TimR

Mediator. and The ability to coax a decision out of the rest of the band without appearing pushy and stepping on the leader's toes.

Definition of soft skills and hard skills. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills[/url]

[quote name='Wil' post='869036' date='Jun 16 2010, 02:07 PM']What can I say, I'm hard for being in a band.[/quote] I auditioned a singer once. He sent me a good demo CD, came prepared, sang all the tunes in their original keys and had experience of various different bands. He came to the audition and got on well with the band and left the room while we discussed whether to give him the gig. We called him back in to ask him to join, he accepted and then proceeded to tell us about how he could handle himself in a fight and about all the fights he'd been in at gigs..... We didn't need those type of 'hard' skills.

[quote name='Wil' post='868926' date='Jun 16 2010, 12:31 PM']This. What do I bring to my bands? Mad bass skills. Good sense of humour. A good ear. Flexibility and commitment. Pro equipment. Good ties with local promotors. Backing vocals. A bag of haribo. Decent hash. A mean cup of coffee. Concientiousness.[/quote] All these together with Reading and with the exception of flexibilty are all what I would call 'Hard' skills. Soft skills are how you react personally with the people around you.

Soft Skills - I like it. My day job is customer facing. We've been on a number of different courses specifically targeting our soft skills. As has been said, as far as the customer is concerned anyone can do the job that you do. The most important thing is that you do what he asks efficiently. ie on time and within budget. If you think there is a better way of doing something and he has employed you as the specialist then it's up to you to tell him in a way that doesn't cause problems. Treat people as you would expect to be treated and you can't go wrong. Don't ever think that because you own the lights/PA/recording gear/rehearsal space/web site/van/band cat etc that the rest of the band appreciate it and will keep you on because of it. If they're not doing it, and you are, then it will be seen as an easy job. Only when they drop you will they find out what extra hard skills you bought to the table. Being able to run a diary is another important skill. Many band members can't do this, I used to send out the gig schedule weekly with all the gigs that we had been booked for. I would still get mails back a week before a gig from someone saying that they couldn't make it. Often these gig had been on the schedule for months.

[quote name='Sarah5string' post='866141' date='Jun 13 2010, 04:43 PM']"25 year old female 5 string bassist looking for regular gigging band that doesn't fall apart because of guitarist egos, drummers who can't hold a can of beer let alone a beat, or singers who think they're the next axl rose/Steve tyler/James Hetfieldand leave in sight of 'bigger things' only to end up doing back alley pub karaoke gigs. Also not interested in screamo kids who plan on writing something 'new, unique, out-there and never seen before' only for it to turn into a 2 hour 'shout down the mic as loud as you can while the 'new' style they're writing is in fact 20 years old. Yes, I'm female but that doesn't mean that you can take the piss/sexually harass me, call me 'luv' and allow your girlfriends to direct their pathetic 12 yr old insecurities and jealousy on me. Expect them to have their jordanesque little faces beaten in should they threaten me for 'steelin mah byfnd innit!' simply because I've shared the same breathing space as you. Own gear and transport, gig experience and patience of a saint. Sarah 07817 xxxxxx"[/quote] Do you think anyone would get past "25 year old female 5 string bassist" before skipping to the phone number luv?

[quote name='JTUK' post='866021' date='Jun 13 2010, 03:09 PM']... PRO this and that comes cross as school boy wannabee and you are 41..!! ...[/quote] I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. In fact the original advert is very wordy and probably goes right against my less is more philosophy on everything else. Why mention anything about equipment, attitude or transport? Only because I've seen it on a lot of ads looking for people ie must have reliable gear and transport. Personally I would probably assume that someone experienced and my age would have all the pre-requisites. [size=3]Experienced Bass Player, 41, looking for covers band with regular pub, function or wedding gigs. Phone Tim xxxxxxx[/size] (I still like the kisses - I think it ads that personal touch.)

Thanks everyone, the first line will now read: [size=3]Bass Player looking for regularly gigging covers band playing pubs, functions or weddings.[/size] Now for a radical zany photo of me.

Bliidy spill chucker! I'm in a band at the moment so have the luxury of being able to be a bit up front about the practicing. No point in auditioning/meeting another band only to find out they're more into practicing than playing live. One singer was pretty up front about having better things to do with his time than spend hours running over old material or learning new stuff when there's no gigs happening. They got rid of him. It is a good point, I'll have the conversation over the phone. Maybe its worth just going for a jam with a band looking for a bass player just to get some contacts, but I don't want to waste anyone's time. A few years back I was looking for a singer to join my band when a guy called me . His first question was "How often do you gig? Because if it's less than twice a week I'm not interested." Simple as. You have to admire him for his honesty even if a little blunt.

[quote name='misrule' post='865503' date='Jun 12 2010, 08:28 PM']Yup, I'd lose the third line. You can discuss that once you're hired. Cheers Mark[/quote] Going on experience from the last 2 bands, I will ask that question before I put the phone down.

Yes, silddx, I'm constantly watching out for on-line ads, not just here. I wasn't sure of the third line. I supose I should have learned by now that the first few questions should be: "How often do you gig?" "How often do you practice and when?" "What's your setlist?"

I'm looking to find a new band and am going to start with the old card in the local guitar shop trick. I'm thinking. [size=3]Bass Player Available for covers band playing pubs, functions or weddings. I am experienced, 41, with pro gear, pro attitiude and reliable transport. Happy to practice to get up to speed but not interested in weekly practices with no gig schedule. Phone Tim xxxxxxxx[/size] Any comments. How would/do you advertise yourself. I'm trying this first as an easy option, my next move will be to visit some jam nights.

I might be living in cloud cuckoo but if the Promoter has asked to use your amp then he is responsible for it. He is effectively lending it to the other bands. I would go after him to claim any damage. It's his gig. if anything happened to the public they would sue him, not the band that was playing at the time. He's making the money from the event. Get him to give you a deposit and sign a waiver. Job done. That might persuade him to hire decent backline in the first place and you wouldn't need to bring anything either.

Well I saw the singer of the band yesterday. He said some of the tunes were impossible to pitch because there was nothing coming from the bass. He's going to have (another! ) word. It wasn't just me then.

[quote name='spike' post='859052' date='Jun 6 2010, 05:11 PM']I don't see anything wrong with changing the bass line if you want to but if you get too busy you risk losing the groove of the song. I often simplify the bass line compared to the recording because the subtleties you hear on the recording will often be lost in a live situation. In a large band like the OP mentioned the idea is to listen to and interlock with the other band members, not to play loads of notes. PS. I agree with what Bloodaxe says about not changing the signature bits.[/quote] This is exactly where I'm coming from. He had no problem playing the original line. He did that for the first verse and chorus and it sounded good, but it was almost like he was bored of playing it and wanted to show off his shredding skills. After the first chorus the songs lost all groove, he never really played much below the middle E for longer than a bar and the drummer didn't lay down anything solid either. I come from the school where in pop, disco and funk, the bass and drums provide the force behind the band, driving it all. The only real driving force was the snare.

Saw a function band the other day. The drummer wasn't particularly tight and the bass player wasn't locked in at all. In fact in most of the tunes he played the original bass line for the first verse and chorus then wandered off and appeared to be soloing for the rest of the tune. Fair enough this might work in some situations, but it was a 7 piece band. I found it impossible to dance, and gave up for a fair number of tunes. At one stage he was playing a recognisable solo from a completely different tune as the bass line to the verse. Does anyone else in a function/covers band spend their entire gig trying to be clever and what do the rest of the band think? Anyone else seen this happen and agree/disagree that its a bad thing to do? Is it just me because I'm a bass player expecting to hear the proper bass line? You wouldn't expect the vocalist to sing different words or is that different in some way? Do I ask too many questions and should I just worry about my own band?

OK what would the judges say about your band?

I broke an E string many years ago. I'm sure it was a boiled one. No spare, managed to borrow a bass from the support band. Always carry spare strings (keep last set taken off), and spare leads (1 instrument, 1 mains). I broke a tuner on NYE tuning up before going on, My E! I had a spare string, but not a spare bass. Completely restrung the bass during the next song so that the E was where A should be etc... Played the rest of the gig doing mental gymnastics.

[quote name='jezzaboy' post='852159' date='May 30 2010, 09:51 PM']I play in a covers band and am very happy with it. The only problem is we only play twice a month at the most. We can`t do any more due to our singer getting a hard time from his wife and we have knocked back umpteen gigs recently due to this. I would like to gig every weekend if possible...... Cheers, Jez[/quote] What about the other guys in the band? What about finding a second singer? It's covers so should be simple. Current singer always gets first refusal. The main issue is whether you have time to rehearse. I seem to be the only person in the world who would rather run a one rehearsal per gig ratio, rather than a 13 rehearsals per gig ratio. Grrrr! I joined a second band that didn't gig much to complement my first band that didn't gig much. For various reasons I left the first band and the second band don't actually gig as often as they say they did. So now I'm looking for a second band (or is in First band? I get easily confused).

David, why do you want to use an amp? You can plug your bass into the H4 directly. The H4 has amp simulation which is quite good if that's what you want.

Missed the two replies. No point in puuting T13A in the lead as the T6.5A in the chasis will blow first. Mad.

Sorry Ian, I don't fully agree. the fuse in the amp is a time-delay and looking at the current/time curves for a normal 13A normal and a T6.5A there's really not that much in it. The mains fuse would also blow under live-neutral fault. The chances of a live-nutral or earth-live fault developing that would leave a fault current that would blow a 5A fuse but not a 13A fuse and hence lead to an electric shock risk are extremeley low. Fuses should not be seen as protecting human life. Fit RCDs if that's what you want. ALL fuses are there to stop your gear from turning into a fireball. In this case the time delay fuse is fitted in the IEC socket on the chasis amp, so the only thing the mains fuse is protecting is the mains lead. The main point is that the plug top fuse must not be sized bigger than the mains lead is rated at. So 13A should not be put into a 0.75mm2 cable. I think that the earlier discussion on 3A 5A and 13A fuses becoming the norm is that it is increaslingly common for all electrical equipment to be fused at the chasis and the only size cables in common usage are now either 0.75mm2 or 1mm2. 7 and 10 fuses are essentially redundant.