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Bilbo

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    Bilbo's Transcription Archive

    in Theory and Technique

    Posted · Edited by Bilbo

    Another easy one, this chart is one of the easiest reads on the website. This is not a celebration of the playing capabilities of Andy Gonzalez (who is a monster presence on the Latin Jazz scene) but a simple performance exercise for the developing reader. Technically only 13 bars long, the chart is two eight bar sections in C minor which repeat four times and three time respectively before ending on the root. Straight quarter-notes throughout. It is included here to evidence how reading, even at this level, can help even the most rudimentary reader generate a performance of something exquisite and beautiful. It would also be nice to think that it could introduce some of the world’s bass players to the heart rending music of Astor Piazzolla.

     

    https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/tango-apasionado-prologue-astor-piazzolla/

    • Like 1

    Influential bass players

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    30 minutes ago, ezbass said:

    Pino, notably his ‘80s fretless work.

    Tony Levin, his work with Peter Gabriel

    Roscoe Beck, he worked with Robben Ford & Eric Johnson, 2 of my all time favourite guitarists.

    Chris Childs, better known for being a member of Thunder, but I used to see him regularly at a local music venue playing with Bad Influence.

    Chris Childs was from Cardiff wasn't he? I think I saw him at the Four Bars Inn once. Played a Status? 

    Influential bass players

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    My four were always Jaco, Percy Jones, Jeff Berlin and Jimmy Johnson. 

    Then Dave Holland, Ron Carter, Marc Johnson, Charlie Haden, Paul Chambers, Martin Brierley, John Giblin, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Steve Harris, Anthony Jackson, John Patitucci, Dudley Phillips, Renaud Garcia-Fons and a few dozen other people. 

    • Like 1

    Bilbo's Transcription Archive

    in Theory and Technique

    Posted · Edited by Bilbo

     A massively important piece for me, this transcription is nothing more than the themes from Ravel's Bolero. In September, 1974, the week I started at Croesyceiliog Comprehensive School in Cwmbran, Monmouthsire, they took us into a newly built music suite and played us two films on an old fashioned movie style projector. One was the Walt Disney film of 'Peter And The Wolf' by Prokofiev and the other was Ravel's 'Bolero'. I remember, as an 11 year old, being absolutely enthralled. I ran home to tell my Mum about it and was beside myself when she was able to reach into her own record collection (these were the days when people only had about 12 albums each) and produced a copy of the recording. I wore it out playing it again and again and again.  I still love it today, nearly 47 years later.

     

    The transcription consists the main themes which repeat four times on an AABB format before closing on an AB with a tag ending. It is transcribed for 5 string (low Eb and Db) but I think you could play it 8va if you haven't got a fiver).

     

    Bolero – Maurice Ravel – Bilbo's Bass Bites (bilbosbassbites.co.uk)

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

    What is the heaviest you comfortably listen to?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Bilbo

    I don't have a problem with the music in Heavy Metal and all of it's spinoffs but I do have a problem with the posturing which gets more and more cliched as the years pass. I long ago learned that this approach is for young people who express themselves in ways that reflect the zeitgeist of the day and in ways that suggest only a limited perspective on the historical/cultural context in which things take place. In short, I am not the audience they are seeking to appeal to.

     

    Motorhead, Zep, Deep Purple, The Who, Iron Butterfly, Mahavishnu Orchestra - they have all been accused of being too heavy, too fast and too loud. It's all 'kin marvellous.

    • Like 2

    Bilbo's Transcription Archive

    in Theory and Technique

    Posted · Edited by Bilbo

    'Three Nighter', another tune off the 1985 Passport Jazz album, 'Champion' by Jeff Berlin. I didn't transcribe the bass behind the guitar solo as it would have taken too long and have been pretty much unreadable but I have included the seque into the next section. Aside from the odd bar, the whole chart is pretty accessible.

     

    https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/three-nighter-jeff-berlin/

    PS there are now 40 Jeff Berlin transcriptions on there.....:)

    • Like 2

    Sight reading vs Playing by Ear?

    in Theory and Technique

    Posted

    I have been working on my reading during lockdown and have also been working on reading guitar dots. The difference it has made to my playing is immeasurable. I know my way around a guitar neck much more now and my chops have tightened up. It has forced me to play things that would not have occurred to me had I relied solely upon my ears. As Dodge says, it's an enhancement not a alternative. 

    • Like 1

    Sight reading vs Playing by Ear?

    in Theory and Technique

    Posted · Edited by Bilbo

    You don't have to choose. Do you think Marcus Miller can't jam? Can't improvise? Steve Vai? Steve Morse? Anthony Jackson? Paul Chambers? Jeff Berlin? Jaco Pastorius? 

    Transcribing directly onto the bass is not transcribing. Transcribing is writing down.

     

    I am not attacking the basic premise of your video but I think there are as many pitfalls in learning by ear as there are in reading. The first is memory capacity. I have learned thousands of tunes and solos and licks over the years. Can I remember them all? Can I f*** 🤣. I find reading enhances my capacities to perform immeasurably and I don't recognise the negative image of the disciplines presented here. It makes learning so much quicker once you have a handle on it. It's not all about reading on a gig.

     

    I do regular Jazz gigs with visiting artists and often the charts are chord charts but with odd passages written in. You never get to see them in advance. Being able to pick things up by ear gets you so far but, if you aren't match fit reading-wise, it can go t*ts up very quickly. This was one chart I got put in front of me. The whole thing works perfectly easily as a chord chart until 4:21 - then your ears aren't going to help.

     

     

     

    • Like 1

    Are your music tastes eclectic or quite narrow?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    14 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

    where's the rap ? 😁

    I have various albums with slivers of rap on them; Blues Traveller (Business As Usual), Rush, Ozomatli, The Fugees/Lauryn Hill and some others I can't remember the names of but, no, it leaves me cold. It all sounds like bad, schoolboy poetry put to dreadfully unimaginative music to me. 

    Are your music tastes eclectic or quite narrow?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I was thinking about this question when I was out driving last night. My ipod told me the answer. Classical music from full orchestra (Holst, Rimsky-Korsakov, Howard Shore, Elgar) to string quartets (Bartok) to solo piano (Beethoven) to Prog Rock, Jazz (Ellington to Coltrane to Fusion to William Parker and Free Jazz), to Heavy Rock/Metal, to a whole gamut of Latin/Latin Jazz. I reckon that eclectic enough!

    • Like 3
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