T-Bay

Sunshine of your love was on my original list, it’s a cracking riff (one of the best imho) but they must hear it sooooooo many times.

Thanks for that info. I plan to sign up in a few weeks when I have some of the basics down a bit better. Not sure how much stuff is on there for complete beginners.

As a complete beginner to saxophone (less than a month in) I have been learning Baker St. It reminded me of trip to PMT in Birmingham a couple of years ago. The rhythm guitarist in one of the bands I play in dared me to ask to try a bass and then play seven nation army. Just for fun I agreed and even managed to ask the salesman with a straight face if he had ever heard it before, his reply was ‘once or twice’. I have felt a bit bad about it ever since (just a bit) I imagine Baker St Is one of those tunes that every saxophone salesperson must be utterly sick of as well. So it got me wondering what tunes shouldn’t you play in a music shop if you don’t want to upset the sales people. So....... Bass - Seven nation army, sunshine of my love Guitar - smoke on the water, stairway to heaven Saxophone - Baker St,. So what others are there?

I have a couple of jazz basses, one with Seymour Duncan’s and one with super cheap Entwistle ones in. The Entwistle ones were fitted after a recommendation on here. For the money they are stunning and compare very nicely with the SD ones. And if for some reason you didn’t like them you haven’t risked a lot of money. £24 gets you a pair delivered. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Entwistle-JBX-pickup-for-bass-guitar-ceramic-designed-by-Alan-Entwistle/232855804486?hash=item3637499a46:m:mOy4G8FemBuWEWzNJZWMWhA

If you are interested in glues look at some of the data sheets. I used to build and race single seat electric race cars. I used a mix of carbon honeycomb and aluminium extrusions for the monocoques, all glued together with 3M DP410 full structural adhesive. It is ridiculously strong stuff.

Looks like the sort of thing a shop would have for background muzak and announcements.

Will do, at the moment I am using a mix of lessons from a mate (handy man to know) by Skype, YouTube videos and tips from a saxophone forum. I am generally happy to self teach, that way I can bypass all the sensible stuff, get into lots of bad habits and generally stuff it up, sorry I meant ‘learn at my own pace’

You can pay month by month though, I am waiting to get a few more basics sorted then will sign up for the free trial.

I was gutted to see this last night. I love the stranglers and they do not get anything like the recognition they deserve. As a kid their irreverence was striking and spoke to me as a grumpy teenager. This performance from Dutch TV is my favourite of any band anywhere ever. I understand that they wanted to play live but were told they couldn’t so this was their response.

There are some bands though that success doesn’t seem to line up with what they did. Oasis always get a pasting, but we play a cover of theirs because the punters go mad for it. I quite like them but don’t think they deserve the level of success they had compared to other bands around at the time. I suppose blatantly ripping off one of the most successful bands of all time wasn’t a bad way to make a career.

If you are used to Reggae it won’t be hard. I love Nirvana but some of the bass lines are a bit tedious, come as you are is my favourite.

The type of mask needed for painting is very different to PPE needed for Coronavirus so may* be available (*but may have been bought by people thinking it will help). I use a twin filter Scott one, I think it was about £20 plus about £10 a time for a pair of filters. I was spraying the wings on my Capri project over the weekend and you cannot smell anything. When I took the mask off I was hit in the face with the smell. It’s worth getting the right protection and not trust to the fresh air approach.

Just been on YouTube and that is them all right. Thanks for that, it’s bugged me for years. At the time they were ‘the band you had to see’ so such a lacklustre performance really stood out. Therapy? And silverfish were amazing so still a great night.

Bloody hell! I think you are right! How did you know that!

Sadly I can never remember the bands name but I saw the same at Rock city years ago, I went to see Therapy? And Silverfish but there was another band on the line up who were being tipped as the next ‘big thing’ and loved by NME etc. The singer never faced the crowd and the set was terrible. They disappeared shortly after. Annoyingly I have never been able to remember who they were, it would have been in 1991 or possibly 92.

I am amazed that people think they can’t see past their likes or dislikes to decide if someone is over rated or under rated. There are some amazing performers out there that just aren’t for me, doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate their talent. Equally there are some bands I love that I realise are from demonstrating musical genius and can see that they don’t deserve the status they have when compared to other bands.

Another vote for Bowie as over rated and throw in pet shop boys for good measure - bland euro pop Under rated - Bob Mould, an amazing multi talented musician, supreme lyricist and all round music god. Yet most people outside of music circles have never heard of him or Husker Du, Sugar etc

Probably the same with most music teachers I would imagine, word of mouth is important I imagine.

He has got back to me and doesn’t have any spaces at the moment unfortunately and has a waiting list. Nice to be popular! He said he charges £15 per half hour, not sure how that compares to other teachers. He said the best way to find someone if you are interested it to look on saxophone cafe which is a UK based sax forum, sorry I can’t be more help. Good luck.

I have no idea if I am honest as he very kindly doesn’t charge me (we have know each other for twenty odd years and I fix all his music stuff for him). I will ask him and let you know.

Just had my first lesson from my mate over face time (a first for both us) and, apart from some quirks where face time decided my playing was noise and cancelled it out, it went very well. I have some great exercises to work on over the week. Next week we are going to look at some bits from one step beyond as a simple pentatonic practice. Very happy.

That seems a common business model for this sort of thing. I have to admit to have used the free bits of Yousician, Scott Devine and others and never paid a penny so perhaps I should support them a bit more.

I have come across the Scott Paddock ones and like them. Nige McGill is offering a free two week trial (with lots of pressure to join no doubt, but that’s fine) so I may well give that a go once I have the basics down.

I am having a lot of fun. I have no interest in Jazz, but love that dirt Ska sound. I don’t see it as something I would be likely to do in a band situation as it doesn’t fit the bands I am in. Just looking to have something else to enjoy and keep me occupied in these weird times.

One of my best mates is a saxophone teacher, first proper lesson tomorrow on face time. Added benefit that it will be free! Already watched a few YouTube videos and signed up for a free two week course. Very early days but please with progress in a few days. Making a much more consistent noise already.