AM1

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='485656' date='May 12 2009, 09:57 AM']No problem, after all, even though I do earn my living from music, I've found over the years that a bit of goodwill in the music world goes a long way.[/quote] Thank you, it's very decent of you. Nice to know there are some decent people in the world still. A few pricks too.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='485653' date='May 12 2009, 09:54 AM'].....errr, first line of your post, dim wit.[/quote] Yeah - cheapskate = work out the euphemisms here.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='485646' date='May 12 2009, 09:48 AM']I suppose my thinking is that there is a difference between really wanting lessons yet being unable to pay for them and really wanting lessons and not wanting to pay for them. Hard to know which of those you are though your past posts unfortunately suggest the latter. Alex[/quote] Where did I state, explicitly, that I am asking for free lessons because I simply don't want to pay for them? That is utter nonsense. Why don't you try finding things out instead of making assumptions.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='485629' date='May 12 2009, 09:34 AM']I'm feeling charitable today, so anytime you're around Leeds/Doncaster area or further Eastwards, drop in I live about 2 miles from the Humber Bridge.[/quote] Thanks mate - it's much appreciated. I'll possible be in that area later in the month, if not early next month, will take you up on it! Likewise, my offer to come and try the P-Bass still stands, anytime. EDIT - Jazz is banned though For all this holier than thou nonsense here about not giving free lessons - I've taught plenty of people plenty of skills that I'm qualified to teach, over the years, at no charge. What I got out of that was helping persons, who would otherwise not be in a position to avail of that kind of tuition and would possibly give up without a bit of help. That's worth far more to me than what I would have earned from it. The world is not all about money.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='485599' date='May 12 2009, 09:03 AM']Troll. You been outed as a Troll, end of.[/quote] Ah right. Forgive me for being unaware of your role as the self-appointed Basschat Troll Spotter but could you kindly elaborate as to this apparent "outing"?

[quote name='steve-soar' post='485591' date='May 12 2009, 08:58 AM'].....and we're off again. I could say, stop being the Basschat troll but I won't.[/quote] Right, yes, I can quite see why a thread asking for constructive advice on improving bass playing, on a bass forum, is trolling.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='485585' date='May 12 2009, 08:52 AM']Glad to be of service.[/quote] Yeah, being a knob was really helpful.

[quote name='maxrossell' post='485541' date='May 12 2009, 07:31 AM']This is where being a guitard comes in handy.[/quote] Ahhh. That explains a lot.

[quote name='steve-soar' post='485546' date='May 12 2009, 07:41 AM']Stop spending money on beer and save for some lessons.[/quote] Haha, thanks for that constructive advice, that was really useful!

[quote name='ped' post='485327' date='May 11 2009, 08:41 PM']I don't kiss and tell. And neither does Kiwi.[/quote] Hey Pedro, it's gone terribly quiet in here all of a sudden. Did you boys know that sometimes silence can be interpreted as guilt.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='485370' date='May 11 2009, 10:02 PM']I'm even more confused... Surely that doesn't do anything. It's still fretted in the same place so the note stays the same?? On the other hand, "bending" the string is too hard. I know - practice, practice, practice. Not sure I care enough though.[/quote] Do you know how to do a pull-off? It's not too dissimilar but keep your finger over the string - honestly it's not as hard to bend the string as you think - if my pathetic girly fingers can do it, you can! Just get your finger well over the string and bend it, the more of your finger tip that's over the string, the more leverage to bend it - it's not the same as bending an electric guitar string but once you get it first time, it's easy after that.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' post='485353' date='May 11 2009, 09:34 PM']Spurred on by Guy Pratt's column in this month's Bass Guitar magazine I was looking at vibrato. His column is a bit useless as all he manages to say is "wobble the string". How the hell do you do that? Bass strings are big heavy thick things that are hard enough to bend never mind "wobble". I've managed to avoid this one for all these years - mostly because I clearly have no clue. Am I just being an idiot or is it really impossible?[/quote] Hiya - funnily enough I've been playing with this, but only cos I have been listening to Van Morrison "Wild Nights" and couldn't resist trying it (but in that case it's not really vibrato, it's more like a trill done by a fast hammer on and off) but you get the idea. Just push the string up with your finger then pull it back down, keeping your finger on the string - but alternate it really fast - gives a great "shake" sound. It's really addictive though, I sense it would be easy to overkill it!

[quote name='ped' post='485327' date='May 11 2009, 08:41 PM']I don't kiss and tell. And neither does Kiwi.[/quote] Haha....there's only one response to that: "It ain't me that's gay, it's my boyfriend".

[quote name='ped' post='485298' date='May 11 2009, 08:07 PM']I have been called an 'Overnight Miracle' before.[/quote] There's a story here - kindly elaborate please.

Hi again Simon, thanks for taking the time to post all that, I really appreciate it! I know you are right about the tempo stuff - it has certainly worked in the past...you are right, I just need to be a bit more patient. Stylistically yes, I am hitting definite plateaus here and there but they do always get resolved with a bit of work, patience and time. But now it's my right hand technique - and this is not just a plateau, in that time and work will solve it, but seems more like a fundamental technique issue that needs a major overhaul. I have done a bit of recording and it's definitely that right hand technique that needs to be fixed. When I play with floating thumb, it does slow down the string crossing a bit, particularly coming back up the strings...but when I try and play with my thumb anchored, I can't damp the notes very well...so there's still ringing out of other notes (not massively but enough that I can hear it) - to me, it sounds like absolute crap when I record it - so even though I practice with a metronome and am seeing great improvements in my timing, it's kind of pointless if I can't clean up my playing. When I slow it down, it doesn't seem any easier to fix the damping issues. I know I can nail this, but it's just a bit frustrating. Anyway - thanks for the advice, very decent of you. [quote name='51m0n' post='485177' date='May 11 2009, 04:46 PM']Hey AM, I hope you work something out! You will get through this. If it works for you like it did for me, each style you get under you belt and each technique you nail will feel like another plateau, then you strive again for ages before getting up to the next plateau. It does take time. It is not always the case that more practice makes the time taken to reach the next level shorter. Often its practicing exactly the right thing in the right way for the right amount of time that gets the job done best. Working out what to practice, and how is very difficult to master. Break everything down. Easiest way to do this for pure technique and speed issues IMO, is to record yourself attempting to play whatever at a speed where you can do it perfectly. Now go to the point tempo-wise where its starting to go wrong and record yourself there.[/quote]

Simon - hi If you don't ask, you don't get, so I thought it worthwhile to at least try! There's a guy that does free drum and bass lessons in West London, I've seen his adverts in the studio but I won't be back in that studio until later in the month. Maybe he's a serial killer though and the lessons are to lure his victims in! Anyway - yeah thanks for the really useful tips! The intention is definitely to join more bands in more styles once I can play those other styles more convincingly. I know exactly what you mean about funk, it's infiltrating into my fingers all the time, despite my best attempts to stop it! My fingers have got the funk! Anyway - a bit of diversity is definitely good to shake up the mix now and again. What you said about punk - there seems to be a really common misconception that punk is the easiest style to play - well it's as easy as you want to make it, there are some great punky bass players around that easily demolish that misconception. I personally prefer melodic punk basslines rather than typical 3 chord root note pick basslines but try playing flat out punk bass in that style for 4 hours! Not as easy as people think! I live in hope that there is someone who will give up some free time to help in my quest! Cheers AM [quote name='51m0n' post='484867' date='May 11 2009, 10:24 AM']Yeah, I think you'll struggle here for free. I would make one suggestion on the whole getting my fingers to be faster and so on thing. Get a hold of Michael Manrings old VHS video. He concentrates for the first 3/4 of the video on finger conditioning. He goes into a staggering amount of depth and provides a huge array of well constructed exercises. No they wont change anything overnight, but if you actually do them for 6 months you wont believe the difference they make! And they are very focused on not damaging yourself and good warm ups etc. There is virtually nothing he cant do with his fingers on a fretboard, so I'd say take his advice - it helped me no end.... I think you need to really get into a band in every style you are interested in. The quick way to do this is to learn five songs in each style with as different sounding b-lines as you can find. Preferably the five classic songs in each style. Then go get the bands. Be that bass whore for a while and get in a cover band in each style you want to play in. It will very quickly get you good enough in each style. The ones than I think can be very hard to get right (and again I am not including jazz cos thats a world of pain in and of itself) are reggae and funk. Country is pretty easy to cop, cos the b-lines are generally really simple, and the feel is like a 2/4 halftime thing. Rock can have a lot of notes, or not, but the feel is generally pretty easy, its more often than not slightly ahead of the beat and pushes the down beats with emphasis on 1 and 3. Punk is the same but simpler and more aggressive - even more ahead of the beat. But funk and reggae are a real struggle for some people. Its the laid back thing and the syncopation. My advice is to immerse yourself up to the gills in the stuff for a couple to six months and learn all the classic songs you can find. Play along to everything. Eventually it becomes second nature. Some people do this really fast and some people arent convincingly funky ever, however hard they try. They can play funk lines note perfect and sound completely unfunky. The danger with funk and reggae is that they are crystal meth for bassists, I got into funk and never got away, really. Everything I write now has a hint of funk in it, and most of the reggae I try and come up with sounds like ska Its is a powerful addiction! If I weren't ridiculously busy though I'd have a jam and offer some pointers, but I don't do structured teaching anymore, time etc etc....[/quote]

[quote name='hubrad' post='484722' date='May 11 2009, 12:23 AM']Special Brew holds a hint of danger! Alternatively you could just tell BC as a whole what you're struggling with and see what comes up.. could be fun.[/quote] Ha, you're not wrong! Plus it's cheaper than Stella! Yeah - it's not specifically one thing, there's loads of stuff ranging from a multitude of technique issues to improving versatility in terms of various music styles, gaining deeper understanding of chord "chemistry", which scales will work best over certain chords in certain contexts, improving my live sound, playing appropriate basslines in more complicated time signatures...groove playing...I could go on....basically I need to get better faster. It's mainly technique stuff at the moment though which is really beginning to slow progress, I can't make my fingers do what I want them to do on certain stuff, even with hours and hours of work on it. There's some great music opportunities around for stuff I am really interested in but I need to get my ass in gear and make much more progress than is happening currently. PS - I'm not looking for an overnight miracle and I will do whatever work it takes, I just need some pointers, there's only so much you can learn off YouTube!

[quote name='hubrad' post='484717' date='May 11 2009, 12:13 AM']So where in 'Earth' are you? I'm sure someone on here will be up for some hints and tips. 'Specially with the chance of a beer in the offing![/quote] Primarily based in Laaaahndan but I travel loads so anything's possible! Did I mention that the beer was a can of Special Brew, hahahaha. I'm not selling this very well, am I?!

In true cheapskate style, I'm looking for some freebie bass lessons. Last time I checked my pockets, there were dead flies in there haha, so no chance of any coinage appearing for anyone mad enough to offer me some free bass lessons, but I might stretch to a beer. In some cheap rathole. HAHA. I'm crap, but ultra enthusiastic and hardworking.

[quote name='northstreet' post='484669' date='May 10 2009, 10:12 PM']My set up is to get the action as low as possible, which suits my style of play. My sound typically is biased towards the low end, and I don't play too hard, but at points in some songs you do want to dig in, and imo being able to easily get a clank of the frets helps emphasise that.[/quote] Hell yeah! You can't beat a bit of fret clanking! I've got my action set so low that when I dig in, I get free percussive effect off the fret bang HAHAHAHA!!!

[quote name='Simon' post='484077' date='May 9 2009, 11:30 PM']That would still involve paying copyright to the publishers on the music.[/quote] Yes but at least you could control publishing and the pricing model can be changed by mainly cutting out postage, printing, etc too. Go on....you know it makes sense We want the funk!!!

[quote name='Simon' post='479147' date='May 4 2009, 05:37 PM']No worries bluesparky. No harm done Thanks Higgie! Pete, I'm afraid there is no plan to re-release the books. I tried several times with the publishers to get them out there again and failed... so what will be, will be. I'm currently working hard on The Bassment, and there are a lot of transcriptions on there - with more added every week.[/quote] F*ck the publishers! There's loads of ways you can distribute them without the middleman - as e-books for example....

[quote name='xgsjx' post='483980' date='May 9 2009, 08:04 PM']AM, you're not alone. Ive spent the past 1 1/2 hours playing about with my bass too, only stopped to go on basschat [/quote] At least I'm not alone! I need to get this under control, I've stopped even answering the phone any more when my mates ring, most of them think I've dropped off the planet!! I was already weird to start with, now it's off the scale!