TKenrick

PJ Mustang with La Bella black nylon tapewounds:

1 hour ago, nekomatic said:

 

Wait, what? There are people who reckon they know better than Joni Mitchell about what chord progressions she should have used? Can someone give me an example?

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.

On 15/07/2022 at 14:12, Huw Foster said:

Did this one a couple of months ago when I heard about the passing of Bernard Wright. Some phenomenal bass playing on this album, including from a young Marcus Miller. However, this cut is Barry "Sunjon" Johnson.

 

Bernard Wright - 'Firebolt Hustle' [notation / tab]

Original bass: Barry "Sunjohn" Johnson

 

Transcriptions archive

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!

SOLD!

On hold...

Facing up to the fact that as 90% of my work is unamplified gigs on upright and I can't have this sitting on a shelf...

Cali 76, TX version that can run at 9V-18V. I used this on gigs a lot after first buying it and loved it, it has a few scuffs but is in very good condition overall - if you want more detailed pics of specific areas then let me know. It comes boxed with original manual and info.

Asking £580 collected from Egham (minutes from M25 J13) but will also ship according to the buyer's preference.

Optional extra: if you have a Noble DI then Jack made me a cable so you can run this at 18V from the Noble's 9V outlets.

I've used (and re-used) the planet waves solderless cables many times through various versions of my pedalboards. Quick and easy to knock up a whole lot of bespoke patch cables for your pedalboard needs. Up for grabs are:

6x straight jack plugs

12x right-angled jack plugs

Approx 2.5m cable

Cable snipper thing

3x jack connectors

115cm (ish) pedalboard tape (the industrial stuff, not velcro)

£25 posted

In addition to @itu's wise words I'd emphasise the importance of studying triads and their inversions in as much depth as you can stomach before moving on to 'bigger' chords.

Also take a look at spread voicings of triads (e.g. root - 5th -10th) as these tend to speak better on the bass in some situations compared to close-voiced triads.

Another area to check out is the concept of voice leading - essentially finding the path of least resistance through a set of chord changes using inversions. Piano players and guitarists are worth studying for this more than bass players.

On 03/05/2022 at 18:50, Garry62 said:

I use this site:

 

https://songstems.net/

This is a goldmine, thank you!

I've been very slack on the transcription front for the last year or so, hoping to make up for it in 2022...

Here's an old Vulfpeck tune with a nice little solo from Monsieur Dart:

Vulfpeck - 'Adrienne & Adrianne' bass transcription

On 16/03/2022 at 13:42, funkle said:

And by the way there are good teachers around - @TKenrickcomes to mind!

Thanks, Pete (the cheque's in the post 😉)

@la bam learning to read on the bass is hard, which is why 95% of players avoid it at all costs. I definitely felt frustrated when I switched from TAB to notation but 10 minutes a day can work wonders and in 6 months your bass playing will be in a totally different place.

I haven't checked out Jeff's books yet, but given his prowess on the instrument I'm sure they're a great way to get yourself in shape.

On 04/01/2022 at 17:26, NickA said:

electric basses dont have that natural break at the heel of the neck telling you / forcing you to change technique; so I struggle to work out when to change from 124 to 123(4) ...

The content of the music informs the technique you use to play it; sometimes it's 1234 in 1st position, sometimes it's Simandl above the 12th fret. Whatever makes the music sound best.

On 24/12/2021 at 23:36, dodge_bass said:

Looks great - without being an derrière though how can you get muted notes (x heads on your part) on a synth? 

You can hit the key softly enough and bury it in the mix to such a degree that I can't really be certain what the note is 😉 the ghost notes are a best guess.

15 hours ago, stewblack said:

Well this came a month too late 😬🤦

Not that I played any of the Christmas gigs. Stupid covid.

If only this was the sort of Christmas tune that I got to play at gigs, it's always bloody Slade or Wizzard...

I was taking a student though this chart last week and realised that it was woefully inaccurate; here's another stab at Donny's excellent Fender Rhodes part:

Donny Hathaway - 'This Christmas'

There are a few books that are good for getting the essence of walking bass within a limited time frame, and any one of these should provide you with enough to 'fake it' in the short term. You'll need to read notation for all of these, if you're thinking about pursuing jazz then it's best to put TAB in the bin anyway:

Ed Friedland's Building Walking Bass Lines

Gary Willis Fingerboard Harmony

Joe Hubbard Walking Bass Lines

Out of the above, Joe's is probably the most immediate if you're looking to get things together overnight.

One on the most important things that doesn't get emphasised enough is the feel of walking bass rather than the content of the line; you can get away with a lot if your sense of time and swing are strong. When you're practising walking lines put the metronome on beats 2 and 4 and try to feel a constant 8th-note triplet subdivision even when you're playing quarter notes. These will help you to get the rhythmic feel of things.

Peter bought a Boss phaser from me, great comms and swift payment, a joy to work with!