thebassmandave Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 (edited) Greetings Fellow Low Enders. I discovered this great forum yesterday and just wanted to drop you a line to say "Hello" First started playing bass (a no name P bass copy turned upside down 'cos I'm a lefty) back in 1985 after hearing the basslines played by IHMO the great Deon Estes on Wham!'s first album Fantastic. Studied privately for a few years and played in a lot of bands and then was very lucky to have the opportunity to study the bass (BIT) programme at Musicians Institute in Hollywood - a 20 year old dream realised. Gradated last year and have been living in the States ever since. Love the weather and the people here, but get homesick for family and friends (can't say I miss the cold weather too much though!) and like to fly back to England whenever I can. Looking forward to reading more posts on this board and hopefully having a chat with some of you. All The Best Dave Edited December 18, 2007 by thebassmandave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Hi Dave, welcome aboard. Do you have any interesting stories from your time at BIT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebassmandave Posted December 18, 2007 Author Share Posted December 18, 2007 (edited) Hi Crazykiwi. Thanks. Actually, for the most part, I just studied like crazy when I was at MI. The classes were a challenge for me from Day One, so I really had to put some graft in to keep up with it all. Did go to one or two "interesting" parties in the beginning though before I got serious with my studies and this one came to mind: Every weekend one of my fellow students were always throwing a party and this particular one, for some reason everyone ended up on the the flat roof of the apartment building. Anyway, one of the tennants a grumpy old lady was none too impressed at the noise and 30 or so students up on "her" roof. Needless to say, she the security/doorman chuck us all out of the building. Anyway, I'd just got out the lobby when I hear this tremendous ruction going on a few yards behind me. I turn around and see the security/doorman getting himself involved in a full on punchup with a small guy who is punching the crap out of this doorman. "Wouldn't like to be that doorman copping several "unfortunate ones" of that geezer", thinks I. Anyway, on a second look, turns out that it's this very slight looking (but hard as nails girl) that has just bashed the crap out of the doorman. Turns out that he took a little bit of a liberty and used a bit of over-excessive force in removing a few people from the party and sprayed this girl and her girlfriend in the face with pepper spray. Hence the retribution - he wasn't hurt just a bit stunned, probably saw a few stars. Don't know if that qualifies for interesting, but it was kind of amusing at the time. Cheers! Dave Edited December 18, 2007 by thebassmandave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 LOL So what did you study and would you recommend the course to others? Has the qualification proved useful? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nig Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Welcome to the forum Dave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hamster Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Hello - and welcome! Hamster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebassmandave Posted December 18, 2007 Author Share Posted December 18, 2007 (edited) Hi Guys. Thanks. I had always dreamed about studying at MI ever since I started playing bass in the mid '80s. It was the first place I had heard about where you could study the electric bass full time instead of just taking private lessons once a week, which I used to do. Now there are a lot of schools set up around the world offering similar courses with top notch teachers, players. I would have to say that personally I'm really glad I had this opportunity to fulfill a dream I had for a long time. I think that's what I really got from it, completing something from start to finish which was a challenge for me from Day One. Although I got an Arts Associates degree in Bass Performance at the end of the course, it was really the experience of doing something like this for myself and seeing it through to the end which was really the reward. The amount of playing experience, technique and different styles of music which are taught (I'm told it's 10 years' worth of stuff compressed into 18 months) seemed to blur past me. I had a tremendous amount of support from teachers, fellow students and not least family and friends all of which contributed in my determination to do the best that I could. Kept thinking "I've got one shot at this, got to give it everything I have and make the most of this opportunity". It came about at the right time for me to really apreciate everything entailed, as well as to afford the costs of tuition and living out here. It's kind of difficult for me to say whether I'd recommend it to someone else, because my circumstances influenced my decision to come here (when I did) and really give it everything I had and focus all my energies on it - at the time I was going through a divorce and sold my share of the house, gave up the job I was in for nearly 20 years and left behind all my family and friends to go study in another country where I didn't know anyone. I found the transition hard, but exciting and challenging at the same time. It depends on what your goals are. I think that I would say if you are lucky enough to study music full time and are prepared to put in the work, and can afford it, go for it whether it be at MI or any of the other music schools. I saw a lot of people come out to MI and just drop out for various reasons- some didn't realise how much work would be involved and couldn't keep up with it or just wanted to party the whole time, others couldn't afford to keep up with the tuition costs and others hoped they could come out to Hollywood, make some contacts and become rockstars or whatever, and when it didn't magically happened as they hoped, they left. I think if someone is determined enough (and lucky sometimes) anything is possible. Out of the my BIT class which started in Fall 2004, I think there was half or less that were there when we graduated in Spring 2006. My goal was and still is to become more proficient on bass guitar, and this is a lifetime goal. I am still using materials from my course at MI - (finally have a chance to sit down and digest the info at my own pace) as part of my practice schedule as well as studying with private teachers and playing in a covers band for fun. Having that degree may help if I want to teach private students as it would be included on my resume, but IMHO it all comes down to playing the right part for the song and being able to fit in as a team player in any situation. Hope this helps give a bit more insight and answers your questions. If the moderator would like this part of the post to be moved to save space (and keep the topic relevant) for the introductions post, no prob, please bump/move and I will be happy to answer any other questions . Cheers! Dave Edited December 18, 2007 by thebassmandave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WalMan Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Hi & welcome from one of two members here in LA - sadly that means Lil' Ampton & not LA so rather than But we call it home That was one helluva "Sodit I'm changing my life!" move you made there. Good on you Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebassmandave Posted December 18, 2007 Author Share Posted December 18, 2007 (edited) [quote name='WalMan' post='106169' date='Dec 18 2007, 12:35 PM']Hi & welcome from one of two members here in LA - sadly that means Lil' Ampton & not LA so rather than But we call it home That was one helluva "Sodit I'm changing my life!" move you made there. Good on you Al[/quote] LOL - like it! Hi Al. Thanks. Cool pics. Yeah, England will always be 'ome to me though, and one day my wife and I will move back. My wife is American, but has visited England several times and loves it there. She knows that I get homesick from time to time and we have agreed to move back in a few years. Funny thing is, whenever I meet people here who have visited England, they have visited more places and know more about the country than I did in the 36 years' I lived there before coming to the States! Amazing. Then again, when things are there, I guess I figured, "well I can visit such and such place anytime" and not really thought given it any more thought. Interestingly enough, I grew up in 'ampton - and it was little: town - Hampton in Middlesex. Cheers! Dave Edited December 19, 2007 by thebassmandave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetera Posted December 21, 2007 Share Posted December 21, 2007 [quote name='thebassmandave' post='106236' date='Dec 18 2007, 10:52 PM']Interestingly enough, I grew up in 'ampton - and it was little: town - Hampton in Middlesex. [/quote] Ah, I know it well.... I'm in Hampton Wick... Welcome to the board Dave! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebassmandave Posted December 21, 2007 Author Share Posted December 21, 2007 [quote name='cetera' post='107666' date='Dec 21 2007, 06:38 AM']Ah, I know it well.... I'm in Hampton Wick... Welcome to the board Dave![/quote] Hi cetera. Thanks. You live very close by. My parents still live in Hampton and one of my sisters lives in Hampton Hill which is also close by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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