TimR

One issue I had with the drummer in my last band was that he thought to make anything sound better we had to play it faster. (I believe this is known is most pro circles as "the amateurs disease" or similar) It came to a head one night when we ended up listening to the original of Walking on Sunshine because I was fed up with playing it so fast, and him saying it was still not fast enough. A quick trick is to count the number of beats in 6 seconds and multiply by 10. So after a couple of bars I said it was somewhere between 100 and 110. I didn't really care whether we played it at 100, 110 or even 120 I just wanted a definitive tempo rather than his attempts at playing it faster each time to try to get it sounding 'good', to the point that singer couldn't get the words out and people couldn't dance to it. He disagreed with 110 straight away and said it had to be much faster, then continually speeded up his metronome to try to get it to match. Eventually he got it up to 180 before giving up and trying again from 100, finding something close and giving one of those looks people give when they've been proved completely wrong and still can't admit it. Another thing he used to do was go with the bass, so if I played behind the beat he slowed and if I played ahead he speeded up. He would then complain I was rushing or dragging. His background was marching band where everyone plays on the beat! But he was solid, start it fast and keep it fast regardless, which meant that there was no lift for the chorus and then drop back for the verse or any other subtleties like that, certainly no slowing, even if it was obviously too fast to start with. Once the tempo was set, it was set. In the latest band the drummer sings some numbers and has a habit of slowing during the songs he sings if there is a syncopated bass drum, and he also has a habit of compensating for the guitar solos that slow down and speed up. We've sort of got round the singing by getting him to play straight bass drum and let me worry about the syncopation on the bass. The guitarist needs to practice his solos, I'll find away of broaching that subject soon.

The Circle of fifths is easy to learn because its already mapped out on your bass. Imagine a six string bass with top string as C, next one down G, then D, A, E and B. That's the major # keys starting with C no sharps and ending on B with 5 sharps. Now up one semitone but this time ascending the strings. C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db. Gives you all the major b keys. C no flats up to Db with 5 flats. All you need to do now is learn which sharps and flats are present in each key. If you look closely this is pretty simple to do as well. Clearer? If you ever see a piece of music in F# or Gb run!

So if we agree that music is a language. Most of us can understand by listening and most of us can speak it. Some of us can read and write and get good jobs because of that. Some of us understand the rules of its grammar and can use that to create our own music, and get even better jobs.

[quote name='thunderbird13' post='698250' date='Jan 1 2010, 06:53 PM']I'm the total opposite I trained myself to think in terms of notes . I thought this was more "correct" to do until I had an audition last year and the guitarist changed the key just before we started playing, If I had just learnt patterns I would have been ok but instead I ended up trying to tranpose the notes and them play then. Suffice to say Iot totally lost and didnt get the gig [/quote] This is why you should be thinking in terms of intervals.

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='698187' date='Jan 1 2010, 06:00 PM']Here's something else. When I learn a song I don't think about what the chords are. ie, I don't think, 'Right, this is A to G to C etc.' I think in patterns on the fretboard. I look at the fretboard as a grid and remember the changes as almost geometrical patterns. I'm sure other players must do this. Am I right?[/quote] I used to do this and have been trying to get away from it. You can try to move away from it by thinking in intervals and 'hearing' these intervals and learning what they are called. ie one fret jump is minor 2nd, 3 frets is minor 3rd, learn others as you jump across strings etc.

I would hazard a guess you know more theory than you think you do. You know the names of the notes. I've played with people who only go by fret and string numbers. You probably even know where most/all of those notes are on the fretboard. You know that there is a difference between a major and minor, and I would guess you know what the difference is. I've played with guitarists who only play major chords and had to look up a minor one in their chord chart, let alone anything else. If you know what notes are in a Dm7 you're even further down the road.

[quote name='Marvin' post='697300' date='Dec 31 2009, 04:20 PM']I was trawling through the for sale section on the forum and saw and Peavey tvx410. To get an idea of spec I visited a website the name of which evades me but it put the output of the cab in these terms. 350watts continuous 700watts programme. Can someone explain what this means please as I have never seen this before. Cheers Rich[/quote] Not a lot soundwise. Look at the dB figure for loudness, even then it can be misleading. 350w continuous means that the cab can handle 350w electrically for a long period without bursting into flames. 700w programme means that for short periods the cabinet can handle much larger peaks. You can use these figures to make sure that you won't overpower the cab with your amp.

[quote name='merello' post='695425' date='Dec 29 2009, 10:26 AM']When I was young, my uncle turned up at the door and said, 'Heard you play bass - jump in!' Linwood Bowling Club and 2 hours of gigging later I got a tenner! Stil don't have a clue what I played![/quote] A similar thing happened to me about 7 years ago. A bass playing friend reccomended me to dep for him without telling me. I got a call from the band leader telling me when the gig was. I asked what tunes they played and was told all the standards. I asked if we would have a practice beofrehand, he said no I would be fine. We played for 3 hours, I spent all night playing tunes I'd never heard before! Never got called back.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='695263' date='Dec 28 2009, 11:27 PM']I think there's probably several!![/quote] Which one is the proper one then?

The first sense that alcohol dulls is the hearing. [url="http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6815/7/4"]Alcohol induced hearing loss[/url] There's a proper bass line to Mustang Sally? I never knew that!

Not quite what you are asking for but from a drummers perspective and works for bass as well.

First gig must have been in '85, I was 16. I remember we played One Vision, Money For Nothing, a Status Quo Medley, Sunday Bloody Sunday, a long blues jam, Paranoid, She Sells Sanctuary and probably that was it. We had no singer and it was at a friends 16th in his house. The second gig was the funny one. Again at a house for a party a few months later. By then we had decided to play rock so added The Trooper and a whole host of songs we had written ourselves. We set up and sound checked but no sign of the singer. The room was full of guys a few years older than us waiting to hear some Metal. eventually we got hold of the singer - days before mobile phones - he had to go to his Nan's for tea and couldn't come. We played without him. Don't ever remember being nervous for a gig.

A looper?

When you read a passage from a book out loud, how do you know what emphasis to put on what words and phrases? You could read the words in a foreign language because you know the letters, but it would be very hard to pronounce the words and phrases. Can you 'speak' Funk, Jazz, swing, death metal, pop? Would you like to be multi-lingual in music or would you just listen and play classical music?

[quote name='51m0n' post='656571' date='Nov 16 2009, 11:37 PM']... They neednt be local, just stuff that appeals, the fact is that you'll see why this is a good plan as soon as you start, its the friends of friends of friends that are the resource you need to appeal to. Its quite a strange thing....[/quote] That's an extremely good point, thanks. I hadn't thought about that. I could friend someone in Manchester who could be seen by someone in London. The web is so much more powerful than it first seems. On Facebook it is frightening how may mutual freinds I have with people. Most I never even knew each other. It makes for some interesting conversations when I meet up with them in real life.

The secret is knowing what you want, telling them what you are after and asking the right questions before even agreeing to audition. Walk away if it doesn't feel right as you are wasting everybody's time. I don't like to discuss auditions via email you need to speak to someone to get a real feel of them. I may use mail to get a number then phone. Pay as you go Sims are £10, get a sim specifically for auditioning. Then if you get crank calls or problems you're not tied to a contract. I called a number on an ad in a music shop. Got answer machines for two days before getting through to a person. I didn't leave any messages, I just kept trying. Some simple questions I asked 1. how often they practiced and on what nights. (If I can't make the practices what's the point.) 2. What age range they were (30s-60s!) 3. what songs were in their setlist. (all the usual suspects) 4. how often and what they generally got paid for gigs. (all sorts of gigs all sorts of pay, sounds like they know the score) 5. when their next gig was. (nothing planned as no bass player. Can't do anything about that so let's at least audition) 6. What happened to their last bass player. (He went to University. Left for a good reason) From the answers and tone of voice I got a fairly good feel for what they were about and because I was talking on a phone I got a feel whether they were being honest or not. I met the two guitarists for an informal jam in a hall at low volumes and they asked me to join there and then. The next week I met the drummer and singer. We played a gig 3 weeks after that and now have a new years eve gig and will be looking for gigs in the new year. Last week I found out that they auditioned 6 bass players. Wow, that gave me a boost.

Thanks for your replies, some good comments from all. The MySapce pages I've seen seem to have every Tom, Dick and Harry as friends. I'm hoping to keep my friends list low to people I'm realistically going to network with in real life or have played with. For instance, I know a lot of musicians and would like to link to their pages so that if they are approached and asked if they know a bass player (or need one themselves), they don't need to remember any of my contact details, they just say "Oh yes hes a freind of mine on myspace." and give out their address. Simple. Hopefully?

Thanks, I have customised my page and know lots of musicians in lots of bands. I'm not about to add anyone until I have the page ready to lauch so to speak. I am intending to use this as just another tool. The question is more "What musical content should I use" than anything else.

I have a MySpace account. No pictures and no sounds - Yet. I'm looking to use it only for myself to get dep gigs and interface with other musicians. I play with a band at the moment but they have no demo and I don't think they are likely to get one. I have some (cover) demos from my previous band, but I would have to check if they are OK with me using them. I'm not sure 100% what the rule is posting covers either - anyone ever been caught? One of my options is to get a few musician mates into a studio and record a bunch of different style songs direct to a mixer. I can get hold of a very good drummer and a guitarist and get a good mix from the board into a Zoom H4 and post process it. I don't think I need a singer, I only want a minute or two to show the standard I play at. Writing good specific tunes might be a hassle though (see comment re covers above). I could trawl through loads of sig lines to see who has MySpace accounts and see what they do but that would take me ages. So. Show us a link of your individual MySpace pages. What do you do? Why did you do it. Thanks, Tim

Even with Mysapce you need to upload your file to another server. As Geoff says Soundclick is probably the best bet. Here is the solution centre (help) page [url="http://www.soundclick.com/solutioncenter/default.cfm?subOf=13"]http://www.soundclick.com/solutioncenter/d...lt.cfm?subOf=13[/url]

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='651575' date='Nov 11 2009, 01:12 PM']Sorry, peeps, its my autism (although these are all really big names in jazz - or is that an oxymoron ) Staying with Katy Lied, I love the vocal harmonies on Dr. Wu....[/quote] That's a good track. I've just downloaded The Very Best of Steely Dan CDI and CDII, its on there. Nice! Thanks guys.

I'm 40 and the only Steely Dan I've heard is via friends in their 50's. I've just had a quick YouTube of some stuff and reconise a lot of it, some of it sounds good, some of it a little busy bass wise. What's the best album for me to download, or should I just download some classic tracks? I think the whole good/bad music debate needs to be taken into context. I don't really like Motown,The Beatles or The Rolling Stones but I don't think this is because the music is bad or good. People strongly associate memories and emotion with music. I wasn't born in the 60's so I have no emotional attachment with the music, they are just tunes to me. How many of you Dan fans are 45+? There are some tunes from the 80's when I was a teenager that are absolutely dire musically wise, but I like to listen to them and they seem to be popular at the moment. Possibly because the producers of shows are 40-50 years old now?

I keep plugging my bass lead into the headphone socket on my Warwick amp. I never use the headphone socket so keep thinking I should cover it with some tape. But never have....

[quote name='AM1' post='643519' date='Nov 2 2009, 04:04 PM']I saw some reports today of contestants saying they couldn't hear themselves on stage.[/quote] I suppose as its live they can rehearse all they want but things will still go wrong. I thought the twins did well to pick up from their mistake, no matter what else anyone thinks of them.

I'm happy to lend my bass to someone who is just passing sees its a jam night and pops in. As soon as they pick it up you can tell if they know what they are dong. If in doubt ask them to show you some licks before agreeing to let them use it for a song. The same goes for my amp. I've lent both out for one or two songs but none of my gear would be lent to someone to take out of my sight unless I knew them or trusted them very well. Other members of this forum have played my gear and I've offered my amp for one of them to borrow for a gig. I've used other people's amps at charity gigs where I had turned up having been told that I could but I had to trust the guy who told me there would be gear there. If I asked to borrow equipment from a stranger at an event. I'd first introduce myself tell them how long and in what contexts I'd been playing and I would preface it with something like "I understand if you say no but..." I certainly wouldn't feel guilty about not lending someone my bass just becuase they expected it. In one of the bands I played with one of the other musicians was supposed to be a good drummer, bass player and guitarist. He picked up my bass without asking one practice and demonstrated that he couldn't actaully play bass. I didn't let him do that again, my ears are more valuable than my bass.