Bilbo

I always told students 'if you haven't got that knot of frustration in your stomach when you are practising, you're probably not working on anything new'

[quote name='tauzero' post='701563' date='Jan 5 2010, 01:35 PM']B, D, F = something odd that Bilbo can tell you about.[/quote] Its still a minor third but the fifth, in this case, is diminished i.e. made smaller, one fret down. For the sake of completion, if the fifth were augmented, made bigger, it would be one fret up. The problem is that there is no one route through this, there is no one-way to go so you will never know it all in the right order. My advice is to start with the concept of intervals - the distance between any two notes, irrespective of which notes they are. Know a semi-tone/diminshed second (one fret), tone/second (two frets), minor third (three frets), major third (four frets), fourth (five frets), augmented fourth/flattended or diminished fifth (six frets), fifth (seven frets), augmented fifth/flattened or diminished sixth (eight frets), sixth (nine frets), dominant seventh (ten frets), major seventh (eleven frets), octave (tweleve frets). An awful lot comes out of this.

[quote name='Marvin' post='701540' date='Jan 5 2010, 01:11 PM']A simple example. C major scale. I read somewhere that the chords in C major contain 4 major chords and 3 minor chords. And that was it. Nowhere did it explain why in a major scale did you have even 1 minor chord (it highlighted Dm). Call me thick but I don' understand it: minor chords in a major scale chord progression.[/quote] My point was that information is there to use, not to provide explanations of the information I used as an example. You can get the gist of that paragraph by reading the first and last sentences only. If you want to get into the theory I mentioned in more detail, PM Jakesbass for a lesson. He is a better teacher than I am.

[quote name='jamesbass116' post='700938' date='Jan 4 2010, 08:41 PM']even though they're veeeeeeeeery old[/quote] Errrr... that's a good thing, James. The older the better in most cases.

[quote name='Clarky' post='700737' date='Jan 4 2010, 06:07 PM']As far as i could tell (though I was too scared to say) every note in a scale is either a flattened, sharp or natural something-or-other and it seemed that there were no rules about which ones to play over any given chord. Clearly that last statement must be rubbish, as undoubtedly some note choices are atonal/dissonant/nasty, but thats how it felt.[/quote] It sounds to me like you were given too rich a diet too quickly. In reality, all notes can be played against all chords - they all result in individual sounds/textures that can legitimately be used in the creative process. By KNOWING what each not sounds like against each chord and by KNOWING why and how it functions, you will be able to make informed decisions about what to do with each individual piece of independent information. Knowing that a dominant seventh chord resolves to a Major chord a fifth below (say G7 to Cmaj7) means you can always hear that coming a mile off. Knowing that it can also resolve to a Major seventh chord a major third below (say G7 to Ebmaj7), creating a completely different feeling, immediately gives you choices. The more knowledge you have, the more choices you have. A diatonic major scale over a dominamt seventh chord or a diminshed scale implying a flattened ninth? Or an augmented scale over a dominant? All different, all correct and all options you can use as a composer, orchestrator or improviser. But you can't digest this stuff in a couple of lessons. One of the most wonderful skills I admire, which is one I don't have although I do try, is the way great composers can use a simple theme and create a ludicriously complex array of compositions out of it. Doesn't matter whether we are talkng Kenny Wheeler, Javier Navarette, Pat Metheny or Edward Elgar - I would consider it almost unthinkable that these kinds of work could be achieved without some understanding of the building blocks. Throwing three chords together stopped doing it for me thirty years ago. Some of the greatest pop icons of the 20th century and beyond were only able to do what they did as entertainers because of 'trained' backroom boys like Quincy Jones, Lalo Schiffrin, George Martin, Geoff Gasgoine etc etc. And as for 'feel'. The celebrity 'stars' like Madonna, Sting, Whitney Houston, Paul Simon, Steely Dan etc etc are also often backed up by 'educated' players, be they Omar Hakim, Victor Bailey, Michael Brecker, Matt Garrison, Daryl Jones, Chris Potter and so on. So you cannot say that players who know their stuff are anywhere near being less able to 'groove' because they know sh**. After all, and with respect to those that groove their asses off seven nights a week, 52 weeks of the year, it ain't rocket science!

To write just one piece of music I can be proud of. Just one.

I am not going to say too much on this because I get irritated by anyone that advocates ignorance in favour of knowledge - it just doesn't compute. For me, the theory allows you to be a musician and not just a bass player. I love music more than almost anything and cannot get by without it. I love everything to do with it and have done since I was about 10. Why wouldn't I want to know theory? Why wouldn't I want to learn to read the dots? The only thing that stops me from spending every waking hour musiking is the fact that our society doesn't value it as much as I do so forces me to earn a living another way. I have played Aja cold from a chart. I strongly suspect it wasn't as good as it would have been had the players involved rehearsed it for days but it hung together. Same with Fagen's 'The Goodbye Look'. I have played shows and big band gigs reading every note from a page and done whole gigs where I didn't know a single tune but busked the whole thing. You get the widest basket of skills you can to make you ready for the fray. It keeps you sharp.

Take the good ones when they come along and don't ask why, that's my motto. Its not a competition. Have a great gig.

Re: Your query about the difference between a J pick up and a P pick up, I wouldn't worry about that at this stage is electronic and relates to the sound generated but most people can't tell the difference. You are a way off even beginning to need to know or to have a preference. An electro-acoustic is an acoustic bass with a built in pick up. An acoustic bass guitar is supposed to be one that you can play without an amp (like an acoustic guitar) but the nature of the bass (i.e. the frequencies it generates etc) means that most electro-acoustic basses are inaudible unless they are plugged in so there's pretty much no difference other than the sound of individual instruments. Personally, I think you woul have to spend 10 times your budget ot get an electro-acoustic worth having so, my advice is to go with the electrics at this stage. At this stage in your career, the main noticable difference between a Fender/Squier Jazz bass and a similar Precision is the string spacing and the width of the neck. The term Jazz in this context is a brand name not a reference to the musical genre (more like the aftershave and the car than the music ).

Welcome, Santinian. You'll get all the answers you need here.

Usually the last chord on the chart

Welcome - good to have you on board.

It came to mind when I was contributing to another thread here. Apologies if it has been done before but I was thinking.... A lot of folk here are fairly obsessive about their gear and getting their sound. There is talk of this type of bass vs. that type, these strings vs. those, that amp, vs. the other sort etc etc. By implication, the right formula of bass, strings, amp, lead, pedal, compressor etc etc will give you the greatest sound in the world - your own. The implication is that, if you can buy this great sound, so can someone else (an over simplification I know but work with me). Now some will know I am not particularly attracted to these kinds of arguments and believe that there is a lot to be gained by working with the sound you have rather than mincing about trying to find another one (the problem with finding your true path is in realising that you are already on it...). So, my question is, how many of us admire and aspire to having a sound like a player whose playing we don't like? Most of us like the sound of players whose music we like listening to so, by my reckoning, it is the sound of the bass in the context of the music being played that attracts us NOT the sound itself. So, whilst we can buy the gear and get THAT sound we seek, we can't really recreate the context in which it exists so are inevitable frustrated because our perfect sound does not exist in isolation. So, who do you think has got a great sound but you nevertheless don't like listening to them. For my part, I can't think of a single player.

A welcome addition to my downloaded charts file!! Great perfromance and some classic Flim fills (bar 37 and those last few bars you mentioned). I have always loved the way he uses the whole range of his bass in some of his fills. And never forget the power of the straight crotchet!!!! Now I wanna go listen to more Flim Johnson!!! Curses!

[quote name='yorick' post='692289' date='Dec 23 2009, 01:03 PM']Am I Evil by Diamondhead.[/quote] I have that LP in a white cover. Is it worth anything yet?

I have always found them quick. I guess it depends what you order (2 x SM58s last time, if I recall correctly)

[quote name='danny-79' post='692572' date='Dec 23 2009, 08:51 PM']....ove it or hate it pretty much everybody has owned a copy of it at some point.[/quote] Its a small world you live in, Danny - I can pretty much say, unequivocally, that the percetnage of the musicians I regularly play with that will have owned or heard BSSM is tiny.

Having done some considerable research into the lives of Black American musicians, I have absolutely no doubt that they were hugely disadvantaged up until the Civil Rights movement but am equally convinced that the racism that resulted in their active oppression didn't just go away because Rosa Parks didn't give up her bus seat. It just got more subtle. There is so much evidence of the marginalisation of Black Americans in all walks fo life, even today, that it would be incredible if this didn't work its way into the music business. Whilst my own value base would agree with Bloodaxe in terms of 'if it sounds good, it is good', the OP was referring to the commercial success or otherwise of a string of Black artists not at his opinion of their individual merits and asking whether this was a consequence of Race. I suspect it played a part - maybe in the distribution of their product, their mainstream media presence, the inches of newsprint they were given, the support of the record companies, the frequency with which they appeared on the radio, the support gigs they were offered etc etc. It is hard to point at this and screm 'racism' as other white bands get the same treatment but, comparing like for like, were they disadvantaged by their Race? Maybe? Maybe not - whatever happened, they made their mark and should be congratulted. RHCP came too late for me so its not fair for me to compare their appeal (I have never heard BSSM but have heard Vivid, Stain and the otehr Vernon Reid stuff mentioned earlier). But I would be surprised if the Black acts listed and RHCP were competing on a level playing field. PS - the concept of music as the ultimate Meritocracy is a personal one. I used to share it but, after years of looking at the issue, have had to come to the conclusion that it is not the case and nevet was. Read Val Wilmer, Frank Kofsky, Albert Murray, Stanley Crouch, Amira Baraka....

There is a long tradition of White artists benefitting from the success of pirated/plagiarised 'Black music'. Benny Goodman, the so called 'King of Swing' was said to ride on the abilities of Freddie Keppard etc, the first jazz band recorded 'the Original Dixieland Jazz Band' were White, Chet Baker had commercial successes where Miles Davis didn't (Baker did sing tho' which made him more marketable), Bill Haley, Elvis Presley et al were all said to be clones of black artists - it is often said that Presley's success was based on his being a White man (more marketable) simply doing what Black acts had been doing for years in the more marginal 'Race' market. In the 1980s, Herbie Hancock made a video for his 'Rockit' single that did not feature him as his presence on-screen, as a Black artist, was thought to have made the product less marketable to the new video channels like MTV. Perhaps all of this is demographically inevitable - people of one culture taking something from another and making it accessible to a new market. Perhaps its subtle or not so subtle racism - the White market preferring to spend money on one of its own. Its always difficult to be absolutely sure. It may simply be that the work of Black artists at that time didn't resonate with the marketplace the way it does now. But that doesn't explain Michael Jackson, Motown, Stevie Wonder etc. Maybe the Rock/Metal market wasn't ready for Black guys playing music that was traditionally White. In truth, Vernon Reid, of Living Color, already had a pedigree as a free jazz musician (Ronald Shannon Jackson's Decoding Society, Hal Wilner's 'Weird Nightmare', Bill Frissel's In Line' etc) and may have been less satisfied with the commercial market. Maybe a lot of the underground Black metal bands were just ahead of their time. In short, I'm damned if I know!

Good work, Matt! Time well spent!! Didn't know the tune (have some Yellowjackets but it all got a bit predictable for me). This is nice, tho'. I will get the track off itunes and give it a go!

1) How long have you been playing Bass Guitar/String Bass for or both? Electric - 29 years - Double bass - three weeks 2) If you don’t play string bass/bass guitar have you thought of doubling up on either to get more recognition as a bass player? Not to get more recognition but to get more work! 3) Who are your favourite exponents of both string bass/bass guitar? Dave Holland and Marc Johnson on double. Steve Swallow and Jimmy Johnson on electric 4) Do you think that both the bass guitar and string bass are important as bass instruments? DIfferent instruments that work better in different settings but, yes, they are both important 5) What genres do you think are important for bass players to listen to? All 6) Do you think electric guitarists can learn to play bass guitar more than string bass? Yes, the change is easier 7) Do you think bass can be used to solo as well as accompany other instruments? Of course but with care 8) Do you think it is important to learn to sight read? Very - not because its is essential but because it is particularly useful 9) What do you think of bass guitars such as 5 string/6 string e.g. as being an add-on to the bass players role? 5 string yes but the 6 is probably not worth the extra upper range as it is thin and icky. After that, I think the ERB thing is a bit 'for the sake of it. 10) What are your opinions on electric upright basses as a substitute for the string bass? If the instrument works, fine, if it doesn't.... 11) What is the best amp to use for bass guitar or string bass? Too simplistic - I use Eden but others would do the job just as well. 12) What pickups for string bass are the best for capturing the natural tone of the instrument? Not got that far yet.

After a great year in 2008 (120), 2009 was a bit of a let down with only 52. The people I work with lost three residencies to the recession (two venues stopped having bands and one went bust). One of them has restarted albeit fortnightly instead of weekly but the other two are dead in the water. Its given me a reason the revisit the double bass (to try and get more jazz work) and a little more practice time but here's hoping 2010 picks up.

Band in a Box may be useful. Its not great but as a sketch pad, it can be quite effective in allowing you to put in chord sequences and hearing them with different feels. The samples are weak and the rock stuff particularly poor but, as I said, as a sketch pad, it has merit.

That'll be a Chapman Stick, won't it?

Most Western jazz harmony comes from six scales: major, natural minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor, diminished and augmented. In VERY simplistic terms, chords are genrally built around alternate notes on each of those scales e.g. 1,3,5,7,9,11,13 C Major scale = CDEFGABC so 1357 is CEGB = a major seventh c Natural Minor = CDEbFGAbBbC so 1357 is CEbGBb = minor seventh c Harmonic minor = CDEbFGAbBC so 1357 is CEbGB = minor/major seventh and so on. Its a massive subject (especially when you get into voicings and inversions) but the principles are quite simple. I woudl recommend you get in touch with someone who knows this stuff and get some 1:1 time.