BassoRidiculoso

aw shucks, you are too kind. Hopefully there are some helpful bits buried in there amongst the....stuff.

Sooo, I collected all the possible ways you could play the notes of a major 7 chord and put them in a book. It's been a slow summer, what can I say. There are many fans of chord tones, obviously, Jeff Berlin has been a huge proponent of the juicy harmonic goodness that is contained in those four magic tones for a long time, and they are the backbone of his approach to soloing. His book about chord tones lists a lot of patterns, but it doesn't have [b]all[/b] the variations. This book does (well for major 7 chords): 24 patterns per key, for all 12 major chords. Future volumes will have Minor, Dominant etc. all the biggies. They look a little something like this (click to see them larger): [CENTER][url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aAdO-NrOTGs/TlwXC8SFs4I/AAAAAAAAAP0/ZlzK1WD80NU/s1600/Gb+FifthPattern+small.jpg"][/url] [url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-javRv9Pvvn8/TlwXDRMe1CI/AAAAAAAAAP4/ca7vPXWCfpg/s1600/Eb+Seventh+small.jpg"][/url] [/CENTER] You can hear what the first dozen exercises sound like here - [url="http://soundcloud.com/bassoridiculoso/sets/book-of-chord-tones-major"][b][color="DeepSkyBlue"]http://soundcloud.com/bassoridiculoso/sets/book-of-chord-tones-major[/color][/b][/url] And there is some more info at the blog about it, here. [url="http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/08/announcing-book-of-chord-tones-book-1.html"]Basso Ridiculoso: Announcing: The Book of Chord Tones, Book 1, Major Chords[/url] So if you are looking for some ways to play major arpeggios that you might not have stumbled across before, or you want some exercises to explore some of those pesky mystery keys like Ab or Db, well, take a gander at The Book of Chord Tones, here - [url="http://www.lulu.com/product/16666542"]The Book of Chord Tones - Major 7 Chords by Basso Ridiculoso in Arts & Photography[/url]. There is a pdf preview available of the first 12 or so pages.

[quote name='silddx' post='1244655' date='May 25 2011, 11:25 AM']Why would I want a computer programme to show me 720 permutations, then sift through them all over every permutation of every possible underlying chord structure?[/quote] You will realize to the answer to that one eventually, all on your own. It's the same reason Krantz/Bergonzi/Slonimsky all wrote their books.

Whatever. Go read Krantz's book, (which, clearly, you haven't or you would know this is *exactly* how he comes up with stuff, I could have called it the Krantzifier.) "[url="http://www.waynekrantz.com/newWebsite/IOSinfo.html"]An Improvisors OS[/url]". He discusses making patterns like this in detail. As do the other world class players listed in each of their respective publications. Just because you don't understand the validity of it hardly means it is not valid. Krantz may sit down with a pencil to do it, but he does it in a very structured manner like this at some point, that's the entire point of his book, creating, finding and running permutations. What we all hear him play is what comes from this process after he has mined that data and found cool stuff he liked and worked it up, turned it around, etc. Go read Krantz's book, that will answer if he uses a method like this or not. (spoiler - uh, he does). If you use a pencil or a computer to generate the base material is irrelevant. There are literally thousands of composers that have sat down and run permutations of phrases or groups of notes in some fashion like this. It is an extremely common practice. Hello, Slonimsky and Coltrane? When Krantz is talking about patterns limiting your playing on his site, he means the finger shapes we all learn to get around the neck of the guitar/bass. The way of breaking out of those physical finger patterns is to find new and different ways to play groups of notes, hence, generating permutations of different crazy groups to find things to play that your fingers would never fall onto if you just played box shapes and other guitaristic patterns. All that is different is that we live in an era where a machine can do the grunt work for us now, and we can spend our time, more productively, on applying the results instead of repetitively generating them. For four notes it is not that hard, but it does take a few minutes to do each one by hand. But for 5 and 6 note combinations it gets extremely time consuming because each one has 120 and 720 different combinations of 5 and 6 notes respectively. That is a pain in the butt to do by hand.

Here is some more info on the backgound - [url="http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/01/daily-licking-005-every-possible-way-to.html"]http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/0...ble-way-to.html[/url] The concept is based on books by guys like (of course) Jerry Bergonzi, Wayne Krantz, Gary Campbell, Ramon Richter and a bunch of others who have been using stuff like this for saxophone and other instruments for years to figure out patterns and find lines to play over chords. It is simply a way to generate all the possible ways to play any four notes, they don't have to be chord tones, it can be any four notes you want. You may find some melodic phrases or a pattern you haven't used before. Check out any of the Bergonzi books especially, he goes through it step by step. He is applying it in ways to find solo material but the idea can be used for anything.

[quote name='Major-Minor' post='1243856' date='May 25 2011, 12:36 AM']I'm sure some people will find this software most interesting. But there is a great little alternative - its called "The Human Brain" ........[/quote] Computers are very good at doing repetitive tasks, of which there is very little redeeming value for a human to waste their time doing. Running a repeating matrix pattern over and over and over requires no special human intelligence. Its just paperwork. Understanding how to do it is valuable, but sitting down and wasting an hour doing it once you understand how to is pointless, when you could instead be working on the important part - making music. Now, what humans ARE really good at and what computers are not is finding the musical phrases within the generated patterns and applying them in an interesting, creative, unique way. This splits the task between what the computer is good at and what the human is good at. Feel free to keep using your quill pen, that is if you don't have to turn off your oil lamp, hitch up your horse to your buggy and go on down to the train station to send a telegram to someone.

[quote name='purpleblob' post='1243610' date='May 24 2011, 02:44 PM']Just to let you know this worked in Firefox but didn't seem to wanna work in IE 8.[/quote] Thanks, I don't run IE, and am on a Mac so I will look around and try and find a machine to debug it on.

Basso Ridiculoso and the factory of underpaid software monkeys is proud to annouce a handy little web thing for creating combinations of any four notes you want. [b] The Bergonzifying Transmogrifier[/b] is a free web application that generates all the possible combinations of any four musical notes that you choose and then notates and creates an MP3 file of the combinations. It "Transmogrifies" the set of four notes you choose, similar to a method outlined by the saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi in his "Inside Improvisation" series of method books. Check it out here: [b][size=4][center][url="http://bassoridiculoso.net16.net/"]http://bassoridiculoso.net16.net/[/url][/center] [/size][/b] You can read all the details on ways to use it here as well at the ol' bass blog: [size=4] [center][url="http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/05/announcing-bergonzifying-transmogrifier.html"]http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/0...smogrifier.html[/url][/center][/size] __________________ [url="http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com"]bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com[/url] • [url="http://twitter.com/#!/BassoRidiculoso"]twitter.com/#!/BassoRidiculoso[/url]

I updated the article to include a breakdown of the most ridiculous parts of Valse Noble at a tempo that is more close to something mortal men can attain.... If you want to work it up, you can go over the rough spots and break down the most difficult passages. [center][url="http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-of-jeff-berlins-valse-nobles.html"]http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/0...lse-nobles.html[/url][/center]

Thanks for the link!!! Every bit helps. As far as the navigation goes...well, its a blog. Like 10 million other blogs. You can use the tag cloud to pick just posts with transcriptions, there is also a reverse chronological list of every post, the 5 most popular posts are highlighted, and there are now sub-sections for the various transcriptions series (coltrane, bill evans and clifford brown). Scroll down the right hand side for all the navigation goodies. I would say find a topic you like, and use the tag cloud to move around. I have tried to be diligent in tagging every article with relevant tags. Thanks for the post! You can also leave me a message here or on my email from the site.

Thanks for the kind words! Hope it helps, I have worked this one up to a blazing fast.....20 bpm.

Just posted to either inspire or depress you...Jeff Berlin's bass part on the duet he plays with Richard Drexler on his latest album. This is part of a series of waltzes written by Maurice Ravel, and Mr. Berlin does it as a bass/piano duet. And yea, its really hard to play. But it sounds very impressionistic and kinda creepy but pretty at the same time. Those crazy frenchmen. [color="#000080"] [center][size=5][b][url="http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/03/daily-licking-036-jeff-berlin-part-on.html"]http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/0...in-part-on.html[/url][/b][/size][/center] [/color] Enclosed is a quick peek at the first few measures, but check out the link for the entire thing. [attachment=75665:ValseFirst8.jpg]

[quote name='chris_b' post='1126568' date='Feb 13 2011, 03:45 PM']No, because I ask them.[/quote] Also an effective strategy. It's not just about volume, and Bob talks about that also. Sometimes guys are not going to say "Hey I hate slapping, don't do that" for a variety of reasons, they don't really know you, they don't want to get into a thing...whatever, so sometimes people have preferences that go unsaid. But you are of course correct - communication is key and vital in any situation.

Do you ever wonder what all those other people on stage with you are thinking? You know those other musicians, the ones that have to actually use our bass playing and [b]do[/b] something with it? Sing or solo or something? Well, it is time for another episode delving into the minds of those people that are playing those other instruments, called - What Do People Want In Their Bass Player - Episode 2 - Saxophonist Bob Reynolds. Bob plays sax with this guitar player named John Mayer, and I guess he has sold a few records, I hear. Bob has done world tours with that band and has been a featured soloist on many other peoples albums, (including Janek Gwizdalas!) as well as his own records playing his own compositions. What does someone who has played with jazz bass players, rock bass players, electric bass players, upright bass players, funk/soul bass players, good bass players and bad bass players, thinks separates the good from the bad from the ugly? Find out here: [center][size=4][url="http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-people-want-in-their-bass-player.html"]http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-people-want-in-their-bass-player.html ://http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com...ss-player.html [/url][/size][/center] This is one you are gonna wanna print out and keep, I predict. Check out all manner of other bass shenanigans at Basso Ridiculoso as well.

Hey all, I was recently turned onto this place by a member (Thanks Mike!) and wanted to let you know about a bass related blog currently spreading the bass love around - [size=4][b][center] [url="http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com"]http://bassoridiculoso.blogspot.com[/url][/center][/b][/size] I have some lessons about chord tones and pentatonics, transcriptions of pop tunes and jazz tunes, both bass lines and heads. So check it out. Just trying to give back to the internet which has supplied me with a great deal of cool bass things over the years. Thanks!