Gareth Hughes

Nice one! I stand corrected on the black colour. That’s more than cool that you got to ask the man himself. Hope the shows are going well for you.

The lack of BA bridge and signature pickup can only make sense with the black colour, as his main bass was originally black when he got it, and wouldn’t have had the BA bridge - but then if that’s the case, why not market it as such???? ‘Steve Harris Precision just like when he bought it’ (I’m obvs not in the marketing game)

How you getting on Rob? I’ve taken a few steps back, trying to solidify knowing what scale degrees are under hand at all times. I was getting a little too comfy playing patterns, but then maybe that’s a good thing - to go with that you’re hearing instead of over-thinking it. Anyway - more playing of the examples along with tracks is needed for me. I’m still just sounding like an exercise, which is a little demotivating.

So - 1 step forward, 2 steps back. I tried applying some of the ideas covered so far to 'So What', and try as I might, I couldn't get my ear to bend to the C# over the D minor sound. But I had fun walking for a while and got away from a lot of old faithful patterns, so that's a plus.

So I'm on exercise 12 on P33 - 'breaking away from stationary positions'. I'm working on playing the four examples through the cycle, and focusing on understanding how each notes relates to each chord. But, I'm also trying not to focus on that and just play the first of each pattern and let my hand shape dictate/find the rest of the notes available. Sounds counter-intuitive but the thinking is that it's too overwhelming for my little brain to analyse everything all the time. Or at least that's the roadblock I've had before. As before - playing these examples a loop is greatly helping me to organise the sounds and shapes in my head.

Nice one! I saw this quintet on this tour, as a broke musician around 1999 I think. I'd already bought my ticket to Chick Corea with his acoustic band because I'd just heard of this new player, Avishai Cohen. By luck I bumped my old bass tutor, Phil Smyth, who was going to see Dave Holland and couldn't believe I wasn't going. I didn't know of Dave Holland then and could only afford the one ticket, but on Phil's advice I dug deep and got my ticket for Dave Holland. It was soooooooo good. To stand about five feet in front of Billy Kilson and hear his kit, without any PA help, was a beauty to behold. Dave wasn't too shabby either.

Yep, it’s the exercises on p30 I’m working on, playing them over a loop until my ear told me to try something else and find what worked.

Nice one Nekomatic. It’s slow and steady here for me, little bit often. I had an interesting breakthrough/revelation earlier. I was working on adding the b9 to a dominant 7. So, playing along with a looped chord on iReal, I’m playing all the variations of the arpeggio and then I wanted to try adding other notes from outside the arpeggio. My ear finally led me to playing a half step/whole step scale - so (over D7b9) it was D Eb F Gb Ab A B C. I’ve practiced this before but never ‘got’ it. My ear was doing the work and it began to make sense. I hope it still seems this way tomorrow!

Not too far from you, I’m just down the road in the wilds of Rathfriland.

Hey Rob - just thought you’d like to hear this. My 16 year old son has joined a jazz workshop group here for teenagers, a once a month rehearsal with a great jazz drummer/educator. As he’s wanting to improve his jazz knowledge and walking abilities I suggested that the two of us work through Danny’s Low Down Vol.1 book one evening a week, in the same manner of this study group here, so thanks again for getting the ball rolling all round.

Hello from a fellow Nordie. Whereabouts are ye?

Danny - you rock! (or ‘you jazz’ but that doesn’t have the same ring) Thank you for your time in posting here, it is very much appreciated. I especially appreciate your thoughts on the #7. For me, my (aural) stumbling blocks were firmly cemented in my early heavy metal beginnings - so a minor scale is Aeolian and there is nothing else! But I’m chipping away at that concrete and your explanation of, to paraphrase, a ‘constantly variable minor’ has just cleared away a huge block. Thanks again.