62P-Bass

[quote name='lobematt' post='1375299' date='Sep 16 2011, 11:12 AM']Anyone got a link for this? Sounds like something I need to read![/quote] They're all on my website on the 'Articles' page. I've just added the most recent ones as PDFs. The chord chart stuff starts from number 22/Issue 66. Cheers, Andrew

[quote name='BassBunny' post='1375060' date='Sep 16 2011, 12:14 AM']Sounds great and glad you are on board Andrew. BTW love your recent articles on interpreting Chord Charts[/quote] Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm coming to the end of the line I feel with the chord chart series, so any suggestions gratefully received! A

Hi there, Just wanted to pass on the info that yes, this is being steered by Nick Wells and I know he has big plans so watch this space! Being able to combine and embed audio and video footage is going to be a huge plus for this online magazine format. I'm hoping to be involved too in a tuition sense. All still to be finalised, but the team are planning on getting it out in October so keep your eye out! Cheers, Andrew

I went on Friday night - Paul Carmichael's band sounded good. Richard Bailey (Incognito) was on drums and sounding sweet! Andrew

[quote name='urb' post='1319218' date='Jul 28 2011, 12:31 PM']Great post - and you really hit the nail on the head - I find that the best music I've made is almost certainly when I've let my 'spirit' take over and forgotten all about showing off my chops - for me that moment almost certainly happens in a slight haze (no nothing to do with drink or drugs) like you are suddenly letting your fingers/heart/body play the music without your head getting in the way... it doesn;t happen all the time but a good starting place is to listen hard and then respond - not the other way round - i.e. I've got this great bass line and it's going in the song whther it needs it or not! Good debate geezers - very enlightening[/quote] Exactly Mike - listen hard first! A couple of tactics I use on occasion to help try and achieve this: 1. Listen to the whole band. Imagine you are in the audience hearing and seeing the whole band equally, or you are the producer/engineer sitting slap bang in the middle of two amazing studio monitors. 2. Try and concentrate 100% on what someone else is playing. This changes on the song/situation. Some of the guitar players I've had the fortune of playing with are so damn funky (namely Nigel Price and Al Cherry), that all I have to do is listen to their rhythm playing and my job takes care of itself. Alternatively if there is a soloist or lead singer, focus 100% on them and what they're doing and try to react instinctively, rather than deliberately. It helps to look at them too, although try not to put them off! Any other tactics for people? I think this is the crux of the reason that I practice. So that in a performance situation I don't have to pay any attention to what I'm doing, and can focus as much as possible on what other people are doing. It's more interesting for me that way, and more of a conversation which results in a better performance. Also I've found that I rarely get bored playing the same songs over and over again, especially when it's with new people. Andrew

[quote name='silddx' post='1317543' date='Jul 26 2011, 07:49 PM']I think we'd all agree, but how do you know when you have used it as a reflection of yourself?[/quote] This is the interesting bit to me - how can we actively improve or increase the 'music' quotient in our own performance? I saw a masterclass with Chuck Rainey once, and he talked about what I understood to be a 'Zen' idea - the ego vs the spirit. I know naff all about Zen/Buddhism/religion in general, but I liked what I took from this idea in relation to performance and have found it useful. The idea being that your ego would be telling you "play this thing you learnt / force this lick in / you should be doing more / play better / show 'em who's boss! etc.", or what would end up sounding like what has been referred to in this thread as 'Technique'. The best results are gained when you detach from this and let your subconscious or 'spirit' take over - listen to the music as a whole and react instinctively to the bigger picture, without your ego telling you anything. I think this is often what a listener (and performer) responds to best and what we might call 'music' as oppose to 'technique'. Sounds like this is what happened in Sliddx's rehearsal the other night. I guess different people will tap into this 'spirit/music' in different ways so will have varying responses to different music - 'all sounds like widdling to me'! In simple music or even music that you have a huge affinity for and not much technique, this egoless state might be easy to reach, or it least it is for the musicians we like to listen to. More challenging music will require greater/broader technique in order to reach the point where your instinct can take over and the ego is eradicated, or at least reduced. Basically in the masterclass someone asked Chuck what his favourite recordings of him were, or which were the basslines he played that he was most proud of. He said the ones where it sounded like his spirit was in control and not his ego, and they way he could tell would be often he would hear something in the recording that sounded totally new to him and like he couldn't have come up with it or couldn't play it like that again - that was his spirit coming through. That was all he said and I made up all the rest!! Anyway - this has always been something I've been meaning to look into more and haven't got round to it. I tried to read Zen in the Art of Archery, but never made it all the way through and it's a very short book. Cheers, Andrew

[quote name='umph' post='1248710' date='May 28 2011, 09:54 PM']sorry was making a reference to this - [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAl28d6tbko[/url][/quote] Aha! Love it. The pedals are pretty solid beasts, but that looks like one helluva blender.

[quote name='Len_derby' post='1248120' date='May 28 2011, 12:04 PM']It's not a very exciting angle Andrew, but I'd be interested to know how long any of the pedals can run with battery/DC power. I've used some pedals over the years that have drained batteries so quickly that I've thought I must have put the old ones back in by mistake! Although pedal board and AC mains power is preferred, there are some occasions where a battery powered pedal (taken in the gig bag with the DI box) is the easiest option. I'm probably not alone in that.[/quote] Good point! I'm looking into this at the moment to see what I can find out. My Dr of physics bass-playing friend is helping out with the calculations. Easier than plugging them in and setting a timer! [quote name='dc2009' post='1248337' date='May 28 2011, 03:40 PM']A very useful angle would be: If you were to buy one of these, which would it be. And ask the same question for buying two or three. I think this would be incredibly useful, as I have never even heard of anyone buying a full set of a brand's pedals, at least not in one go. So you could say for the average player, which single pedal would make the most difference to their sound quality and variety (choose the factors as you wish). Similarly, say that if you had the money to spend on only two/three (they aren't cheap), which ones you would then go for, this also may be different to buying just the 1 pedal, if perhaps 2 or 3 of them work particularly well in conjunction with each other. Hope this helps, Dan[/quote] This is a great question, but I think beyond the scope of the review. As 3 of the pedals are new, those are the ones I have to focus on, but not necessarily the ones I would chose! I think most people would have a different answer for their top 3 pedals and it totally depends on what style of music you play and what you're after. Would make a good poll! Mine would be #1 OctaBass, #2 BassIQ, and the third I really don't know - maybe the MultiDrive. The DPHaser is really good fun and sounds great at home, but I'm not sure I could fit it in live anywhere, but that's down to type of music I generally play. Actually I guess there's nothing wrong with voting for a favourite out of the three in the review, and I can certainly talk about how they work together too. Thanks! [quote name='umph' post='1248341' date='May 28 2011, 03:43 PM']the real question is, will it blend?[/quote] Blend with? The band generally, or do you mean your unaltered bass tone? Thanks for all your help with this - much appreciated. Andrew

I'm going to write a review of three new EBS pedals for Bass Guitar Magazine - the DPhaser, MetalDrive and Stanley Clarke signature wah-wah. I know reviews are a potentially contentious issue, but I thought as an experiment I'd throw it open and see if anyone had any particular questions about these pedals, or any specific angles you would like to see explored in a review, particularly if you are potentially in the market for any of these pedals or if you use similar products and are interested in specific features and how they work. The [url="http://www.ebs.bass.se/"]EBS website[/url] is very comprehensive in terms of specs etc, and it also has loads of recorded sound examples, so most basic information can be gleaned there so I was thinking beyond this - stuff you can't find out there. I'm not sure exactly what I'll be able to do with any of your questions - as I said, it's a bit of an experiment, but I thought it might be good to get a general consensus on what people want to know about the products. I'll do my best, but if you want to know how they compare, for example to every other distortion pedal on the market, I don't have the facility (or time) to do that!! They sent them to me on a pedal board with all of the other pedals as well (see pic), which has been a hell of a lot of self-indulgent fun! I also borrowed a looping pedal so I've been creating some epic soundscapes in my bedroom. Well, occasionally epic, but mostly wonky sounding funk! Cheers, Andrew [attachment=81113:photo_1.JPG]

I played in a run of it a few years ago in Hammersmith. It was pretty well put together with some generic but effective writing, like all shows I guess. One thing you might find is that most of the pieces are pretty short. There's quite a few stings that are only one or two bars long and they can be quite tricky - blink and you'll miss 'em! Also the incidental/scene change type music is pretty short, as are the big production numbers. I guess they figure kids haven't got the attention span for anything longer. It's a bit of a shame though as just as you're settling into a groove it changes, or stops! I'm sure you'll have fun though and it'll be great experience - good luck. Andrew

There's loads of info out there on memory and 'memory tricks' that you can use to impress your friends etc. I actually read a book on this to see how much of it would apply to music. Not a hell of a lot to be honest - it was mainly good for remembering shopping lists or random facts, or sequences of a deck of cards etc. Not actually that useful in everyday life or music making. The two main points that I did get from the book though that I think are really valuable, if quite simple, are: 1. You've got to [i]want[/i] to remember - as in put some effort/energy into it. 2. Repetition. The more times you repeat things the stronger the memory is. It sounds like you have the first one covered. The second one - bear in mind that repetition doesn't just mean playing the whole song again on your bass, it could be just thinking about what order some of the notes or chords are, or the structure of the song, singing bits of it to yourself, visualising how certain sections will feel to play or what they will look like on the fretboard. I find this really useful to do when I'm walking about or cycling somewhere. Sort of like a self quiz - what key is it? What are the first few notes? What's my cue to change to the chorus etc etc. You need time for this information to go in. By that, I don't mean 10 hours in a row and then you'll be fine. I mean over a period of time with lots of intervals and breaks and coming back to it. I read somewhere once that whilst we're asleep our brains do a lot of sorting and filing of the days information as Jennifer said, which explains why you memory can go first when you're suffering from a lack of sleep. Along those lines it's important to think about how the information is going in in the first place. Again, it's like filing - the more organised and structured it is, the easier it will be to locate things when you need them. The more labels and definitions you can put on things you are trying to remember, the easier they will be to recall. For some people this will be the names of the chords, the names of the notes, or even the number of the frets - that's okay too! The more you know about music theory, the more labels that will give you and the deeper the understanding you'll have, and therefore the more supported the memory will be. I'm a very visual person, so I find it really helpful to write things out - usually in a brief form, not all the notes. As I organise the chords and structure on the page, it is organising the way my brain thinks about it. Also when I am trying to remember things I can visualise what I wrote and how it looked on the page. The more I do this the better I get at knowing what it is I'm likely to forget, so I concentrate on these bits when trying to learn stuff. For me it's mainly song structures that catch me out. I started music in the classical world where you are pretty much always looking at something, so I never thought I'd be able to remember songs at all without any form of written reference. With time and effort though it is achievable. Last year I did a one-off gig playing over 20 songs backing four or five different artists. We'd only had one brief rehearsal, but I managed to walk on stage without a single piece of paper which was a great feeling! In fact, one of the singers tried to get me to take their lyrics on stage for them but I completely blanked them - there was no way I wanted to be even momentarily associated with anything of the sort after I'd put all that effort into learning it all! They probably didn't realise what a big deal it was for me though and just figured I was being an asshole - oh well! Hope some of this helps, Andrew

The [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Taylor"]James Taylor[/url] The other [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Taylor_Quartet"]James Taylor[/url]!

P-Retro is a great bit of kit if you are after an active P-Bass. I kept it in the bass for about 6 months but I never actually turned it on to 'active' during any gig, so I ended up taking it out. I'm just really used to and comfortable with a passive P-Bass. It could work really well for you if you change your sound during the gig or mid-song. I'm very much a one-sound-fits all player for gigs! I made some comparison recordings that you can access on the BGM website [url="http://www.bassguitarmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=429:p-retro&catid=48:demos&Itemid=102"]here[/url]. Andrew

Ah yes, the old James Taylor vs James Taylor issue! We do sometimes notice people leaving after a few numbers and think - wrong James Taylor! Apparently [u]after[/u] one gig some came up to James (the one I play for), said how much they loved the gig and his music, and then pulled out a copy of Sweet Baby James for him to sign. The cover is basically a huge picture of the other James Taylor! A

Thanks for checking it out guys and the nice comments. I've just added some tracks from the new JTQ album that is being released in April - they're on the Media page. Cheers, Andrew

I reckon it's definitely a wrong note and I probably wouldn't play it live. It does work though, so after you've listened to it a few times it starts to make sense and you start to hear it that way, which is probably exactly what they did in the studio! Andrew

Apologies for the blatant self-interest post, but I now have a website up and running and wanted to 'put it about a bit' - hope that's okay. I've put up PDFs of most of my articles from Bass Guitar Magazine - mostly my series on how to read music notation, plus a few gear reviews and other bits that some of you may be interested in. At some point hopefully soon I'm going to put together a book on reading music for bass. Not just a bundle of old articles, but a whole new resource that I have big plans for. Sign up to the mailing list and I'll update you as soon as this is ready. It's just an iWeb job but I'm happy enough with it so far - any feedback on the site much appreciated! Cheers, Andrew P.S. Look out for the infamous/notorious 'Fretless Moods' video! [url="http://www.andrewmckinney.co.uk"]www.andrewmckinney.co.uk[/url]

You assume correctly. The only way round this is to put the Sadowsky pedal last in line before the amp. Would this be a problem? Do bear in mind though that venues/sound engineers are often reluctant to use band member's own DI boxes, and if you do manage to convince them then the slightest crackle or buzz anywhere on stage will be deemed the fault of your DI! Along those lines I think you're better off playing it safe in terms of sound and not adding too much EQ with the pedal, as this will be giving a fairly 'loaded' signal to the PA which, whilst suitable for your amp and what you like to hear, might not suit the PA or what they want to hear. Andrew

Personally I wouldn't be too reliant on being able to take a hard case on board. Companies like Easyjet are getting very good at saying, "no that won't fit, it's going in the hold and your gonna have to pay extra for it", especially now that airlines are charging extra for putting luggage in the hold - consequently everyone is taking as much hand luggage as possible and the storage in the cabin can get really full. The Iberia website seems to make no mention of musical instruments at all so it's even harder to tell what might happen. British Airways are generally cool and they seem to have a link up with them so maybe they will be too. I always use an SKB Bass Safe and put it in the hold. I never use extra padding, but it's in the gig bag already so it should be okay. A guitarist I've travelled with a lot just has a fairly knackered Hiscox case with loose catches - never does any extra padding or taping and his guitar has always been fine!! Luck of the draw I guess. Question is... do you feel lucky?? Never bothered with detuning myself. Hope some of this helps! Andrew