Bilbo

I have now been recording my gigs for a few months and am happy with my intonation when I am moving around the neck in a step-wise fashion (whole tones, semi-tones, thirds, fifths, fourths, octave etc) but when I do larger jumps (playing a tenth a n octave higher than an open string, for instance, or moving from a rooted Bb to a written phrase higher up the neck), the intontaion is in the hands of the Gods. Any exercises anyone knows of to nail this? I can hear the notes and know how to make them right but, by then, its too late

Db I can live with. It's that A flat that breaks me every time

My own trio, [i]trio[/i] East gigged last night, doing mostly my own compositions. I mp3'd the gig and am pleasantely surprised at how musical it is. Some real clinkers and issues due to inadequate rehearsal time on what are sometimes quite complex tunes/hard reads but, in general, I am happy with most of what we did. The time is good, the 'sound' is good, the compositions seem to hang together reasonably well (although some are a bit 'naive' for my tastes). Trouble is, without any rehearsal, the harder tunes I write never get looked at in sufficient detail to allow us to risk them on a gig.

That is all.

I did a session for Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show. 1981. Been downhill since then

Depends entirely on what you want to achieve. The pentatonics you refer to are correct but they are just one option. You could play a G major scale right through but it would sound busier but not much.

I mentioned once before here, the fun of working hard at something like music. Using these SMART techniques is not about 'business' it is about achievement and that is something that is neutral. The only 'business' here is the business of getting better at what you do. How you choose to use that newly acquired skill is entirely up to you. PS I don't think 'Simon Says' you HAVE to use it. It was just a suggestion

Playing music is a pleasurable business. Why not use the tools of business if they transfer?

I play air piano...

Superb stuff, Si. My only observation is the inherent lack of clarity that this 'how' model provides in terms of the 'what' part of practice. A SMART objective that you set yourself is only as good as the insight you have into what it is that is worth practising. Your minor 7 arpeggio example is sound, to my mind, but I suspect a lot of people are guilty of spending thousands of hours practising things that have limited value, Often these are the things that I call 'party pieces'. An example would be my first transcription of a Jeff Berlin tune - 'Bach' off Berlin's Pump It LP. I got the notes down and could play the thing all the way through. Had this not been pre-internet, I woudl have videoed myself and posted it as a 'Jeff Berlin bass cover' and got loads of gooey teenagers posting stuff like 'Man, you are AWESOME!!' I would have sat in my woodshed feeling good about myself and start working on Portrait of Tracy, Teen Town or the Mario Brothers theme for two handed tapping. At the time, I thought I was doing something important and useful. Thirty five years later, I can see what a waste of valuable time that was. I had no reference to key centres, no idea what the chords were, why the noites worked, would never have played the tune with anyone else in any situation whatsoever and had achieved nothing more than a rote learning exercise. SMART objectives undoubtedly work but your [i]choice[/i] of objective needs to be properly thought out or you will be efficiently producing a useless product. Great thread, Si.

I am glad I got no votes. T'was s***.

Hey, Skol...... [size=6] [/size][size=6]LOSER!!! [/size]

A vote for mine would be a travesty

I agree

Worth a watch if you are interested in Partch and his use of atonal instruments, this is a documentary on the making of Hal Wiliner's Mingus tribute album Weird N[size=4]ightmare.[/size] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8b6KdnnM8Y&list=RD38sSuHTI7iKls"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8b6KdnnM8Y&list=RD38sSuHTI7iKls[/url]

Great bass-line bad song is an oxymoron to me. I find myself often being in a minority of one when I say that Jamerson never works for me because the songs are mostly s*** (there are a few exceptions but very much the minority). To my mind, a great line is a great line precis[size=4]ely because of where it is not in spite of it. [/size]

[quote name='tinyd' timestamp='1375099077' post='2156612'] That's some fantastic playing Bilbo. I can barely play the first note in each bar at that tempo, but you're really swinging! Just out of interest, how do you find playing at that tempo affects your note choices? Do you necessarily have to pick from a smaller 'set' of notes? Or is part of the achievement of playing at that tempo that you're able to make the same decisions? From listening, it certainly doesn't seem like you're limiting yourself, but I'd be interested in what's going through your brain at that speed... [/quote] Walking lines at that pace are easy, soloing less so. I tend to be thinking three dimensionally, theory/scales/patterns, melody and reacting to what is around me. A bit of theme and variation is in there and the occasional 'lick' I have practiced. Some muscle memory, no doubt; its all in there.

Try Duraglit.

I thought the idea was to vote for the composition which representrd the photo that inspired it. If it is just a what is the one you like the most thing, why bother with the picture?

Can you hear me Doctor Wu!

I create a mental image of the dots for the first two bars as an aide memoire and then the memory kicks in.

Mays should smile more often; it suits him.

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1374875046' post='2154456'] If I was designing music notation from scratch I would completely dispense with the notion of # and b notes, and instead have 11 notes named A to K. Written music would then simply use 11 lines/space instead of 7 + accidentals. [/quote] And the piano would be a total mindful!

[quote name='geoffbassist' timestamp='1374906973' post='2154593'] Those 11 minute up tempo tunes really test your stamina, but the tempo stays right where it should be. [/quote] I remember many years ago going to see Branford Marsalis at Ronnnie's and watching Eric Revis rip through long tunes at astonishing tempos. I remember thinking, where does he get that stamina? Having now achieved the same, I feel that, whilst the end remains a long way off, I can, at least, see where the tunnel starts. There is so much more to learn about playing this wonderful instrument but these recordings make me feel that I have something on which to build.

Mine is a Gedo 3/4, mate. Whatever else it does, it sounds like a double bass!