TKenrick

As something of a reluctant slapper (that's what she said...) I definitely prefer the 'chunkier' old-school slap sound of flats or tapewound strings. I find that an EQ pedal* is useful on function gigs where 90% of the set is P-bass with flats territory and then someone decides that they want to play 'Never Too Much' - I'm much too lazy to bring a second bass with me, so this is the best compromise. *a source audio programmable EQ, for those who are curious.

It's one of my favourite books for reminding myself that my reading isn't what it should be 😂 A great practice resource and a serious workout; most of the studies are rhythmically straightforward but challenging it terms of pitch, especially given JP's preference for using all of the ledger lines above the stave.

This. Or, keep some dry signal in along with the 1 octave down - I find that this helps to fill things out a bit more and maintains a bit of clarity, especially in smaller venues where it's easy to overdo the sub bass thing.

Changing tack from posting charts of tunes that I have to play and turning my attention to things that I want to play: Meshell Ndegeocello - 'The Way' bass transcription PDF

Funnily enough that's what my wife never refers to me as 🤣 Nailed it. Notation is a language, just like any other - you have to get a firm grasp on the individual syllables before you can expect to string words together with any degree of fluency. Books like Bellson etc do this in a systematic way, which is why I'm such a fan of them. Anthony Vitti's Fingerfunk Workbooks are also great for working on rhythmic lines in a more musical context than a strict rhythm reading book.

Another one that seems to get called on gigs with increasing frequency and is hard to blag: Queen - 'Bohemian Rhapsody' bass transcription PDF

Thanks, Joe, much appreciated - I keep meaning to catch you at the bass show, and then I remember that I'm allergic to them... The notes from our lessons are still keeping me busy after all these years!

Hey Joe! Any advice on walking concepts for tunes in 3/4 time? I already have your (excellent) walking bass book.

It's cropped up on a bunch of gigs recently and I've had to confess to not knowing it. As I've said before, everyone has principles until their mortgage is due...

I'm in the process of getting the store page updated to show a few page previews, it should be up in a day or two. EDIT: Sod it, I'll attach some here rather than waiting for my website guy to do it

An absolute guilty pleasure of mine, with some very silly fills towards the end: Toto - 'Africa' bass transcription PDF

Not at the moment, only doing a PDF version to start with (this may change if there's enough demand for paperbacks)

A bit more Bowie - 'China Girl' transcribed in full: David Bowie - China Girl Bass Transcription PDF There are tons of bass books out there that tell you what to practise, but very few that detail how to go about it in the best way, so I wrote one... Better Bass Practice eBook

Sleep. Well, that's my guess, at least. I find that I can practise something as much as I like on a given day with only marginal improvement, but if I get a decent night's sleep and come back to it then it's somehow just there, much as you described. Something to do with the brain consolidating information and strengthening neural pathways blah blah blah...

I'm keen to point out that in spite of transcribing a lot of music over the last 10 or so years I'm by no means quick at it - most of the charts that I put up take a few hours of solid work, others much more. One trick that I use when I have a lot of charts to write in a short space of time is to spend my 'first pass' of the song listening to structure only. If you know where the pulse is, then you can create a neat little list of how many bars each section is, which might look like this: Intro 4 V1 8 Chorus 8 V2 10 Solo 16 V3 (breakdown) 8 + 4 Chorus 8 + 8 This gives you a head start when putting things into notation software, and gives you a bird's-eye view of the 'geography' of the song, which can be helpful when it comes to memorising it for a gig. Rhythm is one of the most frustrating aspects of transcription, but all I can say is that over time you'll begin to build up a library of 'patterns' in your brain and instinctively know how to write out what you hear. I'm also a firm believer that better reading = better writing, so keep up the Louis Bellson torture... FWIW, 'I Feel The Earth Move' is a tough one to write out because of all the syncopation, so fair play for not making life easy for yourself!

New videos/articles focusing on the much-hated topic of music theory: How much theory do you need to know? Bass Player's Book Club #3: Harmony & Theory

From memory, the mid boost portion of the demo was done at the higher frequency (800Hz, I think...) and I probably would've gone for the full 10dB of boost.

John Paul Jones playing some great, Motown-tinged lines on Led Zep's debut from 1969: Led Zeppelin - 'Good Times, Bad Times' bass transcription PDF

Late to the party, but I finally got round to doing some more Joe Dart: Vulfpeck - 'Back Pocket' bass transcription PDF

This was the winning entry of the site's subscribers' transcription request competition. Eight minutes of Bowie: David Bowie - 'Absolute Beginners' bass transcription PDF

That's made my day. Welcome to the dark side!

As someone who should be trained in writing dots but whose writing is illegible, my default is to write everything out using software. I also find it more practical for storage/editing than having piles of half-used manuscript paper everywhere. My personal preference is Sibelius, but the new membership options are expensive; I've heard good things about Musescore, which I believe is free, and Finale Notepad (if you're running Windows) should be worth a look too. I haven't got experience with either, so others might be able to give more of an insight.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time to do individual transcription requests (not even for money...), but if you're on the email list for the website then I do request competitions a few times each year - the next one starts this weekend.

Back with a power ballad featuring some very silly bass fills: Commodores - 'Easy' bass transcription PDF Everything should be back up and running now - let me know if any links don't work @outtaseezun @Chewie