The Funk

Very interesting. Watching the videos of our set at the Jazz Cafe, the lack of any real stage lighting makes the whole thing look really boring. (That and collective stage fright) Sorry - couldn't resist the plug but I think it does illustrate the point about lighting. I never even thought about it before seeing the video.

[quote name='tauzero' post='152377' date='Mar 6 2008, 01:55 PM']No drummer has yet learnt the meaning of the word "hierarchy", so this is where the survey ends.[/quote] That's so harsh but hilarious. Realistically though, in most bands it goes Singer, Guitarist, Drummer, Keyboard Player, Bassist.

Ah, I get it now. If you did crack the secret of the useful small cab then you could probably go into business making them. I'm sure almost everyone on this forum would like one.

See if you can get a small Gallien-Krueger Microbass Combo secondhand. Great little amps and cheaper than the SWR Baby Blue or the Mesa Walkabout. You might just be able to get one within your budget. Congrats on the Sterling - they look awesome.

I'm very interested in this build. It looks like it's all going according to plan. I'm very happy with my Acme B2s but I am considering an Eden WTX-260 + an Acme B1 for home practice and small gigs. It'd be nice not to have to always take a car to gigs. Would you realistically need a small monitor cab? At 30" tall, that should be high enough to get some detail to your ears.

I remember someone telling me a long time ago that an easy way to remember what different intervals sound like is to associate them with the first two notes of songs you are familiar with, eg. octave up = Somewhere Over The Rainbow.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='131328' date='Jan 31 2008, 03:11 PM']'The Jazz Theory Book' by Mark Levine - how many times do I have to tell people!!! [/quote] +1. There's a thread about it below somewhere. It's so good.

What do you guys think?

Played our first ever gig at the Jazz Cafe last night. We planned on going as good little boys, setting up quickly, playing our set and getting off the stage at our allotted time so the next band could set up and stay on schedule. After we'd finished our set all we could hear was screams of 'Encore!'. Then our singer told the crowd it wasn't up to us. Then the compere told us to do another one. After we did that the crowd asked for another encore! The compere told us we had to do another one, so we did. First gig at the Jazz Cafe and TWO f**king encores! I'm still smiling now.

Reminder about tomorrow night's gig. Onstage at 8.40pm for a half-hour set. A couple of other good funk bands will be on as well as Hinda Hicks who had a few hits about ten years ago. Decent singer if I remember correctly.

Not really headlining unfortunately but I will put you in touch with the guy who puts on the night. Contact Yvan at Raison d'Etre - www.reason2b.net . He holds an open mic audition every month. That's how we got it. If I remember correctly, you're from out of town but it still might be worth making a trip down for it. He also puts on things at places like Cargo and Koko.

Got to agree with the guys who talked about locking in with the snare or the hi-hat. Really it's just about locking in with everything the drummer does full-stop, so that the bass and drums work effectively as a rhythm section. If you keep getting ahead of the beat - or if you think you might just have bad time - then you are letting down everyone else in the band and it's up to you to fix the problem. If your sense of time is good enough to hear that you are ahead, then you can make sure you keep time well enough to not play ahead (unintentionally) or speed up. Of course, if you're playing with a drummer with sloppy time, there's not much you can do apart from get a new drummer.

This is what I've come to expect from them: to treat bass players with contempt.

The big one. £8 Guestlist. Be there or cease to be. Full details to follow...

I have an Aguilar DB680. I agree that it is the best bass preamp there is. The tone is spectactular.

The Time Out listing: [url="http://www.timeout.com/london/music/events/659761/foolish_earthlings_pirate_casino_the_7-21s_the_colour_code_re-moved.html"]http://www.timeout.com/london/music/events...e_re-moved.html[/url]

You might like him [i]because[/i] he's a c*cky little shvitz.

Hah, who can argue with nudity? I'll keep you posted about gig dates. Glad you like the tunes - I wrote Alien Nation in about ten minutes. Still can't figure out how. Everything else took much, much longer. If any Basschatters do come down, don't forget to introduce yourselves. I'll be the guy in the funky red hat walking into things 'cos he's wearing sunglasses indoors at night.

The current line-up is a five-piece. We've got our old frontman back full time. He and our new keyboard player (who might possibly be a genius) are a couple of church guys. Our guitarist is all about the metal, but he loves his funk, blues and Al di Meola too. The guy plays some serious lines. Then our drummer is just sick. He's just 18 and he's a groove monster. He's also in the semis of BBC Young Musician Of The Year. He won't get out any of the percussion stuff at this gig but that's something we're looking to incorporate live in the future. At the last gig we did at the Water Rats, our guitarist's brother (who played Desh in The Bourne Ultimatum) brought along a few b-boy friends who spontaneously started busting out some moves - to a 7/4 funk tune. This time there will be at least one poledancer in the crowd. I'm hoping inspiration might take her during the performance! It'd be great if you came along. My place is about 5 minutes away from the venue so I thought we could all come back for a party afterwards. Which reminds me - I need to get a pole just in case!

[url="http://www.themonto.com/listings_detail.php?listings_id=358"]http://www.themonto.com/listings_detail.php?listings_id=358[/url] Price: £6 advance from the website above. Party at my place afterwards. BYOB.

Sorry for your predicament but TWO HUNDRED SONGS?! How about just a few songs where the bassline sounds cool but is fairly easy to play? 1. Gimme Some Lovin' - Spencer Davis Group 2. Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream 3. White Room - Cream The real question is why you'd want to salvage a band with a pair of tw@s.

Some people pray for wealth But I don't even want my health When I get on my knees and pray The only thing that I can say (is that) God, God, God made me funky!

My drummer's at [url="http://www.tcm.ac.uk/RVE26dae6fc87f24277a0e4c150e6708b3c,,.aspx"]Trinity[/url] in London. He reckons it's pretty good.

In 2007 I learnt the value of mid-range drivers and 3-way cabs.

[quote name='urb' post='121957' date='Jan 17 2008, 09:16 AM']communicating - and hearing what other musicians are doing[/quote] Amen!