funkle

Just sold a bass head (Markbass F1) to Mr Platypus. As smooth a transaction as could be desired! Pete

[quote name='johnDeereJack' post='1189655' date='Apr 5 2011, 08:44 PM']Time to start a feedback thread methinks! [/quote] Me too! Ian bought my TE Boxer 30, smooth transaction, all went very easily. Deal with him in confidence! Pete

[quote name='Stuart Clayton' post='1167007' date='Mar 18 2011, 12:53 PM']That's an excellent article, and bizarrely, is similar to something I've been working on recently.[/quote] Yep, what you describe sounds pretty familiar. Amazing what one solo can do. I've been playing a Gerry Mulligan solo from 'All The Things You Are' for the last month and getting it up to speed (210bpm). Only now am I ripping it apart and taking all the constituent 'bits' (ii-V-I's, minor ii-VI's, V7-I resolutions, diminished runs, etc) and putting them in all 12 keys. I will [i]own[/i] these one day. It's a good thing I like this solo, 'cause I'm going to be living with it for a long time... Pete

Glad you enjoyed it! I have found the website to be excellent also, and have added it to my RSS feed.

I recall a thread discussing what we all do with our transcriptions a while back. I found a very good article on the same theme and thought others would enjoy it also. [url="http://jazzadvice.com/how-transcribing-one-solo-can-entirely-change-your-approach-to-improvising/"]http://jazzadvice.com/how-transcribing-one...to-improvising/[/url] It's really very good. Pete

Quick note for anyone interested. Charlie Banacos' daughter Barbara is responding to emails sent to Charlie's email and is still taking on correspondence students (in conjunction with Gary Diall). The materials are all from Charlie's legendary book of exercises. See www.charliebanacos.com. Jeff Berlin is also doing lessons over Skype. I'm thinking of going back down this road again, since I know him well enough now. When I see Joe Hubbard also does Skype lessons, I think that it seems we live in a time when we have an embarrassment of riches, in terms of quality materials and teaching available. Pete

[quote name='Joe Hubbard Bass' post='1086736' date='Jan 12 2011, 02:25 PM']Many of the top bassists, and musicians in the world have studied with Charlie. Alain Caron, Jeff Berlin, Jimmy Earl, Lincoln Goines, Bruce Gertz and many, many more. I studied with Banacos for ten years through his correspondence program. He really didn't do the ear training stuff in the same way that he did in-person, but he took me through several exercises near the end of my study with him. There is a great story that Charlie told me about Mike Stern when he was with Miles Davis. For the unwashed, Stern was a student of Banacos' for the better part of thirty years. The last time I attended Berklee, Stern was unknown and the most awesome player; he was truly awe inspiring and I got to see the likes of Stern and Jeff Berlin playing small jazz dives every week for a year. Anyway, Stern got the gig with Miles and they were rehearsing at Miles' brownstone in Manhatten. While they were taking a break, Marcus Miller was at the piano playing these ten note cluster voicings and Stern was naming every note from top to bottom- no problem. Miles was rather unimpressed by the whole thing, but that was just the way Miles acted. The next day when they began the rehearsal, Miles handed out charts to everyone except Stern. Stern then sheepishly asked Miles, "Where's my chart." Miles just said, "If you can really hear alll them notes, you don't need no chart." You see, that exercise from playing the cadence and then learning to hear one note progresses to eventually hearing clusters played together. Wayne Krantz told me he went through the same program as did Jimmy Earl. Anyone who is interested in studying these types of improvisation exercises with me either in-person or via Skype, click on the link below for further info: [url="http://www.joehubbardbass.com/study-bass-with-joe-2/"]http://www.joehubbardbass.com/study-bass-with-joe-2/[/url] Peace Joe[/quote] Wow, great story. When I was studying with Jeff, he used to tell me stories about how he and Mike Stern spent hours by a piano testing each other with that exercise. I can't remember how many notes Jeff made it to at the same time, but I can tell you he has intimidatingly good ears. Now I'm going to do some ear training...excuse me.. :-) Pete

[quote name='Faithless' post='1085844' date='Jan 11 2011, 06:09 PM']I've just finished doing ear training thing using that program Funkle advised. I was in C, guessed only between major scale tones (C excluded) in wide range (a three or so octaves I believe..) and, out of 50 guesses I went for 47 right, which makes it 94% percent accuracy. It was relatively easy, I got to say.. I'll now go for other keys, we'll see if it's cool with those..[/quote] That's good work. The next step is to get it going for all the 'chromatic' tones also. Then, get it to change key every time a new pair of tones are played. Enjoy! Pete

I meant to say this is another great article on ear training. I'm working it through it slowly, as well as working on the Charlie Banacos exercise. [url="http://www.miles.be/articles/7-ear-training-a-direct-and-logical-path"]http://www.miles.be/articles/7-ear-trainin...nd-logical-path[/url]

[quote name='Faithless' post='1084869' date='Jan 10 2011, 09:22 PM']Ok, its the first evening I sat at the piano for the Banaco thing.. Now, while I wasn't not total deaf with guessing the notes, when I hit some 'awkward' notes (like Db or F#, I was in C tonality..) to the scale, I would instantly loose my tonality (C, that is..) Is this normal for beginner and I should just keep going? The other thing is that I have quite good grasp of piano, and, while I try as much to really hit the random note, I sometimes 'feel', [i]where [/i]did the pencil sat on, which makes the game not completely fair, if that makes sense..[/quote] This is a hard game, don't worry, keep going! You're hitting some chromatic tones which are pretty awkward to hear. I used software to do the sounding of the notes because then I would have no way to know what had been hit. The 'Ear Trainer Basic' at miles.be which I linked to above is perfect for this. I spent a while working diatonically (in major) before adding in b3 and b6/#5 and b7. Subsequently I added in b2, b5. The hardest ones of all to sing/hear for me were b5, #5, major 6th, and strangely enough b7 - weird. Keep going, this will take a months but the free Ear Trainer software linked to above is really helpful. I have worked on solfege over the last few years at the Players School and at home - stuff which included sight singing major, melodic minor, harmonic minor tonalities before I was ever allowed to get near chromatic solfege. If you want to know the benefits, earlier this year, I transcribed 35 songs for a soul/funk covers gig I had to do in about two weeks (working on the charts part time) and while only some of it was done away from the instrument, all the hard work on ear training definitely made it quicker. Delberthot has a point about getting out there and working stuff out by ear. Transcription is undoubtedly one of the most powerful tools in the musician's arsenal. I would simply say that learning all the 'extra stuff' like chord tones and chord structures, functional harmony, etc. has made playing music a heck of a lot easier for me, though. Pete

[quote name='TKenrick' post='1083234' date='Jan 9 2011, 03:59 PM']I totally know what you mean about work getting in the way of serious practice. I'm a full time musician and still find that work interferes with my practicing and takes me away from the things I want to be working on. Tom[/quote] Thank god I'm not alone in feeling that. It's frustrating sometimes. Although at least I enjoy my day job! Becoming a full-time jazz musician still doesn't look like a terribly viable career option to bring home the income, although I'd love to do it, so if I want to play jazz I've got to pay the bills somehow...how the heck does everyone square the circle? Pete