Doddy

I think your best bet is to find a good teacher and get some lessons.

I'm going to offer a different perspective on this as everyone is blaming the drummer. You say that now your timing is all over the place-to me that sounds like you need to sit down and improve that aspect of your playing.Time keeping should not be the sole responsibility of the drummer- everyone in the band should be able to keep time and if you think that the drummer is not confident enough then you may have to step up and take charge.If you find your timing is all over the place then it's going to be detrimental to the whole thing.

I'm not sure what you mean,but could it be that you are pulling out a harmonic?

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1255205' date='Jun 3 2011, 11:15 AM']Why is Mr S (my editor, by the way) interviewing Gwilym and not someone like Al Dankworth, Lol Cottle or even Guy Pratt? Seems a wasted opportunity to me.[/quote] At least they aren't interviewing Jamie Cullum.

What kind of stuff do you currently practice? There is so much stuff that you can sit down and study-reading,chord studies,theory,scales and modes,walking.... Lessons are your best bet,but you can get a lot out of books like 'Serious Electric Bass', 'Chord Studies','Hanon- the virtuoso pianist' 'Building/Expanding Walking Basslines',the various 'Real Books','The Evolving Bassist'...There is a ton of material to study-and non of that is about technique. Learning to slap will take a few hours,the other stuff will give you years of study.

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1254351' date='Jun 2 2011, 06:01 PM']Doddy, are you saying that Jared Followill wasn't a genre-spanning bass behemoth after a whole month of practice?[/quote] Far be it from me to suggest such a thing.......

[quote name='scottkincaid' post='1254103' date='Jun 2 2011, 03:06 PM']Dude, go and check Jared Followill's Wikipedia. He learned the bass a few weeks before recording and have a look at his basslines!?[/quote] You're not winning me over yet. There are a lot of players who pick up a bass and join a band (or the other way around),doesn't make them good.

I've seen it occasionally when I've been given a chart. But,it's really common to get lead sheets written in treble clef. It's always worth spending some time learning it.

[quote name='scottkincaid' post='1253441' date='Jun 2 2011, 04:34 AM']Some people are better or more naturally talented than others. For example, i have learned to play bass within two weeks, and i could now, pretty much play whatever you wanted; Funk, Indie, Rock, Metal ect. Whereas my friend has never had drum lessons, and he can play them better than most drummers i have seen. It just depends how musically inclined people are.[/quote] I thought I was a genius at 16 aswell.

[quote name='Salt on your Bass?' post='1252554' date='Jun 1 2011, 12:09 PM']Thanks BassBod. Yeah, thats what I thought would be the best move. Might struggle to get to blackheath though.[/quote] I'd go to Mo Clifton.It's worth the journey across London,I happily travel down from Stoke to have him work on my bass.

[quote name='Darshan' post='1251489' date='May 31 2011, 01:52 PM']thanks, actually I got that wrong, I meant 15 - 95[/quote] I'd probably add .10 across the board and go .25-.105

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='1251005' date='May 31 2011, 01:01 AM']And for balance, some not-at-all-metal fuzz bass: That's a green Sovtek Big Muff.[/quote] I love Robert Sledge's fuzz sound.

[quote name='Dropzone' post='1251347' date='May 31 2011, 12:35 PM']I actually treat our gigs as a paid night out with mates. The punters get in to see us for free and we don't get paid anywhere near as much as we deserve.[/quote] If you are treating it as a paid night out then you are probably getting as much as,or more than you deserve.

[quote name='hellothere' post='1250913' date='May 30 2011, 10:48 PM']Why is that so bad?[/quote] Because it usually continues with a story about how brilliant they are/were and how they go down great at the c*** and trumpet twice a year,or how they 'make the guitar talk'. It's also often followed by a request to have a go-although this is usually asked by drunk girlfriends. I had it this weekend-"My boyfriend used to be in a Take That tribute band....."

[quote name='4000' post='1250658' date='May 30 2011, 07:13 PM']Of course each individual player will have an effect on the sound. But that still isn't 100% of the sound. The 2 sounds in question are not the same sound (obviously, as there are two of them). You've already agreed with me in saying that one has more midrange and less top, hence they are not the same. Using the Stingray / P-Bass analogy, of course you will sound different to me playing them. But you will not sound the same on both, and neither will I (I know, I've tried it many times).[/quote] No it's not 100% of the sound,but I think it's the biggest variable. While I agreed with you on the two sounds having differences,it is still very recognisable as being a certain player by the sounds that are produced-in that case it is unmistakably Claypool. I think that the differences between two players (regardless of instrument) is more obvious than the differences between two Rickenbackers....again I'm talking about sound,not style.

[quote name='4000' post='1250572' date='May 30 2011, 06:08 PM']To move this away from sonics for a moment, I think what you're effectively trying to say is that the colour is recognisable as green regardless of what shade it is. In a sense you are of course correct. However I feel you're also implying that the shade is therefore irrelevant, that there is therefore no real difference between the shades, which is simply not the case. As a painter that's something I can argue quite categorically. My argument was about sonics, not about style, and I still maintain that the sonics are different, just as Emerald and Viridian are not the same, despite both being green.[/quote] Again,I am not talking about style either. As I said about the Claypool videos,the sound that he gets out of the instrument is recognisable. As you mention Janek-he's also mentioned numerous times that the sound comes from the player. I've never said that the 'shade is irrelevant',what I am saying us that a particular player will bring out a certain sound on an instrument.Sure a Stingray and P-bass have their own characteristics,but the way they I play them will bring out a different sound than how you play them. The Geddy Lee Ric/Jazz debate was mentioned earlier-two totally different instruments,yet both still sound like Geddy and have caused much confusion over the years. More of the sound comes from the hands than people realise,that's why two people playing exactly the same bass will sound different to each other.

I would have thought that all the parts would be transcribed in the correct key for the particular instrument,so the horns would be written as they would for a horn player.

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1248263' date='May 28 2011, 02:31 PM']I don't see a problem with slap bass not incorporating complex harmonic exploration - that's not what funk's about! That's JAZZ-funk. 'Jazz's deformed cousin' in the words of Vince Noir. Complex harmonic exploration never got anyone's booty shaking, ever. Love that Bootsy vid, not seen that one before![/quote] I'm not talking about playing complex harmonic exploration,just the fact that playing b7 to root hammer ons doesn't always fit,yet most slap players do this all the time regardless of the key or chord. That,and playing in keys that aren't E minor.

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='1249788' date='May 29 2011, 11:20 PM']Doddy, I don't really understand where you're coming from now. Are you honestly saying you think all basses sound the same with a given player? And/or that if you heard a set of single notes, each distinct in isolation rather than a continuous riff, that you'd actually recognise they were all played by Les Claypool?! Surely this is just a matter of what you're calling 'tone'.[/quote] I'm not saying that all basses sound the same with a particular player,but that a player has a certain sound that they bring out of an instrument. Like I said about the two Claypool videos,the Carl Thompson was slightly more midrange-y that the Rickenbacker,but there was still a similarity in the sound that was produced that was uniquely Claypool.

[quote name='4000' post='1249748' date='May 29 2011, 10:41 PM']No, the [i]playing[/i] is recognisably Claypool. If the sound seems pretty much the same to you then your ears aren't as good as I expected them to be. Or more likely you're listening to it in the same way that someone listens to a musical genre that they're not really intimate with or interested in; "metal/rap/pop? It all sounds pretty much the same" etc. I note you haven't answered the Entwistle question yet. If your ears can't tell the difference there, then I suspect its because you don't want them to.[/quote] I haven't answered the Entwistle question because I'm neither a fan of his or The Who in general and don't really want to listen to various eras of his playing. But I will disagree about how I'm listening to the music. While the playing is recognisably Claypool,so is the sound he produces,regardless of the instrument. No matter what bass he is playing,he has a recognisable sound as well as style. There is no way I could listen to anything he has done and say 'Oh yeah,that's a (whatever) bass',but I can recognise his sound a mile off.

Just take it steady and practice the semiquavers accurately.Speed will develop naturally.

[quote name='4000' post='1249446' date='May 29 2011, 05:44 PM']That staggers me. To me his CTs sound [i]nothing[/i] like his Ric. His Jazz sounds different again. I can only think you're listening to what he's playing or the sound you [i]think[/i] he's making rather than the sound he's [i]actually[/i] making. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjOM5YjMZ8w"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjOM5YjMZ8w[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS6Ptr2X72c&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS6Ptr2X72c...feature=related[/url] If the bass sounds in the clips sound the same to you then you really are hearing things very, very differently to me. Although I have a friend who couldn't tell the difference between my 4001CS and my V63, when to me, even when he was playing them, they sounded like chalk & cheese. Maybe my ears are better than I thought![/quote] To me,watching those clips I hear the Carl Thompson as being a little more midrange heavy and a bit less toppy than the Ric,but the sound is still recognisably Claypool. Your friend can't tell the difference between your two Rics? That doesn't surprise me at all.

"I'm/my mate/significant other/brother, is/used to be in a band............"

[quote name='TimR' post='1249202' date='May 29 2011, 02:19 PM']That's the distinction. If your sitting in a pit night after night reading dots, the last thing you need is a drink. If you're bashing out some three chord wonders on a Saturday night pub gig then it would be rude not to.[/quote] Makes no difference to me. I'm not sitting in a pit reading charts every night and I still don't bother. It doesn't matter if I'm playing in a theatre or a pub,I still very rarely have a drink when I'm gigging.

On a rare occasion I may have one pint all night-and then only if its bought for me.Usually it's water at gigs.I rarely drink anyway and have never felt the need to have a drink when I'm at work.