Bilbo

It is well known that the actual [i]price tag[/i] itself can reduce the amount of luscious bassiness that a double bass can project. I recommend you go back and ask them to add a zero to the price. That'll do it.

I have just finished week one and am having my a*** kicked. Great introduction and a great way to fill in gaps in your learning. I am hearing faults in my playing that make me cringe but so nice to feel that real progress is possible.

Sometimes it makes sense to use the metronome on 2 & 4 making the time you use half of that stated i.e. 120 for 240 bpm. Doesn't work for odd numbers but may get you closer to the stated time.

Sometimes there just ain't enough hours in the day

They exist most often but it is a case of whatever works. No reason you can't have a ninth in the root.

Could be described as a slash chord Db/F which is, as you say, an inversion.

The bridge thing is a no- brainer. If I can do it, anyone can.

I am not one for obsessing about gear at all. I think there is a trend amongst players, however, that looks for the secret means by which one can achieve greatness that is not linked to hard work and practice. 'If I buy this piece of gear, I will soon be as good as Flea/Jaco/Marcus etc etc'. If I buy this book, dvd, cd, software etc, I will improve immeasurably within a matter of days. There is only one way to greatness; a zillion hours worth of diligent, tedious, hard work. I have done about half a zillion to date so watch out, guys....

Most Jazz recordings take place over a few hours, rarely more than a day. There is seldom a budget that allows for anything greater. Look at the discographies in any jazz biography. 95% of the material is one date. Kind of Blue was done in two sessions, each lasting around three to four hours. More remarkable is the fact that a truckload of Blue Note classics were recorded in the living room of Rudy Van Gelder's parents and not in a professional studio!

It can matter on very intense passages etc but, in reality, rarely does. I know nth tune La Grange and, although I have never played it, would be surprised if a range of options won't work (Dusty ain't no Alain Caron )

I know what I am going to do; now I just need to find the time to do it

Love the concept.....

I have to say that is not my experience. Most musos I have known are pretty indulgent at jam sessions. I have seen the most appaling train wrecks resulting in positive responses. I have been roasted more than once but never maliciously.

I think I read somewhere that these basses (depending on the model) are manufactured in CHina but ASSEMBLED in Czech/Germany etc. I may be wrong, though.

[quote name='charic' timestamp='1367586622' post='2067269'] I dare you to play straight 8 root notes for a whole song [/quote] Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.... Look up Racing For Home: No Quarter on youtube.

[quote name='iceonaboy' timestamp='1367586238' post='2067256'] Maybe its just me, but I think all jazz players make it up as they go along anyway [/quote] And THAT'S why it is hard!!

Interstingly, when Branford Marsalis finished the Sting tours, he said that going back to Jazz was hard because he had to get back into [i]thinking[/i] (rather than playing) that fast. I think Mike has a point; it is not the chops that are missing, it is the ability to translate your mental idea into a physically executed line that is lacking when you are not hitting the mark.

[quote name='Spoombung' timestamp='1367583535' post='2067209'] Just wondering how you get so many gigs, Bilbo? Regular band, dep work? Do you have an agent? [/quote] I don't have that many, although I have done (2008). I am on about 50 a year nowadays although they are all good ones now (musically, I mean). When I did 120, 80 of the were awful, awful stuff. Bad players playing bad material badly but for good money I get to play with great people by booking them. On the bakcof my Paul CHambers biography, I wrote this: [i]'Rob Palmer is Senior Probation Officer and a semi-professional bass player of 28 years experience who has played jazz for most of that time. He has performed and recorded with some of the leading British jazz musicians including as Jim Mullen, Iain Ballamy, Stan Sultzman, Janusz Carmello, Dave DeFries, Tim Whitehead and Roy Williams. His ambition is to play with one of these guys twice'. [/i]

[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1367579743' post='2067134'] I have heard it said before, that there aren't many notes that are wrong in jazz. [/quote] I seem to manage to find the suckers, though

I use Nymans but haven't got the faintest idea of what it is supposed to do I think I may try some others to see if my crap bowing is the fault of the rosin rather than me!

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1367578533' post='2067112'] and you know all this anyway. [/quote] I do; I am just trying to give myself permission to be crap and happy at the same time

I have been (mostly) playing Jazz now since about 1985. THe level of gigging has gone from minimal (4 or 5 a year) to overwhelming (120 a year). With some rare exceptions, the bands have not been rehearsed and, in many cases, have included people I have rarely played with. Most of the tunes I have played most of the time have been things I am only superficially aware of and I have been reading chord charts and improvising around sequences the knowledge of which is, at best, peripheral. Some of these charts are going past like s*** off a stick and there are lots of strange symbols and extensions designed purely to humiliate me. A lot of the work I have done is massively flawed and I deeply admire those players who can make something beautiful out of a sequence that, by its very nature, puts rocks in your path. I don't consider myself to be one of those players. I can find my way around a basic standard but lob in a few slash chords, some obscure harmony and I am easily thrown. I can usually figure out a way through, given time, but, because most of the gigs I do don't allow for that level of preparation, that time is mostly after the fact. Playing Jazz, as an improvising Art form, is a high risk undertaking. I was wondering, therefore, given all the above 'environmental factors', why I think it is EVER going to be anything but grimly inadequate.

Joe Henderson - Lush Life CD

Shreng terwon dioih \IKF I asdew giinhs o fj lkj ooooj dasdh jkshf hgksk lkn. Caprngngis, fiiew n.

I think the ideas can come reasonaly quickly but, like someone said, its 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. I get a melody or chored sequence or some other concept going (a riff, a theme, a rhythmic idea etc) and then, like clay, start moulding it. The first bit is easy, the second bit is where the real work takes place. Sometimes it comes easily, sometimes it is like pulling teeth. I have read a lot about composing and most composers say the same. Some things just land in your lap, other things take forever to come together.