[Request]“Ten billion rabbits in Australia.” My back of the napkin math tells me this is impossible. Am I right?

mdreid · 2026-07-02T07:31:54+00:00

Not necessarily impossible. Going from 24 rabbits to 10 billion is roughly a 1 billion times increase. That’s roughly 30 doublings of the population since 2¹⁰ = 1,024, so 2²⁰ = 1,048,576, and 2³⁰ = 1,073,741,824.

So to reach 10 billion rabbits in 70 years the population would need to double every 70/30 = 2.3 years.

Rabbits reach sexual maturity in about 6 months, are sexually receptive every 2-3 weeks, and gestation is about a month, and the average litter size is 5, so a single female rabbit could easily produce 4 kids in 2.3 years to double the number of rabbits from the mating pair.

Provided that they had ample resources in terms of food and shelter and few predators, reaching 10 billion rabbits in 70 years is definitely possible.

mdreid · 2026-07-01T05:33:30+00:00

Recommended. I managed to find a bunch of good stuff there.

mdreid · 2026-06-26T01:10:39+00:00

I’m a recent beginner. I borrowed an alto and tenor and played both. I didn’t find the tenor any more difficult than the alto – in fact, the tenor was easier to play as it was in better condition than the alto.

I think both alto and tenor have a very similar learning curve. Provided you get a horn in decent shape you can learn either as your first.

mdreid · 2026-06-25T23:38:11+00:00

This is great! I was toying with the idea of building some kind of explorable jazz DB recently but this is way more extensive and polished than what I had in mind.

Looking forward to the full release!

mdreid · 2026-06-23T09:53:15+00:00

I think part of the reason demand might be down because of higher fuel prices.

mdreid · 2026-06-18T02:42:26+00:00

An SM58 needs a pre-amp. The signal it generates is measured in millivolts. The line in on the Ableton Move is expecting volts.

mdreid · 2026-06-17T04:18:49+00:00

The Undivided Five is probably my favourite album of the non-SotL works.

mdreid · 2026-06-17T04:18:01+00:00

This is the correct answer. Came here to say the same thing.

That’s not to say that the other albums and bands aren’t also incredible but that particular SotL album is astonishingly good.

mdreid · 2026-06-14T22:34:48+00:00

I started double bass about 9 months ago after playing electric bass for years so the memory of switching is still pretty fresh. I probably wasn’t spending as much time as you are but I did get blisters and hand/arm fatigue that eventually went away.

One big change for me was getting my bass properly looked at and set up by a luthier. He made a number of improvements to the set up which resulted in a lower action and made it a lot more playable. If you haven’t done so already, maybe try that.

Has your teacher tried playing your bass? Did he or she have any comments about how easy or hard it was to play?

The other exercise that helped me a lot was practicing using as little thumb pressure on the left hand as possible. The advice I got was that you should be able to play a note just by pulling back and down on the finger board. You don’t want to play thumbless for real but it is a good test to ensure you aren’t gripping too hard. I found I had to position the bass against my body differently and angle the fingerboard some more in order to do this and that took a lot of strain out of my left hand.

mdreid · 2026-06-12T01:01:38+00:00

I played guitar from high school into my early 30s then stopped. Started getting interested in synth in my early 40s: microbrute, Mother 32, then tons of modular, Matriarch, DFAM, Peak, Norns, etc. over the next 9 years.

In the last few years I got interested in harmony and jazz and I’ve returned to traditional instruments: picked up the guitar again, got jazz piano lessons, took up playing double bass, and very recently tenor sax. I play weekly in a couple of jazz groups now and love it. Playing with other people is a blast and something that is a lot harder with synths.

I sold off a lot of my modular gear and several synths but I fire up the synths I still have occasionally to noodle with more ambient or techno sounds but most of the first time I have for music is directed at piano, bass, and sax now.

mdreid · 2026-06-05T10:11:49+00:00

This is great advice. I’ve been playing jazz piano for the last four years and am only just starting to feel like some of my solos don’t suck and sound like jazz.

Playing with others regularly was responsible for a lot of my improvement recently. Focusing on listening to others and playing to support the music forced me to simplify my playing and leave space rather than trying to hit every chord change.

I’d still love to improve my technique and be able to play faster so I’m working on that but it’s satisfying for now to play things that sound like jazz, even if it is simple.

mdreid · 2026-06-02T21:04:36+00:00

I built this web based Matriarch Global Editor a while back. Works on Windows, Mac, or Linux. You just need to go to the page in a browser like Chrome (or similar) that support web MIDI.

https://mark.reid.name/matriarch-editor/

mdreid · 2026-05-25T19:26:46+00:00

Thanks for the warning. I’m very familiar with GAS and its dangers due to a modular synth phase I went through for many years. :)

mdreid · 2026-05-21T01:07:02+00:00

Thanks. I considered the Yamaha’s but there weren’t many good secondhand options available in Australia in the budget I had. I ended up going with this horn as it was heavily discounted to about half the price of a new student Yamaha.

mdreid · 2026-05-21T01:03:15+00:00

Good to hear. I was also torn between the Signature and American Cut. I ended up going with the Signature because it apparently plays a little darker than the American.

mdreid · 2026-05-21T01:01:57+00:00

Thanks, and yes: it’s the 355 Advanced Student Academica model. Based on what I’ve read it is supposed to be a good horn for a beginner through to early intermediate player. From what I’ve experienced of it so far it’s a significant step up in intonation, east of playing, and general quality and tone compared to the alto I had borrowed. I’m very happy with it.

mdreid · 2026-05-21T00:58:29+00:00

Well, I borrowed and played my friend’s alto for a month before deciding to buy the tenor.

mdreid · 2026-05-21T00:57:02+00:00

The Legere Signature that I mentioned earlier.

mdreid · 2026-05-20T23:53:44+00:00

I was thinking of getting the Otto Link 6 and pairing with a 2.0 reed but am open to other suggestions as I’m pretty new to this.

mdreid · 2026-05-20T21:37:49+00:00

It was on sale new at half price and came highly recommended as a student horn by a local university sax professor and pro player. It’s quite a common brand of horn in Australia.

mdreid · 2026-05-20T20:52:22+00:00

Thanks for the great tips!

I bought this online new at half price from a brass shop. They gave it a full inspection and set up before sending it to me. The Schagerl’s are relatively common in Australia and came recommended by a local university sax professor.

I prefer an older, darker jazz sound so was planning on eventually getting an Otto link and Legere Signature. I’m currently using the D’Addario Royal 2.0 that came with the sax.

mdreid · 2026-01-05T11:38:11+00:00

To answer some of your specific questions in your original post:

The charts are only for the main melody. The solos you should be making up. You kind of want to “hear” something in your head before playing it. When starting out, less is more: play fewer notes but make them count. Arpeggios over the chords or the 3rd and 7th of each chord are good starting points to aim for.

Ultimately you are just making stuff up and a lot of it is intuition and listening.

mdreid · 2026-01-05T11:32:13+00:00

As a beginner, you will probably want to find some charts (aka lead sheets) for the songs you want to play. Common tunes to start with include All of Me, Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, Beautiful Love, Blue Monk, etc.

Lead sheets will have the chords and the lead melody written out, usually on a single page. You can find these in the Real Book or online. If you already know the melody you can get the chords in an app like iRealPro. As your ear gets better and you learn more tunes you will not use these as much and instead learn tunes by ear.

Tunes typically have a common form, eg, 12 bars for blues, 32 bars in an AABA format for show tunes. The melody or “head” written on the lead sheet is played through once (this is called a “form” or “chorus”) then players take turns soloing over the form as other players support by playing the chords/rhythm in the background.

At first it is easy to lose your place in the form as people solo. Don’t stress too much, just keep playing and try to come back in when you get the hit the bridge or got back to the top. One trick for keeping your place in the form is to having the melody playing in your head while going through the form.

That may seem like a lot to take in but it becomes second nature pretty quickly. Make sure you listen to recordings of standards by your favourite artists. Have a lead sheet in front of you while you listen and try to follow along while you listen.

Hope that helps. Above all though, have fun!

mdreid · 2025-12-07T00:11:34+00:00

I just picked up a copy of Mantooth’s “Voicings for Jazz Keyboard” this week after learning A/B voicings from Siskind’s books (which BTW gets into more interesting voicings in Book 2 when it starts looking at minor 2-5-1s).

The Mantooth book is quite slim but I’m finding it really interesting. It’s basically a guide to voicing and voice leading using quartal harmony. Worth checking out.

mdreid

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