Bilbo

I have been thinking about the [i]sound[/i] of the double bass lately and listening to those players who I am sufficiently familiar with to be able to recognise their sounds pretty much instantly and who I like to listen to in performance. Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Marc Johnson, Dave Holland, Eddie Gomez, Charlie Haden, Miroslav Vitous, Eberhard Weber, Milt Hinton..... the list goes on. The point is, there is no definitive sound and the sonic range from say Vitous to Hinton or Weber to Haden is probably wide enough to cover almost ever possible option I am sure we all have our preferences in terms of the players we love but I don't think any of us would argue that because we are not particularly enamoured of any one player's sound that his or her sound amounts to a deficiency in their playing? Ergo, whatever sound we have, is likely to be, at worst, perfectly 'satisfactory' in terms of audience perspectives. So why do we obsess over this element of our playing? I am wondering whether we are missing the point?

I'm going to be a cage fighter. What do you mean [i]fight[/i]? In a [i]cage[/i]? You must think I am an idiot.

I'd give you £4 (if the signature was in pencil)

They're pretty rare these days.

But if C has no name, then D E F etc have no name either. You either categorise all of them or none of them.

Glad you shrunk that avatar photo, Sarah

They are distinct instruments with their own individual voices. When a composer is working on an arrangement idea, s/he can conceptuallise a sound based on one instrument or on several. A flugelhorn and soprano sound different from a trumpet and tenor. A violin sounds different to a viola, even playing the same notes etc. Musicians playing bass can often make the mistake of thinking that the double bass and electric bass, because they play the same notes on the same stave, are interchangeable. But they have a different effect due to timbre, attack and decay. If you want a piece to swing like your Frank Sinatra arrangement, then it is unlikely that the electric bass will work (there are thousands of recordings of bands playing Jazz using electric basses that don't swing and plaenty that do but we are talking in generlaisms). It doesn't mean that a performer can't make an aesthetic decision to use a different voice to achieve a different effect etc but, the straight answer is, no, an electric bass cannot do what a double bass does and vice versa. Sometimes close but rarely a cigar They are different instruments which have a lot in common just like a drummer and percussionist.

C = Ionian D = dorian E = phrygian F = lydian G = mixolydian A = aeolian B = locrian

Count Basie had Papa Jo Jones on drums...

Not sure if this is helpful but maybe it is only a theory because the 'rules' only apply to certain music in certain cultural settings so, arguably, they are always as wrong as they are right. 12 notes in a chromatic scale? Not if you play sitar. Harmony vs atonality etc. All theory is valid and helpful but never absolute. And it almost always comes after the music (are twelve tone composing and serial composition exceptions?). Great question.

They are perfectly symbiotic and playing both allows you the perspective of a musician instead or a bass player or guitarist.

Try the singing along with your solo idea; it will slow you down at first but you will find it more melodic. Also, someone once said to me 'deny yourself twice'. Play a phrase and then, when y9ou want to play the next one, don't. Then, when the next one comes into your heard, don't play it. Play the next one and you will have edited 60% of your 'diarrheoa' and it wil sound more melodic (this is all in the practice room, not on a gig )

Listen to Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Paul Chambers, Ray Brown, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Reginald Veal Playing wise, play 4 beats to the bar and rarely stick any rhythmic kicks in. Too much 'fiddling' undermines the swing.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jtlnUUdhvU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jtlnUUdhvU[/url]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6RqT5xxXUA[/media]

Sounds great, Mike. Every time I hear that Sei bass, I want to get a fretted one myself (if I played that many notes, my intonation would let me down big time ). Always fancied the Flamboyabt 6 and even played one once at the Gallery but it never appeared!! Sounds like the hours of shedding have paid dividends.

I have old cassettes from years ago that reveal that offer irrefutable evidence that I was always crap

That went well

Pat Metheny - guitar Lyle Mays - piano/keyboards Michael Brecker - but, if the dead thing is a deal breaker, Chris Potter Don Alias - oh, he's dead too, so we'll have Eric Harland on drums Joni Mitchell - vocals and songwriting Bilbo - bass Oh - its Joni Mitchell's Shadows and Light band! How did that happen? Try again: Ultimate Jazz ensemble Me on double bass Jeff Watts on drums Joey Calderazzo on piano Branford Masalis on saxophones Oh b*gger. I did it again. If death was no barrier to regular rehearsal.... Me on bass Billy Higgins on drums J.R. Monterose on tenor BIll Evans piano

Hand injuries take forever to heal because you use them all of the time. I have had pains of one kind or another for years but you can manange a lot of difficulties by being aware of how you use your hands and by improving their grace and efficiency. Alexander Technique is useful as a starting point but also things like ergonomic keyboards and vertical mice can be helpful if you use computers a lot (a lot of hand pain is actually wrist trouble).

Someone heard one of these tracks yesterday and said it sounds like....... Sonny Rollins. It doesn't, of course, but, hell, I'll take it

....any Prog Rock tribute band is playing 'Regressive Rock'?

George Martin was, I understand, also responsible for ironing out a lot of the kinks in Beatles tunes!

I woudl recommend an approach along the lines of... 'Hey, Fred, you are not going to like what I am about to ask but do you know how uncomfortable your approach makes it for the rest of us and for the other people we have to deal with?