XB26354

Aria Pro II in black. Cost £193 from Kingfisher music, paid for entirely by my paper round when I was 13. Mind you, my next bass at 16 was a Wal, paid for by working in the horrible Goodmans factory in Havant all summer I loved the bass sound (and wacky video) to Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel. My brother played guitar so I wanted to play along.

If you are notating something expressly written where all strings are detuned then the piece should be written as if strings were in standard tuning. E.g. if you detune the strings to Eb/Ab/Db/Gb and the first note is open Eb it makes more sense to write the music in E as it what you will feel and see. Writing at pitch means you have to relearn the whole fretboard just for that piece (e.g. C is now B, F is now E). If you are transposing a tune from one key to another it obviously makes sense to write at pitch.

I too just got a Stingray 5 single H - natural with tortie scratchplate and maple board. The bottom end sounds just like a Chapman Stick to me, dry and clav-like, and there is surprising tonal variation with the selector switch. Weight is medium, a bit heavier than my US Deluxe Jazz (which is super light anyway) but balance is absolutely spot on seated or standing. Having played many Stingrays in the past and come away very unimpressed, this one is a belter. I believe that MM selects better grain ash for the natural models (hence the price upcharge). Here is a pic, too! Cheers Mat

Hi guys, Hope you liked the transcription - I've got the CD and like you said it only mentions Greg playing Moog on WCWIO (especially when it goes way out of tune on one lower note!). I'd have bet that A night in Tunisia was Abe Laboriel just from the tone and what he plays. Great double of Parker's old sax break by Herbie Hancock, plus Dizzy himself noodles over the end. I'm sure this is on YouTube somewhere too. I've done the rest of this album and Naughty - will post a link to the site where you can get them if you're interested in the nearish future...

Speaking as a teacher... I've taught a fair amount of people of different ages and different backgrounds over the years, and the lesson was different with each pupil. A good teacher should be able to understand who the student is and what they want, then quickly work out ways in which to make that student better and help them to feel the joy of learning, while at the same time teaching to a high standard and providing a balanced lesson. I'd always ask what experience a teacher has and what methods they use to teach (backing tracks, ear training MP3s etc.) A good teacher should be a good bass player with sound knowledge of theory and harmony as well as solid and dependable technique. Communication is the most important thing however - a teacher must genuinely enjoy teaching and be passionate about helping students to learn. I would also not consider a teacher that does not read standard notation. As a student, if you find the right teacher then practice regularly and do the work given or you're wasting their time and your money. That might sound harsh but some students simply don't practice and come back the next week expecting the teacher to "make" them better. Finally, think carefully - do you really need a teacher? If you have sloppy technique then slow your playing right down and find out what is making you sloppy. It is either the picking hand not keeping up, fretting hand fingering or the coordination between the hands. In any case if you do find a good teacher, best of luck! Mat

Hold on, I thought if you played a bum note, then played it again, you meant it?

[quote name='JohnSlade07' post='388719' date='Jan 22 2009, 04:41 PM']Is this common? I was listening to Ray Brown the other night and he seemed to repeat the same note quite frequently For example over a Bb7 is it fairly common to play Bb Bb F F, or Bb Bb Ab Ab. Im my ignorance I assumed that this was a jazz "sin" and that a different note had to be played on each beat of a basic walking line. Cheers.[/quote] Early on in Jazz (ragtime up to swing) it was common to play with a two feel (i.e. two half notes per bar, almost feeling like cut time). In order to maintain the bass function but not be too obtrusive players often used to double up each note with one of the same pitch - hence Bb Bb F F on a Bb7 chord. In fact it is still common today to play the head (melody) of some standards in two or expanded two feel and go into regular walking during the solos. If you play more repeated notes it gives your line a more bluesy and foundational feel - and there is certainly nothing wrong with that! If you're playing a very fast tune then repeated notes can give you more time to think during tricky changes. It works well in country and blues too, where too many different notes in the bass get in the way. Otherwise known as if it sounds right it is right

Oh - quite a surprise. I went to music college with him and tbh I didn't think he would turn out a pro. There were quite a lot of musicians finding their feet. I can remember him asking me something about improvisation. It was a very long time ago and he must have been pretty young then. He was a nice bloke as I remember so more power to him. Goes to show what practice and dedication can get you!

[quote name='Mr Fudge' post='378789' date='Jan 13 2009, 11:31 AM']Ditto. I am a Beck vigin, which is a surprise really considering my age and musical influences over the years. I thought he was amazing. Ive never seen so much feel in a player. Not overawed by the bass player. All that great gear didn't sound very clever IMO. I came to the conclusion that the dirty old sod must be shagging her. :brow:[/quote] Allegedly... you might need to look at the drum chair for that. And then marvel how Ms Wilkenfeld seems to crop up at a lot of gigs where Vinnie is playing :-)

Edited for a few small errors as above!

[quote name='overwater#1' post='373725' date='Jan 8 2009, 12:17 AM']Would you mind letting me have a copy of your transcriptions at all? Depending, I would even buy some transcriptions! I'd love to get some of Anthonys transcriptions to study his playing in greater depth! He is just awesome!! Thanks very much!! Matt [/quote] Tbh if you can't work them out you'll struggle to play them - the chart for Why Not (as compressed as I can get it whilst still being legible) is 6 pages... of course if you can work them out but just don't have the time then the tracks on Rendezvous and One More Once are rewarding, if next to impossible in places (e.g. El Realejo!) I'm in the process of putting a load of AJ transcriptions together and will start a Website up once I've got everything sorted. I've posted a transcription of Chaka Khan's We Can Work It Out over in Theory and Technique as a taster - if you're really interested PM me and I'll see what I can do Cheers Mat

***EDIT*** revised with corrections - Gs in bars 11 and 16 should have been Gb, section B should have been a bridge (horns are at D bar 46), section E at bar 52 is the second bridge and the four 16th notes on beat 4 of bars 72, 78, 82 and 90 should be A natural, Bb, A natural, Gb. Thanks, Mat Hi, Not strictly a bass one as it is Greg Phillinganes playing what sounds like a Moog, but well worth it if you persevere - very funky and some great licks. Also fun (if hard!) to play on "real" bass. Not one to sight read though Cheers Mat

[quote name='bassmansky' post='372274' date='Jan 6 2009, 06:29 PM']+1, yes theres alot of ashdown haters on here,dont now why.a very popular brand(apart from on here)i have no problems with mine whatsoever and yes you do have to twiddle with the eq,but once you get that sound it will imho blow lots of their competitors away!But each to their own as they say![/quote] I have to disagree, having owned a lovely Epifani 210 combo. I currently have an Ashdown combo and have tried plenty of Mag and ABM gear in the Gallery. The Epifani made every bass, passive or active, 4, 5, or 6 strings sound great. The Ashdown makes every bass sound like the amp is inside a wardrobe at the bottom of a well. They also look crap imho. No, I don't know why I bought it either, apart from it being cheap!

Songs without lyrics shouldn't have names? What like 90% of classical, 70% of Jazz and plenty from every other style under the sun? Anthony and all the musicians in this band have played with tons of singes, groups and bands. I don't hear sterile playing, I hear top musicians (not just technically either) playing good music. I've transcribed and can play most of the songs from the CD this track comes from and I hear great crossover latin jazz/hard swing with fantastic arrangements and top notch, sensitive playing. Tbh even if the music isn't your taste have a go at trying to play the bass line

That would be Mark Plati, sometime band member and producer of the distinctly mediocre [i]Hours...[/i]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='366104' date='Dec 30 2008, 11:30 AM']I notice the price of the 2008 P5 has gone up by about almost £200 at Thomann's since i got mine in Nov. EDIT: Actually, it seems a lot of their prices have risen quite a bit recently. Even the Laklands.[/quote] Thomann is in Germany and quote their prices in Euro, converting to Sterling. As the Pound is pretty much parity with the Euro (has even dipped since you got your P5 in Nov), that would explain their price rises. Fenders have indeed risen quite a bit - I got my American Deluxe Jazz 5 just prior to the earlier rise for a very nice price, now it will probably cost about £1300 in the shops

Aint Nobody - Greg Phillinganes on keyboard.

A lot of examples in the book refer to jazz tunes and have a short piece of arranged piano notated to highlight the idea. It's therefore most useful if you can play/program this to hear what is being discussed - even if you have the tune in question it may not be easy to pick this passage out until you've heard it first (or at all as it is in the middle of a solo at a fast tempo). A great book and well worth having.

[quote name='L1zz1e' post='345309' date='Dec 4 2008, 12:53 PM']I try to sit there and work through some scales but i end up thinking i know it and move on, but then I end up getting kicked in the ass for it later on! I mean, i know my major scale shapes, but I dont seem to be able to implement them effectively.[/quote] Are you sure you really know them? I've been playing for 23+ years and I don't know all the permutations. What I do know having taught people of all ages and backgrounds is that, as Bilbo said, an enquiring mind is the most valuable tool for improvement. But you know what? I never really sat down and played a C major scale over one octave up and down at quarter notes = 60, then stepped it up 10% when I could play it flawlessly, then up another 10%, then when it got faster up 5% each time, etc. No, hold on, I [b]did[/b] do that! In order to memorise a shape like the major scale (and I'm talking starting with the 2nd finger of the fretting hand) you have to play it over and over - not thousands of times, just enough so you don't have to think to play it. Then the real task of learning on a fretted string instrument is all its variations of fingering in different positions on the neck. Take the open G string - that same pitch can be played at the D string 5th fret, A string 10th fret and E string 15th fret. A "next step" exercise is to play a given scale starting with each fretting hand finger, and see where your fingers lead you. In most cases you won't be stuck using one finger per fret so the fingerboard opens up and you start to see things differently. When you think you know any given scale, find the lowest note on your bass that is in that scale and play it up to the highest note on your bass - this gets you used to position changes and playing "vertically" (i.e. up strings instead of across them) instead of being stuck in one four-fret position. As you can probably already see there is a lot of work, meaning that you'll have to put some serious regular practice in - but in all my experience 30 minutes to an hour and a half 5 or 6 times a week is way better than 8 hours a day on saturday and sunday and nothing for the rest of the week. As for approach, that is actually a misleading question imho - do the practising and the knowledge will eventually come out in your playing. If you mean, for example, different approaches to playing over a 7sus4 chord, then something like the Jazz Theory book will give you all you need. A teacher is not compulsory but a good one will help you on the way and maybe save time going down dead ends or picking up bad habits. The above is of course purely my opinion based on experience... Best of luck and don't give up - stick at it and you will improve, not only as a bass player but as a musician. Mat

How about a top 100 list with no ranking (i.e., the 100 favourite bass lines without giving any particular one preference)? To say there is a "best" of anything in music is totally ridiculous as everyone has their own opinions, however classic bass lines like Good Times etc. are worth including for the younger generation who didn't grow up with these songs and may not have heard them. Kind of like 100 things to do before you're [s]dead[/s], sorry 30, except for bass

The standard TRB basses are discontinued - all that is now available are the high-end TRBPII and the John Patitucci sig (I snared probably the last TRB1006 from Yamaha, fantastic bass for less than a grand). Maybe if you contact Yamaha UK they can advise you - I went on a sales course there many years ago and they keep spares on everything for a [i]long[/i] time... As for aftermarket pickups anything will work as long as it has the same dimensions - I believe the TRB used alnico V magnet single coils if that helps...

[quote name='Beedster' post='344798' date='Dec 3 2008, 09:31 PM']Piece of cheap tin that worked for Jaco, Jamerson, Entwhistle, Redding and a few others [/quote] I remember reading somewhere that Jaco put C-clamps on the headstock to get more sustain. I think these guys worked with what was available at the time. The favourite mod for a Fender has been a Badass for decades (even the GL and MM sigs have them), precisely because the tin bridge lacks sustain and punch for us ordinary mortals

... and £80 less than a Japanese made Geddy Lee with US pickups and a Badass (unless that's about to become £900!)