Bilbo

My teacher did the same, skej21. Dan Quinton (Otis Grand and The Dance Kings). I think the counting thing M@23 mentioned above revelas an aspect that you touched upon. The I er and er 2 er aspect of counting is a great means of explaning the idea of written music but it is NOT a tool you should use whilst actually reading (you would have no chance). You need to get the rhythms in your head so you are 'seeing' them as phrases rather than reading each note. Think 'word' rather than 'letter' or 'syllable'.Proficiency comes with practice (and it is worth noting that, if you don;t maintain the skill, you will lose it).

I am now a few years in with this bass and play regularly with some of the UK's greatest Jazz musicians: Art Themen, Jim Mullen, Alan Barnes, Nigel ORice, John Etheridge etc etc. The bass never lets me down; I do , but the bass doesn't . Here is a more recent sample... https://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/estate

Congrats, Bleat. I voted for you

The idea that the composition is a soundtrack for the image is only one way of looking at it. It could be a reflection of the emotion that it generates in you or a memory it invokes, for example. People of different ages will experience things differently:did the train take you on holiday or did it take your parents to a Nazi death camp and so on. The potential for variety is one of the wonderful things about the challenge.

I don't think it really matters what you gauge the works with. It's entirely a matter for you.

I always liked this monster

Anyone arranging a Jazz jam will be aware of the wide range of skills available in a room full of fledgling Jazz musicians and will manage the event with everyone's needs in mind. If the playing standard is low, the tunes will be mostly diatonic, two, three of four chords and well known material like blues changes, Canteloupe Island, Watermelon Man, Summertime etc. As the standard improves, the tunes will get harder and harder but still with the ability of those present in mind. At the end of the day, no-one has any investment in managing a train crash so calling 'GIant Steps' for a room full of beginners would be stupid. My advice? Learn the changes to a twelve bar blues in F and Bb and learn how to read a simple chord chart. A good starting point would be Jamey Aebersold's play-a-long series (I think a lot of them are on Spotify now, although the accompanying books won't be). And, if in doubt, talk to whoever is leading the session. They are generally approachable people and will answer all of your questions about 'protocols' and do all that they can to get you up there and playing.

It all looks a bit grim from here.

Ref: bipolar. I think it was diagnosed and treatable then as it is now but there was a suggestion that JP didn't take his meds as they made his hands shake. I don't know but that is what I heard.

Some great work this month. Could have voted for about seven of them easily. Bring on the next picture!!

Bit like a general election then.

I struggle with most popular music in this regard and it was what got me into Jazz etc. Most pop/rock/funk etc has lines that provide challenges of one kind or another. Time spent with Jamerson, Rainey and a million other bassists all help to improve your playing and should be encouraged. Nevertheless, you are left with wonderful performances of great bass lines but, over the top of it all, comes 'My Girl', 'Dock Of The Bay', 'Son Of A Preacher Man' etc, mnost of which I find unlistenable. Even the greats like Steve Wonder I just can't listen to as it is all predictable and, for me, unengaging and can't listen to for very long. So, in terms of the OP, my answer is 'most of them'

I do a lot of gigs with big name Jazz musicians and they all use music stands because, when we hit the one of the first tune, we have never played together and the tunes are only known by half the band. Check out 'Beauty and The Beast' off my Soundcloud page. This is what can happen when people who have never played together play together with 0music stands. Alternatively, we could have played All Blues, Canteloupe Island and Straight No Chaser without music stands.

I have a great ear. Just the one; looks like the BFG's. The other is all shrivelled and weak. As for TABS done by 'professionals', can I be a professional TAB writer? Can I? Can I? How much will I get paid? Is it millions? It is, isn't it? Yum yum!!

I guess there is no way we can do a first second and third vote?

Hah! Foist by your own petard!!!

I came into Basschat today to have a look at what was happening with this thread and I just had a thought. Paul's title to the thread is 'February Composition Challenge - GET RECORDING'! Whilst I applaud the enthusiasm and motivational punch of the wording, surely the title should be 'February Composition Challenge - GET WRITING! Or 'GET COMPOSING'. Recording is the part of the process where we budding composers translate out ideas into a form that our peers and audience can readily consume. If I wrote a piece and posted the score, I would still have entered but it would be diffiult for the bulk of Basschat members (including myself) to recognise the quality of it's contents. Nevertheless, the fact remains that, before recording the composition, you need to write/compose it. If anyone is recording stuff they have not yet written, I suggest they stop immediately.

I have remixed mine, added a new bass part (real, the last was VST), dropped some cymbals and got rid of a few techy glitches. Better but not perfect (the bass fills are 'hotter' than I would like) . The original link still works.

I learned a song once. I won't let it happen again.

[quote name='Jenny_Innie' timestamp='1424178459' post='2693472'] The form of music you are talking about is dying anyway. [/quote] Jazz has been dead for 50 years. Doesn't bother us

I don't really think it matters that much how you get to hear the stuff. If you play it, you are, by definition, hearing it. If you cannot hear it, you cannot play it. The nuances that are required to play well are seldom provided by youtube clips which tend to focus on the superficials so, to be able to move forward, you have to work at the details on your own, hence you develop your ear. Also, there are millions of tunes, solos, compositions etc that never get anywhere near youtube etc. If players remain focussed on the material played by most covers bands, musical development is unlilkely to be a crushing priority anyway. If 'Good Times' is the extent of anyone's aspirations, transcribing a piano solo on Giant Steps or a Maria Schneider arrangement is going to scare the s*** out of them There is a lot more to being a musician than learning basslines.

Steampunk.... Serioulsy, though. I think that the music sub-culture thing has got so disparate that it hasn't got the universality that it had in the past. I know that Jazz history used to be laid out very clearly an dsimplistically; Louis Armstrong, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman but, after that, there was no one strain of Jazz that overwhelmed all of the others. The idea that a bamd like The Beatles can come along and take over everything is no longer credible. In the US in the 1960s, EVERYONE watched Ed SUllivan and EVERYONE saw their debut. EVERYONE listened to Radio One and so one. That is no longer the case and many of the celebrity musicians are unknown and so a 'school' of music is unlikley to form. To be fair, a lot of su-genres are anorack territory. I remember having a surreal conversation with some young rockers years ago; we like speed metal but we don't like death metal... WTF? Hard Rock vs HM etc etc. NWOBHM. It gets harder to tell the differnce.

Some of my old Rock favouites (mostly just nostalgia now): Uriah Heep - Very 'eavy, Very 'umble Rainbw - Rising

With reference to your more general point, I think there is an aspect of learning at play here that is rarely talked about. I think that every player moves forward and develops various aspects of their playing but, periodically, uses the new information to return to the start and to revisit the fundamentals. It is a looping thing. First you learn about rootn notes, then chord tones then, later on, say you develop new insights into intonation. You thn use these new found insights to revisit root notes and chord tones. Leter you get into Jazz ans start learning walking bass lines. In developing these walking bass lines, you revisit intontation and root notes and chord tones and so on, repeating this 'looping' throughout your career as a student. I am not suiggesting that you have to start again but that, as you develop, thinkgs you thought you had a handle on need to be reconsidered. I guess this is why, when we listen back to tapes we did years ago, every sucks!!