AntLockyer

I'm in the house band for a jam night. It's mostly blues but anyone can do anything and I just ask what he chords are before we start. This generally means the guy will realise it is too difficult when he starts rattling off a thousand changes or that it is straight forward enough. Get good at knowing the chords on a guitar so you can watch for the changes on anything you forget and just relinquish control. It made a huge difference to my confidence, transformed the way I play with my normal band to the point that we don't rehearse at all anymore and new songs get added to the list a week before.

12 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Makes one wonder how James Jamerson ever got by with just a Fender bass, Ampeg B15 and a cord. 🙄

Not sure he played the same sort of gigs.

11 hours ago, Bassman Sam said:

I've read on there that, He that must not talked of ( The Bass Doctor), sourced Pino's red and tort P-bass for around 400 quid. I understand that it was a nice but it was  bog standard USA P-Bass at the time. 

A bog standard 1962 USA P-bass isn't it?

hahaha I jsut went to watch The Lemon Twigs on Youtube. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

22 minutes ago, Max Normal said:

Sorry I was using this as an example of how it panned out for me, I am (attempting) to finally learn that crazy stuff.

My previously badly worded point is, if you want to learn to play a genre, just learn the basslines that already exist from key players. Playing them in your band if you can will give you the impetus to do that. Start with the easier grooves and work your way up and try to learn them by ear if you can. This is how I learned to play bass and learned my chops, I never had a teacher or a book or used TAB, I just played basslines. Obviously the theory of modes, pentatonics and diatonics helps with that, but you can learn that stuff pretty quickly.

No it's good, it has made me think a bit more about why I'm doing this. I'm also quite geeky so getting into a subject like this is the way I learn.

I'm not learning Wooton or Jaco lines. In terms of stuff I'd like to play there are loads and loads of things that I've never bothered to work out or have tried and failed. I'm mostly interested in being able to express myself in the genres that I like funk, rock, motown, blues, soul etc. to get there I think I need a general level of technical skill and knowledge in the areas set out in the original post

• Technique, facility and articulation
• Time and groove
• Fingerboard visualisation
• Genre based studies
• Language of music (phrases and harmony)

Basically did nothing last week other than a bit of noodling and playing along to some jam tracks.

Got back into it today with some reading. What I'd done before must have bedded in because I'm way better and was able to just sight read my way through the new exercises. Onto Chapter 4 in the book now.

Hopefully look a bit like this

On to some more practical matters. There is a broken screw in the back of the headstock tgat needs sorting, no idea how I'm going to do that yet.

Also the string tree isn't in the right place and only just holds one of the strings in. Is there a way of marking it correctly? Directly between the 2 tuner holes?

Colour decided. Charcoal frost with a mint guard. Not decided on whether I should splurge on one from Spitfire or not. Probably not as I just bought some Aero pickups which is really exciting for all sorts of reasons.

PMd

That Grace Jones one is great!

4 minutes ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

It's clearly very dependent on the circumstance. My role requires me to lock in with our drummer (of course), fling myself around the stage as a visual foil for our singer, and "busy up" the bassline when our guitarist is soloing. But then I also get a bass solo during the first song in our set, so people definitely know I'm there!

I'm tall and stand at the front of the stage in a 3 piece band, people are aware of me but not my role.

48 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

I hope he's paying you.

We get equal split of any fees. Reading between the lines though, the gig and my role in the gig is enjoyable. I know my place, I have a goal and I do whatever I can to make the thing a success. 

If people notice what I'm doing on my gig I've failed. My job is to provide a pillow for the band leader to lay on. I need to fill gaps he leaves, make him sound great and control the interaction the audience have with him. If they catch me doing it the curtain has been pulled back and that's no good.

2 minutes ago, Huge Hands said:

I'm sorry, but I can't help but think this is some sort of penis extension bragging thing...and I say that as a former drummer myself.

It goes full circle, the ultimate show offs only bring a kick and snare

Anyone got experience with using Spitfire for non tort? I'm looking for a decent celly guard for my Jazz project and their's look good on the web.

I wouldn't worry about it at all, it doesn't matter. Plug it in and play the damn thing 😄

Oh this a very interesting thread indeed.

Someone basically gives me a bunch of money that is the equivalent to buy back my current equipment. My situation is a fairly expensive guitar, fairly inexpensive 2x12 and a quite inexpensive class D amp.

Conservatively lets say 3 grand

I'd probably spend about £900 on a Fender P of some description, ideally a Japan made PB62US or if I couldn't find one some MIA P, the best Aguilar amp and cab I could afford with the rest. Maybe AG700 with a DB212

https://freebasstranscriptions.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Michael-McDonald-I-Keep-Forgettin-TK16.pdf

Half hour on that.

I cannot tell you how strongly I feel about this piece of advice I'm about to give. I'm not much of an evangelist but I'll shout this from the roof tops if need be.

Learn to play the blues.

There is so much material from this simple starting point you will absolutely get a lot better in a very short space of time. All the other stuff is complicated and hard and this is the backbone of pretty much every form of American music.

Lesson 1 - 12 bar blues in A just root notes. Work it out slowly, see if you can do it without looking anything up on the internet. See the relationship between the 3 notes visually. Hear the relationship and feel when to change. 

Lesson 2 - play along to this 

Only use the root notes, play it loads and use different rhythms. Really get into it, have fun.

Lesson 3 - add notes. Try and learn some common patterns to play in addition to the root note. I suggest the uptown shuffle. 1, 5, flat 7, octave. A, E, G, A. See the pattern on the board, move the root, play the same pattern. You'll get it.

Lesson 4 - Downtown. Same pattern going backwards. 

You now are good enough to play with others and a whole world just opened up. This is not the only way but I promise you it is a very fast way to getting tools you need to move on. Solid foundations letting you interact with others and be creative.

Didn't get to do anything at the weekend and on;y managed 10-15 minutes of reading and some work on thumbing yesterday as I stabbed my index finger and it blooming hurts.

Did another 20 minutes reading, not sure it's making me better at anything other than reading 

That was my dream bass in 2002, ended up with a Precision in the same colour (long story). Lovely looking that with the maple neck. GLWS

I think we can put the transparent finish idea to bed

unless a trick of the light that lower part is way darker and tighter grained. Wouldn't look good.