lozkerr

For some reason, this sprang immediately to mind...

Father, forgive me for I have sinned. I didst count the strings to four and all was good. And then I didst count yet another string. Five was the number of strings and the number of the strings was five. And yea, did I allow myself to yet pluck the string and the sound was good. I turned aside from the path of righteousness and found within myself that I did yet make music that was pleasing to the Lord God of Bass with sinful lack of effort, and the music didst exceed that which I could yet play when the number of strings was but four. And Lo! The band of disciples - for always shalt the other players of strings follow the Lord God of Bass - did say that it was good and did promise to wreak a plague of locusts upon my soul should I worship at the Temple with but four strings. They spake in tongues and didst proclaim 'thou now hast a decent instrument and we do dig thy grooves, man'.

Lo, verily I crave that thou dost save me a seat; for I too have been cast down from the path of righteousness by the temptation of BEADG.

Thanks Dad! I really appreciate that. The lines still need a fair bit of work - some of it feels cringey and it doesn't flow as well as I'd like - but I think the overall feeling is about there. There is some personal stuff in it - the last few years haven't been the easiest for me - but it's not relating a specific experience. I just let my imagination wander about a bit. The sound I have in my head is something like this: Tanita Tikaram - Little Sister Leaving Town and Tanita Tikaram - Preyed Upon Not an exact copy, but that sort of moody, sad and empty feeling. I think the drums are a tad too intrusive on Preyed Upon, but that's likely just me. Plenty of slides on the bass and yes, a distant sustained guitar would work well. I'll have to persuade my other half to dust off her Gibson 🙂 I think the trick will be to see what sort of bassline seems to work and build it from there. Melodies aren't my strong point though, so it might be a bit hit and miss. And 100% agreed - no bagpipes! The chap on Castlehill was squawking away when I was jotting some of that down earlier and it was really jarring.

I've had another play with it, and it's coming together slowly. The idea is the narrator is reliving his last day with his true love. It's still more doggerel than lyricism, but this is where I've got to: I'm sending you a letter saying where we went today. The park, the zoo, on the terrace on a seat for two. A glass of wine, a bite to eat, we had so much to say About our lives together, where we'd go and what we'd do We arrived here bleary-eyed on the early morning train The one on which, that fateful day, that she first caught my eye The sunrise lit the fleecy clouds with a soft pink primrose stain And we caught our breath in wonder at the castle in the sky We ran through the dewy gardens, gazed at the flowered clock Climbed the sandstone rocket and looked out across the bay Her hair fluttered in the breeze as she said I was her rock We would face the world together, starting right now here today (split up and meet later - both want to do different things) (accident) (funeral) (leaving - will return to relive perfect day) As I walked with my head down I swore I would return So I'm sending you this letter saying what we did today The sights, the sounds, the smells, I could go on and one But when the waiter asked me, I had nothing real to say She was only there in memory, reality had gone Once I've put something together for the verses described in brackets, I'll see if I can tidy it up a bit. It takes place in and around Princes Street Gardens - the 'castle in the sky' is Edinburgh Castle, the 'flowered clock' is the floral clock and the 'sandstone rocket' is the Scott Monument. Bit too purple at the moment, but I think it's heading in the right direction.

I like this - I think I'll have a play with it and see where it goes. I've thought of an ending, though. It needs work, but the basic shape's about there: So I'm sending you this letter saying what we did today The sights, the sounds, the smells, I could go on and on But when the waiter asked me, I had nothing real to say For she was only there in memory, reality's long gone

Heh, Country's easy. Here's a starter kit: DO-IT-YOURSELF COUNTRY & WESTERN SONG KIT I met her [1] [2]. I can still recall [3] she wore. 1. 2. 3. on the highway in September that purple dress in Sheboygan at McDonald's that little hat outside Fresno ridin' shotgun that burlap bra at a truck stop wrestlin' gators those training pants on probation all hunched over the stolen goods in a jail cell poppin' uppers that plastic nose in a nightmare sort of pregnant the Stassin pin incognito with joggers the neon sign in the Stone Age stoned on oatmeal that creepy smile in a treehouse with Merv Griffin the hearing aid in a gay bar dead all over the boxer shorts She was [4] [5]. 4. 5 sobbin' at the toll booth in the twilight drinkin' Dr. Pepper but I loved her weighted down with Twinkies by the off-ramp breakin' out with acne near Poughkeepsie crawlin' through the prairie with her cobra smellin' kind of funny when she shot me crashin' through the guardrail on her elbows chewin' on a hangnail with Led-Zeppelin talkin' in Swahili with Miss Piggy drownin' in the quicksand with a wetback slurpin' up linguini in her muu-muu and I knew [6]; [7] I'd [8] forever; 6. 7. 8. no guy would ever love her more I promised her stay with her that she would be an easy score I knew deep down warp her mind she'd bought her dentures in a store She asked me if swear off booze that she would be a crashing bore I told her shrink change my sex I'd never rate her more than "4" The judge declared punch her out they'd hate her guts in Baltimore My Pooh Bear said live off her it was a raven, nothing more I shrieked in pain have my rash we really lost the last World War The painters knew stay a dwarf I'd have to scrape her off the floor A Klingon said hate her dog what strong deodorants were for My hamster thought pick my nose that she was rotten to the core The blood test showed play "Go Fish" that I would upchuck on the floor Her rabbi said salivate She said to me [9]; But who'd have thought she'd [10] [11]; 9. 10. 11. our love would never die run off with my best friend there was no other guy wind up in my Edsel man wasn't meant to fly boogie on a surfboard that Nixon didn't lie yodel on "The Gong Show" her basset hound was shy sky dive with her dentist that Rolaids made her high turn green on her "WorkMate" she'd have a swiss on rye freak out with a robot she loved my one blue eye blast off with no clothes on her brother's name was Hy make it at her health club she liked "Spy vs. Spy" black out in a Maytag that birthdays made her cry bobsled with her guru she couldn't stand my tie grovel while in labour [12] goodbye. 12. You'd think at least that she'd have said I never had the chance to say She told her fat friend Grace to say I now can kiss my credit cards I guess I was too smashed to say I watched her melt away and sobbed She fell beneath the wheels and cried She sent a hired thug to say She freaked out on the lawn and screamed I pushed her off the bridge and waved But that's the way that pygmies say She sealed me in the vault and smirked

Or do some people watching: I stand alone on a silent street in a town so far away While they picture me as I post a letter saying where I went today Did this, did that, got drunk, bought tartan tat As the rows of blank-faced windows glared and told me to go away ... etc 🙂

Sound advice. Also, try free writing - you just write and write. Doesn't have to rhyme, look like lyrics or even make sense. It can be doggerel, obscenities, anything you like, but if you try to keep a theme or idea in your head while you're doing it, things can pop out of nowhere. It might be something alliterative or onomatopoeic or a play on words - anything. But even a short sentence can be enough to get you going. I'm working on a TV series at the moment, and free writing is a godsend when I hit a wall. I just put my characters into mundane situations and type away. Most of it goes into the bit bucket, but I've come up with some gems that I'm very pleased with. You do have to be ruthless and self-critical to a fault, though. It's quite normal to write ten thousand words and chuck almost everything away; and what's left may need a lot of changes before it works. But when it does work, it's immensely rewarding.

Same here. When I first learned it, I did try fretting the E on the B string but my fingers got tangled up, just like they normally do 🙂 I mute the open string with my thumb, which seems to work OK.

Aye, I picked up on that too. I'm no Suzi Quatro, but I'm definitely a wee bit ahead of that. The first thing I thought was 'HTH do you play Living On A Prayer on a four-string without the open E?' Unless you detune, of course.

Shrunk it? They've bloody decimated it! I nipped in there on my lunch break today and they had seven basses for sale. Plus all of four (I counted 'em) Orange combos in the noise department. That's right. Seven. In a shop smack bang in the centre of the capital. I was quite taken aback, although I'd just gone in to see if they had any interesting sheet music. They didn't, but they did have a lot of tutorial books - Rockschool, Hal Leonard method and so on. That, plus their not having any high-end kit at all seems to suggest they're aiming at the entry-level bass market to the exclusion of just about everything else. A shame.

No bull, that was seriously chilled. Friesian, in fact.

Beat me to it. I was 51 before I first picked up a bass and I wish to hell I'd done it decades earlier.

Spot on. Whenever I'm asked my age and don't want to admit that I can remember the moon landings, I usually say 'old enough to know better, young enough not to care'. Usually works 🙂

That's worth knowing 😉

Generally I feel the same, but sometimes there's no choice. I'd been keeping an eye out for a Steinberger Spirit headless bass for a while but never seen one in a shop, not even in Denmark Street. I eventually bought one online from Bass Direct, as carting the Fender around on weekend trips to see my kids was becoming a PITA. It's a nice little bass, but the natural playing position's very different to my Fender. It's good for basic practice and learning new songs, though.

Which one? The two I know of are Herts Music Centre and the Music Dept. The first one's good for sheet music and not much else, and the other seems a bit low on stock. I was looking for a decent padded gig bag a while back and neither of them had anything suitable for protecting an expensive bass. I went to the Bass Gallery in the end.

I can't see any, but that might be due to my being an old hoe with entrenched views.

Thanks! 🙂 Yes, sadly I will miss the Festival this year but we should be done and dusted for Christmas and Hogmanay. My flat's let for holidays at the moment, and it's booked solid until the 28th August. In the meantime, we're picking furniture, packing stuff up and sorting out mundane things like parking permits. It's a good time to be moving; the council's starting to clamp down on holiday lets. Although the headlines are still mostly noise rather than action, I've had a couple of snotty letters about the proliferation of key boxes at the street door, and from talking to neighbours it looks like there's a blitz on. The justification they're using is that most of the Old Town is a conservation area and UNESCO World Heritage site (which is true), and a lot of the tenements are listed buildings (which is also true), so the threat of the planning contravention ban hammer is being used. It won't affect me, as I only have one key box and I've got the OK from the council to leave it in place until the end of the month, but some people have loads of short-term lets, so they're in for some bother. We have some big jobs to do, and after that we'll be living in the flat while we get the smaller things done. Most of my gear will have to go into store, but I have treated myself to a Steinberger travelling bass so I can keep my hand in. I don't want to be too rusty when I start looking for a band!

Fabulous, thanks very much everyone! I'll try to get round as many as I can.

Thanks! I'll do that. It'll be nice to meet a fellow BCer if you'll have time to say hello!

Hi everyone, Next month, I'll be upping sticks and moving back to Edinburgh. There's a wee bit to do on my flat, so it'll be a while before I'll be heading over to JMB again. But in the meantime, I was wondering if anyone could pass on some insights into the live music scene in Auld Reekie? My local there does have live music, but it tends to be finger-in-the-ear folky stuff about auld reiver Tam and his twa grey dugs, accompanied by traditional Scottish instruments like the, er, banjo. Not really my thing. Whistle Binkies is just down the road from me, so doubtless I'll be in there a lot, but I'd like to know of any other good venues easily reached from the city centre. Ideally I'd like to take the Goat in Berkhamsted with me, but I suspect the owners might complain, even if it would fit under all the motorway bridges. If there's anywhere similar to there in Edinburgh though, I'd love to hear about it. And any recommendations for bass teachers in or around Edinburgh would be very welcome, too! Many thanks, Laura

Yup. Band T-shirts come in three sizes - skeleton, footy fan beer gut and tent 😊

Burn it. Burn it with FIRE.