TimR

It's not the drummer's job to keep the band's time. I said I wished more people realised that and understood it. The first paragraph of the link says its the drummers job to keep time. Pretty much proving my point that too many people (mainly drummers) think it is the drummers job. Even the OP realises that the drummer isn't there to keep the band in time. The band can do that themselves - especially when the drummer isn't able to and needs a flashing beacon stuck in their line of sight. I wasted years playing with a drummer who sped up if I stopped playing. Every song we played I had to lean back on the beat in order to keep time. One gig I had had enough and went with him on the final song. It just crashed and burned when it was going so fast the singer couldn't get the words out. The singer tore him a new one afterwards.

See my previous post.

2 guitarists is too many, actually probably 1 is too many but there you go... I'd stand in front of the one using a music stand, or who doesn't do backing vocals, or who looks at his shoes/fretboard all night etc etc.

I ordered an amp last month. Wasn't in stock, said due 28th April on Website. On placing the order, I had an email saying it wouldn't be available until 28th April, and I'd be updated if that changes. Had an email on Monday saying it's now expected 30th April. So can't fault their comms so far. Will update this thread with any more important news as it happens...

Well that's the first paragraph wrong to start with. 😂 No wonder there's so much issues with drummers who think everyone should be following them. 🤦‍♂️

This is what I would do. Alternatively there are online services who can print and bind. Probably your local people would print cheaper. https://www.doxdirect.com/print-and-bind-online/spiral-books/

I don't know why drummers insist on counting in the band. It's not the drummers responsibility to keep the band in time. I wish more drummers and musicians recognised that. If he can't stay in time with the rest of the band he needs to go away and practice drumming.

84 onwards was a pretty harrowing time. Reflected in a lot of songs of the time. I don't remember anything like the violence of the miner strikes or Brixon and Toxteth riots. I don't know what was going on in the states as we didn't have 24/7 International news back then. But certainly AIDS was a serious concern for everyone and not really something that at the time was considered 'profound' to be talking or singing about.

That's the problem nowadays. Kids have no respect for authority. In the old days hardly a day would go by without some kid in the class visiting casualty after getting their scales wrong.

I only have one friend who goes out and watches bands. He does this religiously sometimes three times a week. Everyone else seems more interested in talking about which box-set they're currently watching. This isn't because they're short of a bob or two, it's because live music just isn't on their radar. Lots of them will go to local festivals, and from the looks of their social media, its a massive social event, photos and selfies of each other, no mention or photos of the bands. I've been to see 4 bands in the last 6 weeks. One I paid a lot to see at the Camden Underworld. By the time I'd bought food beforehand and 2 pints inside the venue, including the ticket, but excluding travel, I'd spent £100. A local band I've seen before, was £9 on the door at a local venue and again £7.40 a pint. So that's close on £50 for me and my son on a week night. Another local band at a pub, free to get in and £3.20 a pint (I asked if they'd made a mistake?) We have a local gig (covers) in 2 weeks time on a Saturday night. We have a facebook event and I've started inviting people, hopefully I may get 10 people down. Will see. The originals band I'm in bought 4 people to the first gig. The singers wife, the drumers wife and his parents. None of my friends turned up. When we played the local festival, there were loads of friends, who all thought we were excellent, so maybe they'll turn out to our next gig...

The other thing to remember is that when your friends turn up you have to be really appreciative of them being there. Spend time talking to everyone both before and after the show. Make them feel valued.

If you make all your posts public, every comment and like that your freinds make, gets seen by their friends. So don't knock it, every comment gets more engagement and spreads the word. Originals bands never get much attention from freinds unless you are creating a buzz and a FOMO. So think how you can get more comments and how you can make the event more about a big social meet up not to be missed than yet another gig by your band where you play the same 10 songs again. Every originals band starts this way, it's very unusual for a band to get people to follow on the strength of their music alone.

It's not a phasing issue is it? Maybe caused by speaker position? Does it happen at all gigs?

Thanks. A basic play at home I think gets to what I want but will take a bit of fiddling. I was hoping even with it on I should get a clean tone that drives into breakup earlier with the option to just tweak the gain up to have always on for songs that require it.

Always clean. But if needed I've dug in to overdrive the amp. Recently bought a Boss Blues Driver, but haven't had time to set it up or use at a gig yet. Just wanted something to kick in some drive rather than destroy my fingers. It may not be the best option.

This. I was already grade 2 standard piano by the time I went to senior school. Music lessons were just repeating what I already knew. Then I did up to grade 3 violin during school time as separate lessons, probably missed geography or something to do them. At 11 I joined one of the premier matching bands in the UK. I had a degree level music teacher teaching me Xylophone and a (famous in the industry) trumpet player leading the band. Both taught me a huge amount about dynamics (internal and external) , note length and playing in a ensemble. I stayed with them until I was 30. Picked up bass at 16 as I'd given up on violin. Played with my dad at various jazz, am dram, and function gigs. The jazz what reading charts so knowledge of chords and fingerboard expanded exponentially. Now struggle to remember anything past the 7th fret. 😉 Put together a thrash metal band at age 17 and haven't looked back since. I do remember we had to record a piece created from household objects for a music project. I spent a bit of time recording on the right track of a stereo tape, bouncing it to mono and doing a multi track recording using pots and pans and a hoover. "Quite disappointed, Think you could have done better than that." was the report from the teacher.

Tribute acts are going to be different and I'd be surprised if people have come to see you specifically that they'll not ask for me. If you know there's a curfew at a pub then probably so do the locals. Usually the bar manager will be indicating when to stop. We play to the curfew, if there's calls for more after that, yes, it's up to the bar manager to say yes or no. So that's the get out. I just find it's a bit cliché, same with introducing the band members and giving them a little solo. Some bands carry it off, others, it just looks odd. You have to judge at each gig rather than setting out - this is what we do.

The audience has to earn an encore. Tell them it's the last song and then stop. Bass comes off and is put onto stand, if there's no immediate shouting for more. Then the amp goes off. I've seen a few bands hovering around expecting to be asked to play more. It's not a good look.

As I got further through this paragraph; I thought this sounds exactly like my rock'n'roll lifestyle. Except I do peanut butter. Although depending on the gig I have stopped to pick up a shish kebab, the local town fish bar is a mad place to be at 2am when you're sober. When I got the the last sentence I actually laughed out loud.

I think if you're playing pop and funk, the front line need to be moving and grooving, most 2 set gigs I've done tend to get going halfway through the first set. The punters need some encouragement and if you don't have something visually entertaining just the music won't get people up and dancing. So as long as the front person is not just a guitarist singing with a fixed mic, you should be OK. Our guitarist doesn't move around much, so it's left up to the singer and I to move around the stage.

Indeed. "Me is wenting to the shops." Works in practice on a level, but you did originally learn the correct grammar, you just don't remember learning it or recognise it as using correct grammar.

Theory of Gravity is an excellent analogy with the dog and probably humans. Most of us know and understand the basic theory, all objects with mass, attract each other, and the attraction changes with distance and causes acceleration. No one is doing calculations in their head when they jump in the air, kids know why an apple falls downwards, we didn't previously to the 16th century. But we all know the rudimentary theory and whether we are consciously using it or not, we are still using it on some level. Where the snobbery comes in is when someone says they have a degree in music and understand 18th century composers and that is music theory. Well I have a degree in engineering and understand a bit more about gravity due to additional learning, but we all agree it's not required to understand theories to a level higher than we need to, other than for interest. If you're writing your own music and you want to convey it to other musicians to play, you're going to need certain level, and in my experience, if someone isn't following normal theory when writing and expects musicians to follow, it can result with a lot of confusion. Things that sound 'off' because in theory they sound off, won't be easy to play.

Yes. Theory is just a model. The dog knows from it's experience and the model of the world it has whether it can jump across a stream. It's not until he puts the theory to the test and jumps that he knows it's right. The only issue is there's a lot of snobbery (and inverted snobbery) around musical theory which puts people in separate camps and disuaudes a lot of people from looking at 'complicated' theory. If you know the names of the strings - you know some theory and if you know what an octave is and the fret board, you know some more. If you know a song has 4 beats in a bar and some notes are 1 beat long and other 2 or 4 or half's and quarters you know more. And I'd say that's the bare minimum to be able to play bass.

That's exactly what theory is. Just because it's not written down doesn't make it not tberoy. You know what it's going to sound like, and you know what notes to play to make it sound right.

Wow. Booking a table 2 years ahead is kind of pushing it a bit. 😂