Sorry that I was away for as long as I was. Sometimes, as I'm sure you all know, real life just gets in the way.
I went through a lot and I am probably a little different from how I was, so I will be looking at my setting with fresh eyes now that I have come back to the game.
In the three months or so I have been gone, I lost the job that I had for four years, got dumped by my girlfriend of two years, the dog I had for about fourteen years died (and all of that was within the same two weeks), got a new job, lost that job, and got a new girlfriend. That's not even everything. So, as I said, I am sorry I was gone so long, but it has to happen sometimes.
I hope I will be welcomed back as warmly as I was welcomed so long ago when I first joined this wonderful community. Until I post again,
Peace, love, and game on!;
---David (AKA Black Jack Davey)
No appologies are nessecary.
Welcome back matey.
life happens, no biggie.
i was gone for awhile due to a virus....
I actually just cleaned my computer up, too.
Oh yeah, in the time I was gone, I also got a new computer. It's a Dell XPS 600.
From your post it sounds like you have the makings of a country song(if it is too soon to be making jokes like this, I apologize and will delete it at your request), bur in all seriousness Welcome back! You must have left before I joined, but everyone here gets a warm welcome back. For your complimentary cabbage you'll have to see Cymro.
It's not too soon to make jokes like that. Actually, making jokes all along kept me sane. And I may be starting a country band, amusingly enough. It's far from my favorite genre, but my neighbor sings it well and I miss playing with a band.
what instrument do you play?
I mainly play bass. I'm not a stranger to guitar, but I'm not good with it at all (then again, I'm not great with the bass, either...) and I've worked with a variety of instruments and sound equipment. Also, I am currently working on a rap project...for more about that click here (http://www.myspace.com/bjdrap).
Glad you retain a positive attitude. Welcome back!
What's up, fellow bass player and amateur rapper? :)
Sorry to hear about the trials and tribulations you've endured, but I'm glad you've remained sanguine about them. Also glad you're back. Still don't know what you think you're apologizing for; we're just glad to welcome an old member back into the fold.
Da bass! I admire people who play the bass. I'm experienced with it but don't have one of my own, and it's always been one of my favorite instruments to listen to :)
Welcome back.
I'm glad to be back. I really enjoy the bass. In a band it is something that you can't always hear well enough to pick it out from the group, but if you take it away the music sounds hollow, like it has no soul.
Yeah, it's easier to pick it out if you're an experienced musician, I find. There are also a lot of bands that have it turned down too low. Myself, I like bands like The Scorpions where the bass is clearly audible amongst the guitars, drums, and vocals :)
QuoteYeah, it's easier to pick it out if you're an experienced musician, I find.
my[/i] excuse for being scarce around these boards from March through May: I was out student teaching.
QuoteI have a degree in music education, with the bass as my primary. Does that count?
Aye, though I think that might be more along the lines of professional musician. I always wondered what you played. Do you deal with electric and acoustic basses more, or are you a standup/cello type person?
More experience with music always makes it easier to pick smaller details out. I agree, also, that most bands turn the bass down far too low.
Jeez, does anyone not play bass around here?
Maybe its like a requisite of campaign designers or something...
(I play it too...)
:D I'm actually a guitarist (I like to call myself lead), but once upon a time I played bass for a jamming band (we called ourselves Under Lying Skies). Originally I had wanted to play bass, not guitar, but when I asked my parents for a left-handed acoustic bass for Christmas 2.5 years ago (I'm left-handed), they got me a right-handed electric guitar and I never made an effort to get back into bass. It's always been a love of mine, though. The vital backings and rumbling lows that you can get with them get me every time :)
What kinds of music do you all play?
Definitely a big welcome back!
Thanks, CYMRO.
I'm still a bit of a learner with my bass. I can play at the level of an average bass player in an average band. Therefore, in my mind, I suck. I want to be able to DO something with my bass, not just be there because the band is 'supposed to' have a bass player.
Musicians rule!!
(Jazz performance in piano and drums).
LC, what styles music do you play?
Jazz, eh? Very cool.
I wonder if we have enough musicians here to compose some kind of rock-classical (think the music from the original DUNE) theme for a campaign or two? It would be the 'coolest' thing ever produced by a bunch of geeks and hella fun.
QuoteDo you deal with electric and acoustic basses more, or are you a standup/cello type person?
LC, what styles music do you play?[/quote]Jeez, does anyone not play bass around here?
Maybe its like a requisite of campaign designers or something...[/quote]Well, look at it this way:
Bass players lay down the harmonic foundation for a piece of music. Campaign setting designers lay down the literary foundation for a game.
The way I see it, bass players and setting writers are analogous participants in their respective pastimes: music and gaming. :)
I'm utterly tone-deaf, and just dropped out of highschool band this year, played the trumpet.
Just in case y'all needed some evidence to weigh against all the musical geeks present. :P
So does that make me the dude with the crazy campaign and crunch concepts if I play a mind-blowing solo? :P
QuoteSo does that make me the dude with the crazy campaign and crunch concepts if I play a mind-blowing solo?
Play the solo and find out.
:band:
Quote from: Natural 20I'm utterly tone-deaf, and just dropped out of highschool band this year, played the trumpet.
Just in case y'all needed some evidence to weigh against all the musical geeks present. :P
Let's here it for the musically inept.
I did the same thing back in the old days. Only, it was the trombone. I was horrible...
i dont play bass...
i do, however, play guitar....
Yeah, guitar for me too, but, much like Mezerous, I was originally gonna play bass... I was informed that it was "best" to learn guitar first for some reason and so I started guitar lessons and never went back to bass.
Gotta love bass though. Absolutely got to. Without bass, or at least some bass-end instrument, music sounds empty, thin, tinny... plus you can proper groove it up on bass :D
I was also told to learn guitar first. I took lessons for a while, with my classical. I enjoy that, too, but bass is where it's really at.
I don't get this epidemic of people telling other people to learn guitar before learning bass. That just seems counterintuitive to me; if anything, I'd advise people to do it the other way around.
Maybe it's just that much easier to find a guitar teacher than a bass teacher.
I guess it works either way. I learned guitar on a classical style guitar so when I first got my bass, the people I was playing with (later guitarist and drummer in a couple of bands with me) were impressed by how easily I played it...wait...you guy don't use picks, do you?
Mainly I use a bow.
I wouldn't recommend bass before guitar. The way I see it it's much easier to pick roots, 3rds, 5ths, etc. out of chords once you know them on a guitar, and you can play a bass line with them (starting out).
Additionally, I know two people who started on bass then switched to guitar and are just awful. It may be because they're full of themselves and don't believe they really need to learn or practice different things, but I can say two things about them: 1) they are really good bass players, and 2) they are WRETCHED guitarists. And both want to be serious lead guitarists in a band. I don't know what it is, but once they move from the bass to the guitar, their rhythm goes out the window.
It seems to be a little easier to start with the big bad chords and 6-string scales, then 'simplify' it to a bass part (I hope I'm not sounding like I think bass is simple backing notes following the chords all the time or anything). Of course, if you don't have the rhythm, it doesn't really work either way. :)
Also I'd like to ask, anyone else here a big fan of bass player Cliff Burton?
I think Cliff Burton is overrated. I'm not saying I think he's bad, just overrated. I think he was pretty good.
My favorite bassist would probably be Steve Harris.
Personally, I like Flea.
On another note, I can't use a pick, and you don't need to ever use a pick to play bass. In fact, most of the better bassists I've talked to consider it completely wrong to use a pick to play bass (most of the better = a guy with his Master's degree in bass). Just a thought.
Exactly. I hate it when people pick a bass. It sounds so much better when you play with your fingers.
Flea is good, yes. There are others, probably that I enjoy more than Steve Harris, but I said him because he first got me interested in it.
Well, him and a guy named Marc from a local band, anyway.