peteb

This old chestnut again – obviously a hot topic on this forum! As far as I am concerned, you need to learn to play and the best way to do that is to listen to your favourite players (not just one, the more the better) and learn everything that they do backwards. Then all you need to do is to merge it all together and hopefully find your own style somewhere in the there! This is not just my opinion, but is one shared by many top players including the likes of Steve Lukather, Paul Gilbert & Bryan Beller (all of whom happen to be sight reading ‘taught’ musicians) To be able to do this to any standard at all you need to be able to understand the mechanics of how music is put together, which is another way of saying that you need to have some working knowledge of music theory (whether you know what the correct terms for musical concepts or not) - how you apply that theory is of course up to you Whether you need to be able to read or not is another thing altogether. In over 30 years of playing in gigging bands, including playing with guys who have toured the world in pro bands, I have never seen anyone produce a written score! However, if you want to be able to do the type of work that people like Doddy do, then reading is essential……

[quote name='molan' post='1242359' date='May 23 2011, 10:08 PM']By the way - as I'm here and talking about NYC's - has anyone tried the Fodera NYC range?[/quote] Yes I have and TBH was a little disappointed! Truly beautiful looking bass but nothing special to me in both tone and playability – I recently bought a passive Mayones jazz and dropped a John East preamp in it and the Mayones is a nicer instrument to play and sounds much better IME and costs more than £1.5k less! Honestly, I really wanted to like it – especially as by far the best bass I have ever played is a top of the range Fodera!

If you can, try & get one of the top of the range models secondhand (steamer stage 1 / 2, thumb, etc) rather than some of the mid priced ones – they are going for silly money and are brilliant basses if you are not bothered about the fashion angle! I got a mint stage one from eBay a few years ago at a ridiculously low price – almost given away! Superb bass and the prices have dropped even further since then!!

[quote name='ern500evo' post='1241656' date='May 23 2011, 02:33 PM']I have to agree with Yorks5stringer that the writer may has slighly missed the point. Out of curiosity, i wonder if the writer is the same Geoff Livermore that plays in a Foo Fighters tribute band, and if it is, would he be so outraged if Nate Mendel gave the same answers! [/quote] I live around the corner from Geoff - will check next time I see him (possibly in the pub tomorrow night)...!

[quote name='chris_b' post='1234552' date='May 17 2011, 04:50 PM']Have a good memory. As long as you get the second verse right they'll usually forgive you the first verse.[/quote] That is my guiding principle when doing deps playing material that I don't know

Isn't this line-up just a power trio really - one lead instrument, one bass instrument and drums?? Does it really matter if it is a lead guitar or a saxophone playing (mainly) single note solos? There is still that space to be filled out, the freedom to play more without encroaching on the other players and the need to get bigger tones than you would get away with if there were more instruments? A different genre of music but basically the same thing as Cream of Van Halen playing instrumental passages!!

[quote name='Dad3353' post='1226897' date='May 10 2011, 11:03 PM']Good evening, Pete... Something to try..? Divide the 32 into 4 8-bar sections. Go easy (simple and solid...) for the first section, add a bit more for the second, and so on. The last couple of bars can be 'firework' time; anyway, aim to end on a climax. If you're following the 'hot' key player, you could try something really jarring to bring attention to your spot. A nice hefty silence, or a low 'pedal' note', should go down well (and allows for applause to die down...), then start building up the pressure. A solo spot is much better when constructed, rather than totally improvised, and relies more on form than virtuosity in order to be efficient. The 'hot licks' are extra (and fun...),but the form makes it all work. Please excuse my butting in; just my tuppence worth, hope this helps...[/quote] Thanks for that – feel free to butt in all you like! I did originally try to construct a solo much in line with what both you & Scott have suggested, but unfortunately it didn’t really work when I tried to play it live (sounded fine at home though), hence t5he reason for the original post! Even though I have been playing a long time and am very comfortable on stage, I have never really had to play a solo as part of a song as such and don’t really feel as at ease as I do playing a song or runs in endings, etc. I think that I will go back to your idea and break it down into sections but start it off relatively low key and build it up to allow me to get the feel right. It doesn’t help that this is a very simple song at the end of the night to allow for all sorts of tomfoolery and general interaction with the audience and therefore can go off in all sorts of different directions and is never the same twice! Any other suggestions welcome of course…………..

[quote name='Doddy' post='1228550' date='May 12 2011, 11:00 AM']I know,but for me it just doesn't 'feel' right. It's one of those tunes that I never think works when played by a guitar band.It sounds so much better with keys.[/quote] My own recollections of playing this tune with guitar bands is that audiences want to like the song but get bored of it quickly, so you get a good reaction to the initial riff but you need to do something with the arrangement (or seague into another tune) after the second chorus as they start to get restless! Of course with keys you have a lot more options to take the song somewhere else.....

[quote name='Doddy' post='1228326' date='May 12 2011, 01:31 AM']...And in the wrong key. Loads of people (read:Guitarists) play it in E minor,but for me,it just feels so much better in Eb minor.[/quote] Unfortunately that makes it impossible to play on a guitar / 4 string bass in standard tuning Get the feel right and E sounds just fine!

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='1224806' date='May 9 2011, 09:38 AM']That's great.... I'll have a look later on. Yeh - I realised it was actually a synth part but I've certainly seen it done on the bass...... at the tricky end of the covers band scene [/quote] Actually, it's really not that hard to pull off once you get the feel right! As WoT says above, just make sure that you don't try to play it too fast.....

[quote name='devinebass' post='1226748' date='May 10 2011, 09:26 PM']Wow, a groove in E... the worlds your oyster lol!!! Not sure where you are as a player but maybe start with a minor pentatonic/blues scale type thing... you'll have heard a lot of these types of melodies before so it should be easier for you to come up with some solo lines through familiarity to that sound. If you can't 'hear it' you'll struggle to play it. Maybe try singing some lines over an E vamp, then work out on the bass what you've been singing. And... don't feel ashamed of working something out to play. After you've done it at a few gigs you can start to alter it 'on the fly' and after a while you'll be improvising!! Good luck man, Scott. [url="http://www.scottsbasslessons.com"]http://www.scottsbasslessons.com[/url] [url="http://www.scottdevinemusic.com"]http://www.scottdevinemusic.com[/url][/quote] All dead simple stuff and I have no ambition to be a soloist and quite adverse to jazz - suppose that I just want to work out something that will get a cheer when I get introduced to the audience, which tends to be following keys player who's an extremeley hard act to follow...! I have been trying to work up ideas based round simple pentatonic/blues scale things but tend to find myself playing a succession of fast pentatonic runs until I run out of ideas! Will have to go back to the drawing board and try trawling thru youtube for some inspiration - I imagine that the secret lies more in working out some ideas in the phrasing of the notes! Thanks for the response my friend Cheers - Pete PS. if you're interested here's a clip of the band: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJJ60x5o1Lc"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJJ60x5o1Lc[/url] (first gig with the new line up and probably the most simple thing we do but you get the idea)

Hey Scott Talking about soloing more generally – after 30 years of gigging I now find myself for the first time obliged to take a solo in the last song of the night! Bearing in mind that this is in a blues rock band and all I have to do is play something with a bit of impact that can grab people’s attention for 32 bars or so over a simple mid tempo groove in ‘E’ I have no problems at all playing runs or constructing lines, etc and have occasionally played ‘musical interlude’ type solos in the past, but I’m just not used to playing solos as part of a song – it doesn’t help that there two very strong soloists (guitar & keys) in the band! Any hints on how to get started?? Cheers – Pete

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1206202' date='Apr 20 2011, 06:14 PM']You lot have been busy , I have never seen so many pages in a day! Who won in the end then? [/quote] SteveK

[quote name='Wil' post='1205942' date='Apr 20 2011, 03:20 PM']Hell, I can sight read for cello and piano, to an extent, but not for bass or guitar. I've just never seen the need to even learn the notes on the board besides the common chord roots.[/quote] Sorry, but that is a bit daft! To be any good you need to know your way around the instrument and understand a bit about the mechanics of how music works But you don't need to be able to read music...!

This old chestnut again! I have been playing in bands and gigged for more than 30 years and have played with many musicians who are generally considered to be very good, including quite a few who have been ‘pros’ at one time or another, some who read music and some who don’t….. The new keys player in a band I’m playing in now has been in the touring bands of a couple of household names, played world tours, Wembley Stadium, etc. I assume that he can probably read music but I couldn’t say for certain because in over 30 years of playing I have never had anyone try to put a chart in front of me or suggested that I needed to read music…!

[quote name='Doddy' post='1200180' date='Apr 15 2011, 01:41 AM']Check out this really cool interview with Beller by Janek Gwizdala............. [url="http://members.videobasslessons.tv/interviews/bryan-beller-interview/"]http://members.videobasslessons.tv/intervi...ller-interview/[/url][/quote] Great clip.... thanks for posting that! It's even made me think about putting together a pedalboard, which is something I've never bothered with before Just shows that you can be a great player and still be a decent bloke and not a sociopath...!

[quote name='TomKent' post='1200179' date='Apr 15 2011, 01:34 AM']They get given them probably. [/quote] And that's the reason why....!

[quote name='Musicman20' post='1200133' date='Apr 14 2011, 11:52 PM']There does tend to be a lot of pros using the combos.[/quote] To be fair, a lot of pros use Ashdown!

I know that there are a few folk on here who are fans of Scott Thunes – well here is an account by Bryan Beller, the guy who replaced Thunes in Z, (Dweezil Zappa's band) of how he got the gig (and why Thunes was sacked), working with the Zappa family, FZ’s death, playing with Mike Keneally, etc: [url="http://www.bryanbeller.com/music/zrap.html"]http://www.bryanbeller.com/music/zrap.html[/url] Interesting stuff (as is the rest of Beller’s website)….!

Guy Pratt’s take on the main riff (and a few other disco classics): [url="http://www.youtube.com/user/DavidSinRocks#p/a/f/1/T_3Jc54k1Es"]http://www.youtube.com/user/DavidSinRocks#...f/1/T_3Jc54k1Es[/url]

[quote name='birdy' post='1197600' date='Apr 12 2011, 11:17 PM']I suspect this is the sticking point - the fact that the bass is now in Bulgaria (I could be wrong). If I were Mark I would want absolute proof that the bass and pictures were the one I had sold. Playing devils advocate at what point does Mark cease to be responsible for the bass. Lets imagine that the guy in Bulgaria did not spot it was a dud and sold it to someone in Norway a year later - should Mark still refund? Where does the guy who Mark bought the bass stand on this morally? This is a lot more complex than meets the eye in many ways and I expect Marks stance is based on ensuring he is not ripped off. I am in no way saying that anyone is trying to rip anyone off but I would want to know all the facts before I passed judgement either way. Its a shame that this could not have been resolved privately but none of us know the facts of who said what to whom or what has been said prior to this.[/quote] +1 - exactly

[quote name='Beedster' post='1197569' date='Apr 12 2011, 11:05 PM']Explain?[/quote] As I understand it, the guy has bought a bass that he believes not to be genuine but has since traded it on to someone across the other side of Europe