TimR

That's specifically the point of the thread. Music is subjective and appeals to each of us differently. I went to see Richard Bona a few years ago with a group of bass players (in real life!). They were raving about him, I hadn't even looked him up on YouTube. He didn't come on until 9:30 on a midweek gig (doors open at 7pm). Half the audience left before the second set to get their last train home. 😂 That kind of primadonna behaviour didn't impress me. He walked up and down the balcony for a half hour from 9pm. I stayed to the end but really he didn't do anything different after the first 10 minutes. I still haven't listened to any of his recorded material.

Finding musicians who work together musically is hard enough, before you put gigs into the mix. People's lives change as well, when the join a band they may be free to play lots of gigs and happy to play for not much money, but I think what often happens is people are less free and so want more money to put off what ever else they (or their significant other) has planned. Also you have to factor in the people who want to be able to tell their freinds they're in a band, but don't actually want to be in a band. They're the ones who will do any low paid local gigs at the drop of a hat. Then there's the band leader who thinks the band isn't ready even after 10 years of weekly rehearsals where they change the arrangements each time a song is played.

When building a guitar why would you route the pocket at an angle?

If you're shimming the pocket to take into account of neck bowing then you have to have that angle, so just shim one end. If you're shimming because the whole pocket is too deep (in this case), then you have to shim the whole pocket.

Did everyone just ignore this? Yes, you need to shim the whole pocket in this case.

I'm currently in the same situation. We cycle through musicians regularly, and extra bars get added and removed each week. Intros and endings are different each time we play a tune. I don't even know what musicians will be at each practice. Last week a new drummer I'd never met before. Same the week before. 🤣

Ah. I said in another post. If the drummer and bass don't work together, you do t have a band. I spent too many years in a band thinking I was the bad player, won't be doing that again given a choice. As soon as I left and started playing with other drumemrs I realised where the issues were. Maybe the drummer has found that out as well.

Sounds reasonable.

So you played? Just not with the drummer? How did it go?

@peteb Agree. A jam night 'should' be a group of musicians playing over a chord progression and bouncing off each other. An open night is where people bring their material to perform. However, I'm finding the youngsters aren't able to jam, and it's more usual to be playing standards that everyone is familiar with, but still swaping around musicians. A well run Jam night requires a leader to schedule people in and out after each song. There's no reason why @Geek99 shouldn't have had a spot, regardless of how late they were. It's the job of the organiser to ensure everyone gets a shot.

Theory is a model. You can use a model to predict what might happen given a set of initial conditions. You can use a model to explain why something happened.

Music is an art. If you want perfection be an aeronautical engineer.

There are 2 aspects playing. The first is your ability to actually play. Technique, ear training, theory knowledge, encyclopedia of standards. The second is playing with people of similar or better ability. The first is fairly simple and you have to get to a certain standard before move the second. There's loads of resources on the Internet. Listen to the radio and 'learn' standard songs in your head. The second is tough when you're first starting out. It's a whole new ball game playing with others, as you have found. You just have to go with the flow. Other musicians will not be playing what you're expecting them to play and you have to adjust to that. Don't beat yourself up, especially at a jam, no one knows what's going on and you're not a mind reader. You're learning how to play with other people. Each person will be different. It's particularly hard if you're playing with musicians who don't have 'big ears'.

Others are talking about serving the song. He has to fit with the band when he is on stage. That's his job. I'm sure he plays other music when not playing Metallica.

Maybe it's similar to when you go to sleep and your brain disconnects from your arms and legs so you don't act put your dreams. That spectacularly fails with some people. A friend of my brother got drunk one night and sleepwalked in his pyjamas, took his mum's car keys and drove her car straight into the skip it was parked behind. Weird that he hadn't taken his own car. The police turned up and I'm not sure what the outcome of the trial was. Think he had to get doctors reports to corroborate he sleepwalked a lot.

The whole area will probably be gridlocked tomorrow until after midday.

You say monologue, I say dialogue. Let's call the whole thing off.

Nothing is normal. Could be common 🤣 I find transposing keys is annoying. But only if it's transposed from a 'flat' key to a 'natural' or 'sharp' key. and yes, songs sound odd to me if they're not in the 'original' key. Lots of the Rush live material began to actually annoy me. Maybe that's because it feels wrong when singing along to it.

Some people just play by shapes or read the dots. Certainly my playing leaped ahead when I sang the notes in my head amd concentrated on intervals, before even picking up the bass.

This is what to look at. Also, if you do look at Watts, look at distortion %age at 1khz they don't always quote the same figures.

No. I think that's different. The same people often move their lips while reading. It's a neurological connection. Everyone is different, we don't all work the same way, in last few years we are learning that no one is 'normal'. That's tough on people who want everyone to fit into their world view.

A lot of non-musicians can't identify the different instruments playing in a tune. Everything is just one homogenous sound.

It's called an inner dialogue. Not everyone has it. I find it a real pain. Wish it would just stop sometimes. Notice some people repeat out loud what you're saying, slightly behind you saying it. I belive they don't have an inner dialogue and are processing what you're saying by vocalising it out loud. Although that may be a different phenomena and I'm misremembering.

Changed my mind.

Yes. Been a bit of a mix for me. I have a big network where I live now but I moved into a new area while I was playing in a band long-term. When I left the band it's taken me a few years to build a new network. If you move into a new area or are just starting out, then there's probably going to be a period of looking around.