Pete Academy

We're all chasing that elusive tone that we hear in our heads. But is it all down to our fingers and how we play? Are we wasting our time and money buying new gear?

Victor Wooten is the world's finest bass player. Listen past his YouTube vids.

Seems a bit thin for bass stuff this year.

Nearly Dan play at Huntingdon Hall in Worcester on Saturday 2nd February.

I personally don't like basses referred to as 'she'. But then people have also asked 'What's your weapon of choice, then?'

Blaargh...

I work with basses every day and am sometimes sick of seeing them. These days I rarely play between gigs, which are about a couple a month. When I do pick up a bass I'm sometimes just not inspired. Everything just sounds the same. In 2012 I had some personal issues, so that didn't help.

Whatever has happened recently will not have helped. I would forget about it for now. I'm pretty sure your enthusiasm will return when you least expect it.

I've dealt with them online. Absolutely amazing customer service.

This is the single from their new two- disc album, which has classic tracks and new songs. It's as if they've gone back to their best era. Beautiful song, amazing production, great playing and sound.

I've waited a long time for this.

I'm not sure how to embed this onto the thread, as I'm only just getting used to my Kindle Fire, but a search on YouTube will bring it up.

Some years ago I played a private party in a marquee with a funk covers band. There was this punch they were dishing out, called Spiny Norman. I'm not sure what was in it but it was pretty potent. We we're supposed to go on at 9pm, but it was delayed to about 10.30. So we have time to kill. I retired to the dressing and proceeded to work my way through a jug of said punch. Come the time to go on, I staggered into the marquee and sat down on a chair. I had to be carried to the stage. I put my bass on and promptly fell against my rig, almost pushing everything through the marquee wall. The band kicked in and I came in four bars later, playing all the wrong notes. This continued throughout the whole set. At the end of the gig a woman up to us and said the set was brilliant. Absolute proof that nobody listens to the bass player.

I'm not talking about STDs.

I'm talking about parts of a certain player's style that you have incorporated into your own playing over the years. For me it's mainly Verdine White's use of linking changes via short chromatic runs, as on ' That's The Way Of The World'. Others are: Bernard Edwards' use of ghost notes; Cameo bassist's slap style (much more simplistic than say Mark King's ); Mark Adams of Slave and his use of short note slides.

Anyone else have their own examples?

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1358632588' post='1942683']
I can't help but feel that there's more than a hint of jealousy at work here.

I would have thought it would be every musician's dream to create a sound and style that is almost instantly identifiable, at the hight of your popularity spawned a host of imitators and your influence can still be heard in the playing of new bands 30 years on.
[/quote]

Nah...he's just sh*te.

It's interesting how this has turned into a comparison between Hooky and the likes of Jaco, Wooten, Miller, etc.

He's not a master of his instrument. He might have some good stories to tell. That's not a masterclass.

I appreciate he's a big part of British musicl culture, and he probably has a lot to say, but he isn't worthy of a masterclass.

Dear Bass Guitar Magazine

I would like to apply for the post of proofreader.

Best regards

David Blunkett

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1358440838' post='1939241']
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[quote name='Doddy' timestamp='1358435965' post='1939099']
I think the problem is the use of the word 'Masterclass'. Personally, I don't think that he's a 'master' of the instrument and I'd
expect some one leading a 'class' (which suggests educational)to at least know where an 'A' is on the bass (which he has
admitted that he doesn't).If it was advertised as a Q&A I don't think there would be a problem.
I'm not a fan of Hook at all and I really don't get Joy Division or New Order (except for 'World in Motion' obviously),but I get
that there are people who would like to hear his stories.I don't think he'd offer much in a 'masterclass' setting though.
[/quote]

I can agree with this. I think the organisers should have presented it differently.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1358424643' post='1938808']
Pete - I don't know what music you were listening to in the late 70s and early 80s, but I'm guessing it wasn't post-punk and the bands that were being played on John Peel.

In which case you'll have missed out on exactly how massively influential Joy Division as a band a Peter Hook in particular were. At one point it seemed as though half the new bands from the UK who had a bass guitarist were playing like him. While someone can probably find earlier examples of similar playing from another bassist, Peter Hook most definitely made the high-register melodic bass part his own. And when you had so many bands and musicians copying your playing and sound that makes you pretty important as a musician regardless of technical ability.
[/quote]

Very fair point.

[quote name='Marvin' timestamp='1358418191' post='1938659']
More "An Audience With Peter Hook". They could video it and show for anyone who couldn't attend on a BBC4 at about 1am in the morning
[/quote]

Now that would be a better idea.

[quote name='ead' timestamp='1358408949' post='1938510']
Hooky & Master Class - There's some words I never expected to see in the same sentence. Not my personal cup of tea, but good luck to the lad.
[/quote]

Sums up my post.

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1358375954' post='1938313']
It's not about his 'playing', it's about the songs they wrote together, and his contribution to them. You make it sound as though his being in the band was coincidental to the band's success. Or that they would have been successful (or 'good') with another bassist, who would of course have contributed something different to the band. Bands or groups of musicans that work well together are a kind of alchemy. What they bring individually adds up to far more than the sum of all the parts. They don't have to be very 'good' 'musicians', whatever those two terms may actually mean.

Hooky's bass lines are certainly not 'average'; what does that even mean? Surely root and fifths or whatever is an average bassline. Hooky had a different kind of simplicity to his role in songs. It's most definitely not average.

How much JD/NO do you know?
That's a good post.
I'm not getting worked up, by the way. It's an interesting thread, and your opinion is just as valid, or idiotic, or misguided, or spot-on, as mine is.
[/quote]

Apologies to his fans, but he's an extremely average player that happened to be in a successful band.

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1358368546' post='1938064']
He developed a style and pretty much made it his own. IMO he's got a whole load more musical personality than a lot of the players with "killer chops" that get raved about on here.

Providing he's actually entertaining and informative on the day, then its more than enough reason for him to be doing it.
[/quote]

What 'style' is that?

I appreciate any constructive criticism as to why I might be wrong about him.

This post will no doubt piss people off, but I gather Peter Hook is doing a masterclass at the Bass Guitar Show. A masterclass? He seems a very average player who happened to be in A successful band.

Am I missing something?