zbd1960

GAS is an incurable disease. It afflicts many who have interest in specialist subjects. Music is severe, cases have been noted amongst photographers, astronomers, car and bike enthusiasts, fishermen, outdoor activity enthusiasts. It is particularly virulent amongst men of a certain age, but has been observed in men and women of all ages.

Not sure that's quite right. I bought my first classical LPs in about 1972. I think budget were 49p (I.e. 9/11), mid 75p (15/-) and top 99p (19/11). For context, I know that in 1978 when I was first a barman beer was 23p a pint. I was only 12 in '72 so can't give a direct comparison

[quote name='luckydog' timestamp='1473109987' post='3127082'] Every respect. But the Solti does it for me......! LD [/quote]I think the Barbirolli was the first to 'popularise' Mahler 6. The typical Barbirolli grunts can be irritating. I think I'm fond of it because it was the first recording of it I had (it used to be the Gramophone 'rosette' recording). I also have Solti and Rattle

6,000 at Royal Albert Hall, BBC Prom concert, broadcast live on Radio 3, which was also shown on BBC 4... I was singing bass in a choir performing Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony

Last night, I walked along the local high street (and yes, it is called 'High Street' - small market town). One bar had a DJ on to a private party and they seemed to be enjoying themselves, one bar had a dire band on with the singer probably in a different key from the band, one wine bar had a female vocalist accompanying herself on electro-acoustic guitar and either atonal/non-tonal music has suddenly become popular, or she was excruciatingly out-of-tune....

[quote name='luckydog' timestamp='1473078102' post='3126614'] Charge of the Light Brigade, General Gordon, Scott of the Antarctic ....... we take a hell of a pounding so well. We get knocked down, but we get up again. They're never going to keep us down. Now there was an originals band with something unique, that had a great following, and never sought fame and wealth AFAIK, until it happened one day. Two things that are tough to define in philosophy : quality and truth. Robert Pirsig had had a good go at defining some kind of structure for 'what is quality?' whereas many others gave up over hundreds of years. Pirsig assigned a hierarchy (I hope he's not reading !), in which social quality, such as fame and popularity, is trumped by 'self-fulfilment' or intellectual quality such as appreciation of harmonic progression or lyrical meaning or art - but not all people operate within the 'self actualised' domain for much of the time. Hence, for most people, quality and popularity/fame are always effectively the same thing. But there is a higher plane, most musicians know of course. So depends whether we get this, personally, as to whether we think Mustang Sally beats Mahler's 6th for musical quality........the answer would be obvious (but different) and deeply split for the population. You did ask ! I'm a Mahler 6th dude. Others would say Mustang Sally. LD [/quote]Barbirolli recording?

I've used various premises with various choirs/orchestras/groups I rehearse with where we have a set of keys to lock up. I think you have to judge it on th emerits of the situation. But expect a bigger bill if he has to pay someone to attend/lock-up.

It's the same experience with classical. Over 90% of all classical concerts in the UK are amateur productions with orchestras, bands and choirs like the various ones I am a part of. No one is obliged to come and there is a lot of competition from other gigs let alone TV, pub, or whatever. All the groups I'm in have to put a lot of effort into generating audience. The overheads can be horrific with local civic centres charging £1,000 or more to hire, pro soloists will be £250 upwards (we've paid over £1,000), pro players etc means even a 'cheap' concerts cost £2.5k and a big one £15k. People complain that you want to charge £12 or £15 for a ticket when you are probably subsidising the costs by 50 to 80% by other fund-raising. It's a strange world.

It sounds like bands need a mutually agreed signal amongst themselves for 'volume war guys - need to turn it down...' Sounds like suddenly passing oranges round between items could be the signal... No one then needs to actually say anything

Mike Rutherford apparently.... looks like I need to take up polo and dressage....

I didn't have a clue at the end of primary school - astronomy and chemistry were my interests then. I went to a grammar school, so in 2nd to 5th forms (no I don't do 'years' either) I had a weekly music lesson at school playing cello, but didn't get very far and after 6th form, didn't expect to be doing anything musical. Thus is stayed until I was in my 30s when I started singing lessons and I didn't touch an instrument until in my 50s... One of my nephews (now 20) was musical from an early age. Although my brother is clueless, nephew started on trumpet aged 9 and then guitar at 13 and had regular lessons until he was 17. He's not playing anything at the moment as uni and g/f currently take precedence... I'm hoping he'll return when he's a little older.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1472503838' post='3121688'] Drums are not inherently loud. They would be put through the PA so that they may, even, be played more quietly..! The real advantage, in a small venue, is simply to spread the sound, especially of the bass drum, but all the kit too, into the overall sound of the band. This avoids having those at the front hearing the kit differently than those at the sides or back. The objective is not amplification, but overall sound reinforcement and balance. The drummer plays at his/her ordinary level, and [i]all [/i]in the room hear the whole band correctly. No use, of course, if the person behind the kit wallops away like a shed-builder, I'll allow, but for [i]real [/i]drummers, it's a very common and useful ploy, harming no kittens. The drums are not loud in the PA, merely [i]present[/i]. [/quote] Thanks for that, it makes sense. Unfortunately, my (limited) experience suggests things get hit as hard as possible most of the time

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1472033333' post='3117805'] another do you mic up the drums? if you do, don't ( maybe a bit of bass drum if you must) and set the other levels to match them, can never understand why bands mic up the drums for a small pub gig [/quote] I don't get this either. Drums are inherently LOUD, neither they nor trumpets, trombones nor saxes need amplifying in small venues....

Someone spotted one today. It's remarkable for its candour and honesty, it includes this: "ADHD drummer with slightly better temperament than the nut job off the commitments might be available but we're waiting to see...."

I've spent some time teaching a few people over the years to read music. One was a complete novice in their 30s, the other was a guitarist. In both cases, I split the pitch and rhythm into separate activities and I focused mostly on getting them to understand rhythm notation and being able to clap or tap it out (people seem reluctant to 'lah' it ). We did the pitch notation separately and I probably spent 2/3 on rhythm and 1/3 on pitch in the first few sessions.

Not my favourite, but +1 to the banana idea. A friend of mine is a young professional cellist and they get taught about this use of bananas (!) at conservatoire

Unfortunate YAS 23 is a good instrument. I'd quite like a YTS23 or 25 (T = tenor)

The instruments which I take out of the house on a regular basis are with Allianz. The others are covered by the 'all risks' element of the household insurance.

I don't play DB (yet) but I do play two instruments that use gut strings - the tenor and bass viola da gamba, the large bass version of which, the violone, is the ancestor of (viol shaped) DBs. You have to use gut strings on viols as they cannot take the tension of metal strings. There are several issues with gut strings. The sound is good and has a silvery sound which blends very well and which you do not get with metal strings. The key point is that as a natural fibre, it breathes - it absorbs and releases water vapour as the humidity changes. During this time, the mass of the string is changing, which means the tuning is changing. Once equilibrium has been reached, they stabilise. Gut strings are prone to going 'false' more so than metal strings over time. This means that the same fret on adjacent strings may not be in tune with each other. Cost wise, for my bass viol, which is cello sized, strings are cheaper than cello strings - about £6 for the top D and about £50 for the bottom D (it has 6 strings), whereas a set of decent modern cello strings is about £140 - £240 (my bottom C string cost £105). I have no doubt that it is worse for DB players given the extra string size.

I wonder if it's the same issue you get with a lot of modern classical soloists? Technically fantastic with stupendous virtuosity, but somehow lacking in 'musicality'? (I know, I know - defining that is not easy.)

I was listening to it live on R3

I know plenty of people who have started much later, so no worries on that front. Some people can learn just from books, but that can be 'dry' and some support from a music teacher may be worth considering. The AB Guide to Music by Eric Taylor is in two parts, whic are about £6 each. That covers everything, but is on the 'dry' side. There are plenty of other book sand online resources.

I live on my own... so problem solved. The instruments are all in the music room, and there's a ton of music in the study. I do keep them out of the lounge except if I'm practising with the PC and I want the sound through the hi-fi...

The sax playing is also some well-dodgy miming as he seems to have acquired the skill of notes coming out whilst his mouth is open and breathing in... Since I play sax, I probably ought to have a look at it some time... Problem with well-known pieces, is the audience expects to hear them in a particular way, which is not feasible live without all the production stuff in the recording studio.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1471284847' post='3111861'] Yet a quartet for a wedding will cost a fortune, maybe if you book the entire orchestra it will be free? [/quote] Errrm, sorry to disappoint, no. Last concert I organised required a 50 piece small symphony orchestra and cost £8k. I organised and played in a small string group for a friend's brthday party some years ago. There were six of us - it took months of planning and 5 or 6 three-hour rehearsals to pull it together (none of us had played publicly in a string group before). The music was expensive too at around £30 or more for a basic set of parts of some simple string arrangements. We needed several sets of stuff. Most of the rehearsals were at my house, so most people travelled 50 miles round trip per rehearsal, 6 rehearsals is 300 miles, x 5 plus about £100 on music.