dodge_bass

32 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

I'm assuming everything in my diary is cancelled until August at least - 20 gigs and counting.

I really feel for the full-timers out there. Poor buggers.

I don't even gig full time anymore and it's hit me hard. All the other pros I know are absolutely on their derrières.

Yeah I've had a number of gigs cancel along with a really well paid week of theatre work as well. Go a choir gig next Sat which might happen but to be honest can't see it going ahead. Worrying times....

On 12/03/2020 at 21:31, Quatschmacher said:

Here's a bit of fun:

@dodge_bass, @lee650

Ouch! Great sound  

3 hours ago, FDC484950 said:

I agree - written music’s only reason to exist is to convey the music as clearly and efficiently as possible. I didn’t say I’d never seen it - but I’ve only seen it on charts that are badly notated. The “rules” are inconsistent too as eighth/quarter/eighth notes crosses over the beat but it widely accepted - maybe because the alternative way to write it would be 6 eighth notes and 2 ties, so 3 things is much easier to read than 8. I think a dotted quarter note rest is also quite common, so maybe it’s just another available shorthand. For me having an eighth note then a rest that isn’t an eighth note makes life harder 

Anyway, well done to the OP for working on the transcription!

Absolutely - I was looking quickly for some examples of rest but couldn’t find any. I did find a few examples of 8th notes crossing the beat. As you say the rules really are inconsistent which is frustrating! 

1 hour ago, stewblack said:

I see this complex subject is way more complex than ever I supposed. 

Welcome to a whole world of pain. The key thing though is clarity and ease of conveying to the reader what you want! On that we’re all agreed :)

5 hours ago, FDC484950 said:

In all the notated music I’ve seen and read, from jazz charts, to west end theatre pit scores to professionally written parts, I’ve never (intentionally) seen a quarter note rest across the beat - apart from when the chart was just badly written all over. I agree there is a balance of readability vs convention but if you go down that path you will end up in a mess - eg sixteenth note on the 1 and another on the -a, do you put an eighth note rest in the middle and beam them together? When a part gets complicated such things can make reading harder than it needs to be. It may be your experience but I don’t agree it’s how “most people” would write it.
As the OP is fairly new to transcription my advice would be to notate correctly first, then decide how much you want to “customise”.

hmm- that's really interesting...because I've spent my whole life also reading and regularly see this (jazz chats. big band charts / theatre scores/ classical pieces). As I noted it's only for 8th notes where you can cross the beat NOT for 16th notes as that's far too tricky. But ultimately you're totally right about the readability vs convention on that we agree, as for our actual expereinces we'll have to disagree

3 hours ago, stewblack said:

Hang on, I think a chink of light just appeared:

Is this what you're after? Bars 64 and 65 now:

And before:

 

(except the third 8th note should be a natural but I'm concentrating more on layout here)

That's much better. This is the correct way to write it HOWEVER given that it's only 8th notes and the centre of the bar is now visible most people would make the 2 x quaver rests into a single crotchet rest. Yes it cuts over the individual beats but in this case it's simple rhythms so it's not so important. If it was 16th notes then all 4 beats would need to be clearly defined but less so with 8th notes. Your call though on this. Music notation often contains lots of rules that aren't always followed...great fun when you're trying to learn!!

Bought Ralph's preamp pedal - great comms and sent it straight away. He couldn't find the power supply but kindly send me a link to a similar supply and all was fine...

...except it wasn't. I bought a supply and couldn't get it to work....so I spoke to Ralph again and he kindly spent 45mins searching for the power supply...which he then sent (without charging me extra as would only have been fair). All's well that ends well but it needs to be said that this man is a...

TRUE LEGEND OF THE HIGHEST ORDER!

And another reason why this forum is simply an excellent place to buy / sell /  trade things.

Thank you so much - highly recommended. Deal with confidence

2 hours ago, drTStingray said:

I agree with all of this - and the key to the lack of finger noise is largely achieved by muting (probably left hand) in this case as he's playing hard. Good EQ ing of the final mix also is helpful. 

Yes - I think you're right. I've worked long and hard on this but still get some noise, only noticeable when playing solo / without other supporting instruments. And yes I reckon you're spot on about the EQ-ing as well.

10 hours ago, FDC484950 said:

Just a quick note: it’s generally better to ensure you can see complete beats in the bar, whether you’ve written notes or rests. E.g. bars 63-70 - you should be able to draw vertical lines to separate a bar of 4/4 into 4 quarter note beats. ties between notes don’t count for this convention as the beats in the bar are preserved. The only common exception is eighth note-quarter-eighth note (which lasts a total of two beats) and less often, eighth-quarter-quarter-quarter-eighth note, lasting 1 bar. These are used a lot in central and South American music in cut time (which is written as 4 beats to the bar but counted in 2).
I’d also use a double vertical line between sections (verse and chorus, for example), unless it’s at a repeat sign.

Finally, I don’t think the key signature is right as every C and G is written with natural sign. I’d probably write it with one sharp in the key signature - then you can remove all those natural signs.

Hope this helps!

Agreed - that's some useful feedback right there Mr FDC.

I am also a very big proponent of including the harmony (chords) in any transcription that way you can at a glance see how the bass line fits against the whole song. It also makes it much more useful for teaching and study.

Overall though, great work, transcription is a great way to progress your learning - keep doing it.

On 04/03/2020 at 17:08, Skezza said:

MXR M80 di  has anyone tried one are they any good?

I've got two...they're very clean but do a great job, small footprint too. I tend to keep mine as a backup DI as I prefer a warmer tube-ier sound these days but very impressed by them. They're always the DI's I recommend to my bass students as a good starting point for when they're thinking about their signal chain. You can't go wrong with one of these.

On 04/03/2020 at 22:47, wateroftyne said:

Sean's a great player, currently touring with Squeeze. I like this.

What a tone.

 

I saw his recent SBL trio recording video and was astonished by the clarity and warmth of the sound that he get's without seemingly any finger noise / fret noise. Beautiful tone - trying my hardest to get close to it but falling massively short! Great solo too - very much in the style of the iconic Willie Weeks solo from 'Everything is Everything' - also perfect supportive playing from the drummer on this solo. This is ALL GOOD

7 minutes ago, scalpy said:

Meanwhile, over on FoodChat, DrMexican said “The Chinese dish was excellent, great balance of sweet and sour, however I would have preferred it if it was Indian, or even better, Mexican.”

THIS. 😂

22 minutes ago, thegummy said:

We'll just have to agree to disagree then.

Absolutely fine my man. As you were  

7 hours ago, thegummy said:

I'm wondering if I've not explained myself clearly.

I'm talking about getting the sheet music to a song and going through the notes like "that note is a C and the chord at that time is C so I'll write "R" above that. Then there's a G next, still under the same chord so I'll write a 5 above that."

Then I can look at the bass line and see which scale tones are being used when.

The process of writing the numbers out isn't improving any aspect of bass playing or writing, it's just arbitrarily converting it from one format to another.

No - I think you're very wrong actually in your last sentence above - it's the process of working this stuff out (exactly in the manner you describe) that does develop your ability to understand music further. Let me give you an example - by working through a walking bass line in a jazz standard using this method you get an exact understanding of how the bass player who played it thought about harmony / approached it / played it over (in this case) a given progression. If you want to sound like Ray Brown / Jaco / Jamerson / whoever you're into to you need to do this. 

What I'm saying is that the actual process of doing this (rather than getting a programme / 'resource' to do it for you) is that process that *will* develop your understanding of harmony / chords tones / genre specific approaches to chords / progressions and a knowledge of how individual bass players sound like they do. 

As you note it's slow and takes time to do it yourself - because you're having to think about it (= you're learning a new skill). The more you do it the quicker you'll get at hearing / analysing music on the spot which is a serious development of your musical ability. 

15 minutes ago, thegummy said:

It's just so I can study basslines from good songs without having to work it all out first.

I've done some myself like this but it's very time consuming for me.

Fair enough but I think the development comes from working it out if that makes sense. Otherwise you're trying to run a marathon without training (not the best analogy but it kind of works..!). The more you do it the quicker you'll get (theoretically and aurally) and the more you'll develop as a musician...a positive feedback loop if you will. No short cuts. Sorry man!

On 25/02/2020 at 12:40, thegummy said:

Anyone know of a resource where songs are written out in a way that shows the chords of a song and the bass notes played in it as they relate to the chords?

E.g. something like " R \ \ 3 5 | R \ \ 6 \ " if you know what I mean.

I don't *think* this exists - mainly because most people do it either on the fly or by taking time to transcribe a line / solo / groove and part of that process is understanding how it works with the harmony around it. Everything I play / compose I have a solid sense of how it's working with the harmony at any given point. Is this something you're trying to develop or do you have a different reason for wanting to know this info? 

9 minutes ago, musicbassman said:

.... and tasty snacks to hand for a quick bite between numbers  😊

Absolutely - it got better! Delicious cake and coffee and free bread to take home. Actually I was so focused on the chords whizzing past that bread didn't even cross my mind (this is a rare thing, I love bread!!).

Actually pretty good - two dep gigs back to back with a Gypsy-Jazz outfit. Fast tunes and I'm a bit out of practice but managed to keep it all together. All acoustic (no amps etc) = lovely to play and everyone has to listen properly to each other. 

Pm’d

Just now, Al Krow said:

Yeah but your use of filter pedals live more than makes up for it 😁

Ha ha. Thanks @Al Krow it's good to know you're got my back

Just now, bigjohn said:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/priti-patel-immigration-music-industry-home-office-a9347921.html

So the Creative Arts industry is worth an estimated £111Bln a year... 

It's not just about a few musos moving or not moving to Dublin... 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/21/music-industry-fears-bands-tour-uk-visas-brexit-immigration

This in the Guardian as well today....that gives you an idea of my political leanings!

1 minute ago, Leonard Smalls said:

But look at all that wonderful new freedom you'll have now that all our laws and regulations will be made by sensible English folks rather than by dastardly Johnny Foreigner!

😁

I just can't wait to have our country back it's going to work out just fine.....

2 minutes ago, ambient said:

It’s not just bands; that seems to be thé misunderstanding here and in other places, where people are saying they bands toured in the 60s and 70s. Though they’re showing a misunderstanding of how the modern independent music scene works. No, it’s arts in general, be it solo performers in the experimental scene, painters, poets, authors, actors, dancers, basically all creatives. 
 

I would argue that the reason we have such a vibrant and respected arts scene, is due in part to the cross pollination of ideas, fostered by close collaborations with other artists from across Europe. I’ve seen it, and experienced it.

Agreed. I did ten years of low key gigging around Europe with a little Funk n Soul band. The margins were always really tight and we never made much financially but it was worth doing. We did some great gigs, met some fantastic people and got to travel and promote our music in person. This definitely wouldn't have happened if there were VISA / carnet requirements etc - the promoters just wouldn't have bothered as they couldn't afford it. So for lot of small niche bands on small labels I suspect there will be a real loss of those touring / collaboration opportunities which is a great shame. Larger bands will probably be able to suck it up but its the whole ecosystem of bands (of all sizes / shapes / genes) that will be impacted.

Of course as has already been said we'll have to ultimately wait and see how it all shakes down but I think it's clear that anything which restricts movement (for whatever reason) is going to impact negatively on any sector where that is important. And given that's what the government is intending to do (whether you voted for it or not) I think we'll all be the poorer (financially / creatively / culturally) for it. I'll look back on those tours with fond memories of a simpler time when you could just jump on a plane with a bass!

Pm’d

13 hours ago, Bilbo said:

I always think of his synth playing as some of the most organic and satisfying I have ever heard. It sounds 'real' not synthesised, if you see what I mean. 

key synth or synth on bass? And could you point me to some good examples of either please?