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ML94

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Posts posted by ML94

  1. Hey Bilbo thanks for the reply!

    Would you know where on the interweb ;) can i get my hands on some more jazz related theory ? I mean I have the basic jazz theory down but thats the bare minimum. I have the 'Jazz theory book' Andy Levine, but i haven't really sat down and read it. Do you think sitting down and having a read would be beneficial or is there other material out there that has a better and clearer source of information ?

  2. I think if your looking to get a nice, well known slap sound then slapping like Marcus is great (without double thumbing). Hitting the string with your thumb and bouncing it back off near the end of the fretboard gets you a nice sound and its the sound that everyone knows. Double thumbing and other techniques of slap I kind of put into the 'Solo'istic' bass player bag. They're nice to have in your own bag of tricks but you can't really use them all the time in grooves and what not. :)

    This is coming from someone who idolises Marcus Miller to the bone :D

  3. Does it not come down to 'doing it tastefully'. It's another way to make music, when you start slapping just for the sake of it even the band looks at you in disgust. Don't slap because you can !

    I'm off to practice my double thumbing now ....

  4. [quote name='Hector' timestamp='1394896853' post='2396434']
    He's talking about secondary dominants - dominant chords that aren't necessarily diatonic to the key you're in. For example, iii VI ii V I in C:

    E-7 A7 D-7 G7 Cmaj7

    That A7 there is a secondary dominant (in our key of C the chord it should be is A-7). It has a C# in rather than plain old C. It provides a sense of motion towards the ii chord. You can think of it in all sorts of ways - basically, it very temporarily, sets up a V-I resolution in the key of D minor. Secondary dominants allow all sorts of interesting note choices: you could play D harmonic or melodic minor over that A7 (I love the harmonic minor for the juicy Bb it brings to the party), or you could play A H/W diminished, or A altered. You could even do a D minor blues scale or pentatonic thing. Season to taste :)

    You can temporarily tonicise any chord in a diatonic progression by treating it as the I chord of it's own key and preceding it by it's own V chord (where that V chord is not diatonic to the current key, and is therefore a secondary dominant). Staying in C major, you could have a D7, which would be tonicising the G7 chord. You could have E7, which tonicises A-7 etc.

    The shorthand notation for these is to put that it is a V chord followed by the diatonic chord it is tonicising. E.g. a iii VI ii V I could be more accurately rewritten in roman numeral analysis as iii V/ii ii V I.

    Anthony is also saying that you can tritone sub any of those secondary dominants, e.g.

    E-7 A7 D-7 G7 Cmaj7 ----------> E-7 Eb7 D-7 G7 Cmaj7 --------------> E-7 Eb7 D-7 Db7 Cmaj7


    Hope that's helpful!
    [/quote]

    That's exactly what I was looking for and now leads me onto the next question.

    Is this a compositional technique or can you as a player enforce these qualities on normal (Diatonic) chord progressions? Or am i looking at a lot of clashing ... :lol:

  5. I don't know if it's been mentioned before but heres my 2 cents.

    I started out on a 40 quid Chinese P bass which had immensely high action and the pickups were disgusting. Nevertheless I wanted to play the bass and I pursued it.
    I then saved some cash for a VM Jazz bass (Squier range) and it felt amazing ! The pickups sounding sweet, frets weren't about to cut my fingers and the overall feel was amazing. It made me play even more, I got better and better each day.

    Roll on a year now and I have been through a standard Jazz, 2 marcus millers, sandberg, overwater, ACG. All I can say is that the VM Squier I first had felt the best. It amazing how a bass which cost 250 at the time beats basses that are worth 1500 ...

  6. [quote name='TheGreek' timestamp='1394451484' post='2391386']
    Madness....complete madness..why anybody would want to sell this rig

    Even more surprising is that it hasn't sold..

    Good luck with the sale..
    [/quote]

    haha thanks !

  7. Hey Guys,

    I'm just scoring out a piece of music for my A level on Sibelius and have stumbled on something !

    I'm looking for a trill which doesn't play the upward note but rather the downward note - A downward trill. Is there a specific name for this inverted trill on Sibelius or do you just have to state it on the notation ?

    Thanks

  8. [quote name='aidanhallbass' timestamp='1393700363' post='2383564']
    Thanks! I'm more likely to do the trinity one as I've learnt the majority of the stuff. Good luck with your exam! How long have you prepared for it and have you had a tutor too?
    [/quote]

    For the exam I've only had 3 weeks preparation (Fell ill last week and didn't pick my bass up). As you can imagine I am practicing everyday and trying to get everything as perfect as I possibly can. I just want to pass.

    I originally wanted to take the exam in the Summer so I had more time to finish off my A Level music but they randomly decided to change the dates to next week !

    I've done it all mostly myself, working out rhythms is a pain for me so when I do get stuck I input the notes on Logic or Sibelius and hear what it sounds like as well as listening to the demo on the CD given. I'm not too worried about the playback/improvisation part (I'm picking Improv) just hoping they won't give me something dodgy haha !

  9. Hi Guys,

    Somewhere on this part of the forum I stated that I was working through some Incognito tunes this month. So I've dabbed into 3 tunes so far and can play them well with the track.
    What I wanted to know was when you learn other peoples tunes, lines, licks etc. How do you go about incorporating them under your fingers in other playing situations.

    I know I'm at a shortfall sometimes because the transcriptions I get off the internet or workout I don't have a lead sheet for so I can't reference them to certain chord and their extensions. I can work out the basic 'these are the chord qualities in the key of ...' But as you know band like Jamiroquai, incognito also throw in some non diatonic chords almost all the time !

    So I guess I'm asking is

    How do you incorporate lines that you like and keep them under your fingers (extending, re-phrasing)

    How to go about working out non diatonic chords (without going to the piano if possible) ...

    Thanks !

  10. Go for it !

    Ive been playing nearly 3 years now and having my grade 8 exam next week. Im doing the trinity syllabus as when I purchased the book I thought it was going to be proper transcriptions of real songs. When I looked through it, they were their version of the bass lines on the songs ... It also didn't help that I knew some of the songs in the book already and didn't want to relearn it in a wrong way, if that makes sense?

    It does show you where your strengths and the spots you need to improve on.

  11. Hi guys

    I found this video a week ago with Wayne Shorter on soprano sax and his whole band were women. Even one on bass ! It was a mental video with mental chops. Anyone know what the name of the song is/video link as I have to reference it for a piece of music Im working on for my exam.

    Thanks !

  12. [quote name='ambient' timestamp='1393447331' post='2380518']
    It's just practice, just like you see the word ELEPHANT, you don't have to break it down into smaller pieces, you recognise it as a whole word. The more you play complex syncopated rhythms the easier you'll find it to just recognise them and play them.

    If you have a bar of small notes and rests, just use a pencil and divide the bar up, make the phrase smaller and work on it a bit at a time, then put it together.

    You'll eventually just feel it.

    That's my experience anyway, I'm only in year 2 of my degree, so I'm still working on stuff, and expect to always be. The average chart I have no real problem with.
    [/quote]

    I can get by with average stuff its when you start looking at Jaco, Incognito, tower of power bass lines and it makes you cry :lol:

  13. Hi guys,

    From all the lurking and posting on this side of the forum I can say gathering the knowledge of all the great players my reading has gotten much better since the start of last year. Im amazed at the speed that I can recognise notes, feel comfortable in different key signatures and so on. Theres only one thing that is bugging me at the moment. It's subdivisions of the beat and becoming comfortable with them.

    At the moment beginning from the biggest value note semibreeve, minims, crotchets, quavers, i can pretty much say I'm comfortable with. Its once you start getting into the semiquaver notes, rests and in music like funk, acid jazz, all of those oozing soulful baselines theres some form of semiquaver pattern, rhythm.

    I normally work them out by playing the amount of ghost notes that are required in the rest E.G. dotted quaver rest I would play 3 semiquaver ghost notes and then play the last semiquaver. What I would like to achieve is playing that rhythm without having to force myself counting, playing ghost notes to get to the note.

    I hope some of this makes some sense as I really want to get better at reading the rhythms as well as being comfortable with them in my playing so it becomes fluent.

    (If it helps, this month I'm working on Incognito bass lines so you can see its heavily syncopated sometimes ...)

    HELP!!

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