TimR

Property prices are killing live music. Business rates are based on property prices in any area. You can't enjoy living in a prosperous area and then complain about the price of everything. It's an oxymoron. Lack of imagination at live venues and pubs is killing them. Many pubs are "we are a pub, we sell beer. Have live music Friday night and karaoke Saturday night." mentality.

Another One Bites the Dust and The Chain. Lots of imagination used there. Although I like the idea of filling with depth and grandeur.

My take is if, as a bass player, I didn't know I was playing it differently, no one else will. I've only once been told that "the bass line doesn't go like that." to which my reply was "Well, it did tonight." I usually try and find a live version as quite often even the original bass player couldn't play live what they recorded. The other issue is - can the drummer play the drum part, the guitarist play the guitar part. It's quite often that you will have to adapt the bass line for a new arrangement/lineup.

Mine used to annoy me but never took it off. Just got used to it. It'll take several months to get used to wearing a ring anyway. I put it on a chain when walking in the hills or climbing. What do you do as a job? I took my ring off about 10 years ago (after wearing it for 15 years). We had a big project on at work, I sat through the safety briefing, and it's sat in a draw ever since. Just before the pandemic one of our guys lost a finger due to wearing a ring. I'm not a fan. YMMV.

Sorry. The full saying is. Better to be a jack of all trades and a master of none though oftentimes better than master of one

Happened in a band I was in. We all got an email from the band leader saying he was disbanding us. Then got an email asking some of us to form a new band playing the same gigs and tunes. Followed by a phone call a few weeks later from the person ejected telling me not to worry, they knew I had nothing to with it, and then venting their spleen over the cowardly band leader. In hindsight the writing was on the wall as he did several other underhand things to eject other members over the next few years. Eventually copying the wrong people into a sensitive email and showing his true colours. Quite humorous looking back on it now.

Yes. That Mariah Carey musical theatre woman. All over the place. Never get anywhere in the pop world.

If you can't hear the words of the play, you get a bit lost. Whereas nobody really cares what the singer is singing in a pub band.

The discussion was about trained singers. Often people get trained and then specialise. Better to be a jack of all trades than a master of none though oftentimes better than master of one.

Are singers in the music industry trained?

All the kids coming through theatre schools and stage schools are being trained in all aspects now. Modern and traditional. It's no longer true that you're either a classical singer or a rock singer. Especially when you look at what's going on in the West End in the way of variety across the board. My nephew has just finished in Les Mis, his contemporaries are doing all sorts of stuff.

Most trained singers can do all styles now. That's why Simon Cowell is struggling to find people with the X-Factor now. It's like all actors used to be able to do Shakespear.

Yes. The conversation is pretty easy. "We've given it a go, you're just not suited to it. Think it's best we move on." Dealing with the aftermath is the sensitive bit everyone doesn't like doing. But that's down to her friends so find one of her good mates to help. You may find they're not actually that into it. If they were they'd probably have been trying a lot harder at it. The whole thing does highlight when choosing musicians for your band: get it right at audition stage and if its not working within a few rehearsals, move on quickly and find someone else. A bit cut throat but performing in bands isn't a place for people who get offended easily.

It's really mainly someone's attitude to risk, which depends on the outcome of any potential failure, along with experience. Once you start paying lots of paid gigs and have one or two failures it becomes a no brainer to chuck in a cheap second hand £50 bass. I played hundreds of gigs over 20 years and never had a failure. Never took a spare, didn't even consider it. Then one night lost a machinehead. Playing a 3 string bass all night that could have been solved in seconds. Had another one go 10 years later but had a spare bass. No impact. I've since upgraded all machineheads instead of just swapping with OEM. 2 manufacturer failures (that turned out to be common on that manufacturer) in 40 years of playing. That's pretty good odds and most people would take a bet on that never happening to them.

Well that's completely different. Thought it was a rehearsal as well. Band meeting...

We are continually told one of the most important aspects of being a pro musician is you have to be able to get along with musicians. Word gets around and the difficult or snide types don't get offered work.

I think passive aggressive is agreeing with something and then not doing it. This is more like standard working within a team where different members have different abilities and different sensitivities. Walking out everytime there is a problem will get you called out as a child, certainly by me. I've only once called an early end to a practice when it's got tense between a singer and guitarist and has been obvious to everyone (apart from the 2), nothing productive was going to achieved.

Cheers. I'm of the firm belief that if you know what you're doing with bass drum EQ you can get away without using Subs. Certainly for crowds up to 200 people.

Looking at buying a pair of TS312 for general use. How are they without the sub?

This is where it is important to have competent band mates who are able to to comp while you 'faff'.

I can't be doing with it. It's childish. Should be happening in a creative environment as it stifles creativity if people are being told they're doing something wrong or being criticised. There are much better ways of handling musical issues than blaming one individual for being wrong, especially when it's clear that everyone else isn't completely on their A game.

That kind of behaviour will eventually wear you down and things will come to a head. Usually a lack of confidence or redirecting their own incompetence so that the rest of the band don't hear their bad singing. I had the same with a drummer who would glare at me, even during a gig, it becomes very limiting as you stop taking any risks with improvisation where an 'unexpected' note would be met with the glare. Needs to be handled carefully, or not, depending on what you want the outcome to be. Ultimately that kind of behaviour isn't productive in an open band. People should be able to smile when a wrong note creeps in without worrying about it being analysed to death. That takes all the fun out.

Backup bass stays off stage in its case. Backup is the operative word.

Plot twist... ...she joins BassChat.