grumpyguts

Up till now for gigs our drummer has been using an electric kit. After some nagging he is considering buying an acoustic kit.

For a typical pub gig is it necessary to mic up bass drum and snare? I guess I'm probably asking a typically general question but some opinion would helpful. If yes we need to buy stuff to make it happen.

Really good to see him in his prime.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01m5j5g/sounding-out-bb-king#group=p058ksdq

Excellent, I'll aim for a nice clean tone that works in the room and just get on with it.

Questions about tone are a regular thing so I know I'm not breaking new ground here... But.

Given the variabilities inherent in differing venues is it unrealistic to try and replicate the bass tone as per the original recording?

Many cover bands will do a range of tunes from a variety of genres. What works for one song won't be right for another.

For example we do Rescue Me, the bass intro is important and the tone matters. I'm trying to get to it, but with a Sire Jazz, Hartke Bass Attack and LH500 there are a lot of potential knobs to twiddle. Perhaps too many!

As a relatively inexperienced live performer should I just set a decent tone for each venue and apply the same to everyting. Do others spend much time during a gig adjusting stuff?

I look at our guitarist with his mass of pedals and think perhaps I should make more effort with this.

When I started playing again a few years ago the chap that really helped was MarloweDK.

He plays stuff I like and does it well. Plus he seems like nice bloke.

When I need to learn a new song I try and sort it out myself, then look on You Tube to see if I'm wrong.

From players who tour with big name bands to people like me that get a relatively small number of gigs per year - it's a big range. You would expect a player on tour doing the same set every couple of days would be pretty solid.

I try my best and am generally never happy. The fact that most people don't notice errors doesn't stop me aiming higher and working at improving my ability. Being well practiced should allow me to enjoy the gig and not worry about errors, this is a good thing.

Blue makes his living playing bar gigs and not working in an office, warehouse etc. Sounds great but is no doubt a lot of hard work - so it's a serious business. Is there enough money playing pub gigs over here to make a living?

Get the Funk Out by Extreme, the solo by Nuno Bettencourt is the dogs danglers.

Slap tone on the T'Bird surprisingly attractive.

Love it Nike indeed.. Nile!

It was a live performance can we not allow a bit of leeway for the "performance" element. We can pick holes as bass players but maybe the up front nature of Jerry's playing did a little to illustrate to the audience that a bass player was on the stage. Being the anonymous bloke at the back does not necessarily always promote the important work we do. It might even encourage a few to give it a go. And if Nike is happy Jerry must be doing something right. Let's be a little less critical and a bit more open minded. It's music - should be fun IMO.

I watched their 2013 set on the telly and was blown away. This was equally impressive. It's great to see a bass player given the opportunity to show off a bit. I love it, watching Jerry and Nile doing the stuff during Good Times was rather marvellous.

My initial post isn't intended as a criticism of musicians in orchestras, deps etc. Its simply an observation that when looking at pub and function bands that have a brass section the horns tend to use notation.

Maybe its a cultural thing with brass players correctly taught to read etc, perhaps playing without the music in front of them is just not comfortable. I have done dep gigs an learn my stuff, as I cant sight read I have no option.

I wonder if concentrating on the notation takes away a bit of the enjoyment of gigging. I like to pull a face at the drummer just for a laugh, if I'm staring at a chart I couldn't do that.

Didn't stop him coming in too early for the middle 8 of Respect😅

I probably won't ask him, our guitarist winds him up enough already. We had two sax and one trumpet for our last gig and they sounded great.

Perhaps I'm too simple to understand why having played the same stuff loads of times the notation is still necessary. It also means they cant interact / communicate with the rest of the band members so adding an extra bit on the end of the song (cos the punters are grooving)causes some confusion.

We have sax player who tells us he has been playing Hard to Handle for various bands for nearly 50 years. Should I ask him why he can't play it without looking at his notation?

Pump It Up

I dep for a band that uses an LD system. It sounds ok to me, but I have noticed that happy punters think they can lean on them.

Excellent gig at the Binfield Club near Bracknell. Our heavily pregnant sax player brought along her trumpet playing husband so we had a three piece horn section (we have 2 sax players) and they sounded epic. Only our third gig and first since September so we were a bit worried before whether we would be any good. Plus we had a dep singer, she was excellent. Yes there were a few dodgy bits but the punters were happy and the club want us back on a Saturday night.. Job done.

Both have a big W on the front, or maybe an M if upside down. That's got to be worth something.

May split if necessary..

Anyone? Otherwise its Ebay arrrrrh!

Is prog the only genre that doesn't get on? Perhaps the show isn't long enough to fit it in. Don't see a lot of metal in any of its variations either. Maybe thats a pity but so what.. its not a perfect world.

Why is everyone so negative about this? Given the variety of musical taste the show has an impossible task of keeping everyone happy. Who knows what difficulties they may have getting xyz band to appear? Maybe Mr Holland is a tad annoying at times - so what? Name me one tv presenter everyone likes. If I could play bass as well as he plays piano I would be happy man.

I plugged my headphones in the telly for this weeks show..guess what I could hear the bass. The bass player with Oumou Sangare was excellent.

So chill out, be thankful some live music is on the box. Keep an open mind - maybe you might like something you didn't expect to.

Both 400w @ 8 ohms. Good condition, makes a good mini stack.

Collection from Alton Hampshire.

Perhaps if I find notation for something I already know and work back it might help.

I need to get to sleep!

Hi, thanks for the replies. I'm hoping that if I stick with it at some point it will sink in to my 50 year old brain. I have been trying to count the subdivision's while playing but currently that's not working.

I don't need to know this stuff to play 2 hours of covers - but that's not really the point.

I have made some progress learning to turn the dots on the page to the appropriate noise. This is ongoing development.

However, I am having trouble reading the bits where no noise is required. Is there any method that can be used to help with reading rests?