TKenrick

There's a big gulf between someone who can tell you what you're doing wrong and someone who is able to give you practical steps towards solving the problem(s), preferably in a way that's relevant to the music that you listen to and play. As others have already said, a lesson with someone who has lots of playing experience but also takes the time to listen to you and understand where you want to go is worth umpteen online courses or instructional books. I try to check in with a mentor whenever I can (typically one lesson every year), I think it's important to have a second pair of ears to critique your playing no matter how long you've been at it.

Having tried floating thumb and not got on with it (Willis is the only one who seems to make a good sound with it, and he's a mutant...) I'm a firm believer in the 'moveable anchor' option described by @louisthebass above, where the thumb doesn't move past the A string - on a 5-string I do a similar thing, but the thumb doesn't move past the E-string and the ring finger helps out by muting the A string a la Jaco. Not wanting to open up an off-topic can of worms, but from watching the Gordon Goodwin video above I'd actually say don't worry about your right hand too much, it looks/sounds fine... one thing to look into is the left hand and avoiding using one finger per fret in the lower register of the bass if at all possible - in the busier walking sections of the video it seems like trying a slightly different, more double bass-orientated approach might make the left hand feel more relaxed and secure. I'd been playing for years before one of my teachers at music college put me onto the Simandl double bass method book on electric bass (also known as the '1-2-4' system for the left hand) and it made a huge difference in terms of being able to get around the fretboard in a relaxed way.

I did a transcription of this a while back using the original recording and having listened to that isolated track I severely doubt it's JPJ - either that or my ears really aren't all that good 😂 apart from the actual note choices, the tone/attack seems to be quite far from what's on the record.

To include the ledger lines from open E to middle C in one hit: Every Good Band Deserves Fans And Cocaine* *can be easily substituted for Chocolate depending on the age/sensitivity of the student

I'd second @louisthebass suggestion of Joe Hubbard's beginners' course - I haven't taken it personally, but I studied with him for a year or so and learned way more than I did in my entire music degree. He taught Pino, Paul Turner, Dave Swift (I think...) and hundreds of others and his materials and concepts are top-notch. Sure, it's not free, but in my experience you definitely get what you pay for. I think you also value what you've paid for more than anything you get for free - I have hard drives full of video lessons and books that I've 'acquired' over the years, but I always come back to books that I've actually bought or notes from lessons that I've taken. The Friedland book is also a great shout. From the little I've seen of Yousician, I'd avoid it like the plague; it's aimed squarely at children and the lessons videos I've seen have some very questionable advice on bass technique.

It's definitely funny the first 400 times you hear it though, right?? 'Bet you wish you'd taken up the flute!' is another staple that makes my blood boil (have you ever heard a flute? Hands down the worst sounding instrument available)

It definitely helped me get my act together having arrived at music college with zero reading ability! One day I'll get past page 1 of the odd-time book...

I'm possibly at the point where I'd happily play nothing but Valerie for an hour straight. You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, as they say.

I was thinking along the same lines, but more a question of 'Which books have you actually made it through?' Mine would be: Simandl - Method for Double Bass Book 1 (I found this hugely beneficial to my electric bass playing) Louis Bellson - Modern Reading in 4/4 Time Anthony Vitti - Fingerfunk Workbook

I'm happy to admit to being exactly the same - I realise much to my embarrassment that there are quite a few books on my shelves that I've bought and never opened. It also seems to be the books that I feel are the 'best' are just the ones that I've persevered with over the years - I don't know if they really are better, or that I've got more out of them because I've put more in...

Welcome to the dark side! If you're enjoying playing Vulfpeck stuff, then it might be worth exploring more funk/disco/jazz-funk bands. Some bands/tracks off the top of my head are: • Jamiroquai - Don't Give Hate a Chance, Runaway, Whatever It Is I Just Can't Stop, Alright, Manifest Destiny • Incognito - Colibri, Magnetic Ocean (and lots of others that I can't recall...) • Chic/Sister Sledge - basically anything with Bernard Edwards on it. • Tower of Power - What Is Hip?, Only So Much Oil In The Ground, You've Got to Funkifize • Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster, Sir Duke, Do I Do

Leland Sklar showing how to get away with lots of 'dusty end' action in a singer-songwriter setting: James Taylor - 'You've Got a Friend' Bass Transcription

I should have said 'solfege' rather than 'sight singing' - the idea is you get a simple piece of music, use an instrument to get the first pitch then sing through the rest of it; this means that you have to be able to work out all the interval sounds in your head to sing them accurately.

The best way to progress with ear training and transcription is to start singing everything you're trying to play - start with a bassline or melody that you know really well, but have never played, and break it down note-by-note. Sing each pitch and find it on your bass. Learning the correct names for all the intervals can come later, but the thing that takes the most time is building a link between your ears and your fingers. Sight singing is also an excellent way to develop your ears, as you really can't sing anything accurately unless you're hearing it in your head first. For learning intervals, the most effective thing that I've found is training yourself is an app called Functional Ear Trainer - this teaches you to hear how each degree of the scale sounds in context. As someone who does a lot of transcription, it's worth noting that many of things that make the process easier and more enjoyable have nothing to do with ear training - working on your reading is the quickest way to speed up the process of writing things down.

I think I have a copy on a hard drive somewhere - from memory it wasn't that good, but I'd need to re-watch it to be sure. I would suspect that most advice about the music business might be outdated by now!

@Reggaebass thanks, that really means a lot to hear that the videos etc are helpful - I'm offering remote lessons so feel free to PM when you're ready. Regarding TAB vs. standard notation... I could bang on for hours about why I think that notation is better, but I understand that not everybody wants the same thing from bass playing that I do. I grew up playing from TAB and didn't have to learn to read until day 1 of music college. As you can imagine, having to suddenly learn to read in a hurry when I felt I could already play well was a deeply frustrating experience, and it didn’t come easily to me. I stuck with it because I had to, but now I wish I’d started with dots when I first picked up the bass. Here’s what switching to notation did for me: • Improved my fretboard knowledge - you can read TAB for years and not know what pitches you’re playing • Forced me to understand rhythm, which in turn improved my sense of time/groove • Allowed me to put theory in context much more easily • Enabled me to communicate better with other musicians and read music written for other instruments TAB works really well as a ‘bird’s eye view’ for what’s going on and is great for picking things up instantly, but notation is a valuable tool to expand musicianship as opposed to just getting better at bass. There are loads of great players who don't read dots, and lots of awful players that do, so it's not the be-all and end-all of playing by any means.

As a recovering TAB-aholic I'd see this as a huge plus - I always find that my eye still gets drawn to any TAB underneath the notation so best to hide it away in a separate section of the book.

'I want to be more melodic' is something that I hear from students and other bass players (including myself) all the time. Here are some thoughts on getting started:

A brief overview of this plum-coloured pedal and some of the sounds that it can produce: There's a lengthier article on it here should people want more detail: Boss BF-2 Flanger Pedal

A bit of Pino with Paul Young. Some pretty taxing 16th-note stuff in the outro: Paul Young - 'I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down' bass transcription

Nice to see you taking the plunge and sharing your work! There are (very small) layout things in here that I would change, but I'm hesitant to force my personal chart preferences on others... The main thing that I always try to do to make life easier for the reader is to try to keep 4 (or 8 bars) to a line; sometimes, this isn't always possible as some bands write sections that are 17 bars long, but I try to get in that ballpark as 90% of songs divide neatly into 2/4/8 bar chunks and laying things out in this way makes it much easier to read at a glance. I also like to see a double bar line to signal that there's a change in a section coming up (e.g. between verse and chorus). I've been toying with the idea of doing a series of videos/articles on how to notate, but I didn't know if there would be much interest in such a thing. Anyway, sorry for the nitpicking and look forward to the next one(s)!

I've just had my first day of remote school teaching via Zoom - it's ok, but there's still latency as with other software, so I don't know how it would be for rehearsing.

A classic Incognito groove that I always thought was Randy Hope-Taylor, but isn't: Dots/waffle here: Groove Of The Week #55: Incognito - 'Colibri'

New edition of Groove Of The Week featuring Michael League from Snarky Puppy playing some George Porter Jr-on-speed licks: Notation etc here: Groove Of The Week #54: Snarky Puppy - 'Quarter Master'

As @dodge_bass bass said, it's the process of working it out that's important and - generally speaking - the harder something is to do, the more beneficial it is for you. It's time consuming for everyone when they first do it, but it does get easier with time, patience and persistent effort.