I learnt to play the bass guitar when I was in high school not so long ago and I have been experimenting with my abilities for awhile just to see what I could do. I even join a kind of make band with some friends of mine and we sometime play a few local gigs. So I recently was introduced to some really amazing bass guitar effects by a great bass player friend of mine and so I have to share.

So this all started with a hair cut with my friend using a pair of hair scissors to do the honours. He asked me about my playing and what kinds of effect I normally use. To say I was an amateur would be an understatement after he laughed at the simplicity of the effect I use. Here is what he shared to me.

Bass guitar effects are alterations to the audio signal done by a special piece of equipment.

Now bass effects can provide you with a new signature, but the basic recommendation is that you put in a slight twist in order not to end up overlapping with the band’s guitar section. Bass guitars and to lead guitars effects are similar, but for a bass guitar it is designed in such a way that it optimizes its distinctive tone.

Bass guitar effects are of two types namely, digital and analogue. Digitally produced bass effects use microchips loaded with software programs and predefined algorithms that mimic certain sounds. Digital bass effects cover a wide range of audio effects and it is by far more advanced than analogue. Most of the bass players these days prefer the digital sounds due to its convenience and cost. Analogue

Analogue bass effects require the physical changing of parts and power to come up with the different sounds. The effects produced tend to be more customised.

Bass effects can also be based on their pedals which can be either dedicated or multi-effect. Dedicated effect pedal delivers a sound that is of a greater quality than multi-effects pedals. Whereas multi-effects pedals comes with a number of pedals and offers greater flexibly when you are on stage.

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Part of wanting to be a professional musician – and hopefully a superstar rocker – is playing live. Especially if you’re trying to get yourself noticed and not just leapfrogging over everyone by selling your soul to Simon Cowell! There are some weeks when I play a gig a night, occasionally with two sets each on Friday and Saturday. I’m amazed I still have any voice left come Monday morning, but when you start to get your name mentioned in local and regional press, or even further afield, it makes it all worthwhile. I will literally play anywhere I’m asked to (or paid to), but have always managed to avoid the acoustic set – until this week.

I don’t know what frightens me so much about being up on stage alone, without the support of my wee backing band and a bit of electricity, but whenever acoustic shows have been mentioned before, I’ve always managed to wriggle out of it. There was no way I could say no this time, unfortunately, as I had been asked to play at a house party/leaving do for a good friend of mine who is heading off to Australia. Which is how I came to be stood in the corner of a large living room, filled with friends and acquaintances, armed only with my guitar and a fixed grin, looking for all the world like a Doug Hyde print brought to life.

Everyone was very kind afterwards about my set and my music in general, but I know it wasn’t my best performance. A mixture of nerves and too much nerve-settling alcohol before I stood up made sure of that! I guess my acoustic nerves are going to be something I have to get over if I want to be that superstar rocker I’ve always dreamed I’d become. After all, Nirvana Unplugged was one of the best selling albums of all time; perhaps AC Unplugged could beat it one day?

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Music is my life and I was humbled recently by how much it meant to me when I went out drinking with some friends in Isleham Village. A small village in Cambridgeshire, Isleham conceals a wonderful secret. The Griffin village pub is host to ‘The Pub Band’ a motley collection of the staff and their manager. Not only were they brilliant to listen to and watch, but they were kind enough to show me their web page after the gig.

The internet has revolutionised the way I listen to music. I have stored my entire collection of vinyl and CDs onto a cloud portal following my chat with ‘The Pub Band’. It is amazing and has enabled me to put all of my thousands of hard copy singles and albums into storage freeing up space in my dining and living rooms. I found I could even listen to all of my music via mobile internet when I went on holiday to Spain last month. The web is now an essential tool for all my music needs, but it goes further then that now.

When I was in Isleham, ‘The Pub Band'shared far too many beers with me and whilst we were comparing favourite artists and gigs, we got talking about online promotion. Whilst I have been using this blog to great effect according to the pub manager (and lead guitarist), he thinks I could be doing far more to promote myself and my gigs to the wider online community. He also showed me an article published by The Telegraph to help illustrate just how seriously online music is being taken.

YouTube is something I haven’t been using as much as I should be. Twitter and Facebook are also forums that I have been wary of using, but ‘The Pub Band'collectively shook their heads and told me that again it is another essential in controlling my online profile and marketing my self effectively. They laughed when I commented that it felt too forced and intrusive and reeled off a list of bands and artists who have had Facebook and Twitter pages for the past five years. As I said earlier, I was humbled by this group of people not just because they were great musicians but because they were so clued up and knew exactly how to sell themselves to the crowd offline and online.

The web is something that I am learning more about everyday. I suppose I should try Facebook and Twitter and tie them into my blog. For now though all I can say is if you’re ever in Isleham visit The Griffin Pub and have a chat with the band. They are wise beyond their collective years and brilliant musicians.

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The Lost Society is a London centered blues/Americana band that has a slight Latin flavor and a touch of vaudeville tossed in for great measure. Joseph James, a traveling musician and the primary songwriter fronts this band. Now located in his hometown London, James has teamed up with long-term collaborators Cesar Gimeno Lavin and Ben Hillyard. Between the three, they have created a debut record which is both stunning and interesting.

The EP is started off by ’Flowers For Rosie'a country blues stomp. This powerful number is complete with a gently crafted string and slide guitar arrangement. ’Flowers for Rosie'is a poignant song about love which contains subtle imagery and a syncopated verse meter which reminds one of Jules Laforgue or T.S. Eliot. Both a rousing number on stage and with the studio, this song is a strong and truly promising start for The Lost Society with a common lineup of vocals, guitar, keys, slide, double bass, violins as well as ’runaway train'drumming styled by Johnny Cash.

Following is the uplifting and touching ’Wait For The Summer'a warm as well as graceful tale of optimistic love. Confident and as stable as a rock, Frederick James holds out for his cherished one to get a proper grip, seize control as well as make the leap. Supported with ’summer rain'sounding brushes on the snare, melodic as well as ambient guitar lines as well as warming backing vocals, this melody returns to a time of much more innocent songwriting and a level of emotion familiar with the likes of Chris Issak, Stills and Nash, or Cosby. The production can be stylish enough to catch the wistful summer feel with sharp guitar hooks and a calm blend into a backbeat that truly grooves. Next, we will be reviewing Sarah Jane Szikora.

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It took me a while to be honest, but I have to admit I’m now pretty much infatuated with the Internet. You can buy books, DVDs, and jewellery online, but what’s so particularly brilliant is the opportunity to listen to music without having to pay for it. Obviously for quite a while this was a bit dodgy, what with sites like Napster and Pirate Bay attracting millions of users, but it’s starting to feel like the “legit” end of the music industry has caught up, and there are now some very decent and perfectly legal ways of listening to music.
When I first started to use the internet for musical purposes I figured I’d use it mostly to check out new bands and new music - you know, log onto their MySpace page and listen to the odd demo or three. And I’ve definitely done that, in fact I’ve done it in spades. But above all, I’ve used the internet to listen out to hundreds of thousands of back-catalogue tracks that I probably would never have bought in a traditional record store. At the moment, as I write this, I’m listening to a Creedence Clearwater Revival compilation that I bought through iTunes (someone bought me some vouchers for my birthday a couple of months ago). In a sec I need to listen to some of Bellini’s opera Norma for work (don’t ask why). Then I might listen to the new Death Cab for Cutie album - it’s got to be online somewhere, right?
Yep, the Internet is a properly amazing thing!

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What is it about bands making comebacks at festivals this year? And I’m not referring to really great classic bands, who are perhaps only appearing at festivals – mainly because they’re too old to do a full tour – like The Who did a couple of years ago. Or like REM seem to have been doing for the last few years. No these are the mid-90s indie kids whose days are long past and yet who seem determined to hang onto the last vestiges of their career by showing up at Glastonbury, Leeds/Reading and T in the Park.

Don’t get me wrong; I love a bit of nostalgia as much as the next person, and I happen to be very excited that Pulp are playing at T in the Park this year (the one festival I’m attending). But Pulp were and probably still are a great band. I’m talking about the ranks of Britpop mediocrity that seem to have been in some sort of musical limbo for the last fifteen years. Maybe they’ve been selling used cars in Lebanon or ’finding themselves'in India…

Reading the line up for some of this year’s summer festivals, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d gone back in time to 1995. Cast, Ocean Colour Scene, Weezer, Shed Seven, even Big Country are all playing T this year. Hell, Big Country doesn’t even have a lead singer any more after Stuart Adamson’s tragic suicide in 2001. But they’ll probably get a great reception in Scotland as they’re local boys. I’m not sure what the kids of today will make of Cast…

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I cannot play the guitar and have always been in awe of anyone who can; from an outsider’s perspective the shape the musician’s fingers form as he makes each chord just looks painful. Perhaps that’s why there’s so much miserable music amongst budding singer-songwriters. However, despite an abundance of angst-ridden music strummed out and accompanied by the drone of a similarly angst-ridden teen with long hair over his eyes and a cigarette behind his ear, there is plenty of cheerful and uplifting music to keep us happy as we welcome in the spring. Last night my friends and I headed to the pub to watch a couple of other friends perform at a small gig; the first (a singer for hire more used to being surrounded by wedding favours than beer pumps) did a brilliant cover of King of the Swingers from the Jungle Book – not usually the choice of the man-and-his-guitar – and the second had written a song which had everyone in the pub on their feet. The range of emotion that can be evoked by a wooden box, six strings and occasionally a voice is incredible; we all have songs on our mp3s which can leave us beaming with happiness, verging on depression or dancing like idiots (when no one’s looking). If music, like any other form of art, is an expression of emotion or thought, what is it about the guitar that makes it such a popular form of expression, particularly among young people? It seems to be the sociable aspect of it; some of my fondest memories have been sitting with a group of friends – wherever that may be – and someone has got out their guitar. It’s a corny cliché, but it is true.

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Sometimes I really believe that I actually am a rock-star. If I close my eyes for long enough and imagine the crowd in front of me roaring and cheering, I can feel the frets beneath my fingers and the strap across my shoulders. In that instant I’m transformed into Jon Bon Jovi. The more songs I write and the more I practice, the more I convince myself that my music is utterly revolutionary. Of course, in these technological times, it’s much more competitive and tricky to succeed. Some people manage to achieve national and even international fame purely by advertising their music on social networking sites but unfortunately this remains a mystery to me! Other artists get signed to record labels yet still fail to make it and don’t earn much at all. As far as I know, the best way to earn money with your music is to get it used on a big advertisement campaign. If only my tunes would get picked up for the latest Fosters tv ad, all of my (copious) money worries would be over!

The type of tune they’d want would be rocky but not too heavy, catchy but not annoying, and masculine but not exclusively macho. Because as we all know, women like lager too! And therefore they must not be excluded. I have a visual image of myself fronting the band, clad in black leather and studs, with a burly drummer and skinny bassist supporting me. The audience is constituted entirely of beautiful women, all wearing the same purple bikinis. They are sipping away on their lager cans and chanting my name as I blast out the chorus. Next there is a huge explosion and we’re all catapulted onto a desert island, where we relax and unwind with yet more Fosters - and the music plays on as the sun sets!

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