Steve Lawson

Ok, to reserve a space, call the venue on 020 7837 8758 or email ntmusic @ gmail.com - you can reserve tickets, to be collected by 7.30pm on the day of the gig. See you there! there's more info about the live EP of Michael and I on my blog too - [url="http://www.stevelawson.net/wordpress/2009/09/new-live-ep-releasing-music-2-0/"]http://www.stevelawson.net/wordpress/2009/...sing-music-2-0/[/url] Steve

....I blogged about the gig, with a few more details, and also just put up a free download live EP of the last time Michael and I played together... all available at [url="http://www.stevelawson.net/wordpress/2009/09/upcoming-london-gig-oct-7th-with-michael-manring"]http://www.stevelawson.net/wordpress/2009/...michael-manring[/url]

Hi all, here's the gig details, it's at 'Round Midnight Jazz and Blues Bar, 13 Liverpool Rd, Islington, London, N1 0RW website: [url="http://www.roundmidnightbar.com"]http://www.roundmidnightbar.com[/url] [url="http://www.myspace.com/roundmidnightbar"]http://www.myspace.com/roundmidnightbar[/url] Entry : £8 on the door, £7 in advance (tickets can be bought over the bar) I've asked for details of how to book tickets in advance - esp for those of you coming from a distance, it's pretty vital that you can reserve tickets in advance to make sure it's not full when you get there! Music will start at 8.30 I'm really looking forward to this - haven't played with Michael in the UK for about 4 or 5 years, cheers Steve [url="http://www.stevelawson.net"]http://www.stevelawson.net[/url]

[quote name='lowhand_mike' post='589660' date='Sep 4 2009, 01:47 PM']hmm been thinking about lessons for a while and i'm not too far from you i think. not sure what i'd need though.[/quote] Hi Mike, book a lesson and find out drop me an email and we can sort something out if you like, cheers Steve

Hi John, would love to teach you - drop me an email/PM and we'll get something booked in Steve

[quote name='horribleman' post='471710' date='Apr 24 2009, 04:59 PM']Hi - I work in the City - although I wouldn't be able to bring my bass on the train. Do you have spare basses that students can use?[/quote] Not really, sadly - I only own one 4 string bass, and prefer not to teach someone playing 4 string on a 6 string. I've got a few students in your situation though, so I may buy one that I'll make available for a nominal hourly rental... Would that work? drop me a PM and we'll sort out details. If you're in the City, you're walking distance from me Steve

Hi Dave - am def. teaching in London at the moment - at home, which is very near Tower Bridge. send me a PM and we'll sort something out... see you soon, Steve

Hi Dr Funk, I think the implication was more to do with processing power than features... I've not found a software set-up that was stable enough at low enough latency settings for me to be able to use it, but I know a lot of other musicians who are getting fantastic results with both Mobius and Sooperlooper. My macbook is nowhere near powerful enough to reliably do what I do with the looperlative - it's not that it's all that 'advanced', more that there are a few of the functions that require a lot of processing power, and a large amount of memory to buffer the audio. If you're running a hugely pimped-out computer, with a super-fast processor and tonnes of RAM, or you've got the kind of set-up where latency isn't that much of an issue (for example, if you were looping in a side-chain, and not doing massively time-sensitive parts, or were playing in such a way that you could compensate for the latency...), then that seems like a cool way to go. For now, I'll be sticking with the [url="http://www.looperlative.com"]looperlative[/url] Steve

Just a quick note to say that from the beginning of November, I'll be teaching near to Tower Bridge (just east of there, on the south side, about 5 mins walk) - drop me a line if you want to book a lesson cheers Steve

My fave version of the song is Petra Haden's - [url="http://www.myspace.com/petrahaden"]http://www.myspace.com/petrahaden[/url] - it's fab. Seth Horan covered it when he was in the UK recently, just bass and voice. Good stuff. Steve

Kevin, you're welcome to spend some more time playing mine next time I see you. I love it - I don't get to use it that much, but I still can't bring myself to part with it, as nothing else sounds like it, and there have been various tunes through the years where it really made the song... cheers Steve

silddx - that's great stuff there! Fine words. One of the things I try and impress on my students is that if they don't get it, it's my fault, not there's, as the onus is on me to explain what they need to know in a way they can understand it. It my job was just to rant, they might as well buy DVDs and at least be able to watch the rant again. What to teach? All depends on what the student already knows, what they want to know, what kind of music they want to play. I try and have them playing some kind of bass line to a song as quickly as possible, even if it's just a loop of a couple of chords - making actual music, not just playing exercises. At an early stage, the inspiration that comes from realising they can do way more than they thought they could can pay serious dividends in helping them focus at home. I guess it also depends on how long the lesson is... I don't teach for less than an hour at a time, so that gives me a little longer to develop ideas. Steve www.stevelawson.net

While I clearly don't think £30 would be a lot to pay for a lesson (I know a lot of teachers charging considerably more than that), I think you'll find, if you read it, that that's what I was charging for me to come to you for an hour... which is a steal. (assuming you actually wanted a lesson with me - if you don't, then £10 for 5 hours would still be a waste of money...) As it is, I'll still travel to student's houses sometimes, and charge £60 for a two hour lesson - I don't really do one hour visits to student's houses now, as it's just not a sensible use of my time. So, just to clarify, if you come to me, it's £25 an hour or £45 for a two hour lesson. If I come to you and you're in London, it's £60 for a two hour lesson. The principle though is as said before, a good teacher (and the right teacher for you) is worth whatever it costs. A crap teacher doesn't become a worthwhile teacher just because they cost less... If I was looking for a teacher, I'd find the one I wanted and have lessons less frequently if they were too expensive for me with that person, rather than just get any old teacher who happened to be cheap. £25 an hour is a lot less than I could charge, I just don't want to make music lessons into some kind of rich-person's privilege. I still need to pay the bills, so I find a happy medium that works for me. Some people will still think it's too much, others will feel like they've got the bargain of a lifetime. C'est la vie. Steve

A lot of people tune down for that reason - I love the feel of a drop-tuned E string. When I flip the hip-shot down to D, it's not just the note that shifts, the whole vibe changes in a way that doesn't happen when you play a low D on a 5 string... something to do with the bass resonates. Steve

With summer coming up, and some students heading off home from London for the holidays, I'll have a little more space for lessons, if anyone's interested. I'm in Herne Hill in South London - send me a pm or check my website at www.stevelawson.net for more info! Steve

[quote name='dood' post='196224' date='May 10 2008, 08:56 PM']Sounds about right Steve. First time I saw ya. Seem to remember you were wearing a fetching sarong type thang? ;o)[/quote] Ah yes, I probably was - across the space of about two years, I wore trousers for a total of about 3 weeks... Didn't raise an eyebrow in Brighton or Santa Cruz, but freaked people out a little in Muswell Hill Steve

[quote]i have been turned down over the phone by 2 other tutors for being a girl and for being too old (27!!!) apparently my small girls hands will mean its too hard to teach me[/quote] ...when you found these guys, did you see if they were affiliated with any kind of professional body? There ought to be a way of reporting people like that to the MU or the Registry of Guitar Tutors, if they're members... I've got students as young as 10, and who started in their mid 60s, men, women, boys, girls... Small hands makes no difference at all. If you found it a problem for you personally, there are short scale basses! As said, I'm in Herne Hill which is fairly easily accessible from Bromley, if you want to come down. If you're interested in finding out more, drop me a private message and you can come and meet me and have a chat for free before deciding if you want to have lessons with me. Coffee's complimentary too Really sorry to hear about your experience - Bass is such a young instrument that there's precious little in the way of established pedagogy for teaching it and understanding what's involved in teaching it. I get SO many students who've had previously dreadful experiences with teachers, there are clearly a lot of people being fleeced by teachers who don't have the technical knowledge and experience with the instrument to teach, and clearly have a terrible attitude that they're projecting onto the students... not good at all, cheers Steve

I remember them - funny looking things, but really well made. I think it was the year I was demoing the Yamaha MIDI system - 98? 99? Steve

You called? Not much to add other than that yes, Modulus have had a couple of basses with warped necks, but in every case I know about they replaced it, and had no more trouble. I've not had any trouble with mine - my string bass has been set up 4 times in 15 years - when I got it, when I changed string brand first time, when I had it completely remodelled by Martin Peterson and then the second string brand change. That's it. I've played status basses that I love the sound and feel of, and others that did nothing for me, same as with Modulus. I do think that for what I do, what I hear in my head, what I want from an instrument, there isn't a bass on the planet that I'd rather have than my 6 string fretless. That doesn't mean it's objectively 'the best' bass, as such a thing clearly doesn't exist, but getting this bass cured me of just about any gear lust I may ever have had, and removed any gear-related excuse I ever had for my music not sounding the way I want it to. So try both - different basses with a different vibe that it'd be fairly futile for me to try and describe... cheers Steve

Lovely to see those of you I met at the gig last night - hope y'all had a good time. I was amazed by Yolanda's set. She's without doubt one of the finest funk bassists I've ever heard anywhere. To groove like that with no drummer, and sing, is pretty amazing. I've seen Todd quite a few times, but I'm always amazed by his knowledge of jazz harmony and the beautiful way he employs it, particularly the stuff where he's playing bass, chords and melody at the same time! That hurts my brain... hope to see you all again soon somewhere in the country - Yolanda and I will be doing some more gigs together, the first one of which is in Milton Keynes on March 16th.... cheers Steve [url="http://www.stevelawson.net"]http://www.stevelawson.net[/url]

Yolanda hasn't cancelled - it's listed on her myspace page - [url="http://www.myspace.com/yolandacharles"]http://www.myspace.com/yolandacharles[/url] If you want to buy tickets ahead of time ( £6 ) you can do that here - [url="http://www.stevelawson.net/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=19"]http://www.stevelawson.net/zencart/index.p...;products_id=19[/url] or pay on the door ( £7 ). see you there! steve www.stevelawson.net

Bump! just giving this a bump as it's on Tuesday... Apparently Todd's masterclass weekend went really well. I'm looking forward to hearing him play on Tuesday too...! cheers Steve www.stevelawson.net

[quote name='bassbloke' post='149298' date='Mar 1 2008, 07:07 AM']In his blog he comes across as an intelligent thoughtful individual and, basically, an all round nice person.[/quote] I saw that as well - he's a good writer, and hugely prolific! I think it was Dave Pomeroy who described the basses as 'folk art', which is an interesting angle to take on them. The only one I've played was pretty much unusable as any kind of regular bass guitar, but was a fascinating lump of oddly shaped wood, and make some pretty unique noises... I guess if they vid is any indicator of what Mr Wish actually wants to hear, then the basses make a whole lot more sense than they did before. It's still one of the funniest things I've seen in years... there's something hugely uplifting about hearing music that genuinely seems to have come from a whole other planet, like there's a system to it that I'm not getting at all... Steve www.stevelawson.net

John's recorded output changed hugely in the mid 90s, starting with One More Angel, which is an incredible album. Everything he's put out since then has been worth owning, and his latest album, Line By Line, is outstanding. One of my favourite jazz albums of recent years. He's definitely grown a long way from his Electrik Band beginnings - seems working with Wayne Shorter and John Scofield has taken his compositional skills to a whole new level. Steve www.stevelawson.net

Love the Michael Manring one - brilliantly done (and indeed, Michael did find it hilarious) The Petrucci ones had me close to tears. Just great. Steve