TimR

There's a reason they call it reality and not documentary. But then even David Attenbourough fakes it sometimes

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1327579585' post='1513574'] Sure, but when the tracks have gelled, Duck plays the basslines pretty much the same every time. Look at the footage of BookerT on tour and tell me they're not well rehearsed! [/quote] That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying some bands do and some don't. Singer/songwriters with hired bass players will do it differently to established bands. But rehearsal is key.

I played in a big band on Blue Peter a few years ago. it was very well rehearsed even the questions they asked had rehearsed answers. The band leader wanted to make a political point about youth band funding from the government and after the rehearsal told one of the kids to change his answer. They must have the green room bugged because within 5 mins the floor manager was on the pair of them telling them that they mustn't deviate. My brother did change his line to a slightly more riske adult type answer and John Leslie did well not to corpse. If you watch live TV carefully you'll see a lot must be scripted and rehearsed and you get to tell when someone says something they wern't supposed to. Jonathon Ross is the best to watch for this. Don't believe anything you see on TV.

The only person who has told me that the bass line I was playing was wrong was another bass player. It's up to the person playing the line whether they play the original line. The o my part of a song ghat can be copyrighted is the melody and lyrics. Some songs the drums and bass can be so key that they're considered to be playing the melody. Take a band like BookerT and the MGs. They jammed all their music then when they hit on a riff or motif they liked they stripped the jam right back down. Other musicians work the other way - melody on a piano and lyrics then hire a bass player to play along. Read a few interviews and talk to a few session bass players and you soon come to the conclusion that many of them turn up, play a line and take the money. Sometimes they're happy with the outcome sometimes they wish they'd played it differently.

Exactly my thoughts. There are a lot of bands who seem to have to fill every space with a fill. Less is more.

I've had two of the Kink's bass players at separate gigs. Chatted to both during breaks. Nobby stood in for a couple of numbers.

Gift aid works the other way. If you give £5 then the government give an additional £1.20 or whatever. This only works if you are a tax payer so not everyone can gift aid. The idea is that charitable donations are tax free so that £1.20 is the tax you paid to the government when you initially earned that £5 (£6.20)

I understand this fully now. It's basically AmDram but with a choir instead of actors. The producer or in this case the "MD" is usally a complete PITA. Usually what happens is the actors and the rehearsal pianist rehearse until ready then the musicians turn up at the technical rehearsal, are given the dots/charts and sight read it with the rehearsal pianist as the MD. You just do what he says when and how he wants it. Take the money or the beer and wait to get called again. I've done hundreds. They're all pretty much the same format. Tell him to call you when the choir is ready and he has a date for the performance.

Depends on the individual gig. If it's at a hotel where they've obviously hired a function room etc then it's normal fee. We learned the hard way when we charged pub rates and found out that not only were tickets £50 each but they made over £7k at the auction of promises during the interval. If it's a scout marquee or chuch fair type gig where everyone else is providing their services free then we'll do it for £50 a head and the person whose charity it is will waive their fee. We only do a few a year and only for members of the band's charities.

Frustrating. You're caught between a rock and a hard place. Has he played many gigs in the past. Sound like he is not confident in his own abilities or is stage shy and just trying to avoid playing live. I'd just get your strongest 4 songs and try to play each one during the church service one a week for a month. Get some feedback from the congregation and see how it goes. Sounds like 20-30 songs is a bit of a tall order.

The whole world needs a new direction. We're all obsessed with getting as much stuff as we can. Put a limit on the amount of stuff people can have then once they've got that much stuff they'll have to find something else to do.

No one said drumming was easy. Some drummers make it hard though. My last drummer was exhausted after every set but overplayed massively adding unnecessary fills whenever he could, waving his arms around and generally dropping beats. Never had a lesson because he didn't need one. The guy I play with now has never broken a sweat, never dropped a beat and puts in sparse and tasteful fills exactly where needed. He has had lessons. I've watched my brother play three sets in a three piece suit and not even broken a sweat. He also has had lessons Technique is everything in every instrument.

That's not a fair comparison. More like if the original song is just roots you wouln't fill it full of runs you couldn't manage. But then there are a fair few who do that too....

[quote name='brensabre79' timestamp='1326994787' post='1504962'] Jimmy Saville may be responsible for twin decks being used to play two records back to back at some point in time. As for inventing the Segue (which is an Italian word by the way, like most classical music terms - that should give you a clue...) perhaps you should not trust everything you read on Google or Wikipedia... [/quote] Heresy! How dare you blacken the name of the late great Sir Jimmy Savile with your Itallian Clasical music nonsense.

Google jimmy Saville twin decks.

No I did as I wrote it

Jimmy Saville invented the segue. A segue is two tunes played back to back without the drums stopping. The simplest ones we do, the band hold the last chord of the song while the drummer counts in the next tune. A medley is a bunch of tunes shortened to their best parts and stitched together musically.

You all need to be on the ball and have one person 'stage managing' your show. Usually the singer or keys. When they yell what song is next during the outro of the song you're playing everyone just has to play it. Once you're on the stage the band is no longer a democracy.

It all depends on your and your band's ability. Copyright only extends to lyrics and melody. If the punters can hear the wrods and the tune then really it doesn't matter what the drums, bass et al are playing. Unless of course the bass has the melody or a very important harmony. If you're just banging out the chords you can pretty much put any rhythm in and "make it your own" no one will notice as someone else said (in not so many words) they're listening to the tune in their heads and remembering getting of with some bird in their teens. Mainly its all about attitude, confidence and being tight sell the band. Not the tunes or musicianship. Unfortunately Endings and starts confident and tight, don't get lost or miss verses or choruses. Occasionally it happens by accident but I've found its a waste of time missing out bits to make the song shorter or playing extra verses because you really like the tune. Eventually you'll hate it anyway and when you get deps in you'll confuse the hell out of them. Once you've been playing together for 6 months you get a feel for what songs will and won't work on first play through. Afetr several years you won;t even need to play them just listening will give you an idea. We learn them from MP3 - same key, same format, close as possible to original then simplify/elaborate to fit our line up.

There is a reason why you can only copyright Vocals and Melody. They are really the only recognisable parts of a song to most people. I'm sure its only when you become a musician that you start to identify which instrument is playing what. Only non-musicians and musicians who have trained themselves out of the habit listen to the whole sound.

I wasn't suggesting that you were in that type of band but you're right; the fact that the clubs haven't changed in 30 years is probably why they're still getting booked. We played a few of them, but we play a bit more loose arrangements which also went down well and we were asked back. Unfortunately/fortunately my band vetoed them. The problem is that they think they know what they want, at one gig the EM kept coming up to the leader and telling him what to play, despite the dance floor being full and people coming up at the end saying that it was unusual to have so many people dancing so early on on the night. One guy said we were exactly what the club should have on every week and it would attract a much younger group of people to the club as membership was falling because people keep dying. Lol.

I think it's true when they say you should always play with musicians who are as good or better than you are. I'm all for bringing on new musicians but if you're in a band of guys who've all been playing for years and who can pick up a tune in one night or even jam straight from chord charts, then you're going to need a drummer of the same calibre. Are you really going to spend weeks polishing a song just because one of you isn't up to scratch. It can become soul destroying and make you hate learning new material and limit the styles of music you play. The thread could equally be about guitarists or singers. Its always interesting to record yourself and see how well you keep time without the drummer. I played for years with a drummer who followed my timing but trod all over my basslines with his double bass drum pedal. If I stopped playing he sped up and I felt I was constantly putting the brakes on. It's very tiring. It's basic supply and demand.

[quote name='leftyhook' timestamp='1326709265' post='1500642'] Well said. However as I play in a.function band,where there are certain expectations from fellow musicians (" the bass drops out for 1 bar on the original recording"..blah blah) so variations have to be subtle. So my Firework 'personal exercise/challenge is playing the 'expected' notes, but how I choose to play them. Oh, and there is always the odd musician or two who notices your fingers doing crazy things [/quote] It's funny how there are so many different views on this. From everyone must play exactly the right parts, complete with authentic guitar and keyboard sounds, to break the track down to lyrics, chords and play it in your own style. Personally I hate the clinical sound of a band who've done the former and are phoning in their performance with plastic smiles and 'off the cuff improvised' moves and jokes (that they do everytime). I wonder how these bands keep getting booked. However There's a fine line between improvising a few fills and cluttering up a tune with needless noodling and experimentation is best done at home.

Take it to someone else's house. It has to be mains interference. When you plug into your computer soundcard you are earthing the unit so the noise is eliminated. Alternatively turn off some appliances in the house. Try fridge/freezer, dimmable or fluorescent lights

OK Thanks.