mikel

Simple. If it fits our style or can easily be changed to fit, and no band member finds it so awful they cant bear to play it, then we give it a go.

The Beatles "Twist and Shout" It showed me music could be more than simply something to sing along or dance too. It was, and still is, primal in its intensity. And I wasnt even a teenager at the time, about 10 years old.  It still makes the hair on my neck stand up with excitement.

1 hour ago, jezzaboy said:

I`m 54 and our rhythm guitarist is 33. Sometimes I start talking about the 70`s only to be reminded that he wasn`t even born then! Boy it makes me feel old.

But it shouldn`t matter in a band context unless you want to be the next big thing.

People saying music is not their era because they were not alive then? Where would that leave classical music? Or blues, or lady Day, or Frank  Sinatra, or the Beatles. He needs to get real. Music is ageless.

It depends. I feel some songs need the parts to be as the original, as any changes remove the feel. Some songs I believe that as long as the feel is right you can play with them to suit yourself. Also, some songs we change them to suit our style and make them different. If changed enough they are almost a new song. Take  "It must be Love",  the Madness version is very different from the original by Labi Siffre and stands on its own.

"Yours is no Disgrace", in particular, and the Yes album in general. Took me straight back to 1970 and the musical ephiphany it was for me at the time. It's still as fresh and exciting now as it was to the wide eyed 17 year old it inspired back then. Magic.

3 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

My (ex pro) Dad used to say that an amateur practices until they get it right. A pro practices until they can't get it wrong. 

That'll do for me. 

There is a lot more to being a pro than that. Getting enough work to pay the bills for one. I can play stuff blind, in the dark and in my sleep, doesn't make me a pro. Its just playing by rote. Creativity is the measure of a musician for me.

Nothing eye opening at all in that vid. Stating the bleeding obvious and sweeping generalisations. If you can make money by posting vids like that and get away with it then good luck to the guy. Wish I had thought of it.

Why "Verses". Its not a knockout competition. Aspirations aside we all do the best we can with the time we have for music. Some have, or chose to prioritise, lots of time for music, others have to fit it in around life. I like to think I am an amateur with a pro attitude. The only way I would have loved to be a pro would have been in a band with my mates playing and recording the music we had writen.  As for a hired hand or a session player, no thank you.

The Eagles, Newcastle City Hall 1973. Never heard of them but they blew Neil Young off the stage.

On 22/12/2018 at 11:03, chris_b said:

I know a drummer who uses mostly IEM's and swears by the Porter Davies drum stool, but, as a bass player, I think I'd put that money into better IEM's.

I also play drums in a band and tried one of those drum stools. Pointless invention to overcome a problem that does not exist. I can feel the sticks and pedals through my limbs as I play the kit, I don't need a vibrating seat to tell me when I have made contact. I also sometimes use iems and still dont need any help to play in time and also enjoy the experience.

Nice one mate, playing in front of the Toon Army must be spine tingling for any Geordie. Envious? You bet. The only way it could be better would be if it was back at the City Hall, the shrine of music for me.

Have to say, few basses sound better than when they go through a 60s or 70s valve amp and a couple of 4x12 cabs loaded with celestion speakers.

1st. Downtown Faction, 1967/68, soon to become Lindisfarne, at the local church hall.

Last. Focus, 2019.

Best. Yes, Close to the Edge tour 72.

Worst. Mot the Hoople. Newcastle City Hall.1972.

Loudest. AC/DC Mayfair Newcastle 1979. Still got the tinnitus.

Seen most. Jethro Tull

Most surprising. Bryan Ferry. 2018. Brilliant.

Nexy concert. AWB. Tyne Theatre in May.

Wish I had seen. Pink Floyd.

56 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

It's a protest song. It's only doing its job if its being heard.

This. I am ok with most songs that some would call none pc. Like Brown Sugar. It is telling a story about what went on in the distant past, to our eternal shame, and as such is calling it out not to be forgotten. Where do you stand on playing old blues standards if you are not black, didnt work as a share cropper or have your wife cheat on you?

Well it was at least a polite and apologetic email explaining the situation. The "Mate" thing is always a difficult scenario to get around as people prefer to have others they already know in bands, as long as they are up to it. It could be that one of the current band is best mates with Carl and threatened to spit his dummy is Carl was not given the position. It could also be that the person sending the email was given the sh*t job and told to get on with it. We will never know. Good luck.

8 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Oddly enough the rehearsal studios i use have about 12 or 13 rooms all have Ampeg 810 with usually an EBS HD360 head. Depending on room i've noted differences in tone from the cabs with amp settings remaining same. Room sizes vary a little but not much.. I've always suspected that some speakers have been replaced but no idea wheteher the good cabs have the originals speakers or replacements ? Maybe they are different age cabs ?

The good ones sound fuller and warmer yet still retain a sharpness when playing faster passages. Others are more woolly sounding where definition isn't so good. Rooms are all laid out in same manner with Marshall guitar amp one side of drums and bass cab on other side (snare side).

That to me does suggest that different speakers in same cabs will sound different. Again its probably just me that notices it as no-one else has said anything. They probably don't listen to the bass anyway. They have commented on guitarists sound tho. 

Dave  

Also the age and ammount of use a speaker has had can change the sound of two same make and model cabs.

If you have that many doubts and preconceptions why put yourself through it? Any band start up is a shot in the dark, and the chances of 4 or 5 strangers hitting it off musically and as personalities is slim, but sometimes magic happens. If you don't have a positive outlook and a desire to compromise then give it a miss. It will save you a lot of disappointment.

For me its about playing what I like and what gives me pleasure. The whole point of picking up any instrument is in that statement. I have never lumbered myself with stuff or so called technique that I dont need and would never use, why waste that time when it can be spent on some aspect I enjoy and will utilise? I spend enough time doing things that are a chore, like work etc so why turn my enjoyment or hobby into a chore simply because its a current trend? If I was, or wanted to be, a session player learning all the techniques out there would be a must, but I couldnt think of anything worse, so I dont need to.

I also play drums, and an article in a drum mag made me think hard about this subject. A top drummer suggested getting rid of stuff you dont need or never use, not just equipment but technique. He reasoned why continue to practice stuff you either dont like or never use? Be great at some things rather than being average at everything. I bought into that in Bass playing and drumming.

Funk and reggae for me. I am not that keen on listening to Funk, but love playing it.

Another vote for RCF. Loud, if needed and if you go for the 15" speaker version you can probably do without a sub. And great sound quality.

Another integral part of his sound was the use of a plectrum, with the follow through of the thumb. Almost a double track effect. But more than his sound, to me at least, is his sometimes odd note placement. Sometimes offbeat, sometimes on and his use of space. Great bassist, one of the true innovators and inventive.

15 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

Yeah I’m totally on the same page. I’m just thinking good songs are good songs.

It’s pointless throwing money at it, can’t “buy” good tunes played well...a crap song well produced is just that.

This. A great song is great if played on an acoustic or with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

4 hours ago, Jus Lukin said:

 

That is probably a thread all its own, but it is worth considering whether Prog Rock is a permanent state of change, as it were, or has become a genre in itself, with certain factors which make it 'Prog' rather than any other kind of rock music, or kind of music full stop.

If constant progression is the only goal, then the music should be unrecognisable compared to that of the prog heyday of the 70's and, on first thought, the logical conclusion is a transition to very avant garde music. Yes to Steve Reich, to that guy who set a load of vibrating dildos on timpani, to The Gerogerigegege, to white noise? How many times could one listen to a record before it has ceased to be a progression and becomes stagnation? It's all rather problematic, and it makes more sense to view Prog, like any of these names coined by journalists rather than musicians, as a particular way of making rock music which was at the time, a progression of the style and was, for a time, progressing. Prog Rock, I would posit, is very much an idiom struck in the 70's, and if I'm in the mood for some prog I don't look for the most out-there thing I can find. I want to hear the sound of Yes, or Pink Floyd, or Gentle Giant, etc.

There is nothing wrong with loving those old records, or wanting to make music in a similar vein- in fact it's only the 'progressive' title which suggests it could be out of the spirit of the thing. It wouldn't have sounded so cool, but had it been called 'Classical Rock, or 'Compositorial Rock' or somesuch, then the development of a style in itself wouldn't feel like the movement letting itself down somehow.

Now you would be talking "Classic Prog" It was Prog in the late 60s to early 80s but you cant blame the old bands for the stagnation of the genre now. Because some music journalist called it Progressive  has rather lumbered the music with a title that demands it constantly evolve. Is that possible?

Well, the whole ethos of prog was that it moved on, evolved and was Inventive. Hence the term progressive rock.

Depends on the audience.