Brandonh Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Well I have been trying to develop my ear (I have only been playing for 7 months) and I am working on the texas flood cd by SRV (Stevie Ray Vaughan). When I get stuck at a part of the tune I will check out the tab I would like to be able to get all songs strictly by ear someday but I am just starting out. Do you guys think its all right to look at the tab when I get stuck at a part in the song? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwbassman Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 I'm very much a reading player - although I'm always trying to improve my aural skills, so if you need to reference the tab in order to progress I don't see a problem with doing this... it's not cheating, it's using you initiative The more you listen and play the better your ear will get, but don't go beating yourself up about it in the mean time - playing should be enjoyable and getting stuck on one part of a song for hours is not my idea of enjoyment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandonh Posted June 16, 2007 Author Share Posted June 16, 2007 Thanks bassman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwbassman Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 no worries - I've been playing ages (over 15 years) and still not very good at playing by ear. Most of my gigs are reading (big band, show work etc) so I guess I just don't do enough practice 'without' the music to make a marked improvement... just remember to enjoy it... BTW, SRV is awesome, guitarist mate of mine can't get enough of him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandonh Posted June 16, 2007 Author Share Posted June 16, 2007 I dont play guitar and I cant get enough of him =) lol. But the bassist Tommy Shannon is something else aswell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB1 Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 MB1. You either wanna play the tune or you dont what the f++k is cheating?. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 Congratulations....... you've picked the best instrument to play !!! What's your goal ? if it's just to have fun play a few tunes along to records or even to join a covers band, I'd say it's not cheating at all to get a start by using Tabs. After all it's a resource to learn.... Picking out songs by Ear can be really difficult without a good working knowledge of the fretboard to go along with that great sense of pitch !! OK Boring stuff now but you really really can't ignore scales....... Major, Minor, Pentatonic need to be grasped as they are (usually) the ones of most use. Not only is the knowledhe of these scales really usefull for building basslines and jamming, but they build up your fretboard knowledge and help with ear training. Also they get your hands in shape and build muscle memory and dexterity which you'll need to play some of the more challenging stuff you'll want to have a crack at..... Unless you want to do session / theatre work (IMHO) reading music isn't essential but still very very worthwhile, I wish i'd bothered my ass earlier in life.... the older you get the harder it seems to be to grasp complicated stuff !! Good Luck ! Marcus Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewblack Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 [quote name='Brandonh' post='18967' date='Jun 16 2007, 10:55 PM']Well I have been trying to develop my ear (I have only been playing for 7 months) and I am working on the texas flood cd by SRV (Stevie Ray Vaughan). When I get stuck at a part of the tune I will check out the tab I would like to be able to get all songs strictly by ear someday but I am just starting out. Do you guys think its all right to look at the tab when I get stuck at a part in the song?[/quote] More and more as i learn songs I'm getting it by ear, but sometimes we all need a helping hand, no problem with tab at all in that respect. I've only recently started learning other peoples basslines having played for donkey's years and it's like all other skills, the more you do it the easier it gets! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Burpster Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 Texas Flood: is a challenging walking blues bass line that is a great goal for you to set early on ( I know it took me ages to crack it!) ... While you are listening to SRV and have the correct album for it try the bass line to Tin Pan Alley....... its not as easy as you think at first, and its in 3/4 (or 6/8 as some tabs claim) and the timing is everything.... just another quick pointer for Texas Flood, you need to drop tune to get it right! Enjoy SRV I know I do !!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warwickhunt Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 It might just be me but IMHO play what you think is right. Don't get hung up on every precise passing note or slide. Music is about emotion and you'll lose some emotion if you get bogged down in mimicing every minute detail. I never learned to read but I so wish I had! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soulfinger Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 [quote name='warwickhunt' post='19076' date='Jun 17 2007, 11:34 AM']It might just be me but IMHO play what you think is right. Don't get hung up on every precise passing note or slide.[/quote] + 1. It´s good to have a bunch of licks under your belt, but IMHO it´s rarely necessary to copy basslines note for note (although it can be a valuable learning experience). BTW, I always rely on my ears rather than tabs or notation. You´d be surprised how many wrong notes and wrong or at least awkward fingerings you´ll find in books and magazines. Just yesterday I sat down to play McCartney´s bass line to "Something" according to the transcription in Bass Player, and there are a couple of wrong notes and even more faulty tabs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NAS Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 Sorry this is all in one block of text, but the editor seems to be behaving wierdly and omitting text after paragraph marks. Don't know if this is down to the site or my browser settings. I regard it as a bit of a challenge to try to at least understand what the original artist was doing (even if I end up not being able to execute it) and I do try initially to do it all via ear, partly to try to train my poor cloth ears and partly to try to learn new tricks and approaches. I have had to "resort" to tabs on numerous occasions when the ears have failed me, but if I regarded that as cheating I'd get far too depressed! I tend to use an MP3 player through my Boss ME-50B with headphones otherwise the family would be driven to distraction by the hundreds of repetitions it sometimes takes me to get something. I'm also trying to learn the parts by heart for performing. By adjusting the EQ on the iPod to Bass Boost I can usually pick up most of the bass line and I'm also beginning to be able to hear whereabouts on the fretboard the playing is done which helps with good positions and shapes and the more advanced techniques of slides and harmonics. Mark you, this is just "pop" music - I'd be really at sea with Jaco and co. Even with pop music I find some real challenges. Trying to hear what Bill Wyman does on many Stones tracks, both early and late, I find really difficult. The bass parts seem to be set really low in the mix and he uses a very bottom heavy sound. Paul McCartney likes to throw in some really complex little twiddles just to throw off the beginner - the basic riff in "I Saw Her Standing There" is more complex than it first sounds with quick alternations between D and A string, and the little descant figure in the third verse of "Taxman" took me ages to sort out. So I'm working at a very basic level. The '60s and '70s West Coast boogie bands set some good challenges because although everyone was a bit stoned out they were actually very good musicians. Trying to get the parts on some Janis Joplin numbers - "Piece Of My Heart" and "Ball And Chain" from Cheap Thrills (Peter Albin bass), "Try - Just A Little Bit Harder" from Kosmic Blues and "Move Over" from Pearl (Brad Campbell bass) were stretching, especially as the feel is much more of an improvised part than repeated riffs. There aren't too many tabs of these looser style arrangements either. So no failure in resorting to tabs in my view, but very good for ear training to try to get it from listening in the first instance. I do agree with warwickhunt that it is more musical not to be slavish about playing an exact part as on the recording (after all the best artists seem to vary their playing for live work and we tend to criticise bands who just reproduce their recordings live as being "sterile") and half the excitement of really good live work is that tightrope walk when the band take a tune to the edge and don't quite fall off. My idols, The Grateful Dead, readily admitted that they frequently suffered "train crashes" when they were all busy trying to improvise in different directions, but if they hadn't taken the risk they would never have made some of their most exciting and satisfying music. I suppose I enjoy their live playing as much for its failures as for its triumphs. Given all this, my playing is at such a basic level that I usually learn something new by making the effort to try to learn what the original artist did exactly, and then often simplifying or modifying what I play in order to be able to play live with some confidence. From an audience viewpoint the confidence of the people on stage is in my view half the battle. If you do make a "mistake", do it like you mean it and half the audience won't notice, the other half may think you're stretching the envelope in a creative way! Anyway, enough blah! Hope some of this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandonh Posted June 17, 2007 Author Share Posted June 17, 2007 [quote name='Marcus' post='19045' date='Jun 17 2007, 05:36 AM']Congratulations....... you've picked the best instrument to play !!! What's your goal ? if it's just to have fun play a few tunes along to records or even to join a covers band, I'd say it's not cheating at all to get a start by using Tabs. After all it's a resource to learn.... Picking out songs by Ear can be really difficult without a good working knowledge of the fretboard to go along with that great sense of pitch !! OK Boring stuff now but you really really can't ignore scales....... Major, Minor, Pentatonic need to be grasped as they are (usually) the ones of most use. Not only is the knowledhe of these scales really usefull for building basslines and jamming, but they build up your fretboard knowledge and help with ear training. Also they get your hands in shape and build muscle memory and dexterity which you'll need to play some of the more challenging stuff you'll want to have a crack at..... Unless you want to do session / theatre work (IMHO) reading music isn't essential but still very very worthwhile, I wish i'd bothered my ass earlier in life.... the older you get the harder it seems to be to grasp complicated stuff !! Good Luck ! Marcus Good Luck[/quote] Well I know theory. I don't wan't to say I know the fretboard perfectly but if you name a note I can find it and I know Pentatonics, Majors, Minors and a few modes. But modes still really confuse me. I also know some arpeggios and chords. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 Its not cheating - are the LSO all cheats cas they read the dots. Lots of classical musicians cant improvise at all - but they can sight read Flight Of The Bumble Bee. Just do what you like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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