some funk thing in A minor? If you don't have any stylistic awareness then how are going to know that they want something most likely 8th or 16th note based and probably using A dorian and chromatics? Your making it sound like you think you don't need to know because you've got something in your soul that makes you a good player. [/quote] I think you labour under the misapprehension that Beyonce's songs come from jams or something. They are very carefully crafted and refined before anyone gets near a studio. Also, I don't want to be a session musician, I like being in bands. The bands I'm in are quite demanding, especially the sitarist. I have to compose and improvise meaningful guitar pieces, in complex time signatures like 13/4, often requiring me to stick strictly to something like phrygian with no non-diatonic passing notes or chords, often with many structural rules and requirements she imposes from Indian classical music, as the piece progresses. But I approach it from what I feel in my heart, not from theory, I don't know much theory, or the notes on the fingerboard. It's not easy, but it is immensly rewarding and humbling when the magic happens on stage, or in the studio.

[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1330005745' post='1551265'] [b]I must admit i was around then and my only reference to what it was like is from the experiences of those who have taught me and from what i've read in books and online articles. What they've all seemed to say is that the record labels spent more money on developing artists whereas these days they don't want to do that so the only sign ready made products.[/b] And going back to hippy bollocks. What happens when your inspiration (from the soul) runs out but you've been booked into the studio for beyonce's latest record and you only have 3 takes to record it? [/quote] Where on earth do you get this from?

[quote name='blackmn90' timestamp='1330005745' post='1551265'] I must admit i was around then and my only reference to what it was like is from the experiences of those who have taught me and from what i've read in books and online articles. What they've all seemed to say is that the record labels spent more money on developing artists whereas these days they don't want to do that so the only sign ready made products. [b]And going back to hippy bollocks. What happens when your inspiration (from the soul) runs out but you've been booked into the studio for beyonce's latest record and you only have 3 takes to record it?[/b] [/quote] I turn up and play what I've been told to play, and do it with style, feeling and panache, in one take. Did I really answer such a ridiculous question?