Bilbo

I finished mine last night and will upload it later today (when I can get back to my music PC). It is a kind of faux Al Di Meola track; think Al without the flawless technique and production.

The notes above and below tend to be leading notes so you would play them on the off beats, leading into chord tones on the 'on' beats. The idea of strong beats and weak beats is another thing to think about but take you time and let things develop at a natural pace. Too much stuff too quickly means that stuff doesn't really get absorbed.

[quote name='chaypup' timestamp='1423573842' post='2686457'] Very very nice. Is the rest of the band the same at all the nights you put on or are you the only 'house' player? [/quote] Thanks for the feedback. It started with me and a drummer friend as the core sction but he had to leave and now there is a 'stable' of players that I use (3 guitarists, 3 or 4 pianists, a couple of saxophonists and a few drummers) depending on what is needed. One of our early strategic decisions was not to have the same rhythm section every week because I think that, if you are a rhythm section 'afficianado', you are going to get bored hearing the same people every week (as I do at other similar events). A bit of mixing and matching adds to the variety. I also set up occasional gigs with no drums or other variations (this week, for instance, we have Pete Oxley and Nicolas Meier as a guitar duo, we have had Organ Trios and singer/guitar duos etc) and sometimes I book a whole band which has it's own bass player. As I don't really pay myself, I am the only bass player as a rule but I don't always play. I did use someone else recently just to break it up a bit (I was there, just let someone else who wanted to play have a go for 'expenses').

It goes with the territory, I am afraid. I play regularly with a lot of great players and mostly I am ok but, occasionally, when a Simon Spillett or a Gilad Atzmon comes along, you are driven farther and faster than normal and, under these circumstances, soreness and blistering is a distinct possiblity. 6 weeks without playing is more than enough time for the skin on your fingers to soften. There are creams you can get to help but, overall, I think that maintaining your callouses through regular playing and practice is the only foolproof way of staying on top of it.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1423590640' post='2686758'] Write it into Guitar Pro 6..? It's very good for many styles (although maybe not [i]quite [/i]as sensitive in phrasing as Al Di Meola...). What format is it written in..? [/quote] Old fashioned recording - I didn't use my usual 'Sibelius/Cubase' route but wrote it on guitar and went straight to digital.

I have written mine but I need Al Di Meola to play it. Can anyone play gutiar like him? ('cos I sure as hell can't )

As a Jazzer, I play mostly standards but, to be blunt, if I see an album is a standards album, I avoid it and most of the standards I get on my ipod I fast forward to the next track. It's not that I think they are bad, it's just that I don't think I will die if I never hear another version of 'Yesterdays' or 'There Will Never Be Another You'.

https://m.soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/estate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Themen

[quote name='Colonel36' timestamp='1423560104' post='2686194'] "I think [i]Buddy Rich[/i] is far and away the greatest drummer who ever lived". .... [i].......Joe Morello[/i]. [/quote] I know which one I would book if I had a gig

Nice two-page review of my book by Mark Gridley of Cleveland, Ohio in Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association. 'This book should prove indispensable to students of jazz bass, historians of modern jazz, and fans who love hard bop. It constitutes a reference work that every music library should have'.

Art Themen. Need I say more.

He is viewed with some ambivalence amongst Jazz musicians (as opposed to drummers); a great drummer but not such a rounded musician. His list of 'classic' credits in the Jazz world is minimal and I think he kind of fits in with those 'clinician' types who are unquestionably masters of the instrument they play but their ideas don't move very freely into the music of others (Wooten, Berlin, Manring etc). I think of these kinds of players are atheletes and acrobats rather than players. Joe Morello is a different kettle of fish. Much more 'musical'. As for that Bozzio/Wackerman thing; icky.

Hi, Pete. AER, Acoustic Image, anything clean. It all depends on the budget, I guess. A guitar amp would probably do it so, if you want to keep costs down, I would go for the Cube (I have one here if you want to try it)

His statement in that article is beautiful. I hope I can be that centred when my time comes.

I, too, have never even looked at Rhythm Stick. Like most players, I went through that 'play all the chopsy basslines' phase: Donna Lee, Teen Town, Silly Putty, YYZ, Wrathchild etc etc but, because I was not a fan of funk or pop music, HMWYRS was just never on my radar. I did pick up a few Jamerson lines when everyone was looking at the In The Shadows of Motown book and a few function gigs have forced me to deal with some other stuff but, to be blunt, I approximate rather than learn for no other reason that the gig I do are seldom important enough to warrant the investment to that level of detail. As long as it grooves, we don't seem to care whether it is the [i]right[/i] groove

'One Song' from Karl Jenkins' The Peacemakers. It was Laurence Cottle on the original recording. I had 6 weeks to learn it and didn't quite cut it on the night (with a 14 piece orchestra and 60 piece choir). Cottle [i]read[/i] it cold.

Jaco, everytime. Donna Lee Continuum Portrait of Tracy Kuru Suite; Golden Dawn (Al Di Meola) A Remark You made Teen Town Havona Palladium Young And Fine Night Passage Las Olas (Flora Purim) Its not just the noise, it's the definition.

Que? I don't know.

What war? Was there a war?

This is great stuff. Really useful insights. I book a lot a major (?) UK Jazz artists as guests for my local venture and they rarely get paid more than £150 (plus accommodation), some quite noted players even less. To make a decent living like that you would have to be out almost every night, driving around the country (and some are). To be fair, these same artists may be getting a LOT more for other gigs (Festivals, prestige London venues, foreign tours etc) but, generally, it all feels a little 'hand to mouth'. Like others here, a lot of pros will tell us semis that it is the semi-pros who have all the fun and none of the stress. I get why that would be.

There is also the Fake Book app which lets you download tunes etc but if you want to use customised charts you will need to find a way to upload them. Scanning would be one, copying them into something liek Sibelius or Finale would be another. Personally, I still ike paper and pen but that has its limitations as well.

This is something that is never really talked about for reasons that are obvious (would I want my personal financial business paraded around the internet/media)but it is something that has interested me a great deal for sociological rather than financial reasons. What does 'being a professional musician' mean in financial terms. We all see the major stars turning up in limos at premiier events and we all have a story here and there about this celebrity's drug bill, alcohol rider or guitar/car/helicopter collection. Nevertheless, there is a surprising lack of information out there about the kind of earnings that a musicians can attract. I am less concerned about the Macartney's of this world and more interested in what kind of living is made by, say, a Guy PRatt or Leland Sklar, or the bass player in Kasabian or Elbow or Magnum or the Uli Jon Roth band. Jazz musicians are another closed book; what does Wynton Marsalis get per gig, or Keith Jarrett or, more importantly, what do Jarrett's sidemen get. And what about clincians like Wooten and Berlin? It's all a mystery but I would love to know what kind of living these guys make. I know a lot of the 1950s guys (Paul CHambers etc) were pretty much living hand to mouth most of the time and thise sessions they all did for BLue Note etc were for $50 a shot or something like that. Paul Chambers/Jimmy Cobb etc got £300-400 odd for Kind Of Blue, a multi million selling LP by THE Jazz artist of the day. We often hear of US musicians who, late in life, need money for operations/treatment because of the crippling cost of medical interventions in the US but there are also stories of UK musicians who are in difficulty because they can no longer play for some reason. We all know what we earn but I get the impression that, with very few exceptions, most of the musicians we admire are on their proverbial arse most of their lives.

Yes. The playing what you are thinking thing is very important. Wiggling your fingers will get the attention of some adolescent fan-boys (some well into their 80s ) but will not fool any real Jazz afficianados. Your solos need a context and understanding how Jazz works is an important part of understanding how to get something creative going. A great example of this is Branford Marsalis's soprano solo on the tune 'Sister Cheryl' from Wynton Marsalis's first LP. (It is available on SPotify so you can have a listen). If you listen to the performance, Wynton Marsalis opens his solo with a three note phrase. This phrase appears throughout Wynton's solo and throughout the subsequent solos of Herbie Hancock and Branford, sometimes as a rhythmic motif, sometimes as a quote. The most wonderful bit for me is the way in which Branford uses the closing phrases of Herbie's solo (around 3.53) to define the main motifs throughout his own solo to the point where the final phrases 4.57) almost mirror Wynton's like bookends. Also, listen to Herbie's comping and the way in which this informs and is informed by Branford's soloing. It is so beautifully done. If you spend time with a performance like this, you will start to get a sense of the ways in which good Jazz is layered and how every note is informed by every other.

All of the above is massively important but, at the core of your learning is the need to LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN. Stepehn King, the author, always says that, if you want to be a writer, you need to read; a lot. When I say listen, I don' trust mean putting some sounds on whilst you peel potatoes. I mean REALLY listen. Transcribing is a great way of focussing in on detail and that is why most teachers advocate it but writing the notes on the page can be a distraction if you forget to listen. If I want to transcribe a solo, for instance, I can quite easily import it into Transcribe software, slow it down and write out the notes. The fact is, however, that there is NO music in the written notes themselves and it is important to PLAY the solo you have transcribed, not necessarily at the speed at which it was originally played but in a way that lets you explore the phrasing etc. There are so many details that you need to explore in addition to the harmony, melody and rhythm. Use of space, dynamics, playing ahead of and behind the beat, beginning a solo, ending a solo, building a solo, thematic development, where to start a note and where to end it etc etc. All of this takes time to develop as you learn new concepts and start to incorporate them into your playing. You will learn more from listening to soloists who do not play your instrument as this will force you to think about the notes and the music as opposed to the bass. An exercise to start you off: Find a solo you love (the shorter the better and preferrably with very few 'fast/clever bits' that will trip you up - part of a solo is perfectly acceptable. You will benefit from every bar you learn), listen to it several times preferrably to the point where you can sing it, then either write it down or learn it by rote so you can play it. Then repeat the exercice 1,000 times Regarding the 'fast/clever bits'; when you are starting to learn, it is always easy to get distracted by the intense bits of solos where the sixteenth notes flash by like s*** off a stick. The fact is that 'fast/clever bits' are only ever slow bits speeded up. If you focuss on learning stuff slowly and well, the 'fast bits' will come. It is the musical version of 'look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves'.