TheLowDown

I've bought around 6 or 7 basses from Thomann, no issues whatsoever.

^ using well known songs to recognise intervals is not an ideal method, but is more of a hack to get started. Each of those songs remembered may start from a different root. For example the minor 2nd from C to Db will sound differently from E to F.

Special Affairs by The Internet. The bassline is so clear in the mix

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"Sorry S'manth, if you were not born with this ability then ..."

Nobody is not born with this ability. Unless you're one of the very very few who have a rare gift then it's something that has to be worked at. A lot. Don't be disheartened, often we hear about people who are really good and we think to ourselves that they're really naturally talented, but what we don't see or hear about is all the toil and time that's gone into becoming that good.

Try some of those ear interval exercises but ensure that you stick to one key until you can easily identify each interval. Another idea is to transcribe nursery rhymes played on the piano because it's much easier to hear higher register notes, but it still develops your ability to hear and identify pitches.

In parallel, transcribe well known songs. Identify the key, the basic bassline riff, and chords(just use the root notes on the bass, playing them as the song is being played to try to identify them. It can prove tricky sometimes when inversions are used). I don't think I would recommend getting bogged down on any one song, transcribing it down to it's most minute detail note for note. Just do lots of songs in a basic way, identifying the key, some of the chords used, and the notes used in the bassline riff.

It's one of those skills that is really difficult for most people but gets easier the more you do.

Closer by Corinne Bailey Rae on Generations Soul(radio)

My experience with Yamahas has always been top notch, definitely amongst the best for quality and value. If I had a choice between a Yamaha and a Fender, I wouldn't hesitate to choose the Yamaha even if the Fender was being offered at half the price of it.

Music theory for bass players by Ariane Capp may be what you're looking for. I think the Dummies and Idiots guides are very comprehensive.

Brothers Johnson - Stomp. 

 I found myself listening to mostly RnB and soul at the moment, which I think has most of my favourite basslines and the easiest to hear and transcribe.

Good move IMO. (Almost) everyone wins.....Android users, Apple users(it's vastly superior to the outdated lightning connector). The only losers from this are Apple themselves. 

2 hours ago, WinterMute said:

I used to see all the Chinese and Korean kid violinists coming over executing the most challenging scores flawlessly, but ask them to improvise, not a hope.

That's it. All these kids are doing is reading from a tab and playing a song exactly as written, which can be done perfectly with practice. Perhaps some of them are creative and musical, have some knowledge of theory, know the fretboard extremely well, have perfect time and groove, ability to lock in with the drummer in any style, and have excelled in ear training. But are any those skills being actively demonstrated by playing those songs?

4 hours ago, Mokl said:

 

I can't get into any of the more recent material, but I have to say I think they do genuinely have a love for what they do.

Yup, they may well do, it's just how it sounds to me, so it's subjective. Perhaps I'm making the comparison with them at their best(IMO) during the Roger Water years. RW may have been a reluctant bass player, but I think he wrote quite effective songs.

22 minutes ago, PaulThePlug said:

£700... is that considered budget?.. £350 Maybe...

I would classify budget as £100 - 250. I suppose it's all relative.

It does sound a little bland to me, somewhat overpolished. It reminds me of Pink Floyd post Roger Waters, where it feels like they're making music as a 9-5 job that they hate but they're only doing it to fulfil a contract.

Playing bass doesn't call for being flash and doing awesome solos to impress, it's more about "providing a comfy armchair for the music to sit in"(I heard that quote from someone and thought it was apt). I agree that the issue here is about ego and not really understanding about what makes a cohesive band.

*I do play fretless sometimes when jamming to chord charts or playing in the dark, but only as a way to train my unruly ears.

I fell out of love with rock in general when I first started playing the bass. I still occasionally listen to random rock stations but mostly just to see what's out there, but it's usually a short lived affair.

Reading music and theory are my strong points, it's my ears that are pants.

I prefer narrow spacing at the bridge. I wouldn't want to play anything that is less than 45mm at the nut and 17-17.5mm at the bridge. Narrow string spacing is the most attractive feature of the 5 and 6 string fro me.

Yes, it's a learning opportunity. Makes you more fluid and adaptable as a band and as players. It's like why some footie teams often play with 10 men when training.  Limitation leads to creativity and all that.

17 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Joy Division - Love will tear us apart.  Couldn't get on with any of the other stuff and I  really don't rate PH as a bassist either. Not that controversial 

 

Oddly, that's one of the only ones I don't like. Love all of the rest. JD are one of my fave bands of all time, but I have to agree that, technically, they were very average. But when you put them all together they make something special.

For me the saving grace song would have to be Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus. I never warmed to any of their other stuff, but that one song I still love.

Something unusual or memorable like Plucked Chicken Frenzy, or something

4 hours ago, Caz said:

why are you a lot better with chord progressions than intervals? Do you come to recognise them after learning a lot of music over the years? I would have thought it'd be intervals then chord progressions in terms of levels of difficulty.

I think it's because there are are twice as many intervals to identify in the tests that I do. I'm testing myself on all intervals between unison and octave, whereas I'm only testing myself on 6 common chord progressions. Some intervals are instantly identifiable, such as diminished 5th, whereas some can prove more difficult. I'm also supplementing this with ear training on the bass, fretted and fretless.

I think you're going about it the right way by transcribing and other things. Keep it up 👍

I'm pretty low down actually. When I do ear training for intervals, I keep it in the key of C so that I have some consistent baseline. The idea being that when I've learnt to hear the 'character' of the interval within the key then I can much more easily generalise it to any key. Still a long way off yet, but it's always best to work at one's long term weaknesses.

For chord progressions I'm a lot better.

I've tried singing pitches with the idea that I can internalise those sounds, but unfortunately I find it very difficult to differentiate croaks that are wildly off pitch. So that was the end of that.

4 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Scott does seem to have more than a soft spot for all this jazz fusion widdly diddly shyt3. Sure these guys have technique by the bucketload but i find nothing to enjoy in these solos. Then again I detest jazz, precisely because the 'tunes' are all about the saxist, drummist, bassist, guitarist etc taking turns to widdle out.  At the other end of the spectrum this thread has Michael Anthony and Fieldy clearly off their faces pratting about. The drummer in Korn's good though. And as for Flea's stars and stripes abomination. That might be the worst thing of all in this thread. That said, they're till a tad better than this from Gene Simmons   

I love jazz and listen to it frequently, but Scott's examples seems to be more about highlighting soloists showing off their technique, rather than highlighting solos where the music is the point. They weren't all like that of course, but the general gist of it is "Hey guys, now look at this guy soloing while standing on his head with 3 picks using every single mode". That's fantastic and it's great that he has learnt his chops enough to carry off such a feat, but it's not necessarily good music, which I think should have been the point. In other words why was it a good solo, rather than hey look at this guys technique.

Wonder if their financial troubles are related to the class action lawsuit against them for price fixing.

I'm happy to let other people buy their instruments.

Scott Devine did a video on "good solos" where many were really bad! (some were tasteful)

I can't believe someone as talented as Scott would genuinely believe trying to fit in 50 notes every second makes anything other than showmanship, as opposed to music. 

His premise for the video seems to be more on stretching technique to the limits, like extreme finger raking, than on making music.