Bilbo

[quote name='Count Bassy' post='1141086' date='Feb 25 2011, 12:29 PM'](you do know that don't you Bilbo?).[/quote] I did

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1140919' date='Feb 25 2011, 10:30 AM']I think there is [b]sometimes[/b] something of the anti-hero thing going on here. 'Everyone likes X so I won't' kind of thing. Happens with all the great technicians on every instrument.[/quote] The emphasis was conscious.

[quote name='Count Bassy' post='1141012' date='Feb 25 2011, 11:40 AM']Yes, and it happens to iconic songs as well, for example Mustang Sally, All Right Now, Sweet Home Alabahma, etc., but best not start on that old chestnut again. Ooops - I just did.[/quote] Murrrch Ftumch Gnerrrspyth!! (Bilbo biting his tongue)

I think the point was some people slag of his tone but shouldn't because it is iconic. I think there is sometimes something of the anti-hero thing going on here. 'Everyone likes X so I won't' kind of thing. Happens with all the great technicians on every instrument.

I ask the question also whether there is a genre difference here in terms of what works. I did a rehearsal recently with a 'proper' violinist and mentioned that I was looking for an arco teacher who didn't live 60 miles away and we got talking about left hand technique and he said mine was much better than most players he had worked with in orchestras. It amused me because, in my own mind, I'm all over the place trying to get to where the players I listen to can get to but, in a nutchell, he seemed to think that a lot of classical bass playing was more 'centred' than jazz with fewer made skips etc. Reading this thread, I wondered whether owen's point about everyone being happy is about most people being able to do what they want to do because most people aren't doing madly technical stuff. HEALTH WARNING!! I don't know what I am talking about

I went through an ardent Jaco phase, not in an imitative sense but in the sense that he was one of four bass players who made me aware of the potential of our instrument beyond the bounds of the Rock I was then listening to (the other 3 were Jeff Berlin, Percy Jones and Jimmy Johnson). For a while there, I ought almost everything Jaco had ever done and soon realised that he had his limts (lots of licks and [i]serious[/i] repetition) but I also realised that his 'tone' was not a single sound but a range of sounds. The one everyone thinks of is the 'A Remark You Made' 'mwah' sound that defined a generation of players but there was also the much tighter sounds he used for funk grooves, the harmonics thing, the distorted Hendrix 'Third Stone' thing, the wooly 'Chromatic Fantasy' sound etc etc. There was also his conscious changing of tone within a line (watch his right hand in videos of 'The Chicken'). He played on some of the greatest fusion albums ever and made his mark as a leader (his main three solo cds are top drawer not just because of the bass playing but because of the music) and as a sideman in all sorts of settings but, as he got ill, he got lazy, lost his 'muse' and just kept regurgitating his own stuff (he played for the applause and that was all he got). He was, at different points in his career, a great player, a great musican and a real icon for us as players. Like Hendrix, Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Miles, Jimmy Blanton and Scott LaFaro etc there was bass before Jaco and bass after. Its as simple as that. His isn't the only iconic bass sound but it is undoubtedly one of the most distinctive and influential. As for Stanley Clarke, his sound was the [i]absence[/i] of tone.

Mmmmm. Comedy jazz. My favourite The trouble with 'in-jokes' like this is they seldom travel well Now lets' hear some proper stuff. I know you can do it (that much is obvious). You both have credible technique, good sounds (if recorded a little 'dry') and some creative arranging ideas. Now stop polishing turds and get down to business

The simple fact is that it is not the covers or originals that defines the ability of a band to get the gig, it is the ability of the band to pull an audience. Covers bands and tribute bands use the reputations of their subjects to secure a pseudo-guarantee of an audience. If an originals band has a followng, it should be equally attractive to a venue. The question is, how can bands work on building a following if the gigs are all given over to covers bands and tribute acts. I guess this is where they have to work a lot harder using alternative methods like the internet etc.

[quote name='JellyKnees' post='1139718' date='Feb 24 2011, 11:07 AM']Of couse, but unfortunately the opportunities to play live as an original band are severely limited these days.... I blame all these feckin tribute/cover bands, but especially the tribute acts. They really p me off actually...stop pretending to be someone else and go do something creative ffs. Parasites. Phew, glad I got that off my chest...[/quote] Careful, JK! You'll be as unpopular here as me if you carry on in that vein.

Welcome to Basschat, Mike.

I know a couple of piano players that write these books. They are given a recording and told to knock the charts together for piano and vocals with those awful chord box things. One middle aged balding guy told me he had done the Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks for piano a vocals. He played it for me - how we laughed. HC's guitar playing was perfectly congruent with the ensemble sound.

I play a 5 string double bass and find that there are significant differences between the same notes played on a high C rather than above the fifth fret of the G. My inotnation is better on the 5 and I rarely need to go above thrid position in a routine standards set (which is why the intonation is better). There is a strained quality that is characteristic of the double bass as you go up the neck (like singer going out of their range) and it brings a huma quality to the sound that electric basses lack. On the five, this effect occurs at a different place. I guess my point is that the difference between a 5 and a 4 string bass (electric or double) is not just defined by the lower/higher 5 notes. I don't like low Bs; never found them sufficiently warm enough for me, but have to admit to never having tried a 5 string electric with a high C. Have had 5s and 6s but never found the extra range particularly useful.

I guess you should ask yourself what need it is you are trying to meet. For me, the bass is increasingly peripheral to the music and is simply a tool for filling 'that' space in the overall sonic picture. Whether it sounds like a '57 Jazz or a birdseye maple Ken Smith Alembic Custom Fodera MkIII with ebony LEDs is not important to me. So I don't really get bass GAS. Amps have been the same although I am getting to the point where lifting the Eden Metro in and out of cars is getting harder on me physically so I am thinking of a smaller (but not lightweight) option like a Markbass set up etc. When I see these BC signatures where people have 8 or more basses, aside from wondering how they can afford them, I wonder what its is about, especially when they are all pretty much identical. Is the ability to produce all these minimally different sounds that important or are there other drivers? If you know what the actual purpose of owning each bass is, you will know whether you need it or not. I only need one credible professional quality instrument.

I always advocate for the Mark Levine book Doddy mentioned but have also recently discovered some useful stuff in David Baker's books (although they are jazz specific, the theory is transferrable); Jazz Improvisation: A Comprehensive Method for All Musicians How To Play Bebop (3 volumes) Arranging and Composing for the Small Ensemble: Jazz, R & B, Jazz Rock: For the Small Ensemble, Jazz, R & B, Jazz-Rock I would also add: Arranging for Large Jazz Ensemble by Ken Pullig Modern Jazz Voicings by Ted Pease Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians by Robert Rawlins Composing for the Jazz Orchestra by William Russo (slim or full version depending on your level of interest) I would also argue (although I am prepared to be challenged on this) that 'bass spcific' theory books are not the way to go as the theory is universal and its application will be much more use to you if it is not entirely bass focussed.

Use a second bass tuned down a half step.

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='1137262' date='Feb 22 2011, 04:20 PM']In that example I would play: --------------------------- -------2--2--------------- ---3----------------------- ---------------/5----------- Using middle finger for the C, first finger for the E, and then slide from G# to A using little finger.[/quote] Yup. WHen something is written with a slide, it will usually fall under the fingers quite naturally, especially if its TAB as that tends to come after the performance. Occasionally, it may require a moment's thought and a change in your choice of fingering for the whole passage, not just the slurred note. This can be particularly important on complex passages as the wrong fingering may render it unplayable whereas the right fingering will make soimething that looks hard relatively easy to execute.

I got a double bass sent over from Germany (not Thomans, Gedo Musik) and it took 3 days door to door.

First Bass Owned: Hondo II Precision copy 'Go To' Bass: Wal Custom Fretless 4 (only bass I have) 'Your' Bass: Wal Custom Fretless 4

Typo alert! G mixolydian doesn't work with a G maj7 chord. It works with a C maj7

Its complicated. Knowing where one scale starts is sometimes as simple case of looking at a chord that lasts, say, a bar, then looking at the next chord which lasts another bar and so on and changing the scale each bar. At other times, however, you can use one scale for several bars or even a whole tune. The first five chords of 'All The Things You Are' are all diatonic (in one key) so you can play one scale across all of them. Other songs have a change of scale every half a bar (Giant Steps is the most famously complicated example). You need to understand the relationship between a scale and a chord (say a C major scale against a C major chord) but you also need to build on that to understand the relationships between chords (e.g a C major scale will work over Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am7 and Bm7b5). Add the Cycle of Fifths and you have the building blocks for massive amounts of contemporary music. Its really not as complicated as it sounds. Start by looking at simple songs made out of simple chords - a 12-bar blues is as good a place to start as any.

Welcome, Si. You didn't tell us what basses you played. Gear is the main topic of conversation here I (despite my efforts) and people will be interested!

I think it is part of thei Big Society thing. We should all stop being paid and do it for free for the welfare and well being of our communties.

Yes, I would play if there was no money in it but only if there was no money for anyone, not just me/my band. I won't be exploited and, if I am going to do it for nothing, it would be entirely on my terms.

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='1135573' date='Feb 21 2011, 03:06 PM']Once you find a sim that works for you, try the following: * Record your bass part clean * Copy the part to an adjacent track making sure they're perfectly aligned * Put the amp sim on the second track * Mute the clean track and fiddle with the amp sim till you get close to a sound you like * Unmute the clean track * Fiddle with the volume balance between the two, applying appropriate EQ, compression etc to each track until it sounds nice. The clean track supplies definition, the sim track adds warmth, etc. After all this fun, you can always send the two tracks to a bus, track folder, whatever, for kick drum ducking, etc.[/quote] Marvellous. Why didn't I think of that....

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1135300' date='Feb 21 2011, 11:51 AM']Pump It Up - Elvis Costello Nice & Sleazy - The Stranglers Down in the Tube Station - The Jam Its Too Bad - The Jam Substitute - The Sex Pistols version, that is London Calling - The Clash Babylons Burning - The Ruts[/quote] Nice set!