The school bass - how bad was yours?

[Subbeh]

We certainly didn't have a bass, had several 3/4 scale acoustics which I don't think had a full set of strings between them and a knackered old drum kit.

Our music lessons consisted of copying biographies of classical composers from a text book into our exercise books and occasionally having a bash at
chariots of fire, one finger style on the worlds cheapest keyboards. It really was an absolute joke and I'm still pissed off about it.

Though some pupils did recieve music lessons on violin and cello we were refused when we asked our music teacher, we were happy to pay the full
cost ourselves but she still couldn't be bothered to arrange anything.

Where ever you are Mrs Boss, you were a truly awful teacher and did absolutely nothing to inspire your pupils you *%^£!?* waste of space.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Subbeh

[CamdenRob]

[quote name='Subbeh' timestamp='1383572553' post='2265960']
...you were a truly awful teacher and did absolutely nothing to inspire your pupils you *%^£!?* waste of space.
[/quote]

We had a few of those... Our music teachers as a whole though were pretty good.

[icastle]

[quote name='Spoombung' timestamp='1383565682' post='2265841']
Electric instruments and even acoustic guitars were not considered real instruments when I was at school. Pop music was not considered music at all and none of the teachers knew what Top of the Pops was.

Corduroy trousers, chalk dust and Mozart were very popular, however.
[/quote]

+1

Our school was totally brass band orientated.

[Geek99]

You're all lucky - all we had were xylophones

[Dingus]

Do they have turntables in school music departments nowadays to teach the kids how to DJ ? I would like to think that even someone as witless as the the people running our schools seem to be couldn't be that daft , but something tells me I am probably going to be wrong on that count .

Our school music teacher was a smashing bloke , from what I remember . He left, though , and was probaly replaced by someone worse. I used to love to play on the school vibrophone. I just made it up as I went along and it sounded a lot like bebop.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Dingus

[iconic]

My secondary school days were 74 to 79....we had good music room but noone was allowed to use the instruments in case they got damaged or worn out....!?!

No bass of any kind but i do remember lots of triangles and bongos...

.i do also recall i was learning piano in my music lesson when i was 11 and remember being bollocked by the head teaching in the room below, for playing scales....it put the puplis off their mathes..."no one wants to hear scales when theres times tables to be learnt"....very encouraging guy old Smythe

[RhysP]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1383578351' post='2266082']
Do they have turntables in school music departments nowadays to teach the kids how to DJ ? I would like to think that even someone as witless as the the people running our schools seem to be couldn't be that daft , but something tells me I am probably going to be wrong on that count .
[/quote]

Yes, I'm afraid they do.

I'm sure they get sent out to vandalise public property with spray cans as part of their "art" lessons too.....

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1383313450' post='2263030']
I cannot help but notice the direct correlation between the declining quality of British popular music and the changes in emphasis in schools and society at large designed to make young people more useful to employers. Back in the late '70's/1980's you had mass youth unemployment and The Smiths , the Cure, the Specials ect. Now we have all these work schemes and sanctions and the cumulative result is Coldplay. What cruel trick are we playing on these kids by giving them basses and pretending they will ever get time to play them ?
[/quote]

That may have been intended to be largely tongue-in-cheek, but I think there's more than a certain amount of truth in there.

What the current generation of players who all have had lessons or learnt from YouTube video appear not to realise is that the majority of their heroes from the 60s to the late 80s got their technique from having to figure it all out for themselves. We're unlikely to get another Mick Karn, Peter Hook or John Entwistle when most new players are happy simply to imitate rather than innovate.

[alyctes]

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1383309216' post='2262922']
When I was at school any instrument that used electricity was taboo. There were no rehearsal rooms, let alone the stuff you get in schools these days.
...
[/quote]

This. And drums as well.

[leftyhook]

bass? who are you kidding!

[2004gdavi]

At my school there was no music teacher but the art teacher was interested in music so set up a band and ran classes. I found out years later that he had played keyboard in a group called "Band of Joy" along with somebody called Robert Plant and another guy John Bonham. Not sure if they had much success thereafter.. ha ha. Anyway this meant music was very forward thinking and not the typical school band of the time. I start on double bass and then got the hande down electric bass. A Rossetti with a very narrow neck, out of tune frets and falling apart - not the greatest of basses. Still I wish I had it now. Happy days.

[Thebassman75]

Believe it or not, we had a late 70's Fender P-Bass.. natural with a maple neck. No amp to plug it into but it sounded fantastic just slapped on its own. I guess that's where the love started.. I'd surte like to know where that bass is now. Probably in a skip or stolen.. :-(

[BetaFunk]

[quote name='thebrig' timestamp='1383208297' post='2261447']
The Shadows? I would have loved to have been able to listen to artists as modern as them in our music lessons!
[/quote]
Me too! I think that our music teacher would have fainted at the thought of such decadence in the classroom.

[Kiwi]

We had a neck diving, japanese made copy of a Hofner 500/1 strung with flats that has pretty much defined ever since what I dislike in basses. (NB: The genuine article is quite nice to play by comparison.)

[redbandit599]

I think we had several instruments, but they were all kept locked away from the 1,300 kids....

Did see a double bass, just the once mind. Honestly can't remember actually doing any music in music lessons.

The highlight was usually spreading Vicks Vapour Rub on the keys of the one badly tuned piano and watching the hateful old crone who was one of our music teachers run from the room due to her severe allergy to the stuff.

She was a musical moron, asked to do an A to Z of composers I had Jarre for J, evidently I had made him up. She didn't like it when I said there were actually two, father and son, one composing film scores and the other a leading electronic music composer and would she like me to bring in some records?

The other music teacher just applied lipstick for an hour and shagged a few 6th formers.

Edited November 8, 2013 by redbandit599

[muttley]

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1383309216' post='2262922']
When I was at school any instrument that used electricity was taboo.
[/quote]

Same here (I left school in 1984).

I hated the head of music. He was so stuck in the dark ages and was only interested in his beloved choir (to his credit they were good, but choral is not the only music). I refused to join the school orchestra despite being a competent violinist and didn't take music O-level.

By the time I got to the 6th form, a new second in charge had joined. Still no school owned "modern" instruments* but he formed a small modern "choir" backed by a 4-piece rock outfit (I played guitar in those days) and we performed original material. He got a lot of stick though from the HoM and left the same year as I did. Happy days though. He also managed the school orchestra so I instantly installed myself as leader.

* tucked away in one of the store/practice rooms was a EMS synth - a Putney I think. I really should have just nicked it as no one else had shown any interest for several years.

[4 Strings]

We dreamt of a school bass. Our music block was a piece of rolled up newspaper left in the middle of t' road.

[Thebassman75]

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1383917352' post='2270763']
We dreamt of a school bass. Our music block was a piece of rolled up newspaper left in the middle of t' road.
[/quote]

Luxury! Ours was a spec of mould on the windscreen of an old rusty milkfloat dumped in' canal

[Dad3353]

[quote name='Thebassman75' timestamp='1383919002' post='2270803']
Luxury! Ours was a spec of mould on the windscreen of an old rusty milkfloat dumped in' canal
[/quote]

[fatback]

Yew wa lucky... our school bass was the fish they used to slap us round the chops with when we asked for more gruel...

[Dingus]

I wonder what music lessons are like nowadays in schools? One week a bit of rapping , next week some dancehall raggamuffin bashment , and let's not forget that the Grime module makes up 30% of you final mark . The school choir probably does a rousing rendition of old favourites from when the music teacher was young , like "Killing In The Name Of ", " Knockin' Da Boots" and " Nuthin' But A "G" Thang'". The kids probably just long to sing Kum Ba Yah and play the recorder.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Dingus

[Thebassman75]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1383926802' post='2270931']
I wonder what music lessons are like nowadays in schools? One week a bit of rapping , next week some dancehall raggamuffin bashment , and let's not forget that the Grime module makes up 30% of you final mark . The school choir probably does a rousing rendition of old favourites from when the music teacher was young , like "Killing In The Name Of ", " Knockin' Da Boots" and " Nuthin' But A "G" Thang'". The kids probably just long to sing Kum Ba Yah and play the recorder.
[/quote]

If only it was like that (not the recorder - if I ever hear another one, I'll snap it in half!!)

[lurksalot]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1383926802' post='2270931']
I wonder what music lessons are like nowadays in schools? One week a bit of rapping , next week some dancehall raggamuffin bashment , and let's not forget that the Grime module makes up 30% of you final mark . The school choir probably does a rousing rendition of old favourites from when the music teacher was young , like "Killing In The Name Of ", " Knockin' Da Boots" and " Nuthin' But A "G" Thang'". The kids probably just long to sing Kum Ba Yah and play the recorder.
[/quote]

well up until April this year, my 13 yr old daughter was way ahead of me in music recording and production (cubase) that was learned from school,