Oscar South

When I'm in that situation I just kill all treble and bass on my EQ and max mids out. It's not the perfect tone (ideally you want a tiny bit of bass and treble mixed in ) but it'll cut through without overpowering everything with volume.

I wouldn't recommend scooping the mids in any situation, especially slapping. I personally use a really low action with pretty flat neck and standard gauge strings, on my Status it sounds great. On a wooden necked bass I might raise the action a tiny bit.

I'm currently taking new students in Chester if thats inside your radius

Here are a couple on myspace from a while back: [url="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=47471761"]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ideoid=47471761[/url] [url="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=57167805"]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ideoid=57167805[/url] Here are a couple of more recent ones from a practice with an originals band minus one guitarist: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLTtx1gnx0Y"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLTtx1gnx0Y[/url] [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqfBzBKhOGQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqfBzBKhOGQ[/url] Oh and also, as I see someone else posted a Zappa cover heres my own shot at Zappa from a while ago: [url="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=47473917"]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ideoid=47473917[/url]

Is that just the number on Status' contact page? Gave it a call earlier but everyone must have gone home. I don't want to have to wait the whole weekend before I can fix it.. argh :wacko: I guess I'll just have to be patient.

Its a Status Energy 4, heres a pic. How come superglue won't work? It plays alright without that piece there so I doubt theres a lot of pressure on it.

A little of the nut of my Status has been chipped off (the bit between the E string and the edge of the neck), it looks like its not actually part of the neck itself but a bit thats been molded on seperately and I have all the parts, but how do you think it would be best to repair this? Remove the E string for 24 hours and set it with superglue or will this be too fragile? Should I send it in somewhere? Can anywhere repair damage like this? Cheers, Oscar.

[quote name='witterth' post='585529' date='Aug 31 2009, 01:09 AM']I totally agree with that perspective. however reading (a little bit) and finding those elusive "proper"notes has made it possible to glean a litte bit more out of music in general. it takes time and I very often dont get it right, but the journey and "googling" can be fun dont you think? maybe I a masochist! some times with a dep 12 hours away we dont have such luxury though [/quote] Yeah I agree, I've spent many years (well, 2-3) learning and analysing an onslaught of covers note for note and many more (4-5) studying music theory in great detail, and I've been improvising and jamming since the day I started playing (6-7 years ago.. wow). And I'm not a fraction of the way I hope I reach down my musical path. In my opinion learning about music is the true reward, playing it is just the day job. I learned to play as a jazz musician too, which is a great help for this kind of expression. I especially love putting walking lines into pop songs (or dropping in and out of them, which is my usual approach), regardless of the potential gimmick factor. It fits into some so naturally and lifts the song so much that its incredible it didn't have one in the first place. Just 'out of style' I guess.

I always improv the basslines in my covers bands by following what the guitar player is doing and eventually just memorising the harmonic structure and accents. At first I did it when I didn't have time to learn the songs properly but I got a lot of good feedback about how I was changing the songs and it makes it much more fun and characterful live so I've kept doing it. We're booked for a lot of gigs though so I figure it can't be too bad, watch out for us around Cheshire [url="http://www.myspace.com/lespeches"]http://www.myspace.com/lespeches[/url] . Unfortunately none of my bass parts are on that myspace yet

[quote name='Mr.T' post='584023' date='Aug 28 2009, 09:00 PM']On a slight tangent.... I once saw a Stanley Clarke gig on TV and he had a 'proper' bass player standing next to him![/quote] Yeah that confused the hell put of me when I covered his 'Live at the Greek' version of 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat', in the end I mainly played the 'bass' bass part and incorporated a few of Stanley's licks where they were needed. The lead guitarist had it worse though trying to come up with a composite line of all the horn, guitar and lead bass parts that were going on throughout the song, did a great job though I reckon. You can hear our own live take of it on here if you're interrested: [url="http://www.myspace.com/oscarsouthmusic"]http://www.myspace.com/oscarsouthmusic[/url]

awh, too far in advance

Where was that at? Used to live in Lichfield and went to a few jam sessions there, it was almost always just 12 bar in E (and occasionally G). I've been running a jam night in Chester recently 'my own way' and its really starting to take off. Some incredible musicians and some really cool people coming down, I spend half of the evening just standing is awe of some of the stuff people play and I've learned so much from jamming with and chatting with people there.

King Crimson USA live album [url="http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/134504/05%20Asbury%20Park.mp3"]http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/134504/05%20Asbury%20Park.mp3[/url]

I'm really the opposite of that which has its pros and cons as well, when I play I'm constantly listening to the effect of my notes and computing the theory in my head, mapping out the scales I could use at any time, figuring out what chord tones are passing when and how I can approach them etc. etc. I spent a lot of time in jam bands concentrating on being able to compute it all and still listen and react to the music and on a piano learning theory from an unbiased perspective but I'm glad I did because I love playing with this approach, it keeps me very mentally occupied and also feeds me ideas for potential note choices and reharmonisations on the fly that would have never occured if I just played by ear. On the down side because I play in such a 'theory in--->theory out' way, sometimes when I'm jamming with people on the 'feel/by ear' side of the spectrum who play more on a basic groove with reletively static harmony and I'm not getting fed nonstop aural cues I feel I stagnate a bit, my playing is more reactive that proactive and when nothing much is happening theres nothing much to react to.

Stanley Clarkes arrangement of 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' from 'Live At The Greek' and 'Snakes' (anyone know who this is actually by?) with a segue into an instrumental version of 'Josie' by Steely Dan. (Our 'inside name' for this one was 'Snakey Dan'). Unfortunately we had a guest pianist for Snakes/Josie who wasn't here for this recording, so theres no solo where there should be over the third verse of Josie and the feel in Snakes is a little flat without the piano to push it. [url="http://www.myspace.com/oscarsouthmusic"]http://www.myspace.com/oscarsouthmusic[/url] Any feedback is welcome as usual. Enjoy.

[quote name='ahpook' post='577544' date='Aug 22 2009, 01:30 PM']tonal repetoire ? that's in your fingers, that is [/quote] Thats your timbral repetoire

What scales/chords do you practice and use when playing music? Personally I got most of my current head full of theory from the Levine jazz book so the two 'central' scales I use are Major and Melodic Minor and relevent modes of each, I occasionally use blues or pentatonic scales but only really for runs or fast licks, not regular note choice. I use wh/wh diminished scales and augmented scales occasionally but I prefer to play most dim or #5 chords as voicings of tonal chords rather than symmetrical structures when I can. I usually mainly practice scales rather than arpeggios these days and mentally map the chord tones of the current chord to the current scale, I find this a lot more intuitive than hopping between arpeggio shapes. I do practice arpeggio shapes in Major and Melodic Minor 2-5-1s starting from each position of the 2 chord though. I don't use Harmonic Minor scales too much, I find the effect of them a bit strong and distinctive and its a pet hate of mine in music when someone plays or writes in a cliche way so you can hear dead givaways as to whats going on all over the place. "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts". I find that the Melodic Minor scale is much more subtle and beautiful once you've learned to use it properly. That said I use it occasionally when its called for but I view it as a chromatic alteration to a Major key to establish a tempory Minor tonality on the vii chord rather than a key center in itself. I also have no time for the whole playing the Melodic Minor scale differently up and down school of thought; its pure classical mythology and a relic brought about by the shortcomings of classical analysis techniques.

I'd recommend 2 activities: 1. To learn to learn notes, intervals, phrases etc. on your instrument simply work songs out on your bass by ear. Its slow going at first, but it gets easier quickly. 2. To learn to hear chords, voicings, cadences, keys etc. in music generally, get 'The Jazz Theory Book' by Mark Levine and work through chapters 1-5 on a keyboard. You don't need any previous keyboard ability or even enough facility to play the examples, just read through the text and try out playing the scales, chords etc. to get a feel for how they sound. You'll start hearing them all over the place in music you listen to very quickly and as a side effect you'll learn to play piano a little and pick up a lot of theory knowledge, I practically learned all I can play by working from this book and you can hear it in my playing (expecially the chapter on melodic minor harmony, heh), I've got a video up on the recordings page if you want to see. I wouldn't personally recommend pitch training exercises or method books, most are too far removed from the actual music to be of any practical help and they'll add nothing other to your playing either.

Recorded this for a bit of fun today, its just a short improvisation with good and not so good bits which is roughly based on an old bass riff I used to play at jam sessions, I'm no piano player but I've been getting more into it recently and I quite like some of the harmonies and ideas in this. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfTabb7ZD6c&fmt=18"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfTabb7ZD6c&fmt=18[/url]

Geddy Lee is at #1 though, so not alls wrong in the world.

Not really a solo as such but theres some beautifully melodic 'focus' playing a few minutes into 'We Stood Transfixed In Blank Devotion As Our Leader Spoke To Us, Looking Down On Our Mute Faces With A Great, Raging, And Unseeing Eye' (phew) by Red Sparowes, great use of bass chorus too.

They're all I use. Lighter gauges have a tendancy to fretbuzz on the G string if your action is low but other than that they're flawless imo. Great tone, long lasting and really good feel. I've never broken one and I think I can play pretty agressively, but I've ever broken a bass string period so maybe I'm gentler than I think. Here are some live recordings of a light gauge (100-80-60-40 I think) on my Status bass: [url="http://files.getdropbox.com/u/134504/Crosswinds.mp3"]http://files.getdropbox.com/u/134504/Crosswinds.mp3[/url] [url="http://files.getdropbox.com/u/134504/All%20Blues.mp3"]http://files.getdropbox.com/u/134504/All%20Blues.mp3[/url]

Good suggestions, I'm actually working through Simandl vol.1 for my double bass studies at the moment but thanks anyway. Plus I'm hoping I can pick up some more stuff thats a little more musically gripping heh. I'll look those up Stickman. I've also got Slonimsky's 'Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns' which aside from being a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a genius is little more in practice than a glorified sight reading exersise. (I'll come back to it in 30 years )

I want to brush this up again, I'm not exactly rusty but I've rested on my laurels for a while with no significant progress. I'm looking for ideas for different music to read, got cello suites, got the double violin concerto from the theory forum, got the bass clef real book, would just like as diverse and bizzare a selection (suggestions or links, I don't mind searching for stuff) as you can offer, treble and C clefs welcome too but I mainly want to stick to bass. Cheers, Oscar.

Another of these threads?