Steve Woodcock

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Power Bass - Soloing Secrets and Xtreme! Bass books by Bunny Brunel, both in excellent condition and complete with CDs. 

£20 for both, posted. 

I'll be playing with De Profundis at the Scala in London on December 14th, supporting Anaal Nathrakh and Sigh:

Album links:

Spotify

YouTube

BandCamp

Offers welcome, including trades; keen to move this on.

Full album out now, all played on fretless except for a short two-handed tapping section in song 5:

Bandcamp link

Spotify link

Bump. Rubber padding still usable if you rotate it around, I just wanted to show the worst of it for transparency.

I've just bought a ramp from Vin - I paid in the early hours of Monday morning and it was delivered Tuesday morning! Super fast turnaround, would buy from again.

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Positive feedback as a seller for Smanth from me, having just bought her HX Stomp. Very pleasant and relaxed transaction, would have no qualms buying from again.

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Another new one from me, again from the upcoming De Profundis album:

11 hours ago, Caz said:

Hi Steve - yes good point, thanks. I had that at first, then wondered because it's E minor is flatting an already flat note in the scale just double flatting so decided on VImaj7 and VII9, then saw in the Berklee course they go for bVImaj7 and bVII9. By the time I did the Luther chart a few days later, which is basically the exact same chords in a different order, I had corrected the terminology - well spotted!

Think of the major scale as being the 'default' position of the scale degrees on which we build chords and name them in relation to that.

On 11/06/2022 at 16:05, Caz said:

Finally got around to making a chart for American Boy. Still think it's interesting the E maj / E minor thing, have written it in E minor with a bit of harmonic analysis underneath the stave.

 

Hi Caz, you're nearly there:

• Yes, it's in E minor - the Imaj7 chord is from the parallel key of E major.
• Cmaj7 is a bVImaj7
• D9 is a bVII9 - it functions as a substitute for the V chord (sometimes referred to as a backdoor dominant)
• Fmaj7 is a bIImaj7 and is from the parallel E Phrygian mode

On 18/06/2022 at 12:03, Caz said:

Here's another example of modal interchange, borrowing from the parallel major. This one's more clearly in the minor key than American Boy or Luther, it just tonicizes the parallel major key in the post-chorus and borrows from it (the G chords) at the end of each section.

Don't view G as borrowed from the parallel major, it's diatonic to C (harmonic) minor

14 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Suffice to say, one of the songs dropped on him was Maxwell's Silver Hammer...

 

The sort of song where if you don't know it  you won't be able to anticipate most of the chord changes

Maxwell's Silver Hammer is not difficult, it just contains a few secondary dominants (indicated by V7/_ on the chart below): 

Price drop to £20.

Very sturdy Stagg double bass stand for sale. Folds flat. 

Rubber on lower support arms is worn, plus some marking on the side of the extending neck support, both of which I've tried to show in the photos. 

On 26/02/2022 at 10:55, sykilz said:

Oooh, really like that.

I'm more of a traditional metal guy, but that's great, the reason I found this thread is I saw a mate's sons band yesterday they were ??death core???, anyway, they had a fretless bass player and it just didn't work for me, all very boomy and ill defined, but this is what it should be like, your playing in this track is very well defined and punchy. 
Do you think that the fretless makes a huge difference in the final mixed track as opposed to a fretted? Or have you always played a fretless in such bands so don't know/care??😆

Thanks @sykilz, I'm glad you liked it.

That's a good question: honestly no, I don't think it did make a huge difference - in fact when I submitted the session file the guys in the band didn't even realise it was fretless! 🙄 I'll take that as a compliment about my intonation I guess, haha 😅 I've been playing fretless for about 26 years now I think and have used it in similar settings throughout that time but ultimately my decision to use it on this particular session was because their previous bassist had established fretless as part of the band's sound on their previous four albums.

Another one from me, here I am playing on the new single from UK death metallers De Profundis, again with my fretless Ibanez Gary Willis signature bass:

We recorded prior to our split back in 2017, but it remained unreleased until today:

Hi @Welshbassist, glad to hear lockdown has rekindled your passion for playing! I am currently available for lessons via Zoom or Skype and, when permissable again, face to face in Chiswick - will this be too far from SE for you? Drop me a message and we can discuss the issues you'd like to tackle.

Recently bought a pickup from Roger, despite all the restrictions at the moment he posted it the very next morning. Top service!

On 18/01/2021 at 14:49, J66Bass said:

Not sure if I’m allowed here to post but hey I like to recommend my bass teacher, few months now I decided to learn not only  bass because I can play bass but music with bass ( if that make sense), so theoretically I very slowly making progrès but the fact I’m slowly able to read the music sheet in groove or beat will hopefully one day make a better bass player so thanks to Stephen Woodcock @Steve Woodcockbased in London to be so patient with me , have a good day all thanks 

Thank you for the kind words, Jean Marie! You are indeed making progress and I'm glad you are getting a lot out of the lessons :)

Tragic news, Sean has been a huge influence on my playing since I first heard him back in '93 and is the reason I play fretless and Chapman Stick. To lose both him and Sean Reinert this year is devastating.

I had the privilege of being taught by Sean back in 2000 when he was in London recording with Bill Bruford. Not only was he a stellar musician but he was a great teacher who was very passionate about education. Years later I had the incredible honour of - albeit briefly - stepping in to his shoes to play Chapman Stick with Cynic on some shows in 2008.

I love the sound of the tabla, so it was an absolute pleasure to dep for this band a number of times throughout 2015-16:

Francesco and Simran from the band did a drum and tabla clinic a few years ago which is well worth a watch, here is the part where Simran talks in detail about the tabla:

2 hours ago, razor5cl said:

Huh, I never knew that! Is there a source for this? I thought he played fretless right from the beginning.

I was in to Sadus back in '91 so one of the sources is my memory 😉

Ive just done some googling and found an interview discussing the recording of A Vision Of Misery to back that up though:

Quote

I was still using the Rickenbacker bass that was my identity sound, but we integrated the fretless in on some songs and working to make it sound really good in a good studio helped me to bring it out a year later to record Individual Thought Patterns. And even with previously mentioned Autopsy [Fiend For Blood EP] & a few songs on Visions; Individual Thought Patterns was the album that not only put me on the map, but is the iconic spawning of the first time anyone heard fretless bass in metal.

Also:

Quote

I know the fretless I built made it in the studio on Autopsy's 1991 Fiend For Blood. I'm trying to remember if I busted it out before that. I couldn't think of anyone else back then that used fretless in metal.