Bilbo

I would recommend a lesson or two just to get you started. The double bass is a different animal to the electric and, if you are not careful, you can do yourself harm by doing it wrong. I did and it cost me 10 years and a whole lot of pain. I accept that it is expensive but it is important to get basic technique right in order to prevent CTS/tendonitis/tennis elbow/long term problems. You don't have to get into weekly lessons for years, just a couple to set you up.

[quote name='Johnston' post='1265284' date='Jun 11 2011, 07:43 PM']Ask Bilbo for what songs he refuses to play. Learn them and you'll have half a nights worth [/quote] Sad but true. Although, I will add, the OP knows arpeggios. At most jam sessions I have been to, most players would think arpeggios are an Italian starter. Or those small fishy things they put on pizzas? I recommend the 'go along and watch' option first and you will get a sense of whether you are ready. A lot of the 'must know tunes mentioned above are thiungs I have never heard at jam sessions so there is clearly some regional variation and I guess this also varies venue to venue. If you are just wanting to 'have a go', speak to the band leaders ans tell them where you are at - if they can't find a niche for you, they are not doing what they are there to do.

Just ot add to the confusion, try Gedo Musik in Germany. Similar stuff to the dalers you have already mentioned. I started a thread here: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=93958&st=0&start=0"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=...t=0&start=0[/url]

20+ years of gig bags with no 'incidents'. Got sick of hard cases when traveling on the tube in the late 1980s.

I have a Wal (£740) and a double bass (£1400) and 4 guitars (Gibson ES175 (£1500), Adamus 6 (£1000), Takamine CD132SC (£1000) and an Antoria w. nashville tuning (£150) - that's £3650 on guitars and £2,140 on basses. What am I thinking? But how can you let those lovely guitars go?

[quote name='ficelles' post='1264034' date='Jun 10 2011, 03:34 PM']Not too difficult (he said arrogantly)... just watch where he puts his thumb to get the forced harmonic from the 14th position A, in each case about 1cm forward of the pickup poles. 1st octave from near neck pickup, second from bridge. There's a 5th harmonic between the two of course. I'm finding my right hand "flamenco" fingernails make it easier btw although I am wearing holes in them through doing it! ficelles[/quote] Your first 'false' harmonic is always halfway between your fretting hand and the bridge (usually 12 frets above your fretting hand) and then divided along the string at the same nodes as per the open string (7th, 5th, 4th and 3rd frets and the same distances from thw bridge at the other end. In a nutshell, the point where you put your thumb moves up and down as your left hand moves up and down.

The technology is there. Its the other stuff; microphones, microphone placement, rooms, isolation booths, live room, multi tracking with several players without spillage and, most of all, the skills of the engineers and producers. The gear is only the half of it. Here is something I recorded a couple of years ago (Xote De Alegria) followed by something more recent (Clandestino). The difference is not the gear, (its the same), its my experience in recording. The difference, to me, is massive.

I entirely understand peopole's preference for more 'melodic' thematic bass playing a la Dreamland but, for me, hearing that once is enough. I can't get excited about 'pretty' tunes. Got into and out of that 20+ years ago. It all sounds very predictable to me now so I look for more interesting things. I totally get that this is less accessible but I guess that's what I am looking for. The layman's accessible is my predictable. My favourite Jaco track is John and Mary off Word of Mouth. Has everything.

I guess the stretches for AJ on a six are not that much worse than those of a 5-string double bass. You just preactice and practice and then practice some more. I just spent the last couple of days on an AJ feast. He is SO together. For me, its applied study over 'the mojo' everytime.

I would love one of those Fodera AJ basses. Did anyone here buy it for me for my birthday next month? Did you? Did you?

Welcome to my world. The journey I have been on is, in some ways, similar. I want to be the best musician I can. A long time ago, I bought into the 'you can learn something from every gig' ethhos and took all the work that came my way. I earned some money. Great. I have spent all of my working life (as a musician) playing music in situations that are less than ideal but, in many ways, that goes with the territory. But there came a point, about 2 years ago, when I realised that some of the work I was taking was doing me harm; I was emotionally undermined by the poor standard and was projecting the bands failings onto myself. I realised that, in order to do what you do as well as you wish to, it can be counter productive to do other things that subvert your momentum. I know lots of drummers who play jazz and rock and they always say that too much rock makes it necessary for them to woodshed before a jazz gig in order to regain the flexibility they require in their wrists. I think bass players can be the same. If you want to function at the highest level you possibly can, you need to spend a lot of time there and too many 'Mustang Sally' gigs will subvert your technique and, more important, your mental disciplines. For me, as an improvising musician, you need to be mentally sharp and too many 'lazy' gigs which are well within your comfort zone (which, for me, means most function type gigs) push you into a space where your skills are blunted. Spending gigs metaphorically staring out of the window or just people watching is an easy way to make money but, when you want to excel, its not necessarily good for your mental discipline. It applies at all levels: Branford Marsalis and Kenny Kirkland said the same when they did the Sting gig. After a few months on the road with Sting, they really had to 'shed to get their jazz chops back. Not their physical skills but their mental/physical coordination. It sounds to me like your raga gig is demanding a mental investment that you are not used to delivering. I say stick with it and make it happen. Your bandleader has invested in you; trust and respect her vision and watch something special grow. Or go back to 'Good Times'. 'Ain't Nobody' and 'Son Of A Preacher Man'.

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1262114' date='Jun 8 2011, 11:37 PM']You do make me smile sometimes, Bilbo! I'd hate to think music was invented as some form of 'entertainment' Love the Jaco though, good clips, thanks[/quote] I know what you are saying. I just meant that the drivers for a lot of his live playing are 'the 'show' not 'the music'.

Two. So What and Impressions.

Another great lp with AJ on was called French Toast. Mostly Michel Camilo tunes but a bigger band with horns. Worth looking for. Peter Gordon – french horn Lew Soloff – trumpet Jerry Dodgion – alto sax Michel Camilo – piano Anthony Jackson – bass Dave Weckl – drums Steve Gadd – drums Sammy Figueroa – percussion Gordon Gottlieb – percussion

Jaco was, in many ways a lick player. If you listen to a lot of his stuff, you will eventually hear his cliches. But his take on the bass was very much from the perspective of a musician not a bass player. He played stuff that noone else could touch. By the time he was getting ill, he wouldn't have been practising and his ideas would have started to get stale. But from 1976 to about 1980, he was carving something special. His cliches have a rock sensibility; they are based on entertainment not music. He wasn't a hardcore improvising jazz musician as such but he was a creative guy who, when allowed to, was capable of greatness. He pitched a whole load of new concepts at bass players, most of which are still being processed by most of us today. I think it is important to respect what he did and not what he didn't and not what he became.

I rarely see other bands any more. I am very choosy so, if they are crap, I probably wouldn't be there as I rarely see bands I don't already know something about. Unless I know them well, I also wouldn't talk to a bass player after the gig unless he approached me. Its not in my nature to be pro-active in these kinds of situations.

And this one has a really great bass solo from the master himself. 1980 - No Fodera, but he still sounds like AJ.

Yum yum, pig's bum

Don't play in direct sunlight. Its a killer and you could get ill.

I don't care if some don't like it. Its beautifully executed. No rhythm? Yeah. Like a train A lot of popular music is based around a definitive and explicit beat. Boom, Whack, boom, whack, boom whack. All beat and no grove. Listen to Bach. No beat there either.

[quote name='Mike' post='1259293' date='Jun 7 2011, 08:22 AM']Ah, never saw this post. How annoying. You would have been very welcome to borrow mine, set up by Martyn Bailey. Let me know in future![/quote] I will, Mike. Many thanks (likewise the other way around - although mine is a five string so be warned!!)

And something else gorgeous from Michel Petrucciani with Jackson doing his thing.....

Jackson is left with no nuts after grooving them off w. Robben Ford (guitar), Jimmy McGriff (organ), Bernard Purdie (drums), and the horn section of Phil Woods (alto), Bob Berg (tenor) and Art Farmer (trumpet). If you don't 'get' it, you have no pulse.

You can't get away from it. When he was on, he was ON!

I am finding that the best way to build up your left hand 'muscle tone' is to play the thing. I don't think you need strength as such, just finesse. If all the muscles in your left hand are working together efficiently, you probably had enough strength in that hand before you even started. PS I got three hours double bass practice in yesterday with no tension in my hands at all. A good action and tried and tested technique and it all comes together. Gain without pain