Bilbo

All sound the bl**dy same to me.

Remember, tho'. Obsessive little kids are going to keep going back to that video again and again so 40 million views is not 40 million viewers. Jamiroquai fans are likely to be older and will have less time to spend watching favourite videos over and over again.

For me, it is about understanding how those subdivisions work. If you understand where each note shoudl be, you can focus you attention on the relationship between the notes you play and where they occur. If you focus on the notes simply as a sequence of noises, you will lose the momentum. If you think of it as a sequence of noises that have a relationship to a pulse, you will start to see where each note is in relation to that pulse. If I were you, I would spend some time worrying about the rhythm and not the notes. I recommend this as a start and endpoint for reading AND UNDERSTANDING rhythms. [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=reading+rhythms"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?u...reading+rhythms[/url]

Have mostly played fretless since 1986. The fretted used to come out occasionally but I got rid of my last fretted bass last year and now have not got one. My position is that the only bass playing that sounds better on a fretted bass is slapping and tapping, neither of which I do. Chordal playing is also easier on a fretted bass but as I am not a fan of the sound of chordal bass, that is not a problem either. Frets are for wimps

I was gigging around Cardiff when you got started. Maybe we met. Welcome to Basschat.

Give yourself to the lesson with humility. Don't make the mistake of thinking you know everything and of wanting to prove yourself the fastest gun in town - its alarmingly common. It is perfectly possible for you to have a very productiuve lesson with NO bass, never mind which one you want to take although a teacher may wish to watch you play in order to get a sense of what you are doing right and wrong. But talking is good. Listening is better.

One of the few that carry the flag for arco soloing in jazz. Great CV.

I just don't get it. If anything is self indulgent and has no audience, there will be no gigs, no recordings, no videos....etc. If Steve Howe had an audience that consisted solely of Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman and Chris Squire, then he was not self indulgent. The fact that a zillion people also bought the records and went to the gigs is just further evidence that it was not self indulgence. It was a product, it had an audience. As for the 'students only liked it because their mates did' argument, the same could readily be said about any form of entertainment. Its all about communication. If Coltrane's 20 minute solo communicates to 1 person, it has purpose. Self indulgence is booking a venue to play to an empty room, making a video of yourself that noone else ever sees, recording your own stuff at home and never playing it to anyone. If it gets you one gig, sells one download or one ticket, or even if it is watched once on Youtube, it immediately ceases to be self indulgent. Even if the only person who likes it is your old Mum, its worth it. So can we leave the term out of criticism, please. Its meaningless.

Is there an echo in here here?

I don't have to worry about such things as I play fretless And, yes, it has happened to me.

[quote name='silddx' post='1277559' date='Jun 21 2011, 07:34 PM']I used to jump in on these threads with the first thing that came into my head! Idiot. [/quote] And what's wrong with spontaneity?

[quote name='gjones' post='1277518' date='Jun 21 2011, 07:15 PM']Oh that was you was it? Thanks for that. Sorry about your shoes.[/quote]

Who mentioned Jazz?

[quote name='risingson' post='1277418' date='Jun 21 2011, 06:00 PM']The intimacy and appeal of an acoustic guitar and a voice like James Taylor's isn't comparable to a Victor Wooten video, or any bass solo video. They are two totally different kettles of fish![/quote] I couldn't give a rat's ar*e; the point is that the audience for both is similar so neither can be called self indulgent. Unless 2m watched the JT video and one person watched the wooten video 2m times? It could happen!

[quote name='kevin_lindsay' post='1277353' date='Jun 21 2011, 05:13 PM']For The Love Of Money by the O'Jays. Bassline was originally played by a young Anthony Jackson[/quote] I could remind everyone that the tune was co-written by AJ and Gamble and Huff, but that would be self indulgent. It was used on the Trump version of The Apprentive in the US

[quote name='Mykesbass' post='1277384' date='Jun 21 2011, 05:34 PM']Almost fully support your stand Bilbo, but is there not a point (guitarists attempting to out-shred one another, bass players indulging in slap-fests, classical composers pushing boundaries for the sake of it and jazzers taking improvisation further off piste) where it becomes competitive, and having become competitive they are then doing it for their own personal achievement, not for the benefit of the listening public, thereby becoming self indulgent?[/quote] No. It is what it is. Look at the Youtube views counts on the slapfests. VERY FAST SLAP!!! VICTOR WOOTEN LIVE viewed 2,028,075 x James Taylor - "Fire & Rain", uploaded onto Youtube about the same time, 1,870,227 views One would be called 'self indulgent', the other not. It doesn't matter whether you like one ot the other. The audience is there for each. It is not, therefore, self-indulgence but entertainment. Yes and Genesis were stadium fillers at the height of their game, just like Take That and Justin Bieber. What's self indulgence got to do with it?

OK, I've got the a*** I keep hearing the term 'self indulgence' used whenever there is any suggestion that a musician is moving away from the groove and into the area of soloing or collective improvisation. I have heard this term since the heady days of punk when the bands I liked (Yes, Genesis etc) were dismissed by the monkey-booted, donkey-jacket wearing Philistines that surrounded me as irrelevant because of their 'self indulgence'. Well, I am sorry, but I and many of my colleagues LIKE this stuff so, by definition, we represent an audience which means that, by definition, there is an entertainment element to this stuff. More to the point, I can't think of anything more self indulgent that singers telling me they are hurting because their girlfriend left them or how they are gonna rrrrrrrock - its a bit like those drunks you get at parties that bore you senseless with their adolescent meandering and who you only walk home with because you fear that they may collapse in the gutter and choke to death on their own vomit. An improvising player who is constantly searching within his playing or composition for new ideas and new sounds is, for me, something to be admired, feted and celebrated. I can't see that a soloist in any contemporary setting is any more self indulgent that Paganini or Yo Yo Ma, excellent musicians who are masters of their instruments. A musician who can take you somewhere emotionally without having to tell you in monosyllabic terms where they are going is a lot more interesting than the 'painting by numbers' drivel of most pop and rock music. Watching 20 somethings playing the only three chords they know whilst they strike a pose identical to the one struck by the last 20 year old and the one before that whilst having a crowd of thousands 'saluting' them with fists in the air, waving cigarette lighters or swaying Arsenal scarves? Now THAT is self indulgent!

[quote name='BigAlonBass' post='1277225' date='Jun 21 2011, 03:55 PM']Oooooh! I don't 'know of' a certain person's technique, therefore I'm not as 'seriously musical' as most. Back to the 'Divide' then. [/quote] Just listen to 'im. Will ya? Promise me? [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=139892&hl=AJ"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=139892&hl=AJ[/url]

[quote name='BigAlonBass' post='1277181' date='Jun 21 2011, 03:30 PM']1) He's [i]staring[/i] at the neck. This, to me, equates to self-indulgence, and to heck with the audience. 2) He's playing a single-cut Bass. Nobody has [i]ever[/i] played any music that appeals to me, whilst wielding an SC. 3) He's hitching a lift. As soon as I see the 'slapper's thumb' come out - I'm long gone.[/quote] 1) There's a lot of it..... I bet he plays to bigger audiences than most on here . And I bet more people go to see [i]him[/i] play than most. 2) Your bad. 3) Jackson never slaps. He uses his thumb as a quasi-pick to pluck lines whilst partly deadening the strings with his left hand. A seriously musical approach that many here will know of.

I guess there is some relationship between the set lists people have and the complexity of arrangements. ELO/Queen stuff you see tends to be the more 'basic' tunes (Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Don't Stop Me Now) rather than the heavier arranged stuff. A lot of the better stuff by these kinds of bands couldn't be done justice by an average 4-piece

I am a 'one bass' man, pretty much, but there are certainly some SCs out there that woudl turn my head if I had a spare few grand. Some Fodera's, some Sei's; not all of them. I think the AJ Presentation Fodera is a design highlight but there are some SCs that are plug ugly (the Beez Elite that someone here raved about looks awful to me) and some of the Shuker cutaways don't work for me either. But this is simple aesthetics. I also don't like most double cutaway shapes, most colours (the concept of the 'sunburst' is, for me, the design trainwreck of the century), most headstocks etc etc etc. SCs are, as has been said, an alternative choice. Noone I know could 'hear' a SC in a mix. Its just a look that some like and which others don't. Personally, I don't think I have ever played one but I would love to try out the AJ, even if I have no chance of ever owning one. I almost hope I don't like it so I won't have terminal GAS!!

Desafinado Tarde Em Tapoa Final Feliz Se Chiclete Com Banana Mas Que Nada Fotographia Incompatibilidade De Genios Jade Drao A Novidade Eu Tiro Onda Clandestino Flor De Lis Fato Consumado Xote De Alegria 100 Anos A Luz De Tieta Luiza Espanahola Nem Un Dia Palco Soy Loco Por Ti America Vamos Fugir ….all the hits really (Excuse spelling; this was all off the top of my cabeca)

[quote name='gazzer86' post='1276612' date='Jun 21 2011, 07:18 AM']I take it this is normal!!!?[/quote] Pretty (twitch) much :blink...