tinyd

7 minutes ago, peteb said:

But Miles had a very definite stage presence that people wanted to buy into. That's kinda the point...! 

He had an "anti presence" in that he actively refused to engage with the audience outside of playing the music, but this came about because he was (to put it mildly) uncomfortable with the expectation at the time that black performers were expected to smile etc. to gain acceptance with white audiences, and he thought his music should speak for itself. The fact that other people later bought into this and identified it as "a thing" is a kind of stagecraft-after-the-fact I guess.

Anyway, I'm not sure what my point is, but it's an interesting discussion
 

9 minutes ago, peteb said:

BUT, if you can't do it on a gig (or session or whatever) then you can't do it at all and stagecraft is the ability to hold an audience. Once you get on a stage you are in showbusiness (like it or not) and if you can't engage with an audience then it doesn't matter how much musical knowledge you have, you shouldn't be on that stage... 

I read @Bilbo's point as being that "stagecraft" is very hard to define, and it depends on the musician/audience/genre. Some musicians engage with the audience entirely through the music itself, whereas others do it in other ways as well. If you went to a Miles Davis gig in the 60s expecting banter, dance moves and a light show you'd have been pretty disappointed

On 22/07/2020 at 16:22, Barking Spiders said:

 I will say  the most inventive stuff I've heard is by people who break the rules and possibly don't know a lot of theory. 

Maybe the more you understand the rules in the first place the greater the scope there is to break them? What we call "music theory" is just a reverse-engineered attempt to explain what sounds good to human ears, it's not supposed to be prescriptive, but it can provide lots of shortcuts to making other good sounds, so it's worth investigating IMHO.

There are some fantastic musicians out there who may not be able to explain anything about music theory, but they still *know* it internally, which is what makes them good.

Sorry, it's a long thread so not sure if this has already been posted, but here goes anyway. Extremely funky and featuring the excellent MonoNeon
 

As a technique it can be impressive, but I agree that there aren't many tunes where it works (and I love funk). The best examples are usually where it's used sparingly and the tune has a bit of space and the bass player uses the slaps/pops as syncopation within the groove e.g.
 

I also have an aversion to carrying extra gear - I've been thinking about getting a small amp like a BAM200 and then using its DI for the FOH sound and a Phil Jones Ear Box for monitoring. Not sure how many of my gigs (remember those?) will work with this setup but it's certainly tempting in terms of size / weight.

Alex Blake has a totally unique sound and way of playing the bass. Not sure if they teach this anywhere....

I have a self-imposed "one of each type" rule so I have a Shen DB, Japanese Fender Jazz and Laka Ukulele bass. Just trying to decide if my rule allows a fretless BG or not, but as it's rule I guess I can bend it

Forgot about this one - Larry Grenadier is a great player:
 

22 minutes ago, Frank Blank said:

Christ, quite possibly on a bike ...

He's great, and even when he's 'just' walking he's still amazing. He's been fairly good at playing bass for a while now
 

He's currently on tour in Europe with Chick Corea- gutted that I won't get to see him.... 

I'm contemplating an ultra-light setup of an Ear Box plus a small amp like a BAM 200. I'm always surprised at how loud the DB is acoustically when someone else is playing it so I figure that if the Ear Box works for monitoring then I can ditch the combo at some gigs.

@Bilbo Sounds like you're happy with the Ear Box - do you find it helps with intonation? Reason I'm asking is that I struggle to hear myself at gigs and end up playing down the low end of the neck just to be safe. I have a Realist pickup so I was thinking of taking getting an Ear Box and taking it out of my GK combo for small gigs.

23 hours ago, Rexel Matador said:

Not a bass player led album, but Ron Carter's bass playing on Jim Hall's Concierto is a delight.

Nice! The live album Alone Together is just the two of them and is a lovely example of duo playing

17 hours ago, Kevsy71 said:

A Love Supreme  - John Coltrane (Jimmy Garrison)

Good choice. I really like his playing on all those Coltrane Impulse albums - Crescent also has some really nice stuff, as does the recently 'rediscovered' Coltrane album, Both Directions At Once 

Anything with Christian McBride is well worth hearing. There are s couple of recent recordings with him playing with Chick Corea that are excellent, but his own bands are also really good.

The Bad Plus are also great, lots of stuff on YouTube...

That looks nice. I haven't got any money, bah....

I simultaneously hope that you do and don't sell it

Joking aside, if anyone is looking for a setup for the quieter end of the gig-spectrum this looks like a great setup at a really good price.

1 hour ago, PJ-Bassist said:

For those reading / following this thread, please do provide me with some recommended listening!

Some of the best recordings I can think of are the Miles Davis ones from the late 50s, Cookin', Relaxin', Steamin' and Workin' (you can get them all on one compilation called "The Prestige Sessions" I think). They were all recorded at the same couple of sessions and they're mostly standards with the incomparable Paul Chambers on bass. For learning walking bass I'd say they're better than Kind Of Blue because the tunes are more typical of what you'll play at a jazz jam. Somethin' Else by Cannonball Adderly is also a lovely album with the definitive version of Autumn Leaves.

There are hundreds more but these are great to start with.

59 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Never heard of it but i'll google it just now to see what its about

 

It's worth checking out to see if it works for you. Scott has a lesson where he talks about it:

It could be worth trying Simandl (1-2-4) fingering where the little finger is always supported by the third. It'll require some adjustment in your playing but it's a well tested technique and it'll work on any bass guitar since it's designed for double bass.

I think the 'cultural appropriation" argument is a bit of a strawman - most examples of this are usually drummed up by certain papers trying to get everyone angry about "PC gone mad" etc, whereas in reality I can't see anyone objecting on these grounds. I think what's more relevant is whether you feel that your band call pull off a song like this, given its very dark subject matter. Maybe have a  listen to some of the other versions and see what kind of arrangements they've done, and see if one of them feels more comfortable to play?

As an aside, you can make a BG sound more like an organist's left hand by using an octave pedal

The upper chord extensions also give you a guide as to what scales will work over the chords. So for example, a #11 means that it'll be one of the Lydian scales, whereas a 7b9 chord means that a half/whole diminished scale will work. I'm not saying that you should just run up and down the scales for your bass line, but I find that it helps me to have the scale 'under my fingers' when I'm playing a walking line.

I think it's worth listening to what he wants from the bassline, but then explaining that the detail is down to you, plus you reserve the right to try things that are completely different. 

The Vox Amplug is not a high-end piece of bass gear, but if you just want to noodle around on your bass when you can't be arsed to plug in a proper amp it's fine.

Regarding funk, I like long sections that stay on one vamp, but the art is in keeping the music developing at the same time. It's the same as the montuno section in Latin music. If the band don't know how to change things during the section then it does indeed become boring.

It's funny, I've often tried to figure out why I like jazz and funk, but never really got on with prog. I think it's the opposite problem. To me, prog tends to change feel/tempo too often and doesn't stay on one groove long enough. 

Maybe there's a gene that controls one's groove Vs boredom tolerance...