TKenrick

I've been tidying up some charts following the discovery of some very embarrassing errors. These have all been made more accurate and had layouts improved for people trying to turn pages on a gig: ABBA - Waterloo ABBA - Honey, Honey ABBA - Mamma Mia Killers - Mr Brightside From now until 1st December you can also get my Better Bass Practice ebook at 30% off

There are a few areas to visit on the journey to better note choices; this is all with the caveat that note choice is also a somewhat personal choice and some things that are theoretically 'correct' might not sound good to you (the opposite might also be true...) I'd approach things in this order: 1. Get familiar with basic intervals up to an octave (you need to know these in three ways: how they sound, how they look on the fretboard, and how they're spelled). If you have a good understanding of the sound you're after then you're more than halfway there 2. Understand how the most common triads (major, minor, diminished, augmented and suspended) and 7th chords (major 7, minor 7, dominant 7 and half-diminished) are constructed. This instantly gives you access to a whole host of note choices that aren't the root. Scales are ok, but focusing on chord tones will allow you to outline the harmony much more accurately. 3. Steal as much as possible from your favourite players. Whenever you hear something you like, try to work out what chord is being played by other instruments - this gives you an understanding of the context(s) that you can use the thing you've stolen. This won't happen overnight, and will require a lot of persistent effort (at least, it does for me and everyone I teach!). If it were easy then everyone would be Pino. FWIW I would say that ears trump theory knowledge almost every time, but ears take much longer to train and theory provides useful labels for sounds that make communicating with other musicians much easier.

Triggered. One finger per fret is a guitar technique as the spacing is much smaller (25.5 inches vs 34 inches). The argument for 1-2-4 in lower registers is ergonomic. I have large hands and long fingers, but if I put my fretting hand in a relaxed state then it spans 3 frets rather than 4 until I reach roughly the 7th fret; to that end, I'm going to use the left hand technique that minimises unnecessary tension in my fretting hand wherever possible. I'd rather make playing as effortless as possible rather than trying to stretch my tendons out... I spent the first 6 or so years wasting my time playing 1234 permutation exercises in the lowest register of the bass and all it did was give me physical problems that went away when I discovered Simandl and switched to 1-2-4. I've had students with similar shoulder/wrist issues that have been cleared up by following the same path. My gripe is not against using 1fpf; what I was attempting to convey is that I think it's limiting to approach the bass with only one fretting hand concept. I think that most of the music that we encounter requires some 1-2-4, some 1fpf and some extension fingering (where fingers are spread with a gap of two or more frets).

I would offer a contrary opinion; use 1-2-4 in the lower positions of the bass for the majority of the time and 'dip in' to one finger per fret when the music requires it. I find that 1-2-4 allows me to keep my fretting hand much more relaxed than 1fpf. As others have already said, it's vital that your fretting hand thumb is an active participant in the music - it has to pivot and move to help you get around the bass rather than being static (or worse, clamped over the top of the neck).

This. All day long. Your ears need to run the show. Practise playing a major scale really slowly (40bpm, two clicks per note) with a drone and learn how it sounds and feels to create each interval in tune (or, if you're anything like me, slightly out and then in...). Muscle memory will follow.

Much as I hate being self-serving... my website exists for this very purpose: https://freebasstranscriptions.com/transcriptions/ I struggled to find suitable songs to teach to younger students without resorting to TAB, so I started writing things out for them. There's very little in the way of books for sale in notation only-format, because it massively reduces the commercial appeal.

New video/blog post. We're going on a deep dive into triads, as this is a fundamental area that I find almost all of my students are lacking in: Detailed notation/explanation in the blog post here: https://freebasstranscriptions.com/five-must-know-triad-types/

Guilty! I bought the bass in January 2011 from Bass Direct (I haven't checked the neck pocket for an inscription...). I remember playing another Nordy that didn't feel as good, and I still haven't found any other 5-string with a neck that's anywhere near as comfortable. The bridge pickup became faulty a few years ago, Nordstrand were amazingly helpful; they rewired the pickups and sent me a new set of Big Splits to try for free. Great company to deal with and it's a shame that Carey doesn't seem to be making these basses any more. @NJE Thank you for the kind words, glad to hear that people like the stuff I hurl at the internet!

A friend is after a bassist for a covers band and I can't commit to it, please find details below and get in touch with Michael if you're interested: We are a female fronted covers band, with two guitarists who share both the rhythm and lead work. We had a drummer and a bass player during the early stages of starting but they have since decided that they cannot commit. However, the three of us have ploughed on with getting our set list and repertoire of songs together by rehearsing to drum and bass backing tracks. Whilst the backing tracks have served their purpose until now, we really want to bring a bass player into our rehearsals and a drummer in around a month or so to complete the line-up and start booking ourselves gigs around London and the home counties. One of our guitarists has the contacts to get great shows and great venues booked and we are excited to get to this stage by the time summer is out. Our songs so far contain all the classics that people expect from a covers band called SpandX (Bon Jovi, GNR, Poison etc) through to modern day pop and rock, albeit with a slightly more rocky and live edge to it to keep the set energised. The whole aim of this is to have fun, make people dance and rock out! We are all really committed and rehearse weekly on Saturdays in Paddington at Westbourne Rehearsal Studios. Below is an insight into some of the songs we have added to our repertoire: · Love Runs Out – OneRepublic · Stop & Stare – OneRepublic · Livin On A Prayer – Bon Jovi · You Give Love A Bad Name – Bon Jovi · Nothin But A Good Time – Poison · Since You Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson · The Middle – Jimmy Eat World · Lifestyles Of The Rich & Famous – Good Charlotte · Sweet Child – GNR · Don’t Stop Believin – Journey · Misery Business – Paramore · Edge Of Glory – Lady Gaga · Physical – Dua Lipa There are more to list, but we can discuss this with anyone who is keen to explore the opportunity with us. If you are interested, you must have your own gear that can be used to gig – modelling unit/amp etc. Both guitarists use professional level amp modellers that go direct to the PA to keep the sound consistent. We also would appreciate someone that can bring their flair to the setlist and contribute to the arrangement of our covers as well as tracks to add. If you are interested, please contact Michael on 07714385122 to discuss things further.

I forgot there's a studio version - I actually meant this live one from 'Flood'. For me this is the most joyous expression of funk bass that I've ever heard:

For me it's all about making sure that my fretting hand thumb isn't in contact with the back of the neck, as this limits the range of movement you get - I feel like it's a whole arm thing rather than a case of wiggling the fingers. I learned a lot from slowing down Paul Jackson's part on 'Hang Up Your Hangups'. When you hear a shake at full speed it sounds like there's lots of pitch variation, almost like a trill, but slowing down PJ made me realise that most of the time there are very few slides between the two pitches. I'll see if I can find some audio to back this up...

I'd suggest exactly as you've done to start out with; sure, it's boring, but it's necessary to get used to the movement. As far as other specific exercises for rest strokes I can't think of any, other than using snippets of bass lines and getting the student to film their right hand as they play so they can see what they actually do compared to what they think they're doing... Another tactic that might be worthwhile is getting your student to realise that we don't really pluck the string, it's more of a pushing motion; in a decent rest stroke there's a split second of 'pressing' your finger into the string before releasing it and sounding the note. If your student has access to a DAW, then recording themselves and seeing uneven waveforms where they're tickling the strings might help - sometimes it's useful to have a visual perspective on things.

I was at ACM a long time ago (13 years since I graduated 😮), but I wouldn't imagine that too much had changed... The academic and musical requirements weren't very high (compared to other music colleges or university music courses) and there definitely wasn't much jazz floating about; it's very much a rock and pop school. There was also a huge range of abilities within my degree class. Try to relax and enjoy it - as others have said, they want you as a student and the audition is just a hoop to jump through. A word of warning; I couldn't read music when I arrived and it was a very rude awakening - this is something that I'd start working on ASAP if you're still a TAB-only player. When you get there, make a point of finding the tutor whose playing/teaching is most to your liking and book as many 1-on-1 tutorials with them as possible; these will be worth more than the entire degree course in terms of getting you ready to be a working musician.

At the risk of being self-serving, try the exercises in the video below. Playing along with a metronome is one thing, but using a click won't automatically give you good time; you need to make yourself more responsible for keeping time by gradually reducing the amount of help the meronome gives you.

This was on my to do list but you beat me to it (and saved me the effort!). Those instrumental albums on Spotify are pure gold, so many bassy delights.

It's been slow going for the past year or so, but I'm finally getting some new charts out and correcting mistakes in the old ones... New transcription features Aston Barrett playing some great notes, even the 'wrong' ones: Chart here: Bob Marley & The Wailers - 'Is This Love'

I'm tempted to start buying up youtube ads so this statement gets displayed before every bass video. Fine, we play a symmetrically-tuned instrument, so we have an certain visual advantage over other instruments when it comes to learning a pattern and then transposing it to other keys, but the majority of players never spend the time working out what the shapes actually represent and why they work. There's also the tendency to think (and play) as if the scale/mode/arpeggio starts and ends where the box does. Modes are, in my humble opinion, one of the most frequent causes of confusion because they're often badly taught and introduced to students at the wrong point in their development. If someone hasn't done their homework on intervals and basic triads before moving on to 7th chord harmony then odds are they won't have a clue about #11s and natural 13s.

Not wanting to open up a can of worms, but I would query this - I'm sure that's the narrative that Pino maintains in interviews, but I'm pretty certain that he took some lessons with Joe Hubbard back in the day.

This is great, thank you for sharing! I transcribed this a while ago and always struggle to play the damn thing cleanly at tempo so these are a huge help. (if you have access to any other stems from Off The Wall for bass or any other instrument I'd be very keen to hear them...)

I really struggle once it gets to two or more notes in spite of having worked on the one note exercises on and off for years. Legend has is that Mike Stern (probably Banacos' most famous long-term student) could do 10 notes; there's a story about him at a Miles Davis rehearsal when Marcus Miller was playing 10-note cluster voicings at the piano and Stern was naming all the pitches by ear... Miles promptly took away all his charts!