zbd1960

Playing an instrument requires muscle memory. If you've learnt it 'wrong', it takes time and effort to straighten it out. I'm speaking as a cellist here as I'm more proficient on that than bass... but you need to slow it down to a point where you can repeatedly play it correctly. You then up the tempo by 5 bpm and repeat... and keep doing that until you reach performance speed. You need to retrain your muscle memory. If there's a particular group of bars that's a challenge, start playing the last one of the group, get it right, then add in the bar before. Get that right and add in the bar before that... That way you are playing into something ou know you can get right. Hope it works out for you.

I like some jazz, but one of the things I don't like - and which is one of the things which I think gets jazz a bad name - is the type of gig where EVERY number requires EVERY player to take a solo in turn in some misplaced concept of democracy. You then get a forrest of notes thrown at you, which might be technically very good but about as musical as being hit with a brick. I much prefer it when it is much more mixed up, just an appropriate solo...

... whilst wearing an extravagantly styled cravat...

Friend of mine served over 30 years, now retired. Yes, it's shifts, but pattern is fixed and known months ahead. Only issue will be if something comes up towards the end of a shift and it runs over and little can be done about that. Whether that woudl be an issue would depend on which shift it was

I've played in numerous orchestras and ensembles. I would say it is more likely that an instrumentalist that plays the bass line is going to be more observant with regard to timing and rhythm. I think it's for the very simple reason that the bass instrumental parts will have more focus on rhythm and harmony, and less on melody. I also run a saxophone ensemble and whilst there are some good players there, some a lot better than me, I'm the only one with a lot of experience of playing in groups (and some have none). Whilst they are getting better, they tend to be unaware if their timing is off. It's another set of skills that takes time to develop.

Finally, after a Covid hiatus back to Feb 2020 the local Rock School has resumed. As those who've read my scrivenings will be aware, it's not my usual sort of musical haunt... I took the view back at the start of 2020 that joining th elocal one was the way to both learn to play bass and get some playign experience in a 'safe' environment... So, in Feb 2020 I went for my trial session with them. I was about to head to NZ, so expected to start weekly sessions with them in April 2020. Lockdowns etc hit and the venue they use has only just permitted group activities to resume. So, last night was the first adult session. I think there were 4 tutors on duty - my bass teacher (who's also a drummer), a drummer, and a couple of guitarists. I think there were 10 'students'. I'd say all the students were 50+ and I don't think I was the oldest. What's interesting, is we don't realise that we are making progress. Because there are some absolute beginners, it was simplified lead sheets with words and note/chord names, which is not what I prefer, but I understand why... Although I'd never played any of the pieces we covered (3 of them) and whilst it was basic root notes, I was able to keep up, realise when I'd made an error, and ended at the right time, so I'll call that progress.

It's great to see youngsters taking an interest in something and pursuing it. I don't care what it is, so long as it's something. Most people now don't pick up anything - whether that's an instrument, playing chess or a sport, photography, astronomy, bird watching... Instead, the majority are glued to various electronic devices and that's about it. There have always been youngsters who are good at things. My younger nephew was very proficient on guitar and trumpet in his early to mid teens, but it stopped when he went to uni. I suspect, like many, he will go back to them when he's somewhat older (he's mid-20s now). When I was at school we had plenty of people who were grade 8 on various instrument - violin, cello, French horn, bassoon, oboe, classical guitar... As long as they enjoy it and are doing it because they want to, rather than hot house parenting

I was working on something without the music at the time and the guitarist insisted on telling me 'A#' etc and I thought - I cannot believe this piece is in C# maj, Db maj is far more likely... When I checked online later, yep, Db... but guitarist was fine dealing with 7 sharps... Maybe he wants to try D# major if he's that keen on sharps...

I decided to remove post.

Yeah, it's my inner IT geek and too many death-by-powerpoint presentations that makes me critical. The underlying messages are interesting and tbh no surprise to anyone who's a musician

Nice looking thing - I'm a sucker for nice interesting pieces of wood.

Ugh, someone's learnt how to use MS Visio to prepare slides for PowerPoint presentation.... Death by vaguely not-quite-useful infographics... How can 'attending live music including live streaming' be a thing? You're either 'attending a live event', or 'you are watching a streamed event' I don't think you can regard those as quite the same thing... ymmv One of the best presentations/lectures I ever went to was at an IT technical conference where the guy did a really good job on the subject of 'how' to present data. Unless your audience really understands the base data well, bar charts and graphs convey very little to most people.

Where's the groan emoji when you need it?

The German bow hold seems to have come from the viola da gamba. Given that the double bass is a descendent of the violone - the double bass viol - (mostly, some are bass violins) this makes sense. What is slightly odd, is that certainly after about 1600, the viol bow hold was not on the end, which it had been in Renaissance era but along the stick. The two commonest bow holds for viol being those advocated by Christopher Simpson in England or by Forqueray in France. Both of these are underhand grips the main difference being that Forqueray advocates rotating the wrist to add more tension to the hair... both grips do have the middle finger on the hair. As ever, the problem with this is there is little documented about what went on then. We rely on the fact that Simpson and Forqueray for wrote tutor books so we have what they wrote, what we don't know is how representative of practice these writings are.

I have very deliberately stayed away from trying more expensive cello bows... My main bow is a conventional Dörfler pernambuco bow, which cost £450 ten years ago when I started playing...

If true, it's the most egregious example of the most utterly pointless pretentious tripe. You don't need a nuclear fallout zone to find out what a neglected musical instrument sounds like.

I'm not a bass player, but... 'German' bow hold is different and is similar to a Renaissance viol bow hold. The frog is much wider and you hold it at the end with fingers through the frog. I'm assuming that 'French' is what I would call 'standard' (for cello) bow hold held overhand with fingers coming down the side of the frog. I'd take advice from a teacher if unsure which to opt for.

The different string instruments have bows with different characteristics. A double bass bow is shorter, heavier and wider at the frog than a cello bow. And a cello is shorter, heavier... than a violin bow etc. You don't need to pay a fortune for bows, but avoid fibreglass ones and the really cheap £30 ones. Assuming prices are 'similar' to cello bows, a £100 basic carbon fibre one would be OK. Your local string instrument shop / luthier might have some good options (I have a nice german back-up bow which was £70 from local luthier).

Fortunately, no. We were playing this, but with 4 not 12

The cognitive dissonance where they don't "get it" is perplexing

Worst I've had is low league compared to some here... but my orchestra had been asked to provide a group to provide music in a cafe as part of a charity weekend event. So 4 of us provided a quartet (4 cellos in this case). So, we're sat their playing a Piazolla tango, which requires a lot of concentration on reading the music and playing... and people start talking to us... I've just about got enough brain power to play the Piazolla... there's none left for anything else! btw playing unamplified strings in a cafe setting is hard going

Most of my experience is with much bigger groups (orchestras etc) where a big part of the purpose of the rehearsal is to understand how your part fits in with the other parts

That's painful.... the crows often come in flocks... Definitely check the Sale of Goods Act as good have to be of 'merchantable quality' so something like a cooker is expected to last for years without issue. That means manufacturers can't just hide behind 'warranty expired'.

I know I come to this from a different angle as my background is classical... I'm probably weird, but I enjoy theory and that's not just about various flavours of 7th chords, but things like writing four part SATB harmony, realising a figured bass, score analysis... Do you need to be able to identify a Neapolitan 6th chord? No, you don't, but theory and understanding how/why harmony works is useful information and will help with understanding why some things work and some things don't. As I've said before, I don't have issues reading music and all the music I currently perform involves reading - I currently play cello in two amateur orchestras, and bari or tenor sax in a sax group. You don't need loads of theory to get along as a player, but having some understanding will help. and it can be useful when you encounter problmes with a part and need to work out what's wrong with it when the music publisher/editor has got it wrong.

Concert A = 440Hz is a relatively modern convention, which loosely speaking dates to early C20th. Modern period instrument performance practice for playing baroque music mostly uses A = 415Hz, which is about a semi-tone below A440. I play the viol and when playing with other period instrument players, you are expected to tune to A415. Not everyone will have recorders for example at A415, which means you end up playing at A440 as well, which is a pain with gut strings as they take ages to stabilise when re-tuned. I've sung in concerts accompanied by period instrument orchestras where tuning is at A415 - it makes the high notes easier... but is a right pain for the low notes. You will also come across A382 and A462 for some specialist players/repertoire. On the whole, it is easier to stay at A440.