jakenewmanbass

[quote name='lowdown' post='349068' date='Dec 8 2008, 09:10 PM']Why dont we do something different and start a poll.. Jaco quote yes or no... Garry[/quote] get lost What is overlooked in this thread is how sat down and solid Charley Charles' groove is, making the bass line work perfectly.

It's a very standard Jaco phrase 1, 5, 7, 5, 6, 6, 5, . It was used very prominently in the bridge section of 'Come On Come Over' from Jaco's first album.

London, no doubt. Only real professional music community in the UK, you can make a living elsewhere (and I have in the north west) but there is a ceiling.

Who is the guy in the clip?

Ray Brown James Jamerson Jimmy Johnson everyone would fare well eating these guys poo

[quote name='endorka' post='346985' date='Dec 6 2008, 02:17 AM']I think there are some for the double bass in Nielsen's 4th symphony, "The Inextinguishable". Not that I was able to play them... But they are just doubling the violins. As you said, violin sh*t :-) Jennifer[/quote] How fitting 'The Inextitinguishable' presumably because the bow's on fire

Played for Kraft foods at the national Motor Heritage thingy ma bob museum. What a great place, and it was 20% french audience so our version of the Can Can with Land of Hope and Glory crow-barred into the middle went down a storm as did all our other comedy routines, they were a great crowd, and I particularly enjoyed playing behind the Charlston dancers it's always such a lovely perspective!

[quote name='chris_b' post='346561' date='Dec 5 2008, 03:58 PM']Just looked at the link....what the hell are [i]hemidemisemiquavers[/i]![/quote] violin sh*t

Lots of good advice so far so I won't repeat, I'll simply add. I place a good deal of importance on musicality, taking excercises and making music with them, scales up and down are not particularly musical but knowing them as well as the action of putting food to your mouth gives you the facility to make great music by knowing combinations of notes that sound great, there are many many combinations and permutations available so how you learn them will determine how quickly you improve. One of the best sources is by learning what other bass players before you have worked out. Take examples from a variety of sources absorb them for yourself, add your own personality (which is unavoidable) and hey presto you are a player. Easy eh!!?? You have a reply to your PM

[quote name='alexclaber' post='345928' date='Dec 4 2008, 09:57 PM']Minimum standard is easy to achieve - but more dislikes would be useful to know.[/quote] Do note that I suggested that as a starting point [quote name='alexclaber' post='345928' date='Dec 4 2008, 09:57 PM']Therefore most 15" cabs you'll have heard sound boomy (undersized box) and muddy (lack of magnet strength). That's an over simplification but it is the essence of the problem.[/quote] It may be an over simplification to someone as acoustically aware as yourself, but to me it's a cogent explanation of what I've heard for years. (the exception being my peavey BW 15") [quote name='alexclaber' post='345928' date='Dec 4 2008, 09:57 PM']Very interesting comments from everyone - I shall keep working on this and if there's anyone near me do get in touch to test the prototype if/when it's done![/quote] I'm not too far, and have plenty of friends in Brighton so could always justify a trip to you Alex. Keep us posted mate and thanks for a very interesting thread. Jake

[quote name='guyl' post='344926' date='Dec 3 2008, 11:17 PM']I wouldn't be too dismissive of a 15" speaker. Isn't the "box" on an upright acting as a bass speaker anyway? And that's about 2ft wide.[/quote] I wouldn't directly dispute that as I am nowhere near technically savvy enough to be able to hold a cogent argument up in favour of cabs other than fifteens, but what I will say is this: Amplifying DB in my experience is a compromise from the outset and I have spoken to many bass players that express preference for slightly smaller speakers, generally 10s or 12s. The point I think it would be worth considering from Alex's pov is this: If you accept that amplification is a compromise, then in my belief the preference that bass players express is based upon displaying of the least bad characteristics or indeed that some certain characteristics of the sound are favourably produced. You may successfully argue that technically, a 15 [i]can[/i] produce the desired characteristics, your potential downfall is that in my experience they also display unfavourable characteristics that DB players do not like. And all the theory in the world will not persuade them to buy a product because in theory it does the job. The ultimate judgement is the sound. So I would say use a research process that starts from a perspective of what sounds DB players want to hear as a minimum standard, and what do they dislike.

[quote name='tombboy' post='344326' date='Dec 3 2008, 04:42 PM']Any advice on acoustics would be most welcome. Although we will mostly be recording digitally including drums (Roland TD20) we may well do some acoustic/analogue (sp?) stuff. The drum/vocal room will measure approximately 2m x 3m, corridor 1m x 2m and the live/mixing room 4m x 4m. There will be an internal double sealed unit window between the vocal booth and the mixing room for visual cues etc. Forgot to add... floating wooden floors throughout, recessed lighting and a stella fridge!![/quote] I didn't get all the way through the thread so forgive me if this is elsewhere. I would suggest if possible avoid parrallel walls in the control room. you can spend ages listening to mixes that sound good in that room because of the acoustic properties it has, then take them elsewhere and they sound sh*te. I don't know the technical term for what you need to do but it's definitely worth getting a bit of pro advice about that.

I can get just the right amount of weight into the sound of my db with a schroeder 212L I power it with a BK electronics 1200w poweramp after an Alembic F1-X Pre. The cab seems able to be very loud without interfering with the resonance of the bass, plus I'm using an underwood which is hardly the most sophisticated of front ends (I'm going to upgrade that soon) I really like this rig and despite being a bit big for real portability (I couldn't use the tube with it) It offers a really good balance of size to power. Twelves are perfect for the characteristics of a double bass in my experience, with careful tone shaping you can achieve good tone with larger and smaller speakers but I have simply found that easier when using twelves. That rig suffices for all types of gig for me for double and electric, small trio/quartet, up to big band and my originals project which is more groove based.

[quote name='N64Lover' post='342355' date='Dec 1 2008, 08:51 PM']And thanks for the quote jakesbass, ill be sure to email that to the drummer.[/quote] You're welcome [quote name='N64Lover' post='342355' date='Dec 1 2008, 08:51 PM']Also, does anyone know of any piece of equipment that I can plug into my drummer to measure his ego levels and automatically adjust my gain accordingly?[/quote] I pissed myself at this What a great idea. you could always use a hammer.

Firstly due to less rresonance Laminate basses are much easier to amplify but if you don't have one that doesn't help I know. Basically the amp is 'playing' through the mic in the pickup and into the amp and into the pickup and....... etc and thats feedback. So distance would help, as the wave decays the further it travels from the source (your EA) You are encountereing an age old problem for amplifying uprights, and in these days of loud drums etc you can feel as though you are fighting a losing battle, and IMO you are. the best resolution is lower volume, have a greater dynamic range available to you, tell the drummer to play to the acoustic nature of the band. Billy Higgins (jazz drummer with everyone in his time) said. "you're not supposed to rape the drums, you need to make love to them, all the best horn players listen hard to the bass so as a drummer you're not supposed to drown the bass out" That in the days where basses weren't amplified at all. If you take that quote seriously, and I do, you open the door to better music that is multi dimensional due to the increased variety of available dynamics, always loud is sh*t and some drummers are terrible for having an ego so big that they can't keep quiet enough to take the music out of a boring one dimensional space. Of course there are drummers who play just right dynamically, If you're guy won't change, get one that will.

Time signatures are easily understood if you really absorb the significance of two pieces of info: 1. The bottom number tells you what type of note the beat is i.e minim=2, crotchet=4, quaver=8, semiquaver=16. 2. The top number tells you how many of them are in one bar. Therefore: 2/2 means there are 2 minims in a bar (which equates to 4/4 just like a fraction) but is in a cut time (often quite fast) 4/4 means there are 4 crotchets in a bar. 3/4 means there are three crotchets in a bar 5/4 means 5 crotchets and is (obv) an odd number and may be grouped thus 123 45 as in 'take five', or 12 345 6/8 has six quavers in a bar (often in two groups of three) 123 456 123 456 etc (giving 2 pulses of 3 notes duration each) 12/8 has 12 quavers and also often groups of three 5/8 has five quavers and can be grouped with a short and a long pulse 123 45, or 12 345 in both cases the first beat of a group can be accented to give a larger grouped 'pulse' to the music. 11/16 has 11 semiquavers and can be counted in various groups these types of time signature are found mainly in contemporary music and can be difficult to follow without full understanding. Most pop, rock, soul etc musicians will rarely encounter these as the majority of music in song form is in regular measure such as 4/4, 3/4, 6/8/,12/8. Time signatures that have groups within (as above) are called compound time signatures because the groups of notes often add together to make a larger group pulse so you can feel a two pulse in 6/8 created by an accent (stronger) on the first note of each group. This is all off the top of my head and very much in brief, if you want further explanantion I would be happy to give examples of specifics here or by PM. Jake

I've just got Circus Money by Walter Becker (half of Steely Dan) some lovely grooves and stellar guitar playing from Dean Parks, in fact his solo on one of the tracks is so beautiful I emailed him to say how much I enjoyed it and he emailed me back thanking me for the kind words.

TBH Im not quite sure what you mean by "timing" and if you mean 'time keeping' then learning about time signatures will not really help and IMO books are not the way forward. I once heard someone describe listening to records as an elaborate metronome, playing along with great players is a sure fire way to accustom oneself to locking in with an established groove. If you mean 'Time Keeping' let me know and I will post some suggestions for you. also +1 to nig for the metronome, I think you can have lots of feel fun with a metronome.

[quote name='Ray' post='340312' date='Nov 29 2008, 10:01 AM'][url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NvZlTKIEW6Q"]Godfathers Of Groove[/url][/quote] On that video link you posted is none other than Bernard Purdie and I think Jerry Jemmott.

[quote name='Ray' post='339810' date='Nov 28 2008, 04:28 PM']My band are doing a support gig in January and I was thinking of asking if I could sit in on a couple of numbers with the headline band. Thing is, these guys are legends and it will be nerve wracking enough just talking to them let alone asking if I can play with them! They have no bassist as it's an organ trio. I'd be grateful for any advice on the best way to go about it. Cheers, Ray[/quote] You should wait to be invited really, which, tbh you are unlikely to be. Sorry.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='339488' date='Nov 28 2008, 12:10 PM']I did a great jazz gig on Wednesday and had to drive the singer there because her partner (the drummer) had to go there Life is not about one choice and one path. We are all on several paths at once. I don't know Jake at all but, from the contact *Also edited for space* How we feel about what we do is determined by a range of factors and being either pro or semi pro is actually only a tiny part of that.[/quote] Very nicely put. and on a personal level thanks. Jake

[quote name='ARGH' post='337919' date='Nov 27 2008, 12:10 AM']You are one lucky f***er..Im going to remember you,if we ever pass by,You get a pint,no questions.[/quote] I am very lucky and I know it, and I've been known to bollock musician colleagues who moan about the gig they're on reminding them what it would feel like to actually have to work for a living. It's an utterly charmed existence in my opinion, I go all over the world get loads of top quality food and drink free, meet loads of interesting people. Thats just a small percentage of the work, I also play outside in fields sometimes in March in the snow, and sometimes it's hard to get home at 3AM having driven 250 miles but I love what I do and would not change it for the world. P.S I could survive without teaching, but as an earlier poster pointed out there is no shame in teaching at all, in fact it's a rather noble pursuit. And who would not take work in the times when you can't earn from playing ie in the morning, so I fail to see any gravity in your point in this regard.

[quote name='ARGH' post='337881' date='Nov 26 2008, 11:40 PM']Point taken....[/quote] thank f*** for that [quote name='ARGH' post='337881' date='Nov 26 2008, 11:40 PM']Have you never had to struggle? Was it that easy? All the time?[/quote] Never struggled, never missed a bill, never missed a mortgage payment, never felt skint. All the time. Yes [quote name='ARGH' post='337881' date='Nov 26 2008, 11:40 PM']You admit you have had to do 'Summat else'...for at least a while.[/quote] Like I said you use my words to suit yourself. That is not an admission it's a choice, When a musician relocates he or she has to re-establish just like in any self employment. [quote name='ARGH' post='337881' date='Nov 26 2008, 11:40 PM']We are very different people,in different places,from different times.[/quote] accuracy at last.... :-P [quote name='ARGH' post='337881' date='Nov 26 2008, 11:40 PM']Guess Im crazy[/quote] Aren't we all to an extent?

[quote name='ARGH' post='337834' date='Nov 26 2008, 10:49 PM']But thats 2 people working at it,support,and love,and I dont totally believe you both have not had to at least at some point do a little extra summat on the side to make ends meet..a shift of something,temp work,had sacrifice's..all that romantic sh*t that at the time utterly stink,but draw you together.... House prices,depends on where you are,but I bet you had to drop a massive deposit,being self employed. If you can do it..Then I applaud you,and you can borrow my gear anytime.[/quote] What I find interesting in your "honesty" is that you are not open minded to anothers experience. You are telling me how it has been for me and ignoring what I say to suit your argument. I have to say I don't appreciate that as I have a much better idea of my own existence than you do by dint of having lived it. I was sole bread winner for 10 years while my wife looked after the kids. I have never as you put it "done summat on the side" I had 2 years in an alternative career (and was other things before music. Cook, nightclubs, barman etc) The 'alternative career' was while I established new contacts after relocation. But I soon realised that regular income from a mindless activity was utterly without joy. I have a large equity in my property yes, I earned it playing bass as well as a help from price rises I have made over payments in my mortgage for my entire life so far, and I have had no inheritance. The 2 people working at it you refer to is only for the last 12 months and all it means is that I take less of the gigs that don't pay the money. Although there are plenty of gigs I do that don't pay well cos I love to play, and I love meeting new musicians... all of which has meant that for my whole gigging life the phone has rung. There is less work for musicians than say in the fifties but that is true of all sectors of our employment base. I think the most important thing that you miss is that I am a very happy musician. If I wasn't I would do something else. I will also reiterate that I know literally hundreds of musicians who survive and are happy some of them having earned more from one job than many would in a years work.