katana_manatee

Breathing exercises are a must but it is largely a mindset issue. Before you gig you are obviously feeling some kind of excitement, almost anyone would given the prospect of playing a gig. Sometimes we mistake that excitement for nerves and we worry about the fact we are nervous. This creates a vicious circle and amplifies the physical aspects of excitement and nervousness such as involuntary shaking, sweaty hands and so forth. Check this out: [url="http://www.pe2000.com/breathe_diaphragm.htm"]http://www.pe2000.com/breathe_diaphragm.htm[/url] That describes everything you need to know for controlling your breathing. Another thing is to do this while visualising going up on stage and treating it as a normal thing. Imagine watching a cinema screen which is showing you going up on stage to setting up and actually playing the gig and playing through some songs. Learn to link the feeling of calmness through the breathing to the idea of going up on stage and gigging and your mind sort of learns to go closer to that calm state than tummy rumbling anxiety. Another thing is after doing the breathing and visualisation try to focus on anything else other than the gig, don't let yourself have time to dwell on the situation and let anxiety rise, this also gets your brain to treat the situation as something you just do every day which is no big deal like going to take a shower, you just don't think about it that much. It takes a while but forcing yourself to follow a routine of breathing exercises and visualisation followed by focusing on something else will reinforce the idea that what your doing is a totally normal and every day thing that is not worth getting anxious about. By the time you get on stage your adrenaline will start to kick in a bit but it will feel more like excitement and expectation of something good than something which you should be nervous of.

[quote name=':amaze:' post='359323' date='Dec 20 2008, 12:38 AM']haha cool. and i'm hoping at least somewhat helpful when it comes to actual bass issues?[/quote] From what I have seen so far, definately. It is a very friendly and supportive environment with plenty of good and "more serious" threads. IE people will be light hearted but will take topics seriously and they won't disintegrate into random nonsense a la mx.

[quote name='Finbar' post='359309' date='Dec 20 2008, 12:00 AM']Nah, I reckon most of them are arseholes to be honest. Or idiots. Or worse still - both.[/quote] I agree, but I tend not to speak to the arseholes. I should really just get the msn addresses of some people I suppose.

[quote name=':amaze:' post='359276' date='Dec 19 2008, 11:23 PM']hey all, just joined this board today. i'm from the us, i hope that's ok! i've been playing bass for 9-ish years, and play a MIM jazz that i've modded a tiny bit. i play through a full stack, peavey head with GK and hartke cabs. i'm in a pop/rock band that's gigging fairly regularly. anyhow, i saw this section so i thought i'd say hi. anything i need to know about this place?[/quote] Hey Luke. Only thing you need to know is it is a cool place.

[quote name='Protium' post='359004' date='Dec 19 2008, 05:49 PM']Yo Katana! I guess you're talkin about MX when you say juvenile [/quote] Yes... I go there to chat with some of the members I know but it is hardly a bass forum anymore. Fun banter though amongst some of the people.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='358967' date='Dec 19 2008, 05:06 PM']Couldn't listen to it until the end. The tune was too painful. I just don't like the tone of his bass. I like a dull thud. Also, I know all you oldies like fretless bass, but you've got to understand that us youngsters associate the sound of a fretless with people who go to Paul Young gigs and call their bird "my partner". It just sounds so dated (dated bad, not dated good).[/quote] Fair enough, it can take a while to get used to Jazz, at first I hated it and slowly came round to it and now I love it. I love fretless bass but I'm only 21. Maybe I am just 50 in spirit?

[quote name='Finbar' post='358668' date='Dec 19 2008, 11:41 AM']Steeeeeeve. Mine was Informer Centipede. Not very epic [/quote] Chriiisss! 'sup dude? As soon as I saw Finbar I had a feeling it would be you. Informer Centipede, ha ha gutted! Best I have seen though was a friend of mine who got Bubblicious Octopus.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='358647' date='Dec 19 2008, 11:21 AM']I will look when I get home. Can't listen at work. If it's anything that could be described as "Jazz" or its kiddy-fiddling cousin "Fusion", then I'm setting fire to my face.[/quote] It is kinda jazzy but not typical jazz which might induce earache in those not used to it, very melodic. If you wanna hear him play something non-jazzy which is just gorgeous then check out his playing on the tune Hejira by Joni Mitchell. Just type that into youtube and click on the one which shows the album cover. Just gorgeous fretless melodies and chords but definately not Jazz. I'm in work too so I know the feeling!

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='358633' date='Dec 19 2008, 11:00 AM']I really like the bass playing on "Come on, come over". That's a quality tune. I just don't understand how that can come from the same person who makes that noise on stage.[/quote] He was a complicated guy to say the least and his mental illness did not help. When he had a good day he had a GOOD day but he would also have a lot of bad days too, especially in his later years. The only performance of slang I really enjoyed was when he played with Weather Report at the Offenbach in '78 I think. It is on youtube somewhere... But yeah, he could come out with some random noise sometimes too. This solo was okay I thought for noodling but not one of his finest moment imho. You might wanna check out a tune like continuum next to hear some lovely melodic playing from his first solo album with a lovely solo.

I've been a fan of Jaco for a good few years now but I've always thought that was one of his lesser performances of slang. You can't really judge the man based on that solo, it is rubbish compared to what he was capable of. He can bring about such beauty in his playing like in Havona, Continuum (that tone!), his playing with Joni on Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Mingus and gotta love his solo on (Used To Be) A Cha Cha. He was already a legend before he died and really turned people on to what could be done with a bass melodically and technically. He did a lot of great recordings but there is also a lot of not so good noodly live solos out there which really don't reflect his playing properly at all.

[quote name='elom' post='358465' date='Dec 19 2008, 12:45 AM']Hey Katana, welcome to the forum. Please tell me that you chose that name because you play a Fender Katana. The only Fenders worth playing are the pointy ones but these guys won believe me! elom[/quote] Hey Elom, Actually I got this name about 8 years ago from a Metal Gear Solid name generator. You put your name in and it gives you a Metal Gear Solid style code name and mine popped out as Katana Manatee and I thought, well not many people will use that as a net name so it stuck. Never tried a Fender Katana actually... Never even knew they made one called that! Never really got into Fenders too much but I like a good jazz bass. I am thinking of trying to get a hold of the 24 fret jazz early next year before they all disappear since they were discontinued! I'm a Schecter man at the moment, using a Custom 5 and Elite 4 and I had a Studio 4 fretless which was fantastic but I ended up selling it when I needed some spare cash but now I miss it. Edit: Spangles eh... A little before my time! It's always a shame when they stop making a great sweet or chocolate bar. Was great when the Wispa came back again.

[quote name='cytania' post='357289' date='Dec 17 2008, 08:07 PM']Managed to get one of these gizmos cheap from Anderton's. Unit had been on demo duties at a few NEC type shows but shows little sign of drummer abuse. It really is a hard task master but if I 'push into the beat' in just the same way as I might trying to tighten up a bass groove I _can_ improve my scores. Now all that's needed is a bass version. Some kind of MIDI pickup instead of the drumhead. Do they make MIDI pickup for bass guitar?[/quote] You can get midi pickups but so far I have only seen them as part of Roland's VGuitar and VBass units: [url="http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=241&ParentId=116"]http://www.rolandus.com/products/productde...mp;ParentId=116[/url] I am sure they could design a patch for the VBass so you could use it for rhythm coaching but I doubt they'd do a standalone system.

The problem is there are a lot of people who learn to play physically but don't understand what they do. They can mechanically play very well but they haven't learned any theory or at least scales to be able to improvise. It is a very common thing, I was the same for a long time, I could play decently enough and write bass lines by using my ear but I couldn't just knock out an improvised solo unless the song was in Gmajor or one of its modes. Some people just never get round to the theory aspect, become great technically but then get stuck. I am still surprised that the guy couldn't just knock out a little pentatonic solo though even if it was just in one position. o_O

Ha ha, yeah, perhaps less juvenile is a bit of an understatement. There are certainly a lot of experienced players around here. I used to go on bassworld when it was kicking about but for a while it seemed to stagnate a little so I stopped visiting and then the thing just disappeared entirely. I am used to the sputnikmusic bass forum, which is less a bass forum and more a "Listen to my new song and praise me lots" kind of forum...

Hey peeps, thought I may as well give the old obligatory introduction thread. I've been playing bass for about seven years now and I am an alumnus of the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance's diploma and I hail from (not so) sunny Glasgow. I've been stalking this forum for the past few days after a friend of mine from another forum pointed this one out and it looks like you have a good place here, it is far less juvenile than some of the other forums I have visited in the past. I look forward to our many future discussions. Steve.