SpondonBassed

When I was (very) young it was a revelation to me that the performers on TOTP were not actually performing for the most part. Everyone around me already knew! Before wireless the absence of instrument cables gave it away even if the vocalist was miming well. We were much more easily entertained back then. Now we're demanding a lot out of entertainment.

The above makes it look like you have a granny flat in your rucksack and you have a low opinion of her. For shame! Heeheehee I have a canvas bag in the style of a holdall but smaller. It's a little shy of eighteen inches in length and it holds cables, tuner, strings, a mains extension reel, some switch cleaner and nail clippers. I don't gig but if I did I imagine I'd have to be a lot more focussed about what gets carried in it than I am now. I'd consider a rucksack if I didn't already have a gig bag for my bass to put on my back. Although I have a hard case for the bass, it's not used for the walk to my local because it spoils my gait and I get problems with my neck as a result. As I have a gig bag for the bass that can be worn with shoulder straps I'm happy enough to carry the bag. If I was going in a vehicle, the hard case would be used and then the rucksack would be ideal. I suppose it is inevitable that I will get into pedals and other peripheral stuff which will make me rethink my luggage but I won't get a larger bag just now because I would tend to look for gear to fill it up. We'll soon be able to buy robotic luggage that follows us whilst looking like something cute out of a Japanese cartoon. Won't that be great?

I have a B2A and a bottle of Tippex. When I know the cash is in the post I'll Tippex in the missing '1' and send it to you. Heeheehee

Why have I suddenly got images of chimps, pianos, stairs and a nice cup of tea in my mind? I am impressed by the engineering behind bass twelves. That's as far as it goes for me I'm afraid. Five is more than enough for me to cope with. I'd imagine your damping skills have to be spot-on at all times.

YW

Damn. I was only thinking of commissioning a limited print run on the backs of fifty pairs of M&S Y-fronts when you posted that. Soggy chips now.

Oh?

Not at all. I'm getting the stuff that doesn't make it to print. Thanks one and all. One of the consequences of that incident when I was nine is that I have a real problem with authority figures. I have that for life. Often it is the case that someone well meaning will try to assume the upper hand when it is not asked for. In those cases I tend to I react poorly once that indefinable button has been pushed. No-one has, as yet, crossed that line with me here. I don't think it's likely someone would anyway. It's a fault of mine. I can blame no-one else for it. It's how I got through all the different schools I ended up in. I'd have been beaten to a pulp by bullies had I been any other way.

Cheers Andy. It is the forum that keeps on giving.

See this is why I like your style. To have the black and gold the other way 'round would just be vulgar. (Retires to flame proof bunker in advance of the Bling Bling Brigade's response)

I appreciate you taking the time to make those recommendations. With all due respect though, you wouldn't be the first to make them in my fifty five years and God willing, you wont be the last. I am only doing this for fun. You're wanting me to go into an area that is most certainly not fun. As a youth I had a start in music which was pretty much ruined by our emigration from Britain in the early seventies. There were also other factors including a drama teacher who put me in an embarrassing situation that it took me decades to get over. More recently I had a very similar experience and twice in a lifetime for that sort of event is too much. I stay away from teachers as a general rule. Suffice it to say that I hate schools as a consequence of being misunderstood from a very early age. I've been to too many and they all have their own version of what is 'right'. Because I have a decent IQ (ignoring the wee-weeing contest elsewhere in this topic), teachers patronised me more than was good for my personal development. I don't need teachers around me now and I have lots of books for reference along with the massive resource that is the 'net. As for 'asking us lot'... isn't that one heck of a good reason to be a member here? I mean, to be able to ask in a place where lots of people do it for real and get credited in terms of music sales or publicity rather than academic qualification has to be better than looking through fusty old books or yappy young things on YT - hasn't it? At the end of it all, I don't get out much and this is a good social outlet. If it isn't fun why would I want it as a hobby? It was only a simple question. Thanks anyway. I hope I don't sound unappreciative of your suggestions for further study but this is something of a magical mystery tour for me and I think an itinerary would spoil it somewhat.

Now Marc Almond I can understand...

It works for some... I'll get my coat.

If it was someone else's topic I'd be happy to accept but since it is my own I have to step back and look for other prize winners. I've set my barrow down and chosen to think of a chord having three notes minimum, two of which I can contribute with my double-stops. It'll get me by until I learn more. I am happy to call root and fifth combinations power chords since it seems to be part of the pop culture from the eighties. Inwardly I wink to myself and tell my ego to get over itself. Thanks for the support however. I'd have thought more abstract opinions might have been presented just to make it less of a theory lecture.

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If it meant I had a band to play with I'd employ goons right from the off! Even goons don't want to play with me because I am an old man.

I don't think it's that important. I just don't want to kid myself that I am achieving more than I actually have done. If you think of chord playing as a progression from playing single note lines in my explorative journey through playing bass for pleasure (my own mainly) it might help explain my position. For me making choices for single notes to underpin a tune without changing its direction is, say, step one. Step two is to successfully use double stops. I take the example from the Smiths' Heaven knows I'm Miserable Now. In the middle eight specifically. It's interesting because the book Legendary Bass Guitar Songs separates the bass part for that bit into two lines claiming that there was an overdub for the doubled-up notes. I always thought that was a load of tentacles. It's dead easy to play it in one pass by double-stopping. The effect in the song is massive. I don't think of it as playing chords however. I am definitely getting closer to doing so though. See? I am trying to feel the music rather than clutter my conscious mind with theory. I am progressing (very slowly on my own) and one day I may decide to throw a chord into something here and there for that BIG effect. As I am not looking to play anything other than bass guitar however, chords aren't high on my list of priorities. Cosmically speaking... none of it is actually important.

My housemate is a 4X sized ex-competition weight lifter. That's his next Christmas pressie sorted if @Grassiefollows through with shirt merch (or shmerch as I like to think of it). PS: It's got to have to have a BC logo on it if it's a shirt.

Bless you Pete. Just don't tell any guitarists in case they get the union rep out to me over demarcation issues.

Thanks for that (I think). Heeheehee.

Pedantic response: A line segment is one dimensional. There is no width only length. You've missed my point. Friendly response; go pick holes in someone else's metaphor, mine's leaky enough ta. Heeheehee. Don't feel you have to take TimR's place in these sorts of discussions my friend. Speaking of... does anyone know where he's gone? I trust he's well wherever he is.

It might have looked like I was trying to discredit your earlier reference to this book. I am sorry if it appeared so. That was not my intent. I am now thinking laterally about it. If you try to draw a shape (call it a chord for this example) using only two straight line segments (notes, if you will) you will not have enough lines to make a two dimensional drawing of a shape. You can imply some of the dimensions of the intended final shape but until three or more lines are present, you wont know whether you are looking at two sides of a triangle or a quadrangle or a pentagon.

That's definitely better in portrait. It renders well on screen at full zoom. Did I hear you say 'BC discount'? Will there be follow-up posters too?

I'm just not that interested in playing them. I'm not sure why, I'm probably just weird. At the moment, I like to find my place in the rhythm of a piece before I supplement the chords that are already there. Sometimes a baseline will dictate the final form of an overall chord but I'm not tuned into that so much. I'm really only starting to understand the effect of double stops at this stage. It might help if I explain that I am a late developer in bass playing terms and very much a hobby player anyway. I've decided that the time I allocate to practice is best spent on tightening my sense of rhythm. When I've achieved a decent standard of consistency I will spent more time exploring the subtleties of harmony.

'Chinese'* smiles all 'round then. *This is a cultural reference from the story of London's notorious Kray twins. Just so's you know like before you get the PC brigade involved.