November Update (Bassicly Speaking)

What a busy few months! Sorry for the lack of updates on here , but if you have been following me on Twitter you would have seen all the amazing things I’ve been getting up to.

First of all I suffered a horrible injury! I broke and cut the top of my left (fretting hand) finger off. Although this does sound really bad it has been healing well and I hope to be playing to my full potential before too long.

Red Bug

Gig wise I’ve been all over the place. My function band Red Bug has been rehearsing and gigging very regularly covering all sorts of Soul, Funk, Pop and Motown from the 60’s onwards. We have been all over South Wales the last few months including a few gigs over the border too. At the moment we are putting together 4 and 5 part vocal harmonies (dependent on the saxophone player playing or not) they are sounding amazing and sets us apart from so many other function bands.

Upcoming Public Shows – The Royal Oak – Ystrad Mynach 11/12/15

The Angel – Maesycwmmer 18/12/15

Sankara

Although it’s been quiet over the past few weeks we released a single for the Rugby World Cup which can be found here

I have a rehearsal with Sankara at the end of the week with an interesting twist which should be very fun! Enough of that until we have worked on it though.

Saló

We have a studio! Built this month and ready by Wednesday (Hopefully!) We are currently finishing off a few tracks and rehearsing and arranging a live set, which is a lot harder than it sounds. although I use a bass guitar in this band I mainly fit as a bass synth/bass lead player which I love! It’s so interesting coming up with and playing either simple or highly complex synth lines. Awesome things to come with this band so keep an eye out! Oh! and two music videos too

https://twitter.com/SaloBandUk

Session work

I’ve been playing on a few bass sessions over the past few months, not as many as I would have liked but its been great! ranging from some HipHop and Rnb to old school Jazz. I love doing bass sessions the quality of all the musicians are great and it’s awesome to play so many varying styles of music.

Dep Work

I depped for the amazing Dictaphone Devils in Devauden, near Chepstow (Nope nether heard of it either!) A great bonfire night gig playing in what seemed to be an inflatable tent or bouncy castle type thing with free beer and food. A big thanks to Greg and Alun for having me! Plus a good catch up with Greg, as we were on the same music teaching course.

https://www.facebook.com/Dictaphone-Devil-116210758544464/timeline/

http://phillcourtmusic.co.uk/session.html

Teaching

Teaching wise my private practice has been growing slowly again after the summer, but the best thing is having more bass students to teach! at the moment I have 13 vocalists studying free choice and my own personally developed syllabus. 4 bass players studying various grades from 2 – 8 and studying from my own personally developed syllabus. Plus a great amount of guitarists studying from my own syllabi.

http://phillcourtmusic.co.uk/tuition.html

New Equipment/Products

Along with my new Fender American Deluxe (Absolutely Amazing) Jazz Bass V in Natural with Maple fretboard.

I have invested in a new pedalboard from Pedal Train which is a really great product. I have the Classic Jr with tour case.

http://www.pedaltrain.com/

I am very fortunate to have received a huge amount of Vocalzone products for myself and students! Such an awesome product and would recommend to any vocalist out there.

http://www.vocalzone.com/

I am now also exclusively using Elixr bass guitar strings for fretted bass and D’Addario nylon tape wounds for fretless and old-school thump!

http://www.elixirstrings.com/guitar-strings/bass-guitar-strings.html

http://daddario.com/DADProductsBass.Page?ActiveID=1905

Hope you have all had a great few months and hopefully you’ll have a new update before Christmas, but if you don’t, here’s a solo bass guitar arrangement of In the Bleak Midwinter with a rather jazzy solo too.

Enjoy!!

https://soundcloud.com/phillcourtmusic/in-the-bleak-midwinter-solo-bass-guitar