The Funk

[quote name='bluesparky' post='323373' date='Nov 6 2008, 01:07 PM']It makes a difference from a Black n White shot of a band on an industrial site, with the singer's face close up to the lens and the other band members in the distance!![/quote] Hah! Thanks. If anything our singer's ego is not big enough!

The Pro-Tubes sound great. Very meaty.

[quote name='bassace' post='323295' date='Nov 6 2008, 11:23 AM']It's difficult (and a bit futile?) to try and analyse. I've been playing, mainly jazz, for 40plus years now and have never come across the expression. I'm more familiar with the expression 'swing', as in 'does it swing?'. And I'm not talking Glenn Miller here. If the music moves effortlessly along, with a momentum of its own, it's probably swinging.[/quote] I see "groove" and "the pocket" as the same question as "does it swing?". I think "in the pocket" is more a rhythm n' blues expression but in my mind they mean the same thing.

[quote name='alexclaber' post='323207' date='Nov 6 2008, 08:46 AM']It's more than just good timing. Still waiting for a better suggestion...[/quote] Keeping good time suggests playing in such a way that the tempo never shifts - it never slows down or speeds up. Groove and being in the pocket are something more than just that. It's about phrasing, by which I mean accenting particular notes and drawing others out, and creating tension and release with the linearity of the beats in such a way as to create an extremely pleasing result, either by all playing ahead of the beat or behind the beat or on the beat, or by one or more of you playing behind while the others play on the beat, or the best combination of any of those. It is something you can do on your own but usually it's something you do as a band - drums, bass, rhythm guitar, keyboards, brass section etc. You see why musicians talk about "groove", being "locked" or "in the pocket" now? Look how jumbled up my attempted explanation was! My old bass mentor once described my role as a bassist as being similar to a flea bouncing up and down on the rump of a huge elephant as it walks through the jungle. He also drew out a little picture with the beats of a bar of 4/4 to explain to me about playing ahead, onbeat or behind the beat. A good example of playing behind is [i]Cissy Strut[/i] by The Meters. I know a lot of people recommend listening to The Meters when you start dabbling in funk but I always recommend steering clear for a while because that playing behind the beat thing - which most of the New Orleans funk bands do - is really hard to do properly. In general, it's impossible to play ahead of the beat or behind the beat before you can keep good time. For a lot of musicians (myself included) playing ahead of the beat comes with the danger of everyone speeding up and playing behind the beat comes with the risk of everyone slowing down.

That's my all-time favourite bassline! That was a pretty good attempt - only one or two slip-ups. Well done!

[quote name='The Burpster' post='322804' date='Nov 5 2008, 05:12 PM']Whilst I respect your opinion....... READ what I put...... [color="#0000FF"][i]Listen to trad US music and very rarely will you hear the bass player deviate from what the drums are doing. Keeping in tight rythm with the drummer is 'in the pocket'. [/i][/color] The vast majority of US music the bass player does just that, stays locked in. I'm not saying its right, I'm not saying its what bass players do everywhere else and it ceratinly isnt used in Jazz circles. The saying "in the pocket" originated from Southern origin players where rock and roll originated and refers to being locked into the tempo as a group. PLying outside the pocket is improv IN US TERMS, and that what the OP asked.[/quote] I'm coming across as rude and dismissive which I don't want to be but I completely disagree with you. Reading your last post I think we have VERY different ideas of the meanings of the terms "tempo", "improvise" and being "locked in".

[quote name='Delberthot' post='322792' date='Nov 5 2008, 04:55 PM']I'm sorry if I'm reading this wrongly but are you saying that if you don't like jazz then you don't have it? Like somone once said "Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny"[/quote] I think you're reading it wrong. And that someone was Frank Zappa.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='322781' date='Nov 5 2008, 04:40 PM']At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, if all the reds are in the pocket then you have to go after the colours.[/quote] You sound like you're possessed by the ghost of Joseph McCarthy!

[quote name='The Burpster' post='322640' date='Nov 5 2008, 01:36 PM']'in the pocket' refers to playing tight onto the beat and not straying from it or improvisng. Listen to trad US music and very rarely will you hear the bass player deviate from what the drums are doing. Keeping in tight rythm with the drummer is 'in the pocket'. IIRC I think a deep pocket is keeping tight with teh bass drum only and playing off the beat of it.[/quote] Sorry, this explanation seems like absolute bollocks to me. Being in the pocket means being completely locked into the groove. Being deep in the pocket means the same thing - but even more so. You can be in the pocket and improvise as much as you like.

I have the WTX-260 and have gigged with it. It pumps out about 290W@4 ohms. That's slightly more than my old Gallien-Krueger 400RB. With a sensitive cab (or two) it should easily be enough.

[quote name='MacDaddy' post='319403' date='Oct 31 2008, 11:34 PM']In terms of [i]'you break it, you pay for it' [/i]there seems to be an assumption that the person involved has the means to pay, and more importantly - the inclination to pay.[/quote] There's a simpler, older rule which most people seem to understand: "[i]you break it, I break you[/i]".

Another thing I'd suggest is going to blues jams from as early a time in your development as possible. It's very good for getting over nerves and developing your ear in a live environment. And if you're good, job offers can come out of it.

[quote name='mewsie' post='321425' date='Nov 3 2008, 11:07 PM']groove is in the heart![/quote] A great line from Bootsy Collins! I think the answer is to get a beginner to learn one of their favourite riff-based songs, be it Cream, Hendrix, RATM, Muse, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Pantera, Metallica, Funkadelic, Stevie etc.

[quote name='OldGit' post='321018' date='Nov 3 2008, 03:50 PM']Just remember that only one or possibly two people in the room will notice if you mess up little bits and pieces here and there whereas a large amount of the audience will appreciate you looking at them and smiling as if you are enjoying yourself ...[/quote] But spread the eye contact around the room - if your eyes get stuck on one particular girl in the crowd for too long, she might get uncomfortable and leave. Take it from me!

There's a whole section of Mark Levine's "[i]The Jazz Theory Book[/i]" which covers [i]Giant Steps[/i]. Might be worth having a look. Apparently some of the playing from the rhythm section on the earliest recordings was complete bollocks 'cos they couldn't get their heads round what Coltrane was doing. Not being a jazzer myself, I am going purely on what I've read.

[quote name='waynepunkdude' post='319116' date='Oct 31 2008, 03:18 PM']We are on at 8 you should come down and have a pint.[/quote] Sorry. Didn't get home from work until 8 and then I only just managed to get to my cousin's gig in time.

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I wanted to like it and the moodier bits set the scene for something good - but the good stuff never came and instead there was a lot of actual rubbish. I may be both a Westerner and an Easterner, but I didn't enjoy it from either perspective. I also get the feeling he's conning his pseudo-intellectual audience who would love to hear something like that composed and performed well - but who'll settle for any attempt at it. EDIT: For the record, I've seen far, far worse bass videos out there. But as far as I'm concerned this was still rubbish though.

That was really good all-round. I love it when the drummer goes nuts behind the guitar solo! Cool pics too. How do you fill all these enormous venues playing original material btw? I must know the secret.

If you really want to develop your rhythmic understanding I'd get a drum book - but those are written in notation too. The best rhythm book I've ever seen was this old one from the 60s or 70s which I found in my university library, took out for a year, returned and now can't remember the name of - and have't been able to locate anywhere online. It was called something like "clap your hands" and wasn't instrument specific (which is why you could play the music by clapping your hands). It was written in notation but it's actually quite easy learning how to read rhythm in notation - I learnt it just from reading that book (then got very rusty). I used to sit in law lectures tapping the desk, going through all the exercises. The only time signatures you're likely to ever use are: 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, 5/4, 7/8 and 12/8. I just count the Indian way though (ie. drop the 4 or 8 off the bottom and just count the number of beats, so "it's in 7" for example). 4/4 is the standard one we all know and love. 3/4 is basically a waltz or The Beatles' "[i]You've Got To Hide Your Love Away[/i]". 6/8 is a kind of bluesy, ballad thing, often with an accent on the 1 and the 4 - this can make it sound like a very slow 4/4. 5/4 is a lot like 4/4 with an extra beat added - think of the intro to Cream's "[i]White Room[/i]". 7/8 is a lot like two bars of 4/4 with one beat missing at the end (or the other way around) - think of Pink Floyd's "[i]Money[/i]". 12/8 sounds to me like a triplet on each beat of a standard 4/4 bar - think of the theme to "[i]Airwolf[/i]". Without knowing what kind of music you listen to it's difficult to give more helpful examples. The timing could feel wrong for other reasons too though, such as syncopation/off-beats, accents in different places (such as reggae 4/4 as opposed to 4/4 with a backbeat) or counting in half-time or double-time (ie. counting twice as fast or twice as slow).

It'd be better if they ditched the French knickers scratch plate design and replaced it with this:

[quote name='bassbloke' post='319108' date='Oct 31 2008, 03:09 PM']If community spirit involves the other bands standing round outside the venue during your set slagging you off before miraculously appearing at the side of the stage during your last song, holding their guitars and ready to turf you off the very second the final chords of your set have decayed and offering the ubiquitous 'great set, really loved it' whilst they get in your way whilst you try and pack up, then I think it's alive and well.[/quote] Priceless!

I'm not sure if Sibelius has any kind of scan feature to do something like this. That'd be the first place I'd check.

My cousin's band's playing over in London Bridge at 10 - if I could fit all the gigs in I'd come to all of them.

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