macdyne73 wrote:I wonder if the girls know who Rush are and in particular, does Tomomi know of Geddy Lee?

They probably know *of* Rush, but I haven't seen them ever mention them as an influence on them personally. Still, some people just coincidentally sound similar when playing the same instruments. It's kind of interesting, because a lot of the style a person develops is not really by choice; it's just how your muscles move. It's DNA, it's physical. Mami might be trying to sound like Takuya but to me she sounds a lot more like Alex Lifeson in the early days of Rush. Like, the *very* early days. She'd be about that same age and experience level now.

Same with Tomomi, although I don't hear as much of a distinctive style from her, just a lot of technique. The slapping she does definitely comes from Flea, though; she's said that. But if she sounds like Geddy Lee, it's probably mostly coincidence.

Speaking of Haru... I think she needs her own "thing" to really stand out,

I get the feeling she intentionally tries *not* to stand out too much instrumentally. Since she's the lead singer, most of the attention is naturally going to be on her anyway. Whenever she talks about her guitar playing, she always mentions that Mami is playing the lead. It seems like she has a really clear idea of what her job is and she wants the others to get their equal share of the limelight. But it seems like she can't resist getting a little creative lately. It was probably her idea to do spoken word English into a megaphone on "Standard" too (I'm assuming, since she's the one doing it and nobody helped them with that song).

There is one thing that militates against them imitating 1970's prog rock musicians.  If they did, no one in this day and age would listen to them.  I would prefer to hear them make their own sound than become a 70's prog tribute band.

Not that I don't love 70's prog.  I still have a load of old vinyl records of that style, but I love Scandal's garage pop/rock sound.  I don't think they should become reductive.  I believe they're better than that.  I think they should keep doing what they do and see where it takes them.  They have their own thing, they are all very good musicians and getting better all the time.

spacecadet wrote:Of those, the only band I know well is Aldious. In terms of instrumental ability, Yoshi and Toki in Aldious are much better than either Mami or Haruna. That doesn't mean I like their music better, but if you gave each of them a really difficult pattern to play, Yoshi and Toki could do it but Mami and Haruna probably couldn't. Yoshi and Toki are both experienced shredders. (A little side note, but I've had the opportunity to watch Yoshi play from a foot away; that's a sight to see.)

Aldious do have a good level of technical proficiency on their instruments, but their music sounds like a swarm of bumble-bees.  The songs are all so similar to each other that you can hardly tell if you've heard one long song or several short ones.

Scandal certainly have a far greater depth of pool in their musical influences.

Just reminder we need to be more careful about comparing SCANDAL to other band since it might against our SH Forum rules  .sweat. 

https://www.scandal-heaven.com/t1-general-forum-rules

Erick M wrote:Just reminder we need to be more careful about comparing SCANDAL to other band since it might against our SH Forum rules  .sweat. 

https://www.scandal-heaven.com/t1-general-forum-rules

You mean rule no.2? I think we need to look at the context. The comparisons that are being made here are for discussion of how they have progressed and how far they could go. I don't think anyone here has implied that SCANDAL are inferior and I don't see any disrespect at all.

Back on topic, no I wasn't implying that SCANDAL become a prog rock band at all haha. I don't really like prog rock either. I was merely saying that it could be interesting for them to become good enough to play more complex things. Skill and experience would give them more leeway and freedom to try more things.

I don't really know the other all female band but I try to seek and watch their PV on YT. Well for me a lot different from being just pure instrumental musician and singer+playing instrument.
Just because their playing faster and "louder" it doesn't mean it harder or more complex to play too.
For me, I would be boring if Tomomi just always specializing in short repeated slap bass pattern.
I think finger bass is also harder than using pick bass.
I'm sure they are many more skillful or better singer...etc
But to combine musical skills, singing, dancing, and put happy, fun, cheerful soul into the music in one (or 4 person) is needed very special skills  

Erick M wrote:I don't really know the other all female band but I try to seek and watch their PV on YT. Well for me a lot different from being just pure instrumental musician and singer+playing instrument.
Just because their playing faster and "louder" it doesn't mean it harder or more complex to play too.
For me, I would be boring if Tomomi just always specializing in short repeated slap bass pattern.
I think finger bass is also harder than using pick bass.
I'm sure they are many more skillful or better singer...etc
But to combine musical skills, singing, dancing, and put happy, fun, cheerful soul into the music in one (or 4 person) is needed very special skills  

I agree with this 100%.  A lot of the most influential music has been simple.  Playing fast and loud does not a great song make.  As you say, it's about the four of them being able to combine their skills and function as one unit.  SCANDAL have a great depth of talent as a band.

I was watching a video on youtube the other day where Haruna demonstrates how she plays the rhythm part for one of the songs.  Anyone who thinks that all she does is bang out bar chords isn't listening to her.  There are interactions between Haruna and Mami's guitar lines that are very clever if one can be bothered to listen to them with a discerning ear.  Frankly, anyone who thinks that Mami can't play clever guitar lines must have had their ears painted on to their head.

wolonggong wrote:

ichiruki! wrote:I don't think it's smart to build another thread on what I'm going to ask but it still doesn't exactly go here lol. 

I've got a question on Tomomi's popping style for bass, specifically in the start and end of Shoujo S (live). As an observer of quite a few bassists who pop, I do know that slapping with the thumb normally comes into it and the two techniques go hand in hand... But Tomo doesn't exactly do that. Even the way Tomomi pops isn't exactly normal lol. Her technique and the sound comes out differently as well, not to mention it looks hella fast and doesn't even look like popping in the first place, whatever she's doing looks like a whole other technique... Can any bassist enlighten me? 

Thought I would go ahead and jump on this since no one else has.

Slapping is hitting the strings with the Thumb, Popping is popping the string with the fingers.

So she isn't just popping, that's slap and pop. Its a funk technique using the thumb mostly but also using one or two fingers on the uptake, moving the hand away from the strings. Here is an example.

Mmm, I thought about what you said too when I was asking my question but I ruled it out cause I thought there was quite a big difference in sound. Like, when I hear slapping and popping, I think of it as bright and sharp. Tomo's to me sounded more... subtle compared to the guitar and drums but still stood out in terms of normal bass. I don't even think that made sense lol. Anyway, thanks for answering  


When I first heard Rush, I really thought that Geddy Lee was a girl XD I do admire people who play bass and sing at the same (which there aren't many of); Geddy Lee and Tomomi are no exception. I do see some similarities between them two, other than the voice~ Lmao at that guy in the chicken suit that Macdyne posted!

To me, I find it quite interesting that whoever the girls of SCANDAL's inspirations are, in some aspect, they coincidentally sound like someone else instead haha. Cheers to hopefully many more years of continuing development and growth individually as musicians and as a band.

Erick M wrote:Just reminder we need to be more careful about comparing SCANDAL to other band since it might against our SH Forum rules  .sweat. [/url]

Nobody is saying Scandal isn't #1

I don't see anyone disrespecting Scandal here. When I was in my teens, I thought that technical ability was everything, and if one guitarist was faster than another, that meant that he/she was "better". At a certain point I realized that's not true; they are two different things and there are many examples of that in the guitar world (Neil Young, David Gilmour, etc.). So this is just a discussion of technical ability, which is almost completely separate from how "good" a musician is. Technical proficiency is a tool - the music you make with the tools you have is what separates bad, good and great musicians from each other.

Scandal are well-rounded musicians; other musicians may be really good at one thing but not at the whole package like Scandal is. But Scandal are also still very young and they're only going to get better. Their musicianship is still a little raw, but it's always improving, and I don't ever feel like it's holding them back from making the kind of music they want to make. That's the important thing.

spacecadet wrote:

Erick M wrote:Just reminder we need to be more careful about comparing SCANDAL to other band since it might against our SH Forum rules  .sweat. [/url]

Nobody is saying Scandal isn't #1

I don't see anyone disrespecting Scandal here. When I was in my teens, I thought that technical ability was everything, and if one guitarist was faster than another, that meant that he/she was "better". At a certain point I realized that's not true; they are two different things and there are many examples of that in the guitar world (Neil Young, David Gilmour, etc.). So this is just a discussion of technical ability, which is almost completely separate from how "good" a musician is. Technical proficiency is a tool - the music you make with the tools you have is what separates bad, good and great musicians from each other.

Scandal are well-rounded musicians; other musicians may be really good at one thing but not at the whole package like Scandal is. But Scandal are also still very young and they're only going to get better. Their musicianship is still a little raw, but it's always improving, and I don't ever feel like it's holding them back from making the kind of music they want to make. That's the important thing.

Couldn't have said it better myself, spacecadet! Even though technical ability can be an aspect to band appeal, it's not everything. For me, I kind of go for that overall "sound" or "feel" of the band. It's hard to describe precisely but I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about.

This was from a long while back but, for (Western) inspirations I remember Tomomi liking Flea from RHCP and Haruna being a fan of Avril Lavigne. And as a band they used to watch old video performances by SUM41. So you can sort of see where the girls get their energetic roots from.

Lexian wrote:

spacecadet wrote:

Erick M wrote:Just reminder we need to be more careful about comparing SCANDAL to other band since it might against our SH Forum rules  .sweat. [/url]

Nobody is saying Scandal isn't #1

I don't see anyone disrespecting Scandal here. When I was in my teens, I thought that technical ability was everything, and if one guitarist was faster than another, that meant that he/she was "better". At a certain point I realized that's not true; they are two different things and there are many examples of that in the guitar world (Neil Young, David Gilmour, etc.). So this is just a discussion of technical ability, which is almost completely separate from how "good" a musician is. Technical proficiency is a tool - the music you make with the tools you have is what separates bad, good and great musicians from each other.

Scandal are well-rounded musicians; other musicians may be really good at one thing but not at the whole package like Scandal is. But Scandal are also still very young and they're only going to get better. Their musicianship is still a little raw, but it's always improving, and I don't ever feel like it's holding them back from making the kind of music they want to make. That's the important thing.

Couldn't have said it better myself, spacecadet! Even though technical ability can be an aspect to band appeal, it's not everything. For me, I kind of go for that overall "sound" or "feel" of the band. It's hard to describe precisely but I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about.

This was from a long while back but, for (Western) inspirations I remember Tomomi liking Flea from RHCP and Haruna being a fan of Avril Lavigne. And as a band they used to watch old video performances by SUM41. So you can sort of see where the girls get their energetic roots from.

Funny that this came up. 
I remember in high-school, there was this boy who I guess you could call a "music elitist"  who likes stuff like Jimi Hendrix and Queens and so on. He once asked when SCANDAL started playing, and I told him around 2006 and they debut 2009. The first words out of his mouth were, "Well, then they suck." And he hadn't even listened to one song. I just get really annoyed when people think skill is everything and ignorantly judge other bands. SCANDAL sounds good to me, that's all that matters.

Like i noticed..
Not very often, but really rare Mami makes some mistakes in playing gitah!.sweat.