ML94

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!!

Why do they have fanned frets ? I've always thought it looked stupid but I'm interested in the reason behind the funny looking frets

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1393106949' post='2376364'] This. This is totally the problem. I sat down and slapped as I normally slap, paid close attention and lo and behold, there it is. When I was quite deliberate in making absolutely certain that my thumb did not return to rest on the string I had just slapped, the harmonic did not sound. When I slapped slightly more haphazardly, as I normally would....."BUNG!! *hoooooo*" This is brilliant as I have identified the problem, but also kinda gutting as I now have to go back and alter my thumb attack so that the harmonic doesn't sound. In other words my slapping is back to square one and will be very very slow. Nonethless, thanks all for your feedback and advice. I have some work ahead now! [/quote] Just get your thumb to bounce back off the string and don't over do it remember economy of motion as Victor calls it. Also when you've done that , double thumbing next

The way I slap is I use a combination of - Right hand & Forearm (to mute E) Left hand muting It takes a lot of practice and looking at your hands for a while until it comes naturally. For the harmonic problem, try not to put your finger on the fret line and rather in the middle of the fret so you won't be fretting a harmonic.

[quote name='topo morto' timestamp='1393012708' post='2375355'] Not a solution, just a general comment on what the problem could be - When you are using a soundcard and a DAW like logic, there are three places that your signal gets delayed - as it's being input through your soundcard it's delayed by the length of the input buffer; when it's being processed and mixed it's delayed by the plugins and other bits of code doing the processing; and when it's played back it gets delayed as it goes through the output buffer. However, the DAW (logic) should be aware of what these delays are and compensate for them when you're recording, shifting the recorded audio in time so it all lines up again. It may not be able to compensate perfectly, as there might be some small delays that it can't measure, so there's often some place where you can manually change the 'latency compensation' or 'delay compensation' to get it perfect. Still, it should all be about right out of the box. Maybe it's having problems with a particular soundcard driver? Have you tried using a different soundcard? I did have the same problem with you with Adobe Audition - it turned out to be a software bug and I got a refund! [/quote] Hi thanks for the reply. Its an old Mbox i got off ebay for £30. It works fine as in plug and play, recording works and monitoring works great as well. I'm not much of a tech expert when it comes with setting up latency, buffer settings and so on so have no idea on what/how that works. Sound card is the basic one in my Macbook Pro (I guess) its all factory.

Hi guys I've been told its latency issues but I'm not quite sure. PROBLEM - I play in all my bass parts with the click, perfectly in time as I can with the click. Once i stop the recording in Logic and playback it always is that my bass parts are lagging behind for some reason ... I play them in correctly and have double checked that I'm not playing out of time or anything but it always seems as if my recordings end up lagging which makes no sense to me at all ! Any ideas on how to get rid of it ?

Hey guys was about to go in for the night and received an email that Janek is doing a live clinic from NYC. If your interested check it out, he'll be taking questions as well. I'll be watching http://www.ustream.tv/channel/video-bass-lessons

Its great ! Best purchase i made on my mac. although its a little more expensive on OS. Theres the changes to all the standards out of the real book. Fusion stuff as well. Theres another sub category on the website for guys who want pop song changes as well. I myself have downloaded everything I can get my hands on ! Also theres stuff that'll help you on there as well. So you can slow down the tempo, loop a certain part of the chord progression. For a couple of quid extra you can get the scale syllabus which tells you what scales work over the chord that your playing. And its not just your basic Minor or Major, it'll tell you about dorian , mixolydian, all the modal scales plus stuff like bebop major/minor. It's helped me and for the price I can guarantee its worth it. (you can also buy piano voicing pack and a guitar chord pack for a couple of quid as well)

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1392631970' post='2370733'] What is your reading practising regime? [/quote][quote name='Westie9' timestamp='1392634671' post='2370781'] Small baby steps, one step at a time. Eventually you'll start to recognise the shape in front of you and it will become second nature. Same question as Bilbo above: How much time are you dedicating to it? [/quote] You guys could probably help me too ! I can read the notes in good time but the problem for me lies in rhythms. I'm not very comfortable with subdivisions and how to work them out. I've learnt stuff like havona, teen town which makes use of the sixteenth note divisions but thats all from ear so i've continuously stopped and worked it out. Now i play them without thinking but i couldnt write down what i was playing, if that made any sense?

The amp i put it thought initially just to make sure i didn't break anything was a little gens benz 3.0 combo with the extension cabinet. I was told that with these kind of pickups I shouldn't be expecting a dead silent bass as there not noiseless. When using both together they sound fine, no buzz at all. when you solo for example the bridge pickup then a definite hum is heard. My cab has a tweeter control which I think maybe currently on at +12db (Should've checked that!)

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' timestamp='1392538962' post='2369718'] Is it an active bass? [/quote] Yep!

So after looking at loads of DIY youtube videos I plucked up the courage to take apart my Marcus miller jazz and shield it as it was humming like mad ! After doing a very DIY like job to the bass i had played it through another amp and to my amazement it hummed but at the slightest. When I plugged it into my own amp a Genz Benz shuttle 6.2 with a 2x10 focus cab I could clearly hear it through there. Its decreased from when I did the shielding but i feel like there should be less hum ? It can't be my amp can it ? I know these basses are notoriously known for their humming issues but was just wondering if there was anything more I could do myself rather paying someone silly money for an 'easy' job. It maybe worth mentioning that the bass has a bartolini preamp installed.

Guys this is great stuff. Keep it coming !

Hi So I'm doing the composition task for my A level unit and I've gotten a bit stuck. The overall sound of the composition is a Jazz Fusion with 3 main sections - Latin, Funk, Ballad (Sort of...). I've gone down the route of guys/bands like Jamiroquai, Jazzanova, Weather Report, Cool jazz and so on. What I'd like is for some more examples of these kinds of styles that I could incorporate into as I'm supposed to be naming all the 'inspiration' in a write up after finishing the composition. What I'm having trouble with is finding some groove based Latin stuff. You know the kind of stuff with nice chord changes, tight rhythm sections and so on. (Oh and bass grooves!) Any help is appreciated !

I think number one, give him the chance to get better. Clearly he is determined and has put in the efforts of working his parts out, asked the questions and so on.

Hi Guys First post in this section of the website so be nice ! Just wanted to let all you bass lovers that I'm playing a gig at this event called OMG at the LG Arena in the midlands. It has been set up by the local music authorities to bring out the best of the best in players, singers and what not ! A bit about ourself - We just formed this band 2 weeks ago and are surprised with who good it's sounding already. We have about 6 weeks to prepare and have about an hours rehearsal a week. We're doing a 2 classics and a pop song. There will be some slap in there But the groove is what we are going for. If you could make it down there it would be fantastic, (you do have to pay for tickets ) THURSDAY 24TH APRIL ML94 WebRep currentVote noRating noWeight [attachment=154481:photo.JPG]

You have to think about what key your in and what scale your talking about. So a c min 7 chord will be C Eb G Bb because in the chord/key there are flats. It's one of them rules just to make music a little more easier to understand rather than throwing around sharps and flats.

[quote name='deepbass5' timestamp='1391512500' post='2357865'] That would be great wouldn't it just go in there and busk away and say I didn't care for the exam part so made my own up. [/quote] It's quite an easy exam (trinity rock and pop). Walk in Play 3 songs Improvise a bit Jobs done.

But when your in an exam situation playing what you think is right for the part will definatley give the examiner something to think about ! The worst peice/the one I hate is YYZ by Rush. Not a big rock fan so you can see why ...