XB26354

MTD ado a bass with a 35" scale and 21 frets. Balance is perfect, 1st fret not too far away and modern sound with Bartolommeo humbuckers but they are expensive and the 24-fret versions are more common.

I can't believe no-one has stated the obvious; it doesn't matter which technique you use - just take your pick...

[quote name='Sibob' timestamp='1471943800' post='3117087'] It's also equally ridiculous to say "a bass player who needs a bass player is in trouble" (as mentioned by someone above)......they're musicians first.....they're best friends....what instrument they play is irrelevant, they want to play together. As long as they understand that they need to occupy different sonic space, who cares that they both play bass?! Also, <select super popular guitarist> is rubbish because there's multiple guitarists in their band Si [/quote] No it's not. It's called an opinion and I'm just as entitled to mine as you are to yours. Ask your non-musician friends how wonderful victor backed by another bass player is and watch their eyes glaze over. It's rare for good reason and has nothing to do with <insert 2 soloing instruments of the same type here> in a band Also note that I didn't say two bass players together but one backing the other, i.e. one plays bass lines and the other makes a noise, sorry, solos soulfully...

I'm mystified why being a nice person (or otherwise) has any bearing on anyone's ability or effect musically on others? I'm reliably informed some of the greatest and composers and musicians in history were absolute b*stards

Ive seen him live twice and listened to plenty of tracks both solo and with Bela Fleck and I concur with the OP. There's something utterly unprepossessing about his playing, great though it may be on a technical level, and it's not that it's soloing or the like, it does absolutely nothing for me emotionally. Then again a bass player who needs a bass player to play bass behind them is always in trouble. I fail to see how he has pushed any boundaries frankly - other than his prodigious technique, and there is a skill in making technique serve the music, which I don't think he possesses to any great degree. Still, each to their own.

Setting aside for the moment what is or isn't jazz (which isn't black and white as music by its very nature blurs boundaries), let's forget that the tune is popular, and get to the heart of why some here dislike it. As has been said many times, there's nothing wrong with the song; it may be to some people's taste and not others but each to their own. It's more what people who know next to nothing about jazz as a form of music want to lump into the genre. Is it really "jazz"? It's hard to discount this based on the chords or the baseline; it's more like white paint with a hint of green, so a bluesy middle of the road song with some elements of jazz (a sloppy walking-type bass line, guitar doing jazz-like comping). Now if you care little about getting to understand more about jazz then that's as far as you need to go. That counts for pretty much all the listening public and most musicians. If you dig a little deeper you can find thousands of excellent "pure" jazz songs (acoustic instruments, walking bass, ride cymbal marking time, a head then improvisations), and thousands more with varying degrees of jazz-ness. What's really being talked about is where each of us is on that scale. If we are committed fans of jazz with a wide listening repertoire than we may discount Moondance and use our valuable learning time on more rewarding (listening or playing) challenges. If we care little for jazz then it's as good as any "jazz" song. So perhaps it may be easier to understand the slight disdain in which the song is held as a "jazz" tune by people who may not really know (or care) what constitutes the body of work widely recognised as jazz. ... Finally, if we were to discount every song with a bit of shabby playing then a large proportion of recorded and live music would be heading for the bin!

I can't remember which track but there's one, pretty up-tempo, with something like double-thumbing (maybe Seven Deadly Sins or something similar) which I believe is Vinne Colaiuta on drums and Marcus on bass. I remember it being very kick-ass. there was also a slower track with some quite subtle slapping that sounded very much like MM.

It's also probably worth mentioning that electric and upright bass is written an octave higher than it would sound if written for piano - so that open E on the line below the bass clef will be an octave higher when a piano plays it compared to a bass. It doesn't matter that much as bass is an accompaniment instrument but worth knowing the actual range.

Loving The Alien - if only to prove that he could still come up with a gem on what was regarded as a less than stellar album.

I can't believe it. Really sad news. A total icon and uncompromising musician and artist. And what a way for him to leave - with a great new album on his birthday. RIP.

I'm with Higgie on this. Technically the tied note in the 2nd bar is F and would need a sharp sign. Otherwise how would the reader know whether it was tied F sharp or a slur from F sharp to F natural? If we assume for a moment hat it is a tie and should be read as such the first note circled in red is F natural and should have a sharp sign. In my reading days it was good practice to put "courtesy" accidental a in to remove any ambiguity, as other have said. I normally saw these in parentheses as this was a reminder. The yellow-circled note appears to be cancelling a sharp that, in that bar, doesn't exist. I suspect the passage requires F sharp from the first bar on that line tied over and then through the second bar, ending with the yellow circled f natural in bar 3. That's not how it reads to me, though!

I like the look of the fanned fret SRs - ash body and interestingly not as much of a scale length change compared to Dingwall - 33.6" to 35.5". Sub-£800 for a 6 is a great price!

I haven't taught for ages - hell, I haven't even owned a bass for 2 years, but I taught for about 15 years prior to that. My experiences were pretty much the same as Doddy and Jake. Of course there were more pupils around then I think - especially in the first 10 years. I had students as young as 7 and into their 60's. IMHO the most committed were the ones with a genuine desire to get better and who actually practised. That was about 2 out of 10 students. At one point I did have 12 regular weekly students and it was a very stressful full time job preparing interesting and meaningful material for each person. Fitting that in with gigs, deps and studio work was hard and while I made good money it was still about half what I earn now in a far less strenuous day job I genuinely believe that teaching should be about improvement only - you can focus on a particular thing like learning to read, intervallic exercises or minor modes for example but it is generally more successful if taken as part of a whole. A good teacher should be able to diagnose weaknesses in technique or theory immediately and be able to come up with a number of ways to tackle said problem. I also found that students that played live regularly were much more likely to develop goos strong technique and a voice on the instrument. The slightly depressing think about today's bedroom YouTube heroes is the lack of interaction - there's no substitute for playing with other (good) musicians!