Jam

Steve Harris for me!

I was playing some Mario with the other half last night and fancied trying to work out some of the bass to some of the songs - Nintendo games generally have some pretty interesting arrangements and they tend to get stuck in your head if you have to keep replaying the levels... [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6MfnbeilTY[/media] I sat down and tried to work out the above note for note, but have struggled a little. I can pick out a fair bit of it but struggled to get everything perfect. I'm enjoying myself doing it, I'm using it as ear training so am trying to avoid transcriptions but would appreciate any advice from people who often work out basslines/key signatures by ear. Am starting by picking out the root notes and fleshing out the rest with some pausing and repeating. I have a fairly rudimentary knowledge of theory and suspect more knowledge of key signatures and chord progressions would be useful!

Cheers for the advice guys, will check out the videos and the exercises suggested The fingertip/pad thing is something I've noticed recently with videos on youtube of "proper" players, I've tried to adjust and can already feel my control has improved but any advice is appreciated. Chris_B, you're right, it's just something that I [i]think[/i] I'm doing wrong - I've had a feeling for years that my technique is slightly cack-handed but it doesn't affect my playing too much and the bass teachers I've seen sporadically haven't had any issues with it. Just as an aside, the thumb to pinky thing is something I've always been afflicted with, from a very young age. CrackerJackLee, thank you for the detailed response, very much appreciated - will give the exercises a go when I get home from work. Keeping the thumb curved is something I'd not considered; while holding my imaginary bass at my desk (cue odd looks from colleagues) it seems like I might have my thumb quite straight...will report back later!

Recently I've noticed some bad habits with my technique, mostly with my fretting hand. Rather than keeping my fingers curved they tend to be straight when I fret, pressing down with the pad rather than the top of the fingertips. I've been working on some exercises, namely 4 fingers per fret type exercises (Ariane Cap, Scott's bass lessons) and it is helping, but I'd appreciate any feedback. Also, I don't know whether this is bass related or not, I might just have duff hands, but I cannot touch my thumb to my little finger, on either hand. I had a bad time in cub scouts. When I try I end up with what looks like an arthritic claw, the muscle under the thumb goes rock solid. Anyone have any experience with this? Cheers! (I've been playing for 12 years, mostly self taught with some lessons here and there)

I've really been digging the new Opeth album and discovered this chap on the Opeth Reddit page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6WASaxF06s Not only an excellent player (only been playing 3 years?!) but a really nice bloke too. This song goes crazy at about 3:50, I'm stumbling through it like an idiot but it's great fun. This also, is testament to Martin Mendez's bass playing, and one of the reasons he's my favourite bassist! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItWdxjio1l4

[quote name='roman_sub' timestamp='1457623973' post='3000312'] Nice, but unlikely to be "£2k nice" on second hand market. [/quote] Yeah the price is a tad optimistic!

So I was doing a bit of window-shopping on Crack Converters and stumbled across a beautiful looking Warwick Corvette $$. They're great basses, this one is particularly nice, but it's very distinctive so I wondered if anyone was missing one? Don't often see anything that nice on there! Going by Warwick's site it's a Corvette $$ 911 special edition swirly bubinga. http://webshop.cashconverters.co.uk/auction-item/1158417/warwick-corvette-4-string-special-edition-electric-bass-guitarmasterbuilt

I've got it too!

Anything by Scouting for Girls makes me furious. My other half often gets bits from superdrug and they seem to have THAT song on a loop. She's so lovely She's so lovely She's so lovely She's so lovely She's so lovely She's so lovely She's so lovely She's so lovely She's so lovely AARRRRGGHHHHH

Bought Steve's Tech 21 Sansamp VT Bass pedal last night, lovely chap, swift communication and the pedal is in excellent condition Cheers dude!

Haha hey man, thanks for the love

Cheers man! We're gigging lots at the moment, mostly around Oxfordshire though. Hope to spread further afield soon!

I love the tone, is that through a pedal of some kind or just the way your bass sounds?

Ooh nice growly tone!

My band Godsbane (www.facebook.com/godsbanemusic) finally finished our EP. We've had fairly positive feedback so far but I'd like to hear people's opinions on here: [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-kjmJ85DkE"]https://www.youtube....h?v=p-kjmJ85DkE[/url] Also: [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I72YGxcVdYQ"]https://www.youtube....h?v=I72YGxcVdYQ[/url] I'm on bass, of course, but also singing. The bass is fairly low in the mix... Any feedback appreciated!

Just sat down and worked out the bassline to "Emerald Hill Zone" from Sonic 2 on the megadrive. Life is good again!

Cheers guys. I'm not depressed by any means, but we don't have practice next week so perhaps some time off will do me good...

I've been playing for nearly 10 years, and I'd say I was a fairly competent player, nothing special though. Had band practice last night and about halfway through I just stopped caring about bass. I LOVE the band, I'm also the singer and I'm really passionate about the songs we've written but I just didn't want to play anymore. Does anyone have times like this? I feel like I'm playing the same patterns and have reached a bit of a plateaux in my playing. I have a whole stack of books, ranging from slap to theory to all sorts, I just find sitting down and playing with books agonising. I've played with the radio, random songs on spotify and I just can't be bothered to play bass at the moment. I feel completely uninspired. What can I do? Can't afford lessons at the moment... Apologies for being miserable, it's made me miserable, I used to be so passionate about bass.

Not had a look at the site but people on here have done a lot for me, so if anyone wants anything translated send me a PM... Online translation doesn't quite get Japanese right yet!

Tab too

Yeah the exercise is a little slower in the book. I'm actually looking forward to working through it, I have a stack of bass books I pick up, study for a bit and then get bored with. I think you'll enjoy it, or even if you don't I imagine you'll see benefits!

I've been struggling recently with my left hand dexterity, that is to say when playing slightly faster pieces or sections my left hand just isn't as accurate as it should be after so many years of playing. I've had "Bass Aerobics" (Jon Liebman) book for a while but it's always just sat on my shelf. I dug it out last night after getting a bit dejected with my playing, played through the first two exercises for about an hour and found my accuracy had improved. You're supposed to do an exercise a week, though the first exercise I found a bit tame, so after playing through that without any mistakes I moved to exercise two which has a lot of chromatic phrases moving around the neck. I still can't play it accurately so am sticking with it, but even after 1 day I'm seeing improvements. This is the second exercise, though this chap has sped it up with a drum machine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwmfOASOI3U In a nutshell, this book has made me feel better about my playing, and if anyone out there is feeling like their left hand is a bit crap, I'd definitely recommend it!

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1346428192' post='1789168'] Get the Frodis bass clef app, it's really good! Check out the bass clef yts thread on here that crops up from time to time, it has some good links and advice, bass clef wizard game is fun but be warned its addictive!!!!! I'm a great wizard myself under 1 second per clip average, took me f***ing ages [/quote] Just wanted to say good call on the Frodis app man, it's very good!

Awesome, cheers guys. I've always put off reading as I hated it as a child learning violin (that didn't last long!). I also play shakuhachi, japanese bamboo flute, and I started learning with traditional notation (which is a hell of a lot more complex), I really wish I'd done that with bass from the start. Just found this, pretty handy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07wC50bWbnY&feature=youtube_gdata_player