TKenrick

New transcription just uploaded - note-for-note chart for Sade's 'Smooth Operator': Sade - 'Smooth Operator' Bass Transcription pdf I've also included a transcription of the main groove from Me'shell Ndegeocello's recent cover of Smooth Operator, which is dirty. And it's in 5/4:

Agreed, Janek's a terrific musician, but I think I gave up on the vlogs when he included a time lapse video of one of his therapy sessions.

This really means a lot to hear that the things I hurl at the internet have a positive impact on people, thanks Stew!

I think you missed 'gloves' off the list, too? Seriously though, I feel that these should be mandatory guidelines for anyone posting videos on anything music-related. I always find Joe Hubbard's videos more 'nutritious' than most, but I understand that his style is not to everyone's taste. Bob Reynolds (saxophonist) has some great insights in his videos, but there's a lot of the aforementioned footage of family/driving to wade through to get to the good stuff.

New chart for the great line on 'South of the River' by Tom Misch Tom Misch - 'South of the River' bass transcription pdf New blog post + video to conclude the 'how to practise' series, which contains some advice for removing barriers to practice and managing your time more effectively: How to Practise, Part 4: Removing Obstacles to Practice

Bought a jazz bass from Chris this afternoon, great guy to deal with and makes a fine cuppa. Cheers!

Joe Dart all over it as usual - lots of E7 vocabulary to steal from the solo! The Fearless Flyers - 'Ace of Aces' bass transcription pdf

I did a quick transcription of 'Ace of Aces' - I haven't thoroughly fact-checked it yet, but hopefully it'll help some people out! The Fearless Flyers - Ace of Aces bass transcription pdf

Waterfalls was on my to-do list, thanks for saving me the trouble! Great tune and always good to have an excuse to use an envelope filter.

Updated/expanded chart for ABBA's 'Dancing Queen', now note-for-note: ABBA - 'Dancing Queen' 2018 update Here's a play-along:

Working with multiple bands/singers who all do the same repertoire but in different keys often leads to me forgetting who does what in which key. Hand signals help to clarify this without lots of yelling across the stage, particularly when it's a tune that the bass starts and I can't rely on hearing things first.

I won't lie, this took a while, and I still can't quite get through all 7 minutes without sweating (or swearing) profusely. Anyway, here's my best attempt to notate everything that Justin Chancellor did on Tool's 'Vicarious: Tool - 'Vicarious' bass transcription

NERD ALERT - the latest video and blog post deal with the value of tracking your practice: Full article is HERE Updated/corrected transcriptions: • Lionel Richie - 'Dancing On The Ceiling' • The Beatles - 'Help' • David Gray - 'Babylon'

Bought an MXR octave from Ed, pleasure to deal with from start to finish, pedal arrived swiftly and was well packaged. Top lad.

New chart just added to the site: Queen - 'Killer Queen' bass transcription

New video on why we can all still benefit from lessons and how to find the right teacher: The full blog post is available HERE

New transcription of Andy Rourke's great part on 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' - those double stops almost make listening to Morrissey bearable... The Smiths - 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' bass transcription There's also a new series on how to practise the bass, beginning with some thoughts on posture (blog post is HERE)

Not the usual sort of thing that I post, but as it's January I've been thinking a lot about how to get the most out of practising and realised that there's not much point putting in the hours if you can't focus in the first place: There's a more detailed rundown of all the books, apps and strategies mentioned in the video HERE The site has had a facelift and been transferred to a new server, so things should be looking better and running more smoothly than before. New transcriptions on the way next week...

Not explicitly about harmony, but a well-written book that isn't really a conventional 'study method' is 'Primacy of The Ear' by Ran Blake, quite different from most books on ear training (I wrote about it in more depth here).

Ran a little competition for subscribers last week and this was the winning transcription request. Great tune (from a cracking album) that has some interesting harmonic twists and turns: Sting - 'It's Probably Me' bass transcription

Sean bought an EUB from me, he was an absolute pleasure to deal with from start to finish - top man!

Having worked on a project where everyone was in drop-C apart from me, I'd say that the simplest option is to use the same tuning as everyone else - it might be a headache in the beginning, but in the long run you'll probably save some time and effort. Most guitar players who use drop tunings tend to write based parts based around the ease with which they can 'bounce' off the lowest open string - if you're playing lots of stuff in unison then it won't have the same sound or feel if you have to use a fretted low C all the time.

Somewhat late to the party, but this is still a great tune: Vulfpeck - 'Dean Town' bass transcription Not a great tune, but this might save some people from having to actually listen to the damn thing before a gig Mariah Carey - 'All I Want For Christmas is You' bass transcription

Some sublime Jamerson-style keyboard bass playing by Donny Hathaway makes this the only Christmas tune worth bothering with: Donny Hathaway - 'This Christmas' bass transcription