TKenrick

Having dabbled in (and subsequently rejected) the E-C thing I got a lot out of working through parts of The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick; there's a couple of chapters that have some really heavy exercises on voice leading and some different ways of voicing chords (drop-2, etc) that might open up some new avenues for you - I found that working on spread triad voicings gave me a lot of useful material that could be applied even in a non-jazz situation.

The Functional Ear Trainer app is the best thing I've found for getting the hang of how intervals sound (and, more importantly, feel) within the context of a key, which is what you need if you're trying to work out songs on the fly. Having been playing for 20+ years this is the one thing I'd go back and do every day if I had the chance.

Personally I'm not a fan of exercise/technique books as they generally result in you getting very good at playing the exercises in the book but still not able to perform the music that you might be aiming for. If there's music that you want to play that's above your current technical ceiling then that's what you should be practising, but slow it down, break it into manageable chunks and build up to playing longer/faster sections as the weeks (or months) go by. One thing that often gets overlooked is staying relaxed; if you're tense when you're playing then you'll tire more quickly. Practising slower than you think you need to can help you to focus on releasing unwanted tension from your neck/shoulders/arms/hands, which will in turn help you to learn the habit of staying relaxed at faster tempos. I have a tendency to hold my breath when playing something challenging, which never goes well...

Thanks @BigRedX, I suspected that an aggregate device might be the way to go. I've been using Loopback (and their other product, Audio Hijack) for a while now and they are both invaluable for teaching.

Asking on behalf of a student - Does anyone have experience in using the PJB Bighead as an interface to get their bass signal into Zoom (or Skype/Teams/other meeting software)? And if so, can you use a built-in laptop mic at the same time or do you have to switch between the two for bass/voice to be heard?

If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it 😉 There aren't really that many things that you have to know, the problem is that you have to know a handful of concepts really deeply and be able to access those sounds in lots of different ways on the bass. At the most fundamental level, we need to know the notes that go into chords and where those notes are on the bass. That sounds relatively straightfoward, but there are many hours of work in there.

Hard to cover everything that you're after with only a few book suggestions, but here are some of the ones that I've found most helpful and that I use with some of my students: (it's worth pointing out that you don't need bass-specific books to learn about harmony and theory, and it's perhaps best to go for ones that aren't written by or for bassists...) Functional Harmonic Concepts by Joe Hubbard Jazzology by Robert Rawlins and Nor Eddine Bahha (this is part workbook, with questions at the end of each chapter) The Advancing Guitarist by Mick Goodrick Although you said you don't like videos... I did this video a while ago which goes into detail on the above books plus a couple more.

I can't even begin to imagine the time and effort you must have put in to transcribing AJ's parts, particularly on such a demanding album. Thank you doesn't quite cut it, but thank you!

There seems to be a pervasive belief that learning to read music robs you of any musicality and turns you into a note-reading robot who has no other skills and no 'feel' for the music (ditto for learning music theory). Here's the thing: there are plenty of awful musicians out there churning out awful interpretations of the dots, but I'm willing to bet there's an even greater number of people who can't read that are out there butchering the classics. Correlation is not causation. Reading music is not a guarantee of good musicianship, but it does encourage certain skills that TAB doesn't (namely fretboard knowledge and rhythmic awareness). If you don't want to read because it holds no value for you then don't, it's as simple as that. Plenty of people out there parrot the tired 'music is a language' analogy but then aren't willing to put the effort in to actually learn the language. And yes, learning to read once you can already play is a massive pain (it certainly was for me!), but that doesn't mean that you should avoid it if you're interested in becoming an independent and musically aware bassist.

What a great tune - Allen McGrier did some great playing with TM and is someone who I wish got more exposure.

PJ Mustang with La Bella black nylon tapewounds:

I remember watching an interview in which Joni said that Wayne Shorter had a problem with a chord progression that was almost entirely sus chords; she said that she wanted it to reflect the unresolved tension in her life, or something similar. On a separate note, part of the reason for Joni hiring Jaco was that she wanted a bassist who would play something other than the root - he certainly fulfilled his job description 😂

As others have already said, I'm deeply envious that you get to discover all of Joni's wonderful work. I had a listening project last year where I listened through her back catalogue from start to finish (one album a week). Luckily that was before she pulled everything off Spotify... The Jaco/Joni era has many great moments - 'Talk To Me' from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter never gets much attention, but is one of my favourites, along with 'Refuge of the Roads'. Max Bennett played some great bass on Hissing of the Summer Lawns, too. For those who want to go full nerd there's a decent biography, Reckless Daughter, that helped to provide context for a lot of her songs.

ForScore all the way!

Transcriptions/videos etc have been a bit thin on the ground over the past year or so because... I've been doing a lot of Zoom teaching and most of my students want to improve their reading, but find that they struggle with the rhythmic aspect of things. I started writing exercises for students to help them overcome specific stumbling blocks and once I started, I found it difficult to stop. The result is not one, but TWO books dedicated to demystifying the rhythmic aspect of notation; I used the Louis Bellson book when I was learning to read, but found that it didn't really explain anything - I wanted to break everything down so that even the most novice reader could start to make progress and hopefully put TAB in the bin forever. Rhythm Reading Bootcamp Volume 1 covers the basics of rhythm reading and has more than 40 exercises to help develop your skills: • Basic notation symbols • Whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes • Rests • How to alter basic note and rest values • Tied notes Volume 2 breaks down 16th-note rhythms in a structured, logical way, allowing you to master complex syncopation with ease. The book covers the following elements along with more than 80 exercises to test your rhythm reading skills: • How to subdivide 16th-note phrases • 16th, dotted eighth, and double dotted quarter notes • 16th-note and dotted eighth-note rests • How to alter basic note and rest values • Tied 16th-note rhythms I also made a whole lot of free videos to accompany the books, so those who feel nauseous at the thought of paying for their music education are still catered to: Season 1: Rhythmic Fundamentals Season 2: The 16th-note Language

Three new charts added to the archive, all from last minute dep gigs where I didn't have the time (or inclination) to memorise everything: Dua Lipa - Don't Start Now Dua Lipa - Levitating Dolly Parton - Jolene

I've been insured with Victor C Knight for years, they specialise in musicians and were basically the only company who would insure me unless I lied and gave my occupation as 'music teacher'. Never had to claim through them so can't comment on how well they handle that side of things, but they should at least be able to give you a reasonable quote.

What a great tune, and what a player - I love Barry's work on Don Blackman's first record and always feel like he doesn't get the recognition he deserves...

Can you post a picture of the offending transcription? Whilst C major won't have accidentals in the key signature that doesn't preclude sharps or flats from appearing within particular bars to accommodate notes that are outside of the C major scale. Sharps and flats don't get mixed in key signatures, but non-diatonic notes might need to be labelled with either according to their context (which direction the line moves in and/or what the chord being played at the time is).

Train your ears. That trumps everything else. After that, learn the notes that make up different chords and figure out where they are on your fretboard; most people think that they've got both of those things covered, but few rarely do. Oh, and gear doesn't really matter.

Ilian bought some pedalboard bits from me. Great comms, swift payment and he even covered the paypal fees!