funkypenguin

Im 5 months away from graduating from Salford having studied bass as my main discipline. Its been an incredible 4 years and would do it again in a heartbeat. Whats it like? It depends what you put in. I went to uni wanting to play (A LOT), meet folks, make new contacts and obviously learn alot. its been a really intense, busy 4 years. its been hard work but ive gotten alot out of it and ive been able to spend alot of my time playing/composing/performing music. whats not to like about that Are there others? No. alot of music students drift through their degree then drift out again, its the same for most places (except perhaps LCM, RCM and Guildhall). I got lucky in that theres about 20-30 of us here that wanted to make the most of what we're doing and have really worked/played alot. It becomes obvious fairly quickly (in my experience) which ones really want to make the most of whats on offer. Networking and finding out who is on it and who isnt is really important As im sure has been said elsewhere on here, you can learn alot of what is on offer at uni (theory for example) elsewhere. However you wont get the contacts, the tutors (i would never have got the oppertunity to study with my composition tutor Robin Dewhurst if i hadnt come to uni), the experience and the oppertunity to put what you're learning into practice ON A DAILY BASIS outide university. Knowing your theory and being able to read are 2 things that will give you a huge head start from the word go. IMHO they are a must Hope this helps

The MG standard looks lovely! As far as the Fodera debate goes, the Garrison signature i tried a few years back is the best bass ive ever played (including Sei, Alembic, KS, MTD et al). Some of shukers latest creations have come close though. Do i want one? god yes. Can i afford/justify one? god no.

As a bassist I play in a rock trio, a progressive rock band, a jazz quintet, a rock/fusion quartet and a fusion trio, as a trumpet player I play in a Gypsy jazz band and the Salford uni big band. I play shows/functions on a fairly regular basis too.

Out of interest, do you have this problem when you're playing seated?? I get tendonitis in my right wrist occasionally and I find warm water massage before and after playing and a thorough warm up really help

whoaaa she looks gorgeous already!!

Its not critical to have theory in order to play bass as an instrument, you need it to understand music. Plenty of bassists dont have a thorough grasp of theory and get by using their ears (every bit as important to have good ears IMO). However, if you're looking to go deeper into bass playing (i.e. really dismantling what/how other bass players are doing what they do), deeper into the music and really push yourself as a bassist, i would say theory is a major component, if not essential. Basics like scales, arpeggios, chords, chord tones etc. are all really really important to your playing

He needs to do lots and lots of practice with a metronome. I dont understand how he can be technically proficient but cant keep time :S

Go and listen to Rush. One of the best 3 piece bands out there with one of the best bassists (Geddy Lee)

Much better explanation by Bilbo

[quote name='lobematt' post='1371691' date='Sep 13 2011, 12:53 PM']Woah that is high, you got the tab?? Haha only messin, quick (probably quite daft) question though... If this did go between bass an treble clef, would a C in treble still be a C on the bass, as in it doesn't get transposed just a different octave??[/quote] No transposing of pitch involved, just different octaves C above the stave in Bass clef transposes to become the C below the stave in Treble clef

With the gear you've got listed in your sig? not a chance

I hope they get someone along the lines of Hellborg/Matt Garrison/Patitucci in to do a workshop/performance. I remember someone saying Garrison was going to be there last year but it never materialised

[quote name='Faithless' post='1368605' date='Sep 10 2011, 02:55 PM']Penguin, are you writing out the transcription on paper by hand first of all, or straight 'to the computer' (Finale, Sibelius, etc)? The thing why I don't go crazy with ledger lines is just the amount of time it takes to mess with those ledger lines (think, count, write out in a way that's 'readable'), because most of the stuff I write down, I do it by hand first of all, and, to be honest, it's very rare to meet tunes notated that up high - it's way simpler to go to Treble Clef (once again, if you're doing it by hand..) easy Laimis[/quote] sorry man, hadn't seen your reply before i posted erm....sometimes i work straight into sibelius, but usually i do the rough transcription onto manuscript (mainly to get the notes/chords down) then write it up into sibelius. All the transcriptions ive been working on recently are onto manuscript then into computer, so my desk is a huge mass of half completed transcriptions One of the reasons i used bass clef in this is that ive been looking at alot of Gwizdalas tutorials recently, and since theyre getting me into reading these high ledger lines i decided to transcribe this one using the ledger lines

I approach it on a piece-by-piece basis. i chose to stick with bass clef in this case

IMO you'd be better off using the bottom 4 strings from a 5 string set as a starting point. Getting any definition from an E string when de-tuning below D (as i found out before i switched to 6 strings) is almost impossible on a 34" scale bass, even with a .110 E

[quote name='Faithless' post='1367773' date='Sep 9 2011, 03:50 PM']Seems like someone doesnt like Treble Clef at all..... [/quote] Think of it as a way to familiarise yourself with ledger lines I usually use treble clef when transcribing solos. The bass solos in the Hiromi transcriptions im working on are all in treble clef

Here is my transcription of John Patitucci's "Tone Poem". If you want to check out the recording its on spotify, on the CD Line By Line [attachment=89006:Tone_Poem.pdf] [attachment=98310:Tone Poem treble clef.pdf] *note: You need either a 6 string bass or an E - C 5 string to play it in the original arrangement. if not, some parts will need to be played down an octave* edit: Treble clef version now added

[url="http://www.musikmachen.de/Workshops/Bass-Videoworkshop-It-s-all-about-SOUND"]http://www.musikmachen.de/Workshops/Bass-V...all-about-SOUND[/url] Jonas Hellborg talking about sound. worth watching

Seeing these list prices makes me really glad I jumped at the chance to buy my '97 streamer LX6 custom shop (many thanks again to mattbass6!!). As for them being unfashionable, my streamer is my first choice whenever I play jazz, soul and funk. Such a warm, 'woody' sound some lovely examples cropping up on this thread!!

He's good, but for me, the bass (unless you go well into the realms of ERBs) will always be trounced by the chapman stick when it comes to tapping

With those materials and hardware, they were never going to be £300

[quote name='phil625sxc' post='1359605' date='Sep 2 2011, 10:51 AM']thanks for posting - I had to learn this by ear for an audition a little while ago so will be interesting to see how close I got it ! :-)[/quote] Ahh excellent!! i'd be very interested to know how your version differs! i had to guesstimate a little with one or two parts so let me know whats different ive got alot more hiromi transcriptions in the pipeline (and one or two other bits and bobs) if you're interested!

Shes an absolute stunner mate, BIG congrats!