jakenewmanbass

Thanks Matt, very kind of you. all the best mate Jake

[quote name='lowdown' post='881700' date='Jun 30 2010, 10:41 AM']This is such a good point Jake, same for learning any standard [ or any tune for that matter] Always good to do a Jazz gig without the fake book as a cruch [ apart from the odd tune you dont know] It free's up the brain.Nothing worse than trying to do a solo with your head buried in a book [ for me anyway] Reading big band charts, yep for sure - but thats another topic. Garry[/quote] Aye Garry, there's nothing quite like knowing a tune properly. I have heard of some pretty heavyweight players who when they go out on the road will concentrate on a set of a dozen or so tunes and do them the whole tour, so that what they play is known inside out... Cheers Jake

[quote name='throwoff' post='881035' date='Jun 29 2010, 03:10 PM'][/quote] Sorry this is OT but what do those things do in bad weather?

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='879633' date='Jun 28 2010, 10:19 AM']Perhaps, but to a spotty 18 year old learning their chops it's not a bad place to start and provides a good building block to work from, whether or not it's typical of a proper jazz tune or not. This statement I feel sums up the snobbery sometimes inherent in music these days (not just jazz mind). As we all know, it's only the musicians who care about such things, the audience couldn't give a damn right? As long as it sounds good and they can sing along to it Being clued up on all the intricacies of jazz harmony is one thing, but let's not lose sight of the fact that we're here to make music, and that's all that matters ultimately. The fact that you felt the need to play me down on this and piss on my chips as you put it, perhaps shows a lack of understanding of what it is to feel like you've achieved something early on in your musical development. 20 years down the line as a player, I look back on this achievement with fondness, not because it was an amazing feat of musical prowess, simply because it marked a turning point in my understanding of how to play the bass. Sorry if it doesn't meet up to you obviously superior musicianship! Jeez![/quote] Sorry it was not meant as personally as it seems to have ended up, I'm definitely not inclined to be snobbish, I just don't like the tune but I do see the value in it being a gentle introduction, so apologies again if my tongue in cheek felt too close to the bone, honestly not intended. As for the milestone element, absolutely I agree with you that what seems important at the time can be superceded and we should remember the early steps we took. My vitriol may well come from the fact that I've had to play it about 10,000 times, but as I say even then I still feel privileged to play bass for a living, and I agree that we should keep an eye on keeping the punters happy, after all they make the job possible. Not meant personally, so please accept my apology. Jake

[quote name='derrenleepoole' post='879597' date='Jun 28 2010, 09:51 AM']Moondance was the very first composition I managed to do a reasonable walking bass line on [/quote] Thats because it has none of the sensibilities of a real jazz standard, the movement between the chords is non typical in harmonic progression when compared to the run of the mill standard, and the reference (the original bass line) is someone who clearly has no clue about the idiom flailing around like a coked up jellyfish. Sorry to piss on your chips a bit but I detest moondance with (I reckon) even more vehemence than Bilbo, although being the consummate professional means I will play it with a smile on my face (for money of course) because playing bass is the best job in the world. As for So What, listen to the original 60 times in a row (I am deadly serious) The sound will become natural to you after a while when you have done that play through the changes slowly without really (at first) trying to stick necessarily to time or form, just investigate the sound on different parts of your bass. Then listen again... rinse and repeat slowly learning the parameters of the form and time, do that until you sound so solid on those chords that if you were hit with a hammer you wouldn't drop a beat.

[quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='877797' date='Jun 25 2010, 09:43 PM']On the "laugh" side of things though - Jake, what the hell is that on your head?! I thought we pro bass players didn't do hair? [/quote] It's a pair of cans Rich, I lifted them up to give the band yet another set of very detailed instructions And someone snapped me. We were in the studio doing a live recording for Spotify which will be available soon with streaming video (yep they filmed us too) It's 100% live no O'dubs or editing and I'm singing BVs too. PS like the sound of the book.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='877751' date='Jun 25 2010, 08:37 PM']Sorry I wasn't flatly refusing to listen to jazz, I just need to read it too. When the chords are going by two to the bar it's just one long WTF to me, even if I've got them written infront of me... Too long spent playing reggae I reckon.[/quote] understood.... chords will help no doubt, I was just adding it in at that point because all the advice up to that point had been 'get this or that book' I teach bass (as you probably know) and have had the dubious pleasure of getting hundreds of undergrads to learn to walk, so I will repeat for the sake of sticking to my guns, aural immersion is the key... slowly, your ears will adjust... I promise

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='877701' date='Jun 25 2010, 07:43 PM']That's all well and good but a lot of the harmony in jazz is really alien to me, my ears can't tell what it is half the time. I'm alright with cycling fourths and fifths and simple stuff like that because you get that in pop music but I struggle with anything beyond that. I've also noticed I'm especially bad at recognising chords that don't have the root note in the bass (having struggled to work out some Beach Boys tunes from recordings recently). This is one of the skills I'm trying to improve.[/quote] And it's exactly because it's alien to you that you should listen to it, ask any language student and they will tell you that nothing compares to immersing yourself in the language you're trying to learn... by listening to it all day everyday, living in the country. Jazz is no different mate

To add another little contrary note to the advice thus far. Music is an aural medium so [b]listen first[/b]. Let the books consolidate what is flowing through your ears.

Bwahhahahahahahahahahahahahah I'm sorry, i couldn't resist it and i know you're man enough to take it.... I would recommend anything by the Oscar Peterson trio with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, great lines, amazing feel and no horns in the way so the bass plays a strong role. And it's just awesome.... Welcome to real music. *drops pin and ducks*

[quote name='JTUK' post='871743' date='Jun 19 2010, 02:24 PM']From the OP, it sounds like the Singer/Songwriters are at demo level so pitch accordingly and my hint about mounting costs could be the differnece between them and you doing it or not. If the ante is higher then get a more formal arrangemnet as above.[/quote] +1

once did a 3 month tour in which two of the gigs involved Zurich to Brighton in a van... took 24 hrs Also did a one off in Taiwan 4 days for a 1 hour set Once missed a connecting flight to Mumbai and missed the QE2 as a result took 3 days to catch the ship in Oman Another ship fiasco when sailing across the bay of biscay, bad weather caused us to shelter off the coast of portugal making us a day late for our disembarking in Cape Verde (off the coast of Africa) day late meant no flights as they had left the day before, consequently we spent the following hours frantically trying to get back on the ship... no dice as were no longer their responsibility, luckily the purser was also disembarking there, sorted us with hotels and flights only problem was it involved a flight on a pedal powered plane to another island which had an international airport a stay in a luxury holiday park and the only flight out of there was to New York on a South African Airlines jumbo. We landed at JFK at 6am and our flight to the uk was at 10 that night... you can imagine the fun we had... this was march 2001 (pre twin towers) so we left all our gear in the airport courtesy of a kind steward and went and lived it up in NYC. It sounds like fun but it was a horrible feeling being stuck on the island with no clue as to what to do... I didn't even have a credit card at the time. I got one as soon as I got back.

Some great sites here, massive resource. Can I suggest that this is pinned? Jake

[quote name='Doddy' post='868258' date='Jun 15 2010, 06:34 PM']That's brilliant. But can she walk through 'Rhythm' changes? [/quote] Yes she can... WITH HER FEET!!!

I'm going to try that on my next gig... It's on Thursday

In the world of pick up gigs there is often a situation in which the players on a gig for the evening don't know who else will show up in the various chairs of the band, as fixing the players can be happening up to the last minute, and even once they are fixed if players get a better gig (more money, closer to home, better networking opportunity etc) then it still may change as deps will be used. So when the bass player walks in if they breathe a sigh of relief then you know you're doing something right. There are some gigs where I've been told that everything felt good as soon as they knew I was in the bass chair. (not all gigs of course, because we all have our strengths and weaknesses)

Main control over the tone is in the right hand Chris so try plucking the strings with an upward direction (sort of straight out from the neck) and roll a little of the plucking finger flesh off the string as you do it. If you combine this with a good damping technique and a low mid strong eq (with highs dropped) you'll be surprised how thumpy you can get it. If you're going to the London bass bash bring it and I'll show you exactly what I mean although, I'm not 100% confirmed as going yet as my bread and butter gig is still taking late summer bookings. Jake Ps PM for more info (or ask here) if you like

[quote name='Alun' post='861005' date='Jun 8 2010, 02:05 PM']Saw them in cardiff last night and they were mind blowingly good. Jimmy Johnson's tone, direct into the PA, is unbelievably perfect.[/quote] Alun I was there....! I don't know what you look like so couldn't say hello (otherwise I would have. I had a long chat with Jimmy at the Ronnies gig and he put me on the guest list for Cardiff (by chance I was visiting my brother who lives about 400yds from the globe). He's (Jimmy) a really lovely guy. I thought the sound was a bit duff in Cardiff but they coped with it amazingly well and the crowd in Cardiff gave them a hell of a lot more back than the Ronnies crowd. I thought the ensemble playing was fabulous.

I work with Carl and all the other guys on a separate project to this and would recommend them wholeheartedly, really nice bunch. Nice gig for an enthusiast.

Hmm as it stands I'm still free for this... I may make it along.

[quote name='Greydad' post='859072' date='Jun 6 2010, 05:37 PM']I'm playing DB at least 3 nights a week and the old hands do ache a bit sometimes but apart from the mutant right index finger (still somewhat larger than the left index finger) the bit of my anatomy that seems to take the heaviest bass playing load is my left pinkie - main pinkie knuckle joint seems to be tested quite a lot so I need to work on using the other fingers to help it out a bit (yes, Greg, just like you told me). Good news is my left hand span has increased noticeably at full stretch, bad news is when I play electric now the stretch is more than the old 4-frets worth so I keep going past and missing the top one LOL. Must re-train brain...[/quote] Hi Greydad, Seems like you're getting lessons so I don't want to intervene so I have this suggestion, put it by your teacher and if it fits in with his thinking then all good. Slow all practice down to a quarter of the speed that you normally would play, make all the movements you make small but slow and take the time to see that you are making movements correctly. The reason: when you play things that you already know there is a tendency to play them just as you do, if this is giving rise to pain then that should be looked at. All fingers should be down with the little finger whenever it stops a note, if you do the slow thing you will make the movements that get your little finger supported part of your day, it's then and only then that it will seep into your playing in a performance situation. It's called undoing bad habits and it takes time and patience... slowly slowly catchee monkey. Jake

[quote name='AndyTravis' post='859498' date='Jun 7 2010, 03:32 AM']that series of videos looks like Ray Brown belittling someone. So im glad he didn't teach me; 'hey look, you did this wrong, here's me being better than you (hey, i'm the pro) and I embellished upon the third bar, just to make you look a c***...' no ta.[/quote] I fail to see how you can deduce that from what is being said?!? The inferences to which you refer seem only to exist for you as they are neither overt nor implied, it could be that the problem is yours and that's a sizeable bar to learning Andy.

[quote name='Bilbo' post='853709' date='Jun 1 2010, 03:59 PM'][b]Not a great sound[/b] through my (flat) Eden amp [b]Loud drummer resulted in a complete lack of finesse on my par[/b]t and the complete loss of any technique worth speaking of The realisation that, now the honeymoon period is over, [b]I have a mountain to climb[/b] to get to the level I want to achieve. Not that I am shying away from that climb; its nothing more that a moment of pathos...[/quote] welcome to the world brother... a never ending quest.... get your crampons on, the air gets thin up there.

Calling Bilbo.... these are ok and it's within your budget. Got to be worth a plonk mate.