Rosie C

I have Psalm 150 "Praise the lord with strings and loud cymbals" on a t-shirt.

Fancy being the next Earl Grey of Chimay? We play a mixture of Tudor-era dance music, traditional & modern folk, and a fair few Blackmore's Night covers. We have occasional performances, but it's generally low-key - community events and the local brewery's tap room. We have a rehearsal space near Chepstow, and we have gigs lined up for April, May and June. Our two core members are on vocal/percussion and vocal/mandocello/recorder, and we're supported by two other musicians on keys/mandolin/vocal and violin/mandolin. A bass player would fill out our sound nicely. The band grew out of a community music group and we still have a focus on community events. NB: the two core members are a couple, for those who consider than a big red flag, you've been warned! We're mostly in our 50s but have no expectation of your age. We perform in costume - photos on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheTudorSyndicate .

Thanks for that! I am intrigued by the "launchpad" - positively space age when our band plays renaissance music!

Logic Pro is the DAW I use most often, and I'm not very keen on changing for editing & offline stuff. But I don't think it does anything live. Reaper is certainly worth a go - the keyboard player in our band uses it, so I have a potential resource there. Thanks for the input!

Yes, giving the free trial is the best option I think. We have someone playing hand drum in the band, so likely a pickup or mic on that would be our best bet for an audio signal.

Thanks. They did do some blood tests and ruled out rheumatoid arthritis, that was pretty much it - the physio advised it's likely wear and tear as I get older, but not to let mild discomfort stop me playing - as moderate use is better than resting (just my interpretation of what he said for my particular case!)

I had a similar experience - the first hour of the day my left hand is sore, stiff joints, etc. The NHS physio said "not arthritis" but admitted that we'll probably see each other in 10 years and it will be by then. Using power tools seems to set it off, as does playing double bass too much

Our recordings had about 8 tracks - vocal, mandocello, drum, tambourine, double bass, recorder, viola. So 8 tracks should work. The bit in Ableton's marketing that caught my eye was "Ableton Live listens to and adjusts its tempo based on incoming audio in real time, making it a dynamic part of the band instead of the tempo source that everyone has to follow". Sounds good, maybe too good?

Is anyone using Ableton Live? I've multi-tracked some songs, and thinking of using it to add in a couple of the multitracked parts when we're playing live. There is a 30-day free trial, but I'd like to save that until I have free time to give it a good run out before committing to buy.

I'd like to have given it a go when I was younger, just for a short while. Maybe a couple of cruise ship tours. But the only people I know making a living from music are music teachers. I've run a couple of small businesses in my time and I found it really hard to make the same money as I could make working for someone else. I expect being a self-employed musician would have been the same.

Our Morris band use https://morrisbook.co.uk - you do have to pay for it once the free trial expires, but I like it as it handles the process of listing possible gigs, seeing who can make it, then accepting or rejecting the gig. It exports to Google calendar and probably others.

I do get withdrawal symptoms from not playing music generally, but I play a few instruments and I'm more likely to rattle off a folk tune on recorder or do some vocal work. On holiday or trip I'll often have a recorder in my luggage. I don't get withdrawal symptoms from not playing bass, as far as I don't miss it when I'm not playing. But when I play again I'm wondering why I left it so long. I played double bass yesterday for the first time in months - loved it and realised I'd missed playing so much, but not until I'd played.

Sound advice. I can't play guitar, but I learned the common chord shapes and have developed skills in guitar capo arithmetic! It's got me through many jam sessions.

The acoustics are quite good - a little goes a long way. Admittedly I'd have rather had a bit more oomph for the final hymn, and it lacks on the bottom end, but it was 'good enough'.

It went well, the band was piano, cornet and double bass. I took my little 25W Orange practice amp - just to give a little boost to the sound. We played: Alleluia Sing to Jesus There is a Redeemer All Heaven Declares Light of the World Guide Me Oh Great Redeemer (we were assured this was scheduled well before the rugby)

What with Christmas and our worship leader being on holiday in January, tomorrow is my first day playing at communion for a while. The BL suggested upright would be good for this service too. I've not played it publicly since the bridge was modified to adjustable and I fitted a lifeline pickup. So an exciting day on Sunday!

I kinda like playing in a church band - morning gigs, no drunks, daylight for loading & unloading, free coffee and biscuits. Home by 1pm.

Likewise. We have a Fender Passport PA - not for everyone, but perfect for two mid-50's women playing folk music. The boost it gets from plugging an old Orange bass combo amp (1x12", 35W) into the sub output is remarkable and didn't cost anything.

Perhaps! The first time I played in our church band, we played as people arrived, I forget what the tune was, but it was in 3/4. After a couple of times through the BL grinned at me and said "now let's play it in 4", and when we'd done that, "now in 2!". I felt like I'd been set some sort of initiation test and passed.

1. Why you don't have any gigs? - I'm recovering from laryngitis, and we have winter and summer set lists, so a few weeks to put together some new songs is welcome 2.Do you rely on an agent ? - no, most of our gigs come through recommendation 3.Who finds coordinates and confirms gigs? Me - band leader, lead singer 4. Are you or any band members in this for the money? Not really, we're happy doing community events - carnivals, fund-raisers, etc. 5.How much do you want to gig? - very much, I love the buzz from live performance 4 or 5 summer gigs and 1 or 2 Christmas gigs for our renaissance band. But I also dep. in a friend's cover band as needed 2-3 times a year and perform at folk clubs.

Thanks everyone! & thanks for the linke Phil, that lead me to

I'm looking at getting a wireless headset mic. The arrange of frequencies is bewildering. The options that are legal without a licence seem to be 863-865Mhz or 2400Mhz which is the wi-fi band and I'm guessing could be problematic. Just wondering what other people are using?

I won't name the studio, but my worst experience - I turned up for a classical piano exam and the staff had to explain they didn't have a piano.

I was looking at the National guitar, lot 37 from memory. But then I read the detail and it's not the one from the Brothers in Arms album. Makes me wonder how many guitars he has!

I've never been to Firebird, but it's the place RockSchool's also assigns me for exams, despite being in deepest, darkest Wales. That does look like a decent line up of equipment though!