[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1321620505' post='1441267']
I remember 1,000 years ago when I was a new player and soaking up everything I could find, watching a Weather Report video of the Domino Theory tour. I was watching Victor Bailey play and was aware that he was playing stuff at the bottom of the neck, then adding fills at the top before coming back down to the main groove without missing a beat. It was apparent to me then that, to get around the bass properly, you needed to know how it all worked and what was where.
It came back to me recently when I was playing a gig. We were playing Waiting In Vain and the sax player stuck a little improvised theme in there which he was playing every time there was a change from G to C. I clocked this and, using my knowledge of theory and its relationship to the neck of my bass, I was able to hear the theme, re-frame it and harmonise in thirds and octave higher. I hit the thing spot on without dropping a note. The sax player turned with a big grin on his face that made all thoue hours of scales and arpeggios worthwhile. I don't know if anyone in the audience noticed but he did and that's enough for me.
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If you weren't a mod I would "like" this. But I'm not allowed