ZMech

Damn, I wish my theory were that good. Did you just transcribe it on the tube with your ear and a pencil??

Yup that's a great exercise, it's what I spent much of my summer doing. I'd suggest taking the same idea but instead of a II-V-I just opening a realbook at a random page, and trying to play the arpeggios straight off for a song you haven't played/heard. As soon as I learnt that you didn't have to start a bar on a root note walking suddenly became much easier and more interesting. How about trying to extend it so that you're playing a chord over two bars, but including the 9th, 11th and 13th? Chord tones aplenty that way. I'd disagree with Faithless, in that you don't want to play root notes in most cases, just one of the chord tones generally, and in fact the 3rd/7th will add more character than the root (but I'm guessing you already know that).

Nice lessons, the end of lesson 2 reminds me of how I spent many hours just going through random chord sheets playing the 1-3-5-7 for each bar, then switching round that order.

[quote name='51m0n' timestamp='1335257920' post='1627923'] Ultimately though you are lost if he doesnt know what a double bass should sound like [/quote] Wondering whether it would be a good idea or seen as pompous to ask that he just listens to you play a few notes acoustically first. What do you guys reckon? I know it'll depend mostly on the sound guy, but my experience is limited...

Find and learn all the information you can about walking basslines, the knowledge will support any future endeavours including this one.

Yup, I'm with you on this one Bilbo. Listening to Night Train, I'd say even when RB does an extra ornamentation, it still is in addition to the straight crotchets, not instead of i.e. mostly a couple of lead notes into the beat.

Ah Dub Mafia, I've wanted to see you guys for ages! Have you got any gigs coming up in brizzle? I'd trust Barefaced cabs, after all their creator also studied engineering at Bristol

Nice playing man, although I'm really trying to work out what the chords at 0.28 sound like, possibly a chili's song or something.

I'd second Coilte's sentiments, it's all about the technique, especially in terms of preventing injury. Mostly it comes down to keeping your wrists straight, but even just one or two lessons from a good teacher could set you on the right path.

option IV: spend some of that money on regular lessons, and work on improving the tone coming out of your fingers

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1331342846' post='1571793'] One of the funkiest numbers.... [/quote] I'll see you It's Your Thing, and raise you the lesser known Holding On. I only discovered this track buried in the middle of their 50 track greatest hits, most of which I hadn't heard but are awesome. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w51UhTsvEgk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w51UhTsvEgk[/url]

I'm not sure what makes them great, but I do love listening to John Lee Hooker, or BB King. Although saying that, after a while I do always feel the need for a change. When my teacher sat and explained the reasoning behind the 12-bar blues and it's structure it did help me make sense of it and why they can be awesome. So to summarise what he told me, they evolved from the work songs in the cotton fields, where they would be question and answer format, a spirit you can definitely hear in B.B's playing. Bars 5 and 6 up on the IV are then a bit more wailing, to return back down to the root, and then the V IV turnaround is often then the more joyous and hopeful ending segment of the song. Since learning about that, I think you can hear the difference when the player is fulfilling that, be it on purpose or instinctively.

How about spending the money from the bass sales on lots of lessons?

Does anyone else suspect that he probably put the Bach and Realbook nicely propped up in view for some minor kudos? Then again, I might just be a cynic.

I'm still up for it, but I'm gonna have to retract my offer of help (especially if it's hosted in Cardiff). Seems this masters takes up quite a lot of time!

A fine and cheery post indeed! I love it when this kinda thing happens, had a similar situation with internships last year, when I didn't get the one I wanted, so instead found a grant from uni to develop my entrepreneurial endeavours, so it worked out great! Good luck with the audition, hope it goes well.

See if you can find a jam night somewhere. Playing with people, as already mentioned, definitely gives you motivation for practising, as well as good general experience. I remember getting to uni having played bass for a couple of years, and going to the jazz society jams lead to my playing improving dramatically.

On the front page, this thread title gets stopped for me at [Anyone got a tab for Queen...], and for some reason I assumed it was gonna be a joke asking for Another One Bites The Dust

[quote name='ras52' timestamp='1326788294' post='1501816'] I was expecting this to be a wives-and-girlfriends post... [/quote] Yup, I know what you mean. I'm not sure if the name abbreviation was intentional when the shop was started, if not it's pretty unfortunate. Edit: Seems pmt was started 20 years ago by a couple of essex boys. I can't decide whether it's more likely that the alternative meaning for pmt wasn't around then, or whether they thought it was funny.

Perhaps come up with alternative games that don't effect the bassline you're playing For instance, my mates were discussing the games they play whilst invigilating the exams at uni. The funniest was that they'd each take it in turns to walk to the student they found most/least attractive, pause, and walk back to the front again.

Re: the OP, this is what my mates and I refer to as a 'Brain Fart'. If your friend wasn't offended by it, and I can't see why they would be, just move on.

Have you studied walking basslines much? I remember having a similar experience to this when going along to a jam night for the first time, and having a chord sheet placed in front of me (possibly Mr PC). thankfully there's loads of info on BC about this, especially on the theory section. One of the most helpful things was sitting down with a mate of mine who plays trumpet, and just generally discussing the theory of playing over chords.

Think you all might appreciate[url="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/02/jazz-leaders-lessons-for-business"] this little article [/url]about how the old jazz leaders could serve as good role models for entrepreneurs

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1326102948' post='1492161'] Just a quick aside... but has anyone here been watching Treme? (the HBO TV show, from the writer of The Wire) [/quote] Not yet, but it definitely sounds interesting, will check it out this evening, cheers.

That's a great test. Just forwarded the link to a mate of mine who's sourced some high quality wood to make himself an acoustic guitar out of. On the subject of materials, one of my mates has bought himself a [url="http://www.pbone.co.uk/"]plastic trombone[/url], which everyone remarks how great it sounds. He pretty much only takes out his proper brass one to gigs instead because it's shiny.