Staggering on

I have been following your posts for some time and I was in Halifax a month ago on a holiday trip and was hoping to see one of your gigs at Bearly's. Unfortunately I came down with a very nasty variety of Covid and had to change my plans and make my way back home to Ontario, both my partner and I are still suffering from the lingering effects of this miserable disease. She had been to Bearly's a few years ago with a friend from Halifax and was hoping to go again on this trip. Maybe next time...

Busy week for me. Last Monday night the seven piece swing band rehearsed for a couple of upcoming gigs including one that features some Christmas swing arrangements that are challenging in a few places. On Wednesday it was a jam with a couple who used to be touring folkies and are wonderful finger picking guitarists and among other things we worked out a nice arrangement of Ashokan Farewell, I learned that sometimes less is more in terms of bass parts. I enjoy jamming with them, intricate guitar arrangements and they both have great voices and have worked out good harmonies. On Thursday I had a rehearsal with a bluegrass band I have played with at a couple of festivals, we are working on material for next summer. Unfortunately the leader will be off to spend the winter in Florida soon so we are working now because he will be gone from mid November until April. Friday afternoon I had my DB lesson and we worked through some material I will be playing with my teacher's youth orchestra in December. I just started weekly lessons with the bow a year ago and my teacher is amazed at the progress I have made and so am I, I should have done this years ago. I am old but he adds several of his adult students for a few pieces to fill out the cello and bass section of his youth orchestra and it is a lot of fun and a challenge, the last concert was one of my best gigs ever, next one is in December. For my lesson I play my Shen SB 100 but I use my Yamaha SLB 200 and Acoustic Image amp for the others.

Not a real "gig" but just a few songs for extended family members at a Thanksgiving dinner (I'm in Canada)on Saturday. My nephew's 15 year old daughter has been playing flute at school for about 4 years and is also taking private lessons. She has played in various school bands and a flute choir(who knew they existed?) and is quite good and is a good reader. When I saw her in the summer I suggested that she should try some jazz charts, she had never played anything like that so I sent her a few charts and some advice and a few links to the songs. After a bit of rehearsal time we played a flute and bass duet(I used my Yamaha SLB 200 and Acoustic Image amp instead of hauling my DB around) for our little family audience and it sounded pretty good, she wants me to send her some more charts and is planning to talk to her teacher about some music. I'm hoping she will get right into it and we are already talking about a flute/bass version of Canadian Moe Koffman's Swingin' Shepherd Blues when we get together in a few months, should be fun. On Saturday we played Gravy Waltz, Perdido, and Four and a couple of others and played them at nice snappy tempos and she did a fine job, I hope she gets into some more jazz in the future. We live a long distance apart and only see each other 2-3 times a year but we are both looking more to playing together. Sorry if it doesn't quite fit the topic but it was her first "gig" other than large bands so I hope no one minds.😊

Seven piece swing/Dixie "little big band" gig last night to a packed house. We played our usual two sets of swing/jazz and then a set of Dixieland when I switch from DB to tenor banjo and a sax player takes over the bass parts on Bari sax. We had a guest vocalist for some of the swing tunes and the crowd was with us from the first note. We played well and the Dixie went over even better than usual with clapping along on the first song. All in all a very good night and my Shen SB100 with a Realist Lifeline sounded fantastic direct into our Bose PA. 😊

My second bluegrass gig, one set on Saturday and another on Sunday. I used my Yamaha SLB 200 again, this is a "liberal" festival where EUB's are allowed for bluegrass but all the other instruments are strictly acoustic the sound guys mic each one and really know their job, excellent sound. Both sets were around noon so the crowd was a bit thin but they have speakers all throughout the campground/trailer park so you can hear the bands anywhere on the property. This festival has been running for years and features a mix of country and bluegrass bands with 8-10 bands each day over the four day Labour Day long weekend. Two different players from the last gig so we had a quick rehearsal beside the leader's motorhome before we hit the stage. Perfect weather and a great atmosphere at the festival and I did my first bluegrass vocals and my rather thin nasal voice fit right in, at least it's good for bluegrass.😊 Lots of fun!

You have described me perfectly, especially the part about being a "Royal pain in the backside", thank you.😊

I play DB and about 18 months ago I developed the same thing in my left thumb and a finger on my right hand. I mentioned it to a guitar playing neighbour and she told me that when she had the problem her doctor suggested 250 mg of Vitamin B6 per day. I was a bit skeptical but decided to give it a try and after a few months, 4 or 5 I think, the problem was gone and apparently it worked for my neighbour also. I no longer take it but will try it again if the problem reappears. I don't know if the B6 was the cure or not but at least the problem is gone. I did not stop playing when it was sore so that wasn't the reason it got better, so it may have been the B6, it might be worth a try. I couldn't find any solid research about this.

On Saturday I had my annual blacksmithing gig in a replica logging camp blacksmith shop at Marten River Provincial Park. They have a lovely forge and decent anvil and I had hundreds of visitors to the shop as I made smoke and flames from the forge and sparks fly from various things I made during a hot but fun 5 hour non stop session. The only music was the steady rhythm of hammer on hot steel but I think I can still count it as a gig. I've been doing this for over 25 years now and it is always a good day and they want me back next year. I volunteer for this so there's no pay but this year they gave me a swag bag with some nice goodies from the park store. Forge on! Next band gigs will be early September at a bluegrass festival and a jazz gig a week later.😊

So true. People listen to live music with their ears and their eyes so instruments, staging, band members appearance and antics and other visuals are all part of the "music" for the average audience members, musicians in the crowd will usually see and hear something quite different. I use my EUB for rehearsals but almost always play DB at gigs, it is an attention getter and just looks better, especially, at the jazz or bluegrass gigs that I play.

I played my first bluegrass gig at a festival on Saturday and Sunday. I'm primarily a jazz player but got involved in bluegrass when the mandolin player saw me at a jazz gig and after a few rehearsals I became part of the band for this festival and one in September. I had to learn 26 songs but it was great fun playing with really good musicians and it certainly keeps you on your toes since the arrangement that was rehearsed may not be what happens on stage, very common in bluegrass so you have to listen carefully. Great weather and a decent crowd and I'm looking forward to the next time. I used my Yamaha SLB 200 instead of my DB, easier to haul around and easier for the sound guys to deal with. Quite a few bluegrass bass players have gone to EUB's especially for outdoor gigs, it doesn't have the visual impact of a DB but it's more practical. It was at a large campground on a beautiful river and In the photo things look pretty "rustic" but it was a great place to play and the sound system was superb. 😊

Yes if I'm reading charts, which is a lot of the time including practice time at home and at most gigs. Sometimes if it's very bright or outside I'm OK without glasses.

Sorry to hear about the finger problem, playing a DB is definitely a real workout on a lot of parts of your body. I've been lucky so far, a few aches and pains in my wrists and hands from practising for too long but nothing permanent. I have more trouble with my right hand when bowing but I have learned to stop before it gets too bad. I play every day if at all possible and that helps and I do some hand exercises to keep the arthritis under control.

I love mine and use it at home, rehearsals and gigs with my DB and EUB. I also move around a lot and it is nice not to be worrying about cables and I can even spin the DB. 😊 I've had it for about four years and have never had any problems, it's small and easy to charge and use. 👍

I finally took the advice everyone is given and started DB lessons, of course I should have done that in 2015 when I went upright. After weekly lessons since last October I actually got to play my first orchestra gig on Saturday and I am still just floating...what an experience, and it was only being one of several adults filling out the low end of a youth orchestra. I loved it! 😊 Over the years I have played in many groups including large concert bands but never just strings and this is THE BEST. I posted details and photos in the "How Was Your Gig Last Night?" thread in the General Discussion forum. Main point: take the lessons they will improve your playing and you never know where it might lead.

I played my first orchestra gig yesterday! I've been gigging on guitar, banjo and bass for about 60 years and went to upright bass in 2015 and finally started taking DB lessons last October to learn to play with the bow properly. My teacher is a virtuoso bassist and has been very patient and I have made a lot of progress since my first weekly lesson last fall and all of my DB playing(mostly jazz) has improved. A few weeks ago I was astounded when he asked if I would like to join several of his adult students to fill out the low end of his youth orchestra for a concert. There are about 30 members of the orchestra up to about age 18 with a few very young ones who sit in for two pieces, all the members are his students. The 4 adults, two basses and two cellos, would only play on the last three selections, all of them are "bass heavy" and needed more than the single bass that he usually has. The last piece was an intermediate junior orchestra composition called "Fire in the Forge" and since I am a blacksmith I just had to get in on it so I agreed to work on the material and go to rehearsals. It was a wonderful concert and we adults did fine but the real stars were the kids, the youngest player was 6 years old...71 years younger than I am.🙄 It was probably the most interesting, challenging and memorable of the many gigs I have played over the years and as the last booming bass notes died at the end the last song I just stood there loving it with big stupid grin on my face. I hope he asks us again, my last lesson before summer break is on June 23 but I will be back for more in September, can't wait.😊 The extra basses and cellos were beside the bassist in the long shot, fantastic acoustics in the church, I have been to concerts there but never played in it before yesterday.

Two nights at the Capitol Centre in North Bay Ontario again this year where I play bass in a band in a musical that was done like an old time radio drama in a building that housed the first radio station in the city. The show is about the Dionne Quintuplets who were born nearby and is a slightly longer version of the production that ran last year. This year I even had a minor speaking part in front of the curtain just before the show started, I gave a short history of the theatre and explained how radio dramas were done, lots of fun. Not a full house but a good crowd and the show went of with only a few hitches and the band was just about perfect. Unlike last year I also have a couple of solos under dialogue or as song intros and last night I nailed them, looking forward to tonight's show. My Shen SB100 sounded fantastic through the house system, excellent technicians and very good equipment. 😊

Only my DB's, the first was a blonde bass called "Marilyn", and now I have a Czech ply bass called "Peaches" that I use for bluegrass and outdoor gigs. My main bass is a Shen SB100 that I call "Wuzzer" because I kept getting asked "wuzzer name"?😊

If you are talking about regular ice hockey pucks they are extremely hard rubber and will act as a spacer but won't absorb much sound or vibration and wouldn't work very well for isolation. There are softer foam rubber pucks that are used for fun games and driveway hockey and they might work OK.

I started on guitar at 14 and played my first gig a couple of years later and have been playing and gigging since then. At age 42 I started bass(EB) when I was asked to sit in with a 15 piece big band and I was horrible but got better and worked with several smaller jazz groups. In 2015 I bought a Stagg EUB and then quickly upgraded to a Yamaha SLB 200 and was playing in two bands. Then in 2018 I visited England in time to attend the Double Bass Bash at Bicester and I was totally hooked and came home and bought a "real" bass, a laminate Engelhardt and then a Czech bass and a couple of years ago got my Shen SB 100 and really started to learn about playing upright and got much better during Covid, no gigs but a lot of practice. The latest step was to finally sign up for weekly lessons last October with a great teacher (bass soloist and symphony conductor) and get to work learning how to use the bow and I have made amazing progress and all my playing is much better. I'm currently in a "little big band" jazz septet, I jam with some jazz friends, I'm working with a new band (jazz, blues, soul) and next week will be in the pit band for a musical in a large theatre. A bluegrass mandolin player saw me playing last fall and today I will be rehearsing with him and we will be playing at a couple of bluegrass festivals, something different, I played at a small festival a couple of weeks ago. The most satisfying accomplishment is that I and several other adults have been asked to fill out the low string section of a 30 piece youth orchestra for a concert in June...after only six months with the bow! I have never worked so hard, the kids are so good I really have to get serious about the music and that pressure has really brought my playing to a new level. I turned 77 a couple of weeks ago and although I have played for over 60years most of my real learning on bass has been in the last 5 years, it's never too late.😊

Not a gig but an open bluegrass jam at a campground that hosts a couple of bluegrass festivals in the summer. I'm primarily a jazz player on DB but a mandolin player saw me at a jazz gig last year and wondered if I would like to play some bluegrass. We got together to jam a few times before he left to spend the winter in Florida and have jammed a few times since he returned but this was my first big jam and it was a good experience. My little 70"s Czech ply bass was overwhelmed at times by as many as 4 mandolins, four guitars, a banjo and singers but it went well. Another bass player was there with an absolute cannon of a bass and we took turns playing since two basses just won't work in this situation. There were about 15 musicians and they just dropped in and played and then took a break, very informal. I knew some of the songs and since I play guitar I could follow the guitar players and didn't mess up too badly. The hardest part was to just keep things simple and keep the tempo steady, when the other instruments get a solo they often speed up and I had to apply the brakes a few times. Good fun and I'll do this again.😊

This is from last night with the seven piece swing band at a craft brewery in South River Ontario. We've played there before and it was a packed house, they ran out of chairs with 50+ enthusiastic fans taking up the whole space. We did our usual two swing sets and then I switched to tenor banjo and a sax player went to Bari sax to play the bass lines for our trad or "Dixie" set to finish off the night. We also had a vocalist for some of our swing pieces, a super singer that many of have worked with before and she brought a contingent of friends and added a nice change for our sound. My bass set up (Shen SB 100 and Realist lifeline straight into our Bose PA) never sounded better according to some musicians in the audience and all in all a good night with the added bonus of six free craft beers each to take home! 😊

I was 16 when my folk trio played for all 1700 students at an assembly at our school followed soon after with a paying gig for a church youth group, I was playing acoustic guitar then. Tonight, 61 years later (I can't believe it!), I am playing a gig with my seven piece jazz band at a brewery and I hope to continue as long as possible. Several more gigs coming with that band, a small string ensemble concert and a couple of bluegrass festivals this summer all on DB, I just love playing that big beast.😊

Afternoon jazz quartet(piano, vibes, drums, and me on EUB). We have played together in other bands and we are just having some fun running through some charts and might play a few low key gigs at some point. This evening was the seven piece swing band and we were working on some new charts for a gig at the end of April, haven't had a gig for a couple of months so we decided to add some different material and had a good time with a few of the more challenging arrangements.

New quartet this afternoon working on having fun with some jazz tunes. We have played together in other bands but this is a new group with piano, vibes, drums and me on EUB. After a few rehearsals things are starting to come together and we might even play a few gigs at some point. Tonight was the seven piece swing band, we're getting ready for a gig at the end of April and adding some interesting arrangements to out folders, a good workout and some good music.

Me too! What great story, lovely man and wonderful musician. Thanks for posting that video Owen. 😊