Woodwind

I know this lesson is tomorrow, but I would find any excuse to cancel and then start a new hunt for a teacher based on all the suggestions here. If you're local to Glasgow there must be many great teachers around. I have had lessons with a teacher who at times only had one amp (his second amp was on a tour bus or venue etc etc) and guess what, he wasn't the one playing during my lesson. Actually that's not quite true - if I was struggling with something he used my bass to demonstrate (or his bass unplugged) and could accompany me on piano. So don't be put off by one amp per se, but my guess is this teacher you found may well ending playing more than you in your lesson. And yes as nearly everyone has said, reading notation is nothing but a good thing so a teacher who can help with this is your primary goal. Good luck 😎

Not a dense question at all! Yes I'm sure your current audiologist will be able to do this, but there are plenty of other places dotted around the country. The ACS site has a dealer finder - https://www.acscustom.com/uk/how-to-buy/how-to-buy-uk I was fortunate to get my last set through the Musicians Hearing Service scheme as all my income at the time came from music related activities. https://www.musicianshearingservices.co.uk/what-we-do/musicians-hearing-health-scheme/ This time round I'm going to the ACS London office. Have a good peruse of the ACS site as there are options your audiologist may not be aware of. For example you can have the plugs linked with a cord (very, very useful) and with my next set I'll have them made with the left and right plugs in different, contrasting colours; so in a rush, on a darkened stage with intermittent colourful lighting I will be able to instantly tell which is which.

Hope my tone doesn't come across as too overbearing, but make sure having ACS's on your list means making a call and booking an appointment for Impressions tomorrow 😀 It can take a few weeks for the plugs to be made and there will be a delay in getting an impression appointment. I know the £150+ depending on what options you go for is a bit of a hit, but you will not think about it again after you have used them a few times.

Just in the process of refreshing my hearing protection set up. Booked in for new impressions of my ears for another set of ACS Custom plugs. I anticipate having the 17db filters in these and I'll have the 20db ones on hand from my previous set. Ordered some new non-custom reusable 20db plugs for use at work, which I'll put in as I arrive at the workshop and then augment with my over-ear defenders when the really noisy machines start. Ideally I'd like some new over-ear defenders too as I've never been convinced by the protection offered by the 3M ones I have despite their claims and reviews (I feel the protection drops off at the higher frequencies, which is the inverse of what you want). As stated above there is no price too high for all this

Love the trash can drum kit!!!!!!!

Excellent topic! I didn't know Knower, but will be exploring their back catalogue off the back of this. @leroybasslines absolutely superb playing in your video!

I suspect some of the laid off employees may start their own version of Bandcamp in time. We'll see whether it (if and when) or any of the existing alternatives (I don't know of any) provide an adequate new home to bandcamp.

It may be a good thing. The press release implies you'll be able to put your music forward for sync opportunities, but how this would work in reality is beyond me. I like bandcamp a great deal, but the way users engage with it is changing. As my sales dwindle, my complete plays increase massively, so it seems more people are using it as a streaming service.

It won't be getting anywhere near hot enough to anneal the steel, but it will be tempering the metal to some degree and maybe it's this that is helping rejuvenate the string?

That's so cool!

Instagram is my primary means of promoting my live shows and releases. Over the 9 years I've been using it it has proved to be incredibly useful. It has changed/evolved over that time and how people interact with my profile has also changed, but it has outclassed useful engagement on any other social network I've tried. I don't think I'd relish starting from scratch now though.

Thank you so much for posting this. I promised myself that I'd work on my sight reading recently so this is a great reminder to get going. I jumped straight in with this video - They are good exercises!

I couldn't agree more. Absolutely unacceptable, complete amateur hour. I know we all make music for a variety of reasons, but if you're in a cover band and want ongoing paying gigs then what happens between songs is as important as the songs themselves imo. Good luck getting them to stop.

Other than this festival Where can I hear your music?

Interesting that his name is on the poster behind the TV presenter at the begining of the OP's video

Some party trick indeed! No video edit, you can see the switch at 2:34 There are other videos of Karl playing bass with Nina dotted around youtube, but I don't know if he does the switch in those

It's either A or D for me. Figure of 8 gives me the creeps somehow and anyone doing the elbow/hand wrap should have all their cables confiscated.

As someone that has had a very unusual musical journey (and hope it continues to surprise me) I've enjoyed reading through this thread. All the best with your BA show. On a slight tangent - apologies if I missed it if it was mentioned earlier, do you tune your bass guitar in 5ths? When I was looking for a new way to write and wanted to distance myself from the double bass (which I'd been forced to stope due to injury), I started tuning my bass guitar in 5ths an octave below the cello.

I think you're absolutely right. Tinnitus can fool the brain so it interprets stimuli in a different way (apparently, based on what I've read). There's no reason this wouldn't be the case with other causes.

PM'd

I Suffer from tinnitus and want to do everything I can to make sure it doesn't get worse. I use hearing protection exhaustively. For My day job I use Quies foam 35db plugs (the best foam ones I have found in 20 years ) which go in as soon as I arrive in the workshop and I wear 3M ear defenders over the top when I'm using any of the machines (lathe, linisher, bandsaw etc etc). For social engagements I use the same Quies plugs maybe moving to ACS 15 plugs. These usually serve to make hearing people easier, rather than protect against noise. One of the worst effects of tinnitus for me has been the cognitive aspect of hearing (how the brain interprets and filters sounds we are "listening" to verses those we just hear. There is lots written on the topic). In a noisy bar I can follow someone talking across the room, but can't hear a word my friend standing next to me is saying. The ear plugs address this nicely. For music performance the ACS ER 15s go in before soundcheck and depending on volumes and stage monitoring I may then go up a league to my custom molded ACS 21db. My ideal is to have monitoring at a level where I don't need to perform in plugs, but proximity to the PA and size of venue will have a bearing on this so I might need plugs. The sight of them dangling round my neck has often drawn comments from people looking at my gug photos 🤣

Thanks everyone for the help and tips, cheers Thomas

Yup one of my pedals is 0.7amps I believe.

As per the title I'm looking for help from those that know on what gauge power cable to use with effects pedals running at 9v drawing approximately 1amp. I want to make some custom cables (length and aesthetics) to go from my power block and was worried that 0.5mm mains power cable might not be the best option? I suspect I'm worrying about nothing as the gauge of effects power cables I have cut open in the past varies wildly. Thanks for any pointers.

Oooh I really like that!!