TrevorR

This Radio 3 documentary does a very good look at John Williams’ magpie tendencies… https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0015cm7 Tom Service’s prose can be a bit purple and pretentious but The Listening Service is always a fascinating listen on a wide range of musical topics…

…and Walton for the quiet bits on Tatooine in the desert… (see above)

Caveat, I’m not worrying about music you can learn or play along with just interesting different styles and composers you might want to listen to to see what you enjoy - there will be composers and styles you like and those you don’t… just like any type/style of music. You’ve had a load of great suggestions a.ready so I’ll try not to duplicate too much. So here are a few of my favourites which are worth checking out. Lots of references to Bach, and you really can’t go wrong. A personal favourite are the 6 Brandenburg Contertos. You’ll recognise some of the movements because they regularly get used for TV themes or incidental music. Haydn has been mentioned too. I prefer the later symphonies such as 94 and 104. Mozart I can be a bit take it or leave I but I really like his Symphony 41 - again one that’s been used for film scores etc. Try out one of Beethoven’s symphonies - no 6 the Pastoral is well known and very accessible but No 3, “Eroica” is a favourite. Brahms’ 2nd Symphony is quite Beethoven influenced but a nice listen in its own right. Maybe a bit melodramatic in places. Probably my favourite piece is Elgar’s Cello Concerto - either of Jacqueline DuPre’s recordings are considered definitive. All of Rachmaninov’s piano concertos are fantastic but no 3 is considered the ultimate. No 2 will get you loads of super romantic themes used in loads of films. Try to find the recordings by Vladimir Ashkenazy with the Concertgebouw conducted by Bernard Haitink. Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini is fun too. I love Aaron Copland’s music - very cinematic and modern but in an accessible way. His Clarinet Concerto is fantastic and Appalachian Spring is lovely if you can get past flashbacks to school assemblies as it uses a theme from an old folk tune which was murdered by music teachers up and down the country as “Lord of the Dance”. The Quiet City is very evocative of… well the middle of the night in an American city in the 30s, 40s or 50s, I guess. Another favourite is Nonet for Strings. George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue does a melding of classical and jazz styles really nicely, with an iconic clarinet intro used brilliantly for ther opening of his film Manhattan. Finally, I’ve been getting into William Walton recently who blends a sort of Beethovenesque classical style with more 20th C harmonies and a cinematic texture - you can hear where John Williams nicked a load of inspiration for his eerie, quiet passages in his soundtracks from (and the noisy bits from Gustav Holst). Been listening to his Symphony no 1 recently. And another favourite piece… a fluffy little thing that Gustav Holst wrote to give the school orchestra string section something to do at a school concert when he was a music teacher at a posh girls school… not heavy, or serious or super classical but hugely enjoyable, which I guess was what he was going for… it certainly always raises my mood! Ironically, here seemingly played by the string section of an orchestra at a posh girls school!

There’s not much better than a really good pun… except maybe a really really awful one. I was listening to a band I’ve not really listened to much in the last few years and it got me thinking about this. A number of artists have used punnery in their album titles… k.d. lang’s smoking themed disc, “Drag” for one, Rush’s “Moving Pictures” has an album cover exploring multiple entendres. But what was the band that got me thinking punningly? An accordion led folk rock band from Wales called Mabon. Their second (I think) album has a name that makes me smile every time I see it… OK Pewter… Ouch!

…strictly that’s “- used on 5 albums* over a period of around 8 years…” *Power Windows Hold Your Fire A Show Of Hands Presto Roll The Bones …but, yes, Justin Chancellor is probably the main well known user at the mo. Others who continue to are less well known or their “fame” heyday has passed (Colin Edwin, Percy Jones, Dave Bass, Lol Cottle are probably the current better known users). Also, worth noting that the list on Wal’s website is of those who have bought/been using their basses over the years rather than an “endorses list”. Wal have never offered artist endorsement deals like many other bass companies.

P-bass shaped Wal - an obscure option the few knew about and (as far as we know) only one person (Kev) took up - there’s a bit more to the story but I’ll leave that to @Spoombung

Presuming to well known luthier wasn’t Charlie Chandler, his shop is in Hampton, just the other side of Kingston bridge… https://ccgx.co.uk

A few semi random thoughts… Wals have always used proprietary electronics - right back from the Pro series models in the late 70s. The Pro series circuit boards are works of art in their own right. …but it was the Custom Series basses which brought in the filter based system from about 1981. Hugely, hugely versatile system and some amazing tones which can be easily pulled up. As to tone wood… Paul would say that the wood does have a bearing on the tone of the bass. However he would also say that it’s not as predictable as a people think because of the organic nature of wood and it’s variability as a material… I discussed it with him for the blog a few years ago… “The standard bodies all have a central Mahogany core and the facings add character to the overall tone. So regardless of facing choice there is a consistency running through by using the same core timber. As a general rule, the harder facings such as wenge/padauk (wenge being slightly harder) tend to be slightly brighter and punchier giving more attack and reflection - often selected for fretted basses. At the other end of the scale are the softer/less dense timbers like American Walnut, which is favourite for fretless instruments and players who prefer a rounder less aggressive sound.” Talking about preferences for fretless woods, “Yes, in general, but to counter the theory we’ve had some great sounding hard faced (like wenge) fretless basses through here – more aggressive sounding though. Also, you mustn’t forget that the density and grain structure can vary even from one end of a single board to the other. There can be a lot of variables even on two basses with exactly the same spec." Full blog here… http://walbasshistory.blogspot.com/2016/10/wal-woods-part-2-bodies.html

…who famously took Live Aid as the opportunity to promote his new single and album rather than do a crowd pleasing tune… and 1) therefore no one remembers being at the event, and 2) pretty much killed good will and his waning career in one fell swoop!

A signed copy of David Paton’s autobiography (one of my fave players), a live album by folk band Jamie Smith’s Mabon (with some tasty Wal playing on it) and the deluxe version of Tarkus with the Steven Wilson remix.

Got into a discussion with a chum about this a few years ago, and picking positions/techniques in general. He just kept his thumb wedged on the bridge pickup and that was it. I tried to recall the various places and ways I pluck the strings and went home and came up with this montage… Tried the floating thumb thing but never got on with it so I’m somebody who rests the thumb on the pickup or E string. However, I also move position a lot for different tones. Also use the old fashioned thumb plucking technique for softer tones too. Plus a weird pseudo upright plucking thing over the neck sometimes (but I’m odd like that! 😉🤣).

Yup, me too…

Or you could try my Schmaltz-free Christmas playlist on YouTube…

I’m home cooking lunch. Rest of the fam is out collecting Grandma so for now it’s noisy music! Threshold’s Dividing Lines album. My fave new album of the year! [Edit] they’re back home… back to Xmas tunes…

Another happy OnSong user here… I think set list software” is misleading. The beauty is being able to organise a library of chord sheets into a set list. Have used this at church (where who knows what random blast from the past could suddenly show up…) for many years..

Got a little MarkBass MicroMark practice amp for home use. So nice and light for carrying round the house and sounds fantastic given its 1 tone knob and teeny weeny itsy bitsy speaker. That said, I’ve only made two gear purchases this year - and the other one was a TC UniTune clip on tuner (also great).

Wrapping the kid’s Christmas pressies and listening to The Best of T-Bone Walker…

A few bands have waned over the years. As a teen I loved ELP, Zep and Deep Purple. Now Tarkus and Fanfare for the Common Man are more than enough ELP for me, I find Led Zep quite dull and uninteresting now and apart from a classic tracks never listen to Purple. However, I’ve picked up a good few artists and genres along way… university brought The Alan Parsons Project, folk rock and Steely Dan. The 90s brought Capercaillie, Nanci Griffith, Aimee Mann, Counting Crows and Sheryl Crow. The 2000s saw me getting into acid jazz and other funky sub-genres, Nerina Pallot and the Laurel Canyon variety of singer songwriter in greater depth. And the last 10 years have seen me revisiting Kraftwerk and Jean-Michel Jarre in greater depth. Through that time the constants have been Thin Lizzy, Yes, ELO, Horslips, Saga, Gary Moore and a number of others…

The key to finding this on the BSF is the treble control. To my ears it’s less of just an EQ roll off control but seems to have an effect on how the break up works, changing its richness/bite - though no idea how it’s operating as part of the circuit electronically.

I went for the BSF because it’s a lower gain OD and a reasonably priced mainstream pedal. I have a suspicion that one (well three) reason(s) TB is sniffy about it is 1) it’s not all exclusive boutique and super expensive, 2) it’s not super super cheap so has inverted snob value and 3) it’s not what you’d choose for uber distorted Cliff Burton bass solo type stuff. These are, rather, all the reasons I DO like it! I have my VTBassDI set so it’s warm and clean but has a touch of hair when you really dig in. That’s my “always on” pedal. The BSF is used when a song needs a little more grit (rather than dirt) or to feed my envelope filter for a pseudo synth bass sound… But it seems like OD are a pedal where everyone has their personal preferences… and they’re all different.

Reminds me of something that happened a few years ago in the worship team. The (very young) WL came back from a conference enthusing about this powerful new song they’d sung there and how she’d love to introduce it to the team. Sounded great! Love a good new song! She said that she’d recorded it on her phone and she and her drummer/keyboard player boyfriend had worked it out. They would sing and play it so we could get an idea. Great idea! Love a new song! She started… “Because He lives, I can face to morrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone…” The more superannuated members of the team (like me) kinda looked at each other, shrugged and just joined in, singing and playing - much to her confusion! She was stunned at how we could know this new tune just introduced at the conference. Had to break it to her that I’d been singing that tune since I first joined a youth gospel choir back in 1979! I guess that there really is nothing new under the sun and what goes around comes around eventually. She did look so stunned when we joined in, though! Lol Here’s a nice modern Celtic version of it. We did it more straight rock/hymn fusion…

Oh wow! That’s a blast from the past. Not sung or played that tune in years!

This guide to how a whole range of effects work from the now, sad.y defunct “Monkey FX” is brilliant and hilarious - well worth a read… http://www.monkeyfx.co.uk/fxguide.html How a compressor works explained through the medium of tiny monkeys.. Compression Picture the scene. Sicily, 1947. A monkey. With a volume pedal. He has tinnitus, so he doesn't like loud noises, but needs things to be a certain volume level in order to hear them, poor little mite. He is wearing headphones. When you play, if it's too loud, he turns the volume down a little. If it's too quiet, he turns it up. He can do this quite quickly if he wants, but there's a big dial in front of him, telling him how fast he's allowed to turn the volume control. There's another control that determines how loud his headphones are compared to your guitar. Pop the little chap in a box and paint it (traditionally) blue and off you go. Oh, it might be a good idea to replace him with some sort of electronics gubbins, to save his poor hearing. Some compressors allow you to have a little effect loop in between your guitar and his headphones, so that you could (for instance) have him only listen to the bass part of your guitar sound, but work the volume control according to that.

Some of the vids are up online of the tunes they played. Mmmmmm… Niiice! Great!

She came in through the bathroom window - The Beatles