dlloyd

[quote name='burno70' post='415307' date='Feb 20 2009, 02:01 PM']I'm looking to learn some Jazz pieces to help improve my technique. I quite like Jaco and Weather Report. Can anyone recommend a good starting point? Thanks[/quote] Depends which part of your technique you want to improve, but 'Come On Come Over' is great for right hand technique.

No idea why, but Sterling Ball never went for my vision of a single cut Stingray...

[quote name='Andyalfa' post='412846' date='Feb 18 2009, 11:07 AM']Great lists both. Best of luck with Rythmn Stick though. Our band want to do it, but just watching the vid of it gives me a nosebleed. Luckily the (girl) singer would be hard pushed to cover Ian Dury so I may be off the hook.[/quote] I can play it, but the challenge is in getting it to sound relaxed while trying to keep it well intonated on my cheapo fretless Yamaha.

Some great tunes there. Here's a setlist I've been given to learn for a wedding gig in March... Sister Sledge - He's the greatest dancer David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes Pulp - Common People Blondie - One way or another Hall & Oats - Maneater Electric 6 - Gaybar Foreigner - Cold as Ice Ian Dury - Hit me with your rhythm stick The Kinks - All day and all of the night The Knack - My Sherona Rick James - Superfreak 10 cc - Dreadlock Holiday Michael Jackson - Billie Jean I'm pretty stoked with those tunes...

Here's some of them...

To answer the OP's question. I [i]sometimes[/i] enjoy listening to [i]some[/i] of his work... but not very often. Some of that is to do with the fact the music is often unbearably cheesy. Some because I've sickened myself of it (as lovely as I thought Portrait of Tracy was when I first heard it, I really don't want to hear it ever again). I still like to hear Hejira now and then, and a couple of tracks off Weather Report's Night Passage album make me smile... Rocking in Rhythm is like a super-demented version of the Star Wars Cantina band.

I played with BEAD tuning for a few months a couple of years back, and switched back to EADG when I realised I'd effectively removed a string and added a thumbrest.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='411275' date='Feb 16 2009, 04:25 PM']I hate this term. It suggests that there's some science behind it[/quote] It's a term that's used in the scientific literature.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='411235' date='Feb 16 2009, 03:54 PM']Depends on several things. His illness may have lain dormant until he started drinking (Zawinul talks about this in his biography 'In A Silent Way' - [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Way-Portrait-Joe-Zawinul/dp/1860743269/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234799439&sr=1-1"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Way-Portrai...9439&sr=1-1[/url] ) and doing drugs with the likes of Mike Stern.[/quote] No offence to Zawinul, but Jaco was showing evidence of bipolar long before that. His lifestyle most likely exacerbated matters, making his mood swings more extreme. Instead of hypomania, he was going full blown manic... but 'normal' people don't introduce themselves as 'the world's greatest bass player'.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='410984' date='Feb 16 2009, 12:48 PM']Your point is valid but I was referring to a career overview not to the defeciencies in his playing that arose over the closing years of his life. There are lots of examples of him throughout his career playing without stellar composers/arrangers and he is not nearly as effective as he was with WR, Mitchell, Metheny etc. Examples include the LPs/tracks he did with Michel Colombier, Airto, Al DiMeola, Mike Stern etc. Even that Trio of Doom thing is a bit iffy.[/quote] His career as a whole was iffy, punctuated by short periods of brilliance. That's the nature of the illness he had. The illness didn't start in the 1980s, he would have had it right from the outset, benefiting creatively from his manic/hypomanic episodes... and he was aware of it, refusing treatment for fear of losing the 'highs'.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='407337' date='Feb 12 2009, 09:45 AM']Personally, I think that Jaco (I feel the same about Paul Chambers) was at his best when working with strong musical personalities who kept him in check and gave him great material on which to work; Zawinul & Shorter, Mitchell, Gil Goldstein, Bob Mintzer, Pat Metheny etc. When the people around him deferred to Jaco's muse (Birelli Lagrene, Jon Davis, Brian Melvin etc), the product was second and even third rate.[/quote] I'd say you're overstating that a bit. An individual affected with bipolar in a major depressive episode (as he was at that point), who heavily self-medicates with alcohol and cocaine, frequently sleeping on park benches, etc. has plenty of things to blame for mediocre performance before he needs to blame those around him.

[quote name='dlloyd' post='398932' date='Feb 3 2009, 02:00 PM']Bar 10's also wrong, but I'd need my bass to write the correct tab[/quote] Forgot about that last night, but it's basically the same as the opening riff for Come On Come Over by Jaco, shifted up a few frets.

[quote name='Hoppo75' post='399755' date='Feb 4 2009, 10:17 AM']Not really mate, but like my posts have stated, I'm not planning to. I merely posted to see if anyone could highlight pitfalls or even if anyone, now knowing that this awesome player would love to come to the UK, would fancy taking it a step further. For info, I have organised many an event, be it a martial arts tournament, a boxing tournament, a school fayre etc etc, and granted, not gigs in the musical use of the word. The Boxing gig had over 1000 people there and was a huge success. This maybe a different kettle of fish, but basic fundamentals are there, venue, promotion, travel, equipment etc etc.[/quote] The basic pitfall, I guess, is that it's likely very few people would go to the gig, however well you promoted it. What's the draw? She can play bass well, for sure. But I doubt many of the people who have clicked on her youtube videos are necessarily fans of that style of R&B. No disrespect intended to her, but I probably wouldn't go to such a gig, even if it was free and five minutes walk from my door.

From memory, there are quite a few errors with the Bassist transcription, not least of which is that the tab doesn't match the score in certain places (end of bar 7 for example has F on the 8th fret of the D string instead of the A). I also disagree with the run at the end of the main riff, for example in bar 2: ---------------8--8-------- -----------8-------------- ----8-11------------------ ------------------------- I would play ---------------8--8------ -----------6------------- ----6-8----------------- ------------------------- And the verse is all over the place. I would play the first bar (bar 8): ---|-----10-8-8---------------------------------| ---|------------10-10-8-8-----------------------| -8-|-(8)------------------11-11-8-8-10-10--*--*--| ---|--------------------------------------------| (with * being 16th rests) Bar 10's also wrong, but I'd need my bass to write the correct tab That's what I play at least, but it seems to match the record and the NWR solo recording.

You'll most likely be sitting around, bored for much of that time. I wouldn't worry too much about the state of your fingertips.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='391560' date='Jan 26 2009, 11:39 AM']I do think the more theory and technical ability you have, the more likely you are to slip into w***ery.[/quote] I think it's more likely the other way around. Those who are impressed by w***ery are more likely to learn the parts of theory that will enable them to replicate it. It's sad that people are being turned off theory by an unjustified association with bad music.

This is as useful a discussion as it always is. The problem isn't in learning theory, it's in its application... in knowing how to use it appropriately. I've seen knowledge of the Phrygian Dominant scale represented as 'advanced theory', and sure, I've certainly heard it used horribly (in my opinion). Yngwie Malmsteen uses it frequently, and to me, what he does with it is pretty unimaginative. But it's also used extremely effectively and tastefully (again, in my opinion) in Klezmer and music from Eastern Europe.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='387323' date='Jan 21 2009, 11:29 AM'][url="http://www.aberivera.com/"]http://www.aberivera.com/[/url][/quote] Here's some information about the bass in the video: [url="http://www.ricksuchow.com/press-group-200.html"]http://www.ricksuchow.com/press-group-200.html[/url]

[quote name='jake_tenfloors' post='386701' date='Jan 20 2009, 08:46 PM']Whats the bass the other guys using??? Jake[/quote] Can't tell you, but the other bassist is Jerry Jemmott.

One of the problems with reviews is that there isn't that much equipment out there that is truly terrible. It tends to range between 'bland but kind of does what it's supposed to' and 'pretty good, could live with it'. There's also the problem that there is inherent variability in quality of what comes off the production line. A manufacturer or distributor is not going to pick an instrument at random and send it as is. It's inevitable that they're going to choose one of the better ones and put in a little bit of extra effort in preparing them for review.

[quote name='Galilee' post='385712' date='Jan 20 2009, 09:09 AM']Thanks for all of that. I'm not looking to play it 'by numbers' (although, at this stage, getting through the unfamiliar songs is the first priority) it's just that, when I 'feel it', I want to be able to add something simple that's going to fit.[/quote] Going slightly off topic here, but I think wateroftyne was talking more about the type of posting in the 'who uses modes' and 'minor scale modes' threads (he can correct me if I'm wrong), in which we were talking about modes used particularly in jazz, where simply 'feeling it' might not cut it if there's complex harmonies going on. Under those circumstances, you need to know that the selection of notes available to you is likely to change through the chord progression, and how to anticipate it, otherwise all you're going to feel is stupid. Mind you, it's not really any different from blues, where you have a selection of notes that you can use for the I chord, and you'll switch to an slightly different set of notes for the V chord... it just takes a little longer to get to the point where you're comfortable enough with it to 'just know' what notes are there for you to play, and to be able to just 'feel it'. It all falls under 'knowing the song inside out'.

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='385397' date='Jan 19 2009, 08:57 PM']Thanks all - you're very kind! It's partly fuelled by lots of threads recently where the emphasis has been on 'what scale do I use for xxxx' and 'what scale would be good for yyyy'. It juts makes my blood run a little cold... it's like music-by-numbers. There's far more to it than just being armed with 'the right notes'. You have to feel it.[/quote] It's excellent advice, and really should be obvious.

[quote name='Mike' post='383766' date='Jan 18 2009, 09:46 AM']Hey Mike - any chance you could expand on this a little more for us (me!) ? Perhaps with some examples? And then (even better) make a youtube video about it! Cheers Mike[/quote] I'm obviously not Mike, but I'll try to describe what it's all about. The most common 'cadence' (progression of chords that ends a musical phrase) in Western music is from the dominant (V) to the tonic (I). It's a superb resolution that sounds 'final'. The extension of the V chord to a V7 enhances the resolution, such that the V7-I (or V7-i) cadence is one of the most used musical devices in Western music. It's often called a 'perfect cadence'. There's a couple of things going on that make it such a great resolution. First, there is the semitone leading note - tonic step between the 3rd of the V chord and the root of the I. Then there's the release of the dissonant tritone interval between the 3rd and 7th of the V7. If you were playing in C major, the progression from G7 to C would sound great because of the step from B (3rd of the G7) to C, and because the B - F interval begs for resolution. If you invert the tritone interval you get another tritone. Not only is B - F a tritone, but so is F - B. This is the basis of 'tritone substitution' Db7, which has F as its 3rd and B (or Cb, which is enharmonic to B ) as its 7th has all the same ingredients that makes G7 want to resolve to C. So there's a slight ambiguity between G7 and Db7, which forms the basis of the substitutions found in a lot of jazz that comes from the Bebop era and later. You can slip notes from Db7 into a solo over G7 and it will work great. The most obvious would be Db and Ab which are the b5 and b9 of G7. They'll add dissonance which can enhance the V-I cadence even further. As it works out, the most common alterations to the dominant chord are b9, #9, b5 and #5. Like most things, the results are invariably crap if you think too much about what you're doing, so the best bet is to use little tricks to incorporate these notes. One is to substitute different scales. Instead of G mixolydian, you could try G lydian dominant (4th mode of the melodic minor). So instead of playing: 1 2 3 4 5 6 b7 You'd play 1 2 3 #4 5 6 b7 Which adds that b5 (#4) in quite nicely. Or you could go the whole hog and play the G superlocrian (7th of melodic minor): 1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7 That gives you b9 (b2), #9 (b3), 3 (b4), b5, #5 (b6) and b7, which is about as altered dominant as you can get, which is why it's sometimes called the 'altered scale'. There's a whole host of scales that can do similar things.

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='383640' date='Jan 17 2009, 11:19 PM']Slightly off topic I know but anyone recommmend some Klezmer to listen too - both of traditional and more contemporary varieties?[/quote] I'm only just getting into it properly now, and my experiences of Klezmer CDs have been pretty hit or miss. This looks like a decent list with some names I recognise.... [url="http://www.klezmershack.com/archives/007030.html"]http://www.klezmershack.com/archives/007030.html[/url]

[quote name='The Funk' post='383190' date='Jan 17 2009, 01:02 PM']Interesting! So that's a Klezmer trick - do you know if people have used it successfully outside of Klezmer?[/quote] Haven't the foggiest... but, I'd be surprised if they hadn't, as jazz has been majorly influenced by klezmer. I'm trying to get a more folky klezmer-influenced thing together at the moment. I'll certainly have a go with that particular trick.