Earbrass

I tend to use an Excel spreadsheet: one cell per bar. In each cell I write the chord name or names, and underneath whatever lyrics are sung in that bar. Then comes the really fun bit - I colour code the whole thing, by applying background colour to the cells, with eg all the verses in one colour, all choruses in another and so forth, so it's really easy to see the structure of the song at a glance (I find I'm much more likely to make the mistake of going to the wrong "bit" of a song - like not remembering that the 2nd chorus has an extra 4 bars and then we go into the lead break etc - than I am of cocking up the individual sections). Often I find that the process of producing the document helps me learn the song so well that by the time I've finished it and printed it off it's just there as a backup. Nice to have, though.

Check out the bass part in Purcell's "When I am laid in earth" (Dido and Aeneas). It's the same simple pattern the whole way through; one of the great basslines of all time.

[quote name='cameltoe' post='529725' date='Jul 1 2009, 04:46 PM']Well i'm fairly new to bass anyway, and for the first year or so I used a pick. Since I bought my P bass though I have been using a 2 finger technique (which I might progress to 3) which has served me well. However, on faster tempo songs something isn't quite right, I can't get my fingers to move as quickly as I need them to do, and I'm convinced it's because i'm curling the fingers too much. My fingers feel like they're almost 'sticking' on the strings sometimes, yet whenever I try and straighten my fingers a bit I find I either have very little accuracy or i can't attack the strings enough. I've been looking at right hand techniques on youtube, etc, and it almost seems like I hit the strings with too much tension in my fingers whereas the correct way is a bit looser. I need someone to explain to me the dynamnics of playing like this. I can see what I'm supposed to do, but I can't make it happen.

pic:[attachment=28076:15_1.jpg][/quote]

There's no magic trick to getting your fingers to move more quickly with accuracy, it's just practice! My advice would be to play those "faster tempo songs" at a speed where you CAN play them as you want to. Then gradually increase the tempo.

You might also try [url="http://www.boosey.com/shop/"]http://www.boosey.com/shop/[/url] ; no idea what they're like for pop music, but were the only place I could find some Renaissance dance music recently. Friendly and helpful on the phone, too.

[quote name='silddx' post='527798' date='Jun 29 2009, 03:23 PM']I'm so delighted!! Saw an add here on Thursday for bassist wanted, the message was quirky and intriguing enough for me to check out her myspace. I was blown away, she's an extraordinary singer and songwriter. I called the same day, auditioned yesterday and got a lovely email this morning to say I'm in, subject to one rehearsal to make sure I'm not a flake or a psycho. The drummer's brilliant, he was playing one armed due to an accident and he was still knockout!

Sorry for all the exclamations, I'm just so thrilled

Check her out here [url="http://www.myspace.com/kitrichardsonmusic"]http://www.myspace.com/kitrichardsonmusic[/url][/quote]

Well done, mate. Sounds interesting stuff. Now you just have to decide whether or not to tell her that she can't spell "Evangelist".

[quote name='51m0n' post='523605' date='Jun 25 2009, 01:32 PM']As tempting as it may be, I wouldnt tell them to F off, it would look severely not good after all.[/quote]

No, neither would I. Just said I'd be tempted. But I'd never do it.


[quote name='51m0n' post='523605' date='Jun 25 2009, 01:32 PM']I'll go along tonight, roll the Roscoe onto the neck pup, pluck over that pup and sit right back on it. If I get through it without making too many mistakes and groove hard then I'll be happy with myself at least. At that point they will have to ask me to be the bassist before I learn any other songs, or play with them again.[/quote]

Excellent plan. Best of luck.

Sorry to hear that. It's a tricky one. Part of me, quite a large part actually, would want to tell them to F*** off for messing me around (assuming I'd been led to believe that I had got the gig). But I'd suppress that, especially if I really wanted the gig.

Next, I'd be tempted to refuse to audition again - "you've heard me, you've seen that I can learn your stuff, you know where I am if you decide you want me, but there's a limit to the number of hours of my life I'm prepared to spend working on your material if there's no guarantee of a result at the end". High risk strategy; probably only worthwhile if you're feeling confident that they wouldn't want to lose you.

What I probably should do is insist on knowing whether the they've made first contact with the 2 new bass players since I'd last auditioned (which would strongly suggests that they weren't really happy with me but were stringing me along in case they couldn't get anyone better), why they still felt the need to continue auditioning, how many other auditions they were planning and when I could expect a DEFINITE decision.

What I would probably end up doing in reality is going along with whatever they want, being really nice about it when they give the gig to someone else, rationalizing this in terms of it not doing any good to burn bridges and so forth, and then hating myself afterwards for not telling them to F*** off in the first place (see option 1 above). But that's just because I'm a big girl's blouse.

Best of luck, and I really feel your pain - been in similar situations myself.

E

[quote name='Cantdosleepy' post='522657' date='Jun 24 2009, 03:13 PM']Amp: Little mark II - stated output power of this is 300 W RMS @ 8ohm (my cab is 8ohm)[/quote]

Surely it's the power [b]consumption[/b] rather than the output that is relevant here? Normally written somewhere on the amp? (small plate thing near the power input perhaps???)

[quote name='Mrs Tinman' post='514216' date='Jun 15 2009, 02:21 PM']Please don't shout at me if this is a pants 'offer' but I have copied this across from the HotUKDeals forum where someone has said about the Stagg BC300 (black) bundle:

'Thats a very nice unpretentious looking bass IMO.

Good price for the spec and bundle.'

[url="http://www.normans.co.uk/c-208-bass.aspx"]http://www.normans.co.uk/c-208-bass.aspx[/url][/quote]

Actually, I think that bass looks really nice, and spec-wise it ticks all the right boxes for me (P/J, passive, 4 string, 24 frets). Dunno what they play like, though. If they're light weight and the necks are decent, I reckon they could be real bargain. Can't justify it myself, sadly. Anyone played one?

<EDIT>
These don't get a lot of love on the Harmony Central User reviews:
[url="http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Electric+Bass/product/Stagg/B300BK/10/1"]http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews...agg/B300BK/10/1[/url]
</EDIT>

[quote name='bubinga5' post='510607' date='Jun 10 2009, 08:23 PM']Some might say a Spitfire is not really a Jazz bass ^_^[/quote]

True, but it's far more effective against a Focke-Wulf 190.

RIP indeed. Very very sad. One of the quiet, retiring heroes of bass; he will be missed.

[quote name='Rich' post='508272' date='Jun 8 2009, 03:30 PM']No, it can't be. Squirrels don't like chestnuts. Nor do badgers or magpies.[/quote]

From "Wiki Answers":

[i]Are horse chestnuts safe food for squirrels? In: Chipmunks and Squirrels [Edit categories]
[Edit]
Yes they are. [/i]

There remains the vexed question of how they would open them though. I'm thinking the badger could hold it down, then the magpie could make a small crack in it which the squirrel could lever open with a plectrum. Fingers just aren't going to cut it here.

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='504861' date='Jun 3 2009, 05:14 PM']Basically, if I were to order a custom bass, I would hand the luthier a vhs of me having sex and instruct him to interpret it into the bass equivalent.


And no, it wouldn't be short scale.[/quote]


...but it would be right-handed. ;-)

I'm not buying one till they start using organic Watts.

[quote name='maxrossell' post='493237' date='May 20 2009, 01:25 PM']Shed? Hang?

I must confess it's been a while since I read a bass mag, what are these terms supposed to mean?[/quote]

"Shedding" means being forced by the missus to practise at the bottom of the garden. ;-)

[quote name='maxrossell' post='491429' date='May 18 2009, 02:53 PM']Anyone who picks up a guitar today better understand that he has a better chance of winning the lottery than making it big as a recording artist.[/quote]

But maybe that's no bad thing. Imagine a world where people only made music because they loved making music, instead of seeing it as a way to achieve celebrity and riches. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one... ;-)

Well, I agree it's not a replacement for standard notation, but I don't think it was ever really intended to be.

It's strength, if it has one, is as a means of SHARING musical data - the files are quick and easy to upload / download, and can be transformed by readily available software either into standard notation, or into a MIDI file. This means that even a non-reader could download a transcription of a bassline, build a midi-file from it and load it into their DAW/sequencer, and play along.

OK it's probably a crap idea. I haven't used it myself - just came across it on the interweb and thought it might be of interest.

I'll shut up about it now.

Sorry if you all know about this already, but in the threads I've read about notation people seem to refer to traditional notation or TAB, but I've not seen a reference to the ABC system on this site. It's widely used in folk and traditional music circles, and would be a simple way of transcribing basslines etc. One of its advantages, apart from the fact that it can be written on a computer keyboard without special software, is that you can add as much or as little detail as you like, depending on how much of the language you want to use.


More info at

[url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_(musical_notation)"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_(musical_notation)[/url]

[quote name='liamcapleton' post='482149' date='May 7 2009, 04:39 PM']It all depends on how much money you want to make. Currently I should imagine (having just done a huge part of my course on indie labels) that the current climate for such is quite poor... which is a shame, because I am about to be running a small label and a studio. The major labels still have the monopoly on things. Look at the profits on an independent distributor like CD Baby. They tout themselves on how much money they've made for indie artists who want to make it on their own, and true enough, they've helped generate quite a bit of money, but if you look at the profit of the individual musician, it's barely anything at all. The money they claim to have made is spread too thin to consider it a viable option for making any sort of living, or even a one off cash bonus.[/quote]

But for a lot of us, the money is pretty much irrelevant. I just want to make music I like and share it with people who appreciate it. I simply don't look at music as a way of making money (though I have made a modest amount of money from it in the past, when I was heavily involved in soundtrack work). In fact, if by some miracle the band I play in became commercially successful (it's not going to happen), I'd probably leave, as there's no way I'd ever give up my day job to go on tour etc. For me, if music making became a job, it'd kill all the fun. That's what I mean by "non-commercial" music - music that's made for the joy of making it, not for money.

[quote name='liamcapleton' post='482061' date='May 7 2009, 03:14 PM']I think IMO that like it or not, 21st century music has everything to do with the consumer market. It's again not something that a lot of musicians like to accept, but it makes up a large factor of the dictation of trends.[/quote]

I would have thought quite the opposite; nowadays, with the internet and all the technology at our disposal, isn't it easier than ever for people to produce and distribute their own music without the backing of the big corporations, and to find and communicate with their audience, however tiny and niche that audience may be? Surely this ought to be a golden age for non-commercial music, compared to the situation a few decades ago?

[quote name='liamcapleton' post='481810' date='May 7 2009, 12:06 PM']With the greatest of respect, there is a lot of good music out there nowadays if you were to look hard enough. It's fine sticking to the argument that 'music isn't what it was back in the day' but it just simply isn't true. You need to let music evolve sometime, otherwise we're stuck in a cyclical situation where views such as that simply serves to inhibit new music to come.[/quote]

Yeah, fair enough, I wasn't being entirely serious there. There's good stuff around, just as there always has been.

[quote name='liamcapleton' post='481810' date='May 7 2009, 12:06 PM']What I meant was that jazz (which as someone pointed out is far too much of an umbrella term anyway) doesn't serve as much of a huge sector of musical revenue nowadays because it seems to be viewed by most as an institution or an era, like classical. It may not be the most musically endearing news that practicing jazz musicians want to hear, but it's true.[/quote]

I just don't buy into the idea that music only matters if it's making money for someone, or has a wide appeal or a cool image. To me those are completely irrelevant to what makes good music.

[quote name='liamcapleton' post='481377' date='May 6 2009, 08:16 PM']Jazz .... serves little to no purpose nowadays aside from entertainment value[/quote]

unlike the pap that passes for rock these days, which is of course, saving the world.

[quote name='maxrossell' post='481635' date='May 7 2009, 09:24 AM']Can someone throw together something like that which would broadly sum up how to recognise Jazz?[/quote]

This reminds me of an interview with Louis Armstrong from the 60's. He was asked what he'd be doing if he was a young man now. He replied "I guess I'd be playing guitar like that cat Hendrix". The interviewer, surprised, asked "Do you call that jazz?", to which he replied "Hell, man, if that ain't jazz, what is?".

[quote name='chenzo_1' post='475869' date='Apr 30 2009, 12:05 PM']A mate of mine is selling his peavey milestone for £35 is it worth buying it ripping the frets out, whackin in some nice pups and adding an a nice set of flatwounds?

If i ever decided to sell it on after woulds would i be able to break even?

thoughts and comments please!![/quote]

I've got a couple of these basses, both second-hand, and I think they're pretty good as they come: light weight, nice neck, well-balanced. Hardware isn't the best, but it's not crap either. As I've said on other threads, I had one of these and a Fender Aerodyne Jazz for a while, and I honestly couldn't say either sounded better than the other - except that the Peavey hummed less when recording, so in the end I sold the Fender and bought another Peavey (I like to have 2 basses so I can keep one in each location I regularly play). I paid about £50 each for mine, second-hand, including gigbags. At £35 you really can't go far wrong. I'd say, buy it and live with it for a while as is - it may surprise you.

Just my 2p's worth.

To me, tort and/or pearloid scratchplates on basses are like sparkly jackets on comedians; tacky, dated and rather more "London Palladium" than "Carnegie Hall". Don't ask me why.

Thanks for all your suggestions.