JeSuisSkeleton

[quote name='Joe Hubbard Bass' post='1129398' date='Feb 16 2011, 11:23 AM']Aren't they teaching you harmonic principles about improvising- actual musical concepts that you take home to practice? If not, you are being robbed.

Best- Joe[/quote]

Not really. We touched on guide tones briefly but it was literally "play the 3rd or the 7th!" stretched out over 10 minutes. That's my main issue with the class, they're judging people on their solos but not teaching us how to solo!

First Bass: Yamaha RBX170
"Go To" Bass: Ibanez SR500
"Your Bass": Ibanez SR500

Although, when I finally get my Stingray back from being repaired I'll replace the SR500 with that.

Brunel University.

Also, thanks for the suggestions guys! I implemented them and got better results than I usually do

As per title. I'm not very clued up on them! Been looking at an EHX Metaphors, but are there any you guys would recommend?

It went alright. Turned out we all had to solo twice. Wasn't very pleased with either of mine but hey, it's done at least!

I'm not a fan of the teaching. Handouts of Thelonius Monk quotes isn't teaching. Bah.

Too far for me but have a good one! I always enjoyed going to college gigs at Maggie May's! Always a right laugh.

I have an improv exam tomorrow. We have two lecturers, and the one who's conducting this exam isn't so great. He doesn't teach us anything about improv and expects us to solo for FIFTY SIX bars over Brown Skin Girl by Sonny Rollins.

How do I do this? I'm not a natural soloist at all; everything I play sounds gash or just goes into a pentatonic funk riff that doesn't fit at all.

Hurrgh. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[quote name='GaryTheBassMan' post='1120359' date='Feb 8 2011, 05:59 PM']Yeah sure thing Once I have got as many as I can together Ill try to condense it into all the main useful stuff and then send it your way!![/quote]

Thanks man! I really appreciate it

Subscribed, added 'Suzy' by Caravan Palace.

I'd be interested in reading the results of this! I've been trying to start teaching for a while but not had any idea how to go about it.

Had my first paid gig on Friday! Jazz gig in a church in Watford, with about 20 pensioners as an audience. I only got £20, but hey, it's better than nothing!

[quote name='XB26354' post='1116350' date='Feb 5 2011, 11:22 AM']We don't usually use different ascending and descending versions of the melodic minor, normally when improvising you use the ascending form in both directions (although there's bno reason not to use it if you like the sound, but jazzers tend to think of the descending form as an aeolian mode). The Lydian dominant is just a mode of the melodic minor, and improvising a fourth above the root of a minor chord/key sounds cool (G in D minor is thought of as being one if the extended intervals, the 11th). It can also imply a sus sound, as in Gmin7/D. You could use any of the melodic minor modes, or D blues scale, or in fact any D minor variant. You do have to pay attention to how you handle the transition to and from the Eb7 chord though. G Lydian Dominant shares G, A (#11), C# (Db, the b7) and F with Eb7(#11) and E gives it an Eb7#9 flavour.[/quote]


[quote name='Bilbo' post='1116373' date='Feb 5 2011, 11:35 AM']In jazz, we only use the ascending version of the melodic minor scale so the descending G lyd dominat would also have the C# and not the C natural.

As the main solo section of Night in Tunisia is Eb7 to Dm6, the most obvious scale to use is the Phrygian and lydian modes of Bb major. By using the lydian dominant, however, you are creating a tension between the phrygian which has a natural D and the Eb lydian dom which has a flattened D. If you just solo on a G lydian dominant (GABC#DEFG), you are not playing the Eb so the harmoninc movement will be lost. I would recommend soloing 'around' the Eb lydian dominant not the G during the Eb/D passage[/quote]

Thanks for the info guys! I'm not soloing on the track, just trying to think of ways to make a walking line more interesting and compliment what the guitarist is doing when he's soloing. I'll take those suggestions and work something out.

So glad I understood all of it too, six months ago I wouldn't have even attempted any of this

I've recently started learning and playing jazz. I'm playing with a couple of people, both much more experienced in jazz than I am. We played around with A Night in Tunisia, and the guitarist said something about soloing over the main section in the Lydian Dominant? He said it's the fourth mode of the melodic minor scale, so in the key of the song (the version I have is D Minor), that would be:

Ascending: G A B C# D E F (G)
Descending: G F E D C Bb A (G)

Right?

My next question is, when would I use that? He was pretty vague about when he would use it in his solos. Also, why would I want to use this instead of the regular D Minor scale?

Selling a couple of books I bought for my composition class. I changed onto another class pretty early on so I've never used the books. They're both in mint condition, no notes or highlighting or anything inside.

Fundamentals of Musical Composition - Arnold Schoenberg: £6 posted
Musical Composition - Reginald Smith-Brindle: £20 posted

Bank transfer or cheque if you're interested! Can't take PayPal, having nothing but problems with them at the moment.

[quote name='Doddy' post='1110902' date='Feb 1 2011, 12:54 PM']So,am I the only person here who enjoys (or admits to enjoying) soloing? [/quote]

I don't enjoy soloing partly because I don't know what I'm doing. I did enjoy my solo at a jam night on Friday though!

21 years old, started playing when I was 12. Flea was my biggest influence back then but since I started college I broadened my horizons. I'm a big fan of players like James Jamerson and Pino Palladino; people who have a more melodic approach. I try and incorporate that into my playing when I feel a song needs it, but I mostly try and stay in the pocket with an interesting groove that's interesting for me and the audience. I can be flashy sometimes, but I'm not too big a fan of that. I like being the bass player, not the soloist.

I play just about every genre I can get my hands on. At the moment I'm playing some jazz, improv, rock, gospel, blues, punk... It's all good! I'm trying to be as versatile a player as possible; that seems a lot more important than how many notes I can play.

[quote name='icastle' post='1110556' date='Feb 1 2011, 06:39 AM']Far better off looking at good SH kit IMHO.[/quote]

Aye, that's what I'm trying to do at the moment, but I can't seem to find anything that isn't either really expensive, really huge and un-transportable (I don't have a car), or both.

Have you got an iPhone/iPod Touch? Some decent ones on the App Store. I got one called BPM that's pretty good. 59p, tempo goes up to 300bpm, can have almost any time signature you want it looks like. My teacher has a Steinway one that was free. Only goes up to 175bpm I think, but has all the terminology relevant to your tempo.

[quote name='icastle' post='1110566' date='Feb 1 2011, 07:14 AM']The way the rest of the guys learned how to do it was harsh but worked - they got rid of their books as well.
Nothing focuses you more than having a crutch AND a safety net removed at the same time... [/quote]

If it's worth anything, I find this can be applied to a lot of things. My reading is pretty terrible so I went along to a couple of sessions of the "contemporary classical" ensemble at my uni. First thing we were given was this mentalist Mark-Anthony Turnage piece. Having to be able to read it almost straight away melted my face but it definitely helped. I'm still not super-confident with reading but I'm getting better at it.

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='1110271' date='Jan 31 2011, 10:05 PM']Now you're asking

Check out Thomann, as they do a range of deals of mixing and matching heads with cabs. It's worth noting that they do a [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_kxb200h.htm"]Kustom 200[/url] watt solid state head for £130 as well! That's not to mention the combo versions they do of the head for just over £220! Not sure what you fully require, but the prices seem right. Especially if you factor in the fact that the gear will be covered by a warranty.

I have no idea if it's any good mind, but the youtube demo videos have some positive comments about them. Maybe someone on here has some user experience?[/quote]


Well, I don't [b]need[/b] anything right now, but I'll hopefully be getting some function gigs in the near future so I'd need something that can handle small and medium rooms.

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='1110220' date='Jan 31 2011, 09:41 PM']For 200 quid you could buy a new [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_de300_hd_head.htm"]Kustom DE300[/url] hybrid solid state head with valve preamp, a bit like the Orange Terror! But not orange, and nowhere near as loud, but significantly cheaper!

I think these are brand new, so there's little user reviews about them on the web to date. It would be interesting to see how these fair.[/quote]

Ah nice! What would be an acceptable (cheap!) cab to go with that?

Seen these about on thomann.de and am curious. Obviously a £120 head isn't going to be fantastic, but is their gear enough for me to get to make do until I can afford a decent rig?

This is the kind of thing I mean: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ba250h.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_ba250h.htm[/url]

[url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_kxb200hr.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/kustom_kxb200hr.htm[/url]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='1102474' date='Jan 25 2011, 06:07 PM']Tough call with that sort of budget. Are you playing in places where you can borrow a cab? Might be best scoring a head with some EQ options and dialing in to whatever is there. Massive cabs and heavy heads are where the bargains are. Behringer BDI21 for sorting the room sound if there is PA and whatver combo you can put right next to your head is the other budget solution. Peavey stuff is all great but falls on the weight thing.[/quote]


It's mostly uni stuff at the moment so I could go into a DI there, but other places, I'm not sure yet. I did think about that option though. Can you plug a cab into a DI?

EDIT - Chris, I have a folding trolley, one of those Design Go ones. Can hold up to 35kg I think.

Ok, so I need a [b]very[/b] cheap amp that can handle gigging small/medium rooms. I used to have a Peavey TNT 115 but I sold it; too big and heavy. I've been looking around at other options but not getting anywhere. Can someone suggest some amps to me? I'm playing pretty much all genres at the moment so it needs to be an all-rounder. Max budget of £250, which is pretty low, but I'm looking at second-hand stuff. I've been looking at things like Hartke Kickbacks and Fender Rumble 150s, but I'm not sure. It needs to be super-portable (bad back, no car, rely on buses and the Tube), or as portable as possible.

Thanks!

I want to try flats on my Stingray. I want to take the very top end off the sound, still get a modernish sound but I'm wanting to primarily get a motown/jazzy tone from it.

I use Overwater Nickel rounds at the moment so was considering their flats. Anyone have any experience? Or any other recommendations. I've not used flats before so I don't know anything about them.