Hector

[quote name='Delberthot' timestamp='1338553905' post='1676248'] Talkbs as I call it [/quote]

In no particular order, three major things you can do which will improve you as a musician: Learn to read music. Practise with a metronome until everything in/on/around you happens perfectly in time. Until people you play with can't help but play in time because you radiate it like the lovechild of chrenobyl reactor 4 and a grandfather clock. Get metric mitochondria, groovy Golgi apparati, rhythmic ribosomes. Down to a cellular level, have good time. Work on playing what you hear (both in your own head, and from records around you). This isn't just lines/riffs, but try to work out the harmony of tunes using your ears and cunning. Be able to hear music as well as you see it on paper. Better even.

Want.

Lockpicker, why not get just one or two lessons to show you the basics of proper technique? It can make a huge difference and help you avoid all sorts of pain (physical and mental). You don't have to have them regularly, but it's worth having check-ups once in a while to see that you're not developing bad habits (which will be tough to unlearn once you get them). Learning upright is difficult at first, so no need to make it harder for the sake of the odd £30! I'd suggest learning to read music as well, but up to you. Not many double bass methods/teachers/players use tab. Anyway, my advice for learning jazz is firstly to listen to lots of it! Also to work from my personal favourite books: Building Walking Basslines - Ed Friedland Connecting Chords With Linear Harmony - Bert Ligon Forward Motion - Hal Galper The Evolving Bassist - Rufus Reid All of these will provide several years worth of stuff to work on, but the Friedland book in particular will get you up and running (walking, hah!) fairly quickly.Try working on your ears a lot, not only in terms of working out the harmony of a tune, but also in terms of taking down lines you like the sound of and playing them through all 12 keys. Spend a lot of time with the metronome. Most jazzers want simple lines that are harmonically and rhythmically accurate from their bass player. Sure, the fancy stuff comes eventually, but off that initial solid foundation (which will get you the gigs). I'd also recommend making good use of the internet whenever you have questions about jazz harmony/theory, as there's a ton of fantastic and readily available information out there. This site, for example, is wicked: [url="http://jazzadvice.com/"]http://jazzadvice.com/[/url] There's always the good people of BassChat to help out as well, of course. Just remember that playing jazz takes a lot of work, and that there's no substitute for putting in the hours, so no need to cast around endlessly for some magic shortcut way to practice etc. Go get shedding and have fun doing it

Never listened to Dr.John Have bought the album though, as I loved the samples! Any recommendations for similar stuff?

Bought a Bass Pod XT Live off Graeme, and he was a pleasure to deal with throughout. He's a dab hand with bubble wrap too!

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1337604322' post='1662551'] I don't find her attractive (particularly) and the dress/heels thing is not the point. Its the marketing. The fact that she is not a heavyweight but is being presented as something more than she is is the point. She is marketed the way she is because of the way she looks, no because of the way she plays. Her stuff is ok and the band is good but she ain't no Messiah! It happens every time a woman picks up a bass or any other horn; she is seen before she is heard. This kind of approach to image aggravates that tendency to the detriment of other female musicians. One wonders if she would have had this coverage had she been a better player but looked like Norah Batty. Where's the features on Melissa Slocum, Joanne Brackeen, Marian McPartland, Toshiko Akiyoshi..... oops, no cute dimples and no mini-skirts = no cover story, no videos and no record deal. And the fact that she sings makes everything rrrrrrrrrright (irony, in case you thought I was being serious) Anyway, all of this a distraction. I'm probably being more hostile because of the 'trappings' than is fair to the kid. I hope she grows into a great musician and PUTS SOME TROUSERS ON Jazz rools! [/quote] Fair enough I know very little about how she is marketed, I've only heard/seen her play. I tend to ignore all the hype and just listen to the music! I use magazines etc. to find new music, and then prefer to form my own opinion on it rather than wasting my time hearing what other people think about it.... I'd hate to hold an opinion that just blindly agreed with everyone or (even worse imo) was purely reactionary. I still think you're being exceptionally unfair to her, but I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. In the meantime, I've been listening to loads of Gregory Porter today, and I think he's got a nice voice: [url="http://youtu.be/9HvpIgHBSdo"]http://youtu.be/9HvpIgHBSdo[/url]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1337587696' post='1662214'] So her choice of skirt and heels was purely pragmatic I'll try it on the next gig to see if it helps my intonation. [/quote] Nobody dresses purely pragmatically, especially not when performing. It's no different from, say, Roy Hargrove and his band performing in suits. The visual aspect affects how we experience the performance as a whole, and dressing smart is a well-established method of enhancing a performance. It adds to it, just like a little bit of talking between numbers or introducing the band. There's more than just the music that makes up a live performance. Last time I checked, a skirt and heels like that is just what a woman wears when she wants to look nice. She's hardly prancing about in a bikini! I think it's unfair that female musicians can't dress nicely as part of a performance without people assuming they're doing it through lack of talent. Just because you find Esperanza attractive when she dresses nicely for her performance, doesn't give you any right to accuse her of flaunting her looks and not being a heavyweight musician. And yes, I tried it last week and the heels really helped with my tone. I find louboutins particularly give me a fat woody tone

I'd agree to an extent. An artist's value should not be determined on looks as much as it seems to be in today's mainstream media. That said, in a psychological sense, you cannot fully dissociate the visual and the auditory aspects of a performance - you process it all together, so it all has an effect. There are tons of studies about this as a cognitive bias: for example, people are more likely to think and behave positively towards those that they consider more attractive. I think Esperanza treads a delicate line - her femininity and the fact that she is beautiful is an aspect of her as a performer which can't be ignored, and which influences our perceptions of her and her music. She doesn't pander to this in a particularly specific way, but she isn't actively trying to hide her looks either. It works both ways in fact - people see her as more beautiful because her music is good, and people see her music as good in part because she is beautiful. I don't think her looks detract from her music, despite them being a non-dissociable aspect of it.

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1333307083' post='1599867'] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB6cY6--iuk[/media] Mornington Lockett playing My One and Only Love on a P Mauriat Soprano Saxophone. Absolutely beautiful. [/quote] Niiiiiice. I'm playing a gig with Mornington in a month (14 June) - looking forward to it! Good call with the sop Bilbo. I'd love to take up another instrument, but I've only just got enough time to keep my chops up and work competently on one at the moment.....

The more I learn, the less I seem to know!

Fantastic video! Huge respect for LC.

I live in a single room (with an ensuite). It's pretty much a long corridor, with my bass taking up all the floorspace. Who needs floorspace anyway! But yes indeed congratulations fumps! Welcome to the family

Haha, fantastic! Hope you enjoy it..... I dig this thread, wonderful to see so many getting a buzz out of DB/EUB playing. It's been four years, and I still have a little grin on my face every time I pick it up

Great video! Nice little Portrait of Tracy quote as well thrown in there. People like Carles and Bobby Vega are behind my efforts at being a more proficient pick player. EDIT - Is he using some sort of hybrid picking technique at points in there? Guessing he's using the pick between index and thumb, but also using middle and ring for plucking other strings.

Been really getting into his playing recently: beautiful lyrical solos! Only other person I can think who "speaks" on the bass like that is Red Mitchell..... [url="http://youtu.be/UxGWT5ko8Lo"]http://youtu.be/UxGWT5ko8Lo[/url] [url="http://youtu.be/AFPMjiqx_OI"]http://youtu.be/AFPMjiqx_OI[/url] Anyone else a MM fan?

Right, well I've now gone out and spent some money on effects. Thanks a bunch guys. Especially you, Fatback, you'll have me buying guts next! p.s. Sorry Bilbo! I thought I might do a looped, heavily-effected version of Moondance to cheer you up though? Provided I can find the tabs for it online, that is.

Hey no worries L - it's an interesting discussion! I just didn't want people who read this to miss the point of what my exercise was trying to do (which I'm not sure I initially explained very well!).

Hooray for E.S.T: http://youtu.be/lGGi5_oVF6U Seems there's a bit of interest in them on here, so if anyone's keen I'd recommend Live In Hamburg, Viaticum and Seven Days of Falling. Although you can't really go wrong with any of their albums! I think this is possibly my favourite example of effects on bass. Beautiful, if achingly European: http://youtu.be/wTOJGGdr_Hs Urgh, I think I might buy some effects now..............

Ok, so this thread is getting derailed a bit. My offhand mention of using non-root chord tones on beat 1 when walking doesn't mean that's what this exercise is geared towards, or that one should use lots of permutations when walking. I came up with this exercise to help me get the sound of these chords (as well as individual chord tones) in my head, and to better be able to see harmony on my fingerboard. For linking the hands and ears. This exercise might make the sound and position of those chord tones available as raw material for you to work with more generally. This would allow you to walk without putting a root on the one if you chose to, but that's not what it's for per se. For the record, what you play when you walk is totally a matter of personal taste, and how that taste meshes with that of your bandmates. No hard and fast rules, no objectively right answer.

I think effects on double bass are super-cool ([media]http://youtu.be/D7KXq6RJ0PA[/media] awwwww yeahhhhh), but think that they have to be used with taste and caution. Hooray for loopers though: http://youtu.be/tudxUEuLf28 Effects pedals can sap tone, so better to blend with a clean signal perhaps? Never actually used any on bass. Personally would rather spend most of my time working on solid acoustic tone and feel at the moment, mostly because I have no gigs where I might need effects rather than being closed to the idea of them , but might dabble in the future. Oh by the way Fatback: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/173793-line-6-bass-floor-pod-xt-live-for-trade/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/173793-line-6-bass-floor-pod-xt-live-for-trade/[/url]

Thanks for a great time today guys! Was lovely to meet everyone and a real treat to be able to have a pluck on some outstanding basses in such fine company. Not sure I totally appreciate my new found lusting for F-basses though......might have to sell a kidney!

You can never be sure! I'm hopeless at that, always tumbling into the sarchasm ([url="http://sarchasm.net/"]http://sarchasm.net/[/url]). Hope you didn't think I was too aggro - just trying to convey that whilst I don't really get people who don't learn to read and would encourage them to, I don't think there's any need to go crazy over it.

[quote name='ahpook' timestamp='1336234391' post='1642934'] i'd be dubious of asking anyone who can read staff notation if tabs are better as it takes longer to lean to read music than tab, so anyone who's done it is hardly likely to say it's a waste of time so there. [/quote] Not to be rude, but I find this viewpoint totally, totally baffling. IMO, it's strokes for folks. If you don't think it's worth your while to learn to read don't bother - it's about what makes you happiest. I personally think tab is utter sh*te, and kids stuff. It will make you a less consummate musician, you will find playing with other musicians harder, your theoretical understanding of the music will not be as good and you will be less employable. But if none of that matters, then the worst people will do is get on a huff about it on the internet. I've waxed lyrical on here before about how learning to read music genuinely changed the course of my life. You can read it here:[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/3254-can-you-read-music/page__st__60"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/3254-can-you-read-music/page__st__60[/url] Since then I've only had more work, and more fun and grown more as a musician. All this from someone who couldn't see the purpose of anything but tab for a solid 3 years. I don't agree at all with any of the pro tabbers out there, but I totally respect your right to decide for yourself and I'm not forcing you to think about anything. It'd be great if learning to read made you as happy as it did me, and you found it as rewarding, but unless I have to work with you, your learning to read is slightly less important to me as which pants I'm wearing today

It's been a stinker of an April, officially!: [url="http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120504_1.html"]http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120504_1.html[/url] I'd love to come down and say hi/play a few basses. Might have to do some work on Monday not sure yet, but if I can pinch the time I'll swing by!