Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[beans-on-toast]

It’s been cold this week. Pre-dawn today it was -18F (-28C), for the first time in a long time I didn’t go out. The cold snap is supposed to extend for the next two weeks.

I have a number of SM57’s and SM58’s. There was a time when I would buy one every year when they had the boxing day sales. Peavey also made a 57 version. I have one and it works well. There are a number of really nice mics to choose from these days.

If you were getting a single mic, I would consider a Shure Beta 58A. Many feel that it does a better job on a female voice than an SM58. Paul McCartney and others use this mic on stage.

 

[GwenOnBass]

It has to start somewhere, because right now it's a great effort sing and play at the same time. So great I've not yet figured it out. What I can do is say the note names and scale degrees as I play. And it seems tome this is a good platform for my 2021 Music Theory for the Bass Player cohort video recordings. It has to start somewhere.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I was once told to learn the playing so that it’s in your muscle memory. So you can play it without thinking. Then try adding the vocal on top. I like to make a noise while learning a song, it doesn’t have to be the actual lyric or make sense at all, just words strung together.

Now Pete Seeger was good. He would sing the song twice. He’d shout the lyric before the line for the audience, then sing it with the song.

 

[notJaco]

OK, I'm sorry.

 

[Passinwind]

It has to start somewhere, because right now it's a great effort sing and play at the same time. So great I've not yet figured it out. What I can do is say the note names and scale degrees as I play. And it seems tome this is a good platform for my 2021 Music Theory for the Bass Player cohort video recordings. It has to start somewhere.

When I finally started singing I did it playing guitar rather than bass. Much much easier IMO. I'm about to revisit that, actually. But back then I was playing guitar every day, which hasn't been happening at all for the last decade or so.

 

[GonePlaid]

I was trying out the new Singsnap tonight. Just fooling around with this song...

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[beans-on-toast]

OK, I'm sorry.

Are you practicing for something that you’ll do wrong later in the day?

 

[notJaco]

Are you practicing for something that you’ll do wrong later in the day?

I posted an apparently offensive movie poster that has disappeared. 'nuf sed

 

[GwenOnBass]

Wondered what that was all about. More festivity beckons

 

[GonePlaid]

Sadly don't know these guys.
I have four SM58's. I was the BL and owned the PA, lights and Econoline. For some reason guitarists and drummers never owned their own mic's. I have a couple Carvin SM58 style mics I got 25 years ago free with a full Carvin PA. They still sound great. The Carvin PA was donated to a church and to my knowledge it still works.

The "bandits" from "Home Alone(I & II)".

 

[Charlie Tango]

It has to start somewhere, because right now it's a great effort sing and play at the same time. So great I've not yet figured it out. What I can do is say the note names and scale degrees as I play. And it seems tome this is a good platform for my 2021 Music Theory for the Bass Player cohort video recordings. It has to start somewhere.

It seems to me (I can't sing much and play, either) that it must be something like learning hand and finger independence when learning piano, or even learning a new piece. You practice one hand first, taking small chunks of music, then the other, then both together. All very slowly at first, knowing you're going to make mistakes.

Another thing to try is: can you hum the tune while playing the bass part? That takes away the issue of having to pronounce the words. Again, small chunks as necessary.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Saying or (FSM forbid), singing scale degrees is about my limit right now. That a protostudio takes form in my home is the surest sign of a 2020 gone out askew on treadle.

 

[beans-on-toast]

It seems to me (I can't sing much and play, either) that it must be something like learning hand and finger independence when learning piano, or even learning a new piece. You practice one hand first, taking small chunks of music, then the other, then both together. All very slowly at first, knowing you're going to make mistakes.

Another thing to try is: can you hum the tune while playing the bass part? That takes away the issue of having to pronounce the words. Again, small chunks as necessary.

In the Beatles song, I Will, the bass is hummed. If a bass player can sing the bass part better, no need to play.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I posted an apparently offensive movie poster that has disappeared. 'nuf sed

Your poster was offensive or you were an offensive poster.

 

[GwenOnBass]

He did provide a correct reply to Home Alone. Seriously, Will, you didn't watch Home Alone? Even I saw that.

 

[Al Kraft]

It has to start somewhere, because right now it's a great effort sing and play at the same time. So great I've not yet figured it out. What I can do is say the note names and scale degrees as I play. And it seems tome this is a good platform for my 2021 Music Theory for the Bass Player cohort video recordings. It has to start somewhere.

I can sing while playing six string guitar and find it actually helps me to play while singing. As for bass, I can't talk in complete sentences with a natural cadence while playing. I've never quite figured out why singing is so difficult while playing bass, but of all the things I can't seem to do, that one just hasn't made it high enough on the priority list to get attention yet.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Fortunate enough to have taken lessons [LONG AGO] with Tim Bogart, it was impressed upon me that a bass player who can sing gets the job over the bass player who can't sing. And Will can certainly sing!

 

[beans-on-toast]

But can you sing this.

 

[notJaco]

I can sing while playing six string guitar and find it actually helps me to play while singing. As for bass, I can't talk in complete sentences with a natural cadence while playing. I've never quite figured out why singing is so difficult while playing bass, but of all the things I can't seem to do, that one just hasn't made it high enough on the priority list to get attention yet.

I think it is as difficult as left/right hand coordination on piano...or Chet Atkins style guitar playing. Slow practice does it.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I think it is as difficult as left/right hand coordination on piano...or Chet Atkins style guitar playing. Slow practice does it.

Chet’s thumb and independent finger playing sounds fantastic. Timing is everything. Yes, start slow and fill the holes. One day it just clicks in and you’ve got it.