How was Your rehearsal last morning or night ?

[gjones]

7 minutes ago, ezbass said:

We did a run through with a dep drummer for this coming Sunday’s gig. It was pretty awesome! The guy had plainly done a lot of homework and had a great feel. Police & Thieves had the most solid ‘one’ I have played to and could have happily played it for hours. Adding to that, he managed to swing Town Called Malice rather than the usual bashed out ‘four on the floor’ I have endured over the decades; another delight to play to. Given our usual drummer’s patchy availability, I’m hoping we might work with this guy some more. Prior to the rehearsal, I was feeling like packing it all in, but I’m feeling somewhat enthused now.

 

A great drummer can change the whole feel of a song, for the better. 

Edited Tuesday at 08:16 by gjones

[ezbass]

11 hours ago, gjones said:

 

A great drummer can change the whole feel of a song, for the better. 

I was spoilt in my previous bands as they often featured the same, awesome drummer, who has been in bands since the ‘60s. Everyone else is compared to him and is normally found to be lacking. When I first started playing bass as my primary instrument, I was often struck by my inability to lock in with the drummer and assumed it was me, as I was a bass newb. The drummer in the band I was in couldn’t make a gig and so I asked my old drummer (the guy mentioned previously) from my guitar playing days to dep. From the first beat, there was that lock I had been looking for and I haven’t worried about my ability in that dept since, it either works or it doesn’t, but it’s so satisfying when it does.

 

The difference between a good band and a great band is often a good drummer and good harmonies.

[kwmlondon]

Had a good fun one with one of my groups last night. Was knackered after a building project on the house but it was really good fun- the guitarist is a creative fella, good fun, writes interesting stuff and is really lovely. The drummer is inexperienced and a bit lacking in confidence but she’s great to play with and I hope we can build her up to doing a gig before long.

 

I took the Positive Grid Spark Live and it did really well. Sounded good and easily kept up with the drummer, though she’s not a very heavy player. Did a comparison with the full rig- TC BH800 and MarkBass NY121 and the bass rig was way more authoritative and deep, coped with big transients way better and louder as you’d expect 

[dmccombe7]

Had a 3 hr rehearsal last night with the Glam band just to polish up some of the new songs we've added and to work a bit on a new Suzi Q song. Unfortunately one of our singers couldn't make it due to the poor health of her 12 yr old dog. Not so good news there. 

New songs went well but its amazing how much we missed her vocals. She has a huge presence within the band.

Used my Sandberg VM4 into an old Peavey with a graphic EQ and a Hartke 410 with what looked like aluminium speakers. Sounded like a nice cab. Not so keen on that old Peavey head. Much preferred the old Mk3 twin channel and graphic EQ Peavey i had in early 80's with my Marshall stack. Happy days altho i did go to custom cab with a Peavey BW 15 & 12 speakers fitted.

Looking forward to the next gig on Sat night at Beat Generator in Dundee.

Dave 

Edited yesterday at 07:41 by dmccombe7

[ezbass]

10 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Looking forward to the next gig on Sat night at Beat Generator in Dundee.

We’re there Sunday week.

[dmccombe7]

8 minutes ago, ezbass said:

We’re there Sunday week.

Those stairs are a killer but it is an amazing venue. The owner is also a really good guy.

Dave

[NoRhino]

For the last few weeks we've been working on nine new covers and last night we allowed ourselves a smug nod with the realisation that eight of them are finally ready to go into the set.   

[Muzz]

19 hours ago, ezbass said:

I was spoilt in my previous bands as they often featured the same, awesome drummer, who has been in bands since the ‘60s. Everyone else is compared to him and is normally found to be lacking. When I first started playing bass as my primary instrument, I was often struck by my inability to lock in with the drummer and assumed it was me, as I was a bass newb. The drummer in the band I was in couldn’t make a gig and so I asked my old drummer (the guy mentioned previously) from my guitar playing days to dep. From the first beat, there was that lock I had been looking for and I haven’t worried about my ability in that dept since, it either works or it doesn’t, but it’s so satisfying when it does.

 

The difference between a good band and a great band is often a good drummer and good harmonies.

My current drummer (who is very good) calls it 'The Bluetooth's linked' when he plays with the right bassist... 🙂

 

EDIT: I should add that in my experience it's not always that the drummer (or bassist) has to be fantastic, it's more a chemistry thing: I've played with a couple of fantastic drummers who, while it was all OK, just didn't lock in, and that 'knowing what they're gonna do next' thing just didn't happen...

Edited 22 hours ago by Muzz

[nilorius]

I don't have rehearsls more than a mounth, couse our band leader - vocal, guitar have problems at his work and his mouther is ill and he must do a lot of things for her, so he don't have time for reahersals. Sorry!

[Stub Mandrel]

4 hours ago, Muzz said:

I should add that in my experience it's not always that the drummer (or bassist) has to be fantastic,

 

I was in a band with a guy who used to sight read drums and play with orchestras, even played for the BBC. He was a hard task master, would play challenging rhythms on the bass drum for me to play, and 'it's straight eights on the original' didn't wash. He left when it was obvious the (six-piece) band wasn't really bothered about gigging, and having already made up my mind that if he went, I would, I followed. I was flattered when he asked me to join another project, but I was way too busy.

[mikebass456]

Final rehearsal last night for the folk and cider festival gig on Saturday night. Ran through the full one hour set without major issues, plus tea and biscuits afterwards. 

Apart from playing through the songs, it gave me a last opportunity to sort out a few issues before the gig, including setting the volume balances between the two Uke basses I'm going to be using. With one having the poly strings and the other has phosphor bronze, there's a slight difference between the two, so for ease of switching mid-set, just had to back the PB strung Uke back a little to match the poly strung one (couple of slower songs mid-set that sound lots better with a more upright bass type sound).

Looking forward to the gig now, on at 8pm for an hour, so a fair amount of the cider should have been consumed by the crowd by then. 

Total gear load in for me will be the two ukes in a Fusion double Uke case, small pedalboard and my new DB Hype 8 in a small holdall - one trip to and from the car! 👍

[kwmlondon]

2 hours ago, mikebass456 said:

Final rehearsal last night for the folk and cider festival gig on Saturday night. Ran through the full one hour set without major issues, plus tea and biscuits afterwards. 

Apart from playing through the songs, it gave me a last opportunity to sort out a few issues before the gig, including setting the volume balances between the two Uke basses I'm going to be using. With one having the poly strings and the other has phosphor bronze, there's a slight difference between the two, so for ease of switching mid-set, just had to back the PB strung Uke back a little to match the poly strung one (couple of slower songs mid-set that sound lots better with a more upright bass type sound).

Looking forward to the gig now, on at 8pm for an hour, so a fair amount of the cider should have been consumed by the crowd by then. 

Total gear load in for me will be the two ukes in a Fusion double Uke case, small pedalboard and my new DB Hype 8 in a small holdall - one trip to and from the car! 👍

Gosh! That sounds very well thought out and I'm very impressed by your attention to level detail.

 

A cidered-up audience will smell very appealing... apple... peeling... I'll get my coat.

[stewblack]

Met with drummer number 934 last night for a start up which has been failing to leave the runway for months now. Or is it 935? I forget.

Anyway, he seemed like a nice chap, if a little loose as a player.

I have ludicrously high standards where drummers are concerned but the rest of the band are more relaxed about it all. 

So we're going to see if this line up will work. I'm not convinced, but it's only rock n roll, right?

[dmccombe7]

13 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Met with drummer number 934 last night for a start up which has been failing to leave the runway for months now. Or is it 935? I forget.

Anyway, he seemed like a nice chap, if a little loose as a player.

I have ludicrously high standards where drummers are concerned but the rest of the band are more relaxed about it all. 

So we're going to see if this line up will work. I'm not convinced, but it's only rock n roll, right?

I guess you can look at this in different ways.

1. Accept he's not up to your standards but he might be forced to improve himself over time if he's playing with better musicians.

2. You take the lead on the rhythm section and you drive the low end. Sometimes that can work.

3. Keep this drummer until a better one comes along.

4. Just tell him he's not suitable.

 

Its definitely a lot easier if everyone is at a similar level and have a similar outlook with regards the band.

My big concern with a drummer that is a bit loose is "will he put in the work to learn the songs." ?

Maybe he's not been playing in a band for a while ?

No matter what i wish you all the best and hope it works out for you.

Dave

 

[Lozz196]

Some people need to be playing regularly to get the best out of them, trying the same person on the same songs 3 rehearsals in a row should show no 934 to be either like this or a stay static.

[JapanAxe]

Auditioned a singer yesterday. He arrived over an hour late, which wasn’t too much of a problem as it allowed us to set up and run some songs ourselves. He didn’t bring so much as a microphone but I had a spare mic and lead and there was a stand in the rehearsal room.

 

He was ok on some stuff. Other material was clearly out of his range (ever tried singing anything by the Sweet?) but on some other songs his response to running out of range was just to sing any note he fancied. Yours truly was attempting to sing harmony so that was interesting!

 

Unsurprisingly, a unanimous NO from the rest of us.

[dmccombe7]

3 hours ago, JapanAxe said:

Auditioned a singer yesterday. He arrived over an hour late, which wasn’t too much of a problem as it allowed us to set up and run some songs ourselves. He didn’t bring so much as a microphone but I had a spare mic and lead and there was a stand in the rehearsal room.

 

He was ok on some stuff. Other material was clearly out of his range (ever tried singing anything by the Sweet?) but on some other songs his response to running out of range was just to sing any note he fancied. Yours truly was attempting to sing harmony so that was interesting!

 

Unsurprisingly, a unanimous NO from the rest of us.

I'm a big Sweet fan but its all those high end backing vocals that Andy Scott did that make it difficult to replicate. All of Sweet were "properly trained" singers plus all that touring in their early days certainly makes you a lot better at what you do.

Incredible band.

Our drummer new the band and lived down the street from Steve Priest altho he was a bit younger and as a kid he said that Steve was "the guy that played in a band". He even had some drum lessons from Mick that to this day he is still in awe of Mick's abilities plus he was singing backing vocals at same time.

He has some great Sweet stories from those days 😂

Dave

[kwmlondon]

1 hour ago, dmccombe7 said:

I'm a big Sweet fan but its all those high end backing vocals that Andy Scott did that make it difficult to replicate. All of Sweet were "properly trained" singers plus all that touring in their early days certainly makes you a lot better at what you do.

Incredible band.

Our drummer new the band and lived down the street from Steve Priest altho he was a bit younger and as a kid he said that Steve was "the guy that played in a band". He even had some drum lessons from Mick that to this day he is still in awe of Mick's abilities plus he was singing backing vocals at same time.

He has some great Sweet stories from those days 😂

Dave

The Sweet were an incredible band. Outstanding musicians...