diskwave

Some perspective . Back in the late 70's thru 80's I played in 'function bands' doing old school disco, funk, pop on a P bass and Stingray. Not a single bod from either the audience or music fraternity questioned my playing, my tone, sound or anything....on the contrary, my phone never stopped ringing. So yes this ole dinosaur says if you cant do it on a four string?...well there you go.

Yep. A keyboard player, guy called Jon Metcalf who I worked with ..blimey 40 years ago. Big beardy fella, big Harry Potter glasses (way before HP) and a lovely old Fender Rhodes. Guy was off the wall brilliant. I did an entire seaside season with, him, drums and a female singer just off a cruise and we packed the floor every night....doing old school disco, soul, pop stuff. He could make that Rhodes do things I didnt think possible..... No strings, pedals, gizmos nothing, just plain old rip rollickin musicianship. Happy days.

The term "music theory" is loaded in all the wrong ways. It conjures up an image of sitting in a dusty wood panelled practise room with an old tutor looking over his half rims at your evry mistake.....exactly how it was for me with my old violin teacher....hated it. Its much better to just... "learn to read music" Get a book and learn some notes, a couple of keys and some patterns off the stave. Make it fun. At th same time play along to ur fav tunes...start simple then pick somethig a bit more difficult and keep going.

Yep, Im pretty old and owned a ton of just about everything. Now play a Squire CV70's walnut P bass. Probably the most ..'playable' bass Ive ever owned. Fat neck, thick sounding PU's and feels solid like an old P bass, and most oddly watching the playback vid of a recent outdoor gig, sounded like a J bass on bridge PU only with more heft....perfect.

I have two sets of Chromes both nrly 20 yrs old yrs old.....beautifully dead with a biting mid range bark..but thats a long time to wait. best thing is to over stretch them a few tones tones....crank those tuners just short of breaking....that'll soon wreck them.

Reading music is not easy and if you cant do it then dont worry. Also forget about tabs and all of it, just put ur fav tunes on ur phone...stick ur buds in, plug in and play along... u'll be amazed how soon things will start to gel.

Did it for a bit back in the early 80's. Out every night basicaly watching ...'other people' enjoying themselves...For me it got real old real quick. However I got to play an amazing variety of music and met some great musicians.. some of which went on to have very succcessful careers... but you've really got to want that lifestyle....s'not easy.

My grt inspiration. Yep its a bit out and sounds glorious. Bernard is one of those rare original muicans who didnt really care much about anything other than the groove....Pretty sure he didnt even know what strings he was usin, and that original thinking still sits head and shoulders above todays need for every note to be tinkered with to the enth degree, extremely refreshing in this age of misplaced digital perfection.

The trick is firstly technique then to cut the bass right back and slam the low mids/mids. Too much bass plus a soft touch in any small room is death.

Wow hold the front page huh. In 43 yrs Ive not used a single pedal.. and I sound darn good, P bass, dead flats, punch and grind for days....technique.

Played for 40 years on and off but no more, but I have a small amp and P bass in the lounge and play it everyday...kinda therapuetic.

Eh?. Placing the wonderous Mr Giblin to one side for a mo. Karn is equally as good as Pino he just didnt get the commercial exposure Pino got with Paul Youngs hugo massivo hits. Equally superb workers of the fretless animal.

She died. My dad died last year and dear ole mum died four years ago. They are all dead. So you gonna say all those people who died in war or by any other means "passed away". Nope, they died...they're dead. We live in a soppy silly world where people have lost all sense of reality, people die, they do not "pass away".

Her death has really got me thinking. I'm 63, started off a punk ended up in a pit and all the clubs and dives inbetween.. done a lot, loved it all. To me she was more than Peely, maybe because she was a woman...I dunno...In a way the female equivalent of Bowie tho not a musician, just one of those people who maybe influenced more people in the pop scene than it's realised.

Here we go. Im talking about "happy" party music. Youve named a small handful I can think of 100's from the past that were joyous and made you wanna dance.

What a legendary original pop figure. Kinda represented everything that was cool and groovy about the crazy 70's. Often copied but never replaced.

I look at it this way . Play a a young person some Bach and they'll probably go wow. In other words old classics are just that, old classics and at the risk of being flamed for the umpteenth time, way more "old" stuff is just better than new stuff. In fact I would go so far to say new stuff is dull and miserable sounding compared to old stuff which ... As an eg, a dep I did a while back, to show willing they did a George Ezra hit single.....The band hated it and it didnt seem to cheer the audience much either, we then played Disco Inferno and the floor was heaving.

As above really, been on finger style auto pilot for 40 years so just need to try to imagine what it is ur sensing. I did play with a pick for couple mnths before hand ...(then I saw Bernard Edwards and that was it... no more pick!) and remember my fingers at first being all over the place with barely any control. I think my method was to alternate very slowly 1st and 2nd on each string relentlessly for hrs on end...and eventually it started to gel....But even all these years later Im still improving...becoming even smoother...At the end of the day its practise..a lot of it. Practise, practise practise. Just to add cause its important and without seeing ur technique. Whatever u do do not put a sharp 90 deg bend in ur wrist ala 80's style.....Ur forearm and hand want to be as flat as poss, one long limb so to speak, the effect being your entire lower palm will always be just kissing the strings....good for muting etc.

Im 63. What exactly do u mean by that....creatively or something else? Not trying to be clever, genuinely would like to know as I have my own view which tends to upset a lot of people.

Precisely. Book em in at the Dog and Duck on a Monday night fronting a four piece and hear the truth...Unlike back in the day when most 'famous' performers could entertain at the scariest of levels. Small town pub, all the ceiling lights up and three old geezers and a dog sat right in front of you....terrifying.

Fraid not, tho agree this guys a tasty player ...Its so annoying when good ole vids are removed

For what its worth Ive had vintage P basses and now I play the CV 70's...Maple, blocks and a fat ole neck and its as good as any of those old Fenders I had for years....sounds good too.

Not suprised. Ok I'm getting on a bit (eg old fart?) but the place had a strange vibe...was happy to leave.

Easy. Take a tip from the classical world. Buy a half decent instrument then practise like ur life depends on it. No need to ever buy another instrument. Practise.

Few could touch Rodders back in the day for griitty pop/rock vocal prowess...total original talent. But the day he donned a tux was a sad day indeed, who's he think he is...Sinatra? And Jools follows a line of key players who never gave a give a fig about the bass player...watch his left hand...major dis-respect. As for the show...Ive no idea..same ole thing for ever..., question is, what else is there?