TimR

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.

Newstead (and Trullio) and Metallica is a completely different box of sandman. Big name established band, they'll be inviting people to audition, not sticking an advert on Bandmix or Joinmyband.

It depends on what standard they are. The standard of musicians I'm looking for would be able to play music they'd never heard before from charts, and at least jam to a good standard over changes. Then it's about whether the bass and drums lock. The singer and guitar can think whatever they want. If bass and drums doesn't work - it won't work. Finally is there a relaxed atmosphere while you're playing and chatting? Oh, and how many fights has the singer had...

There is a tiny white cross hidden in the top right. Designed to fool people into believing they have to sign up. Common behaviour on a lot of sites now. Should be banned.

You don't have to have Facebook to see it. It's a group with 360k members posting pictures and asking questions about bass guitars.

The key is to have a good conversation first about what they're expecting. No point (other than personal interest) in learning 17 songs that you'll never play again if the audition turns out to be a bunch of dreamers. Especially if you have multiple auditions lined up.

Instead of plugging your bass into an amplifier, you plug your bass DIRECTLY into your computer. Then your computer can act as an amplifier and also record the sound at the same time. You need software to record the sound onto your hard drive. And a box to 'Interface' between your bass and your computer. There's about a million pieces of hardware and software depending on budget. At the most basic level your bass can plug into the MIC-in on your computer but the results won't be stellar.

The audience will be full of 50 year-old men. Be like the opposite of a Take That gig. When are tickets on sale? Asking for a friend.

Or an audio CD from Sony?