Bilbo

I am a bass, guitar and saxophone player. I do one well, one poorly and one extremely badly. You are a bass player as soon as you start playing a bass. You are just a beginner. Ownership is not enough. The clue is in the verb 'play' and the noun 'bass'. If, in your life, you verb the noun. then you are, by default, a noun verber. If the verb is play and the noun bass, you area bass player. You may wish to add a caveat that gives greater detail (good, bad, professional, amateur etc) but you are in the gang!

Not read the whole thread but...... Dean Basses - dreadsul looking things Alembics - like the Series II shape but most of the custom models look (and, IM humble O, sound) feckin hideous Anything that is pointy (Thunderbirds, BC Rich etc). Might be okmwhen you are in a HM metal band but as, everyone grows out of that eventually, you are left with an unusable piece of comic book art JayDees - little more than Alembic copies but why copy an Alembic when it looks and sounds hideous (see above) Ken Smiths - fugly, every one of them Gibson Les Paul basses - ain't right Gibson Grabber - no-one had one except Kelly Groucutt Ovation Breadwinnder bass - yeeeuch

My point is that learning to read is one thing (i.e. what each phrase means). Learning to sight read is about developing that other skill until it is automatic and requires no effort. That needs repetition. Stopping to fix every error is learning 'reading' not practicing 'sight reading.

I know this is not a universally agreed approach but I recommend you read lots of stuff once, play it and, even if you get it wrong, discard the piece and read another one and another and another. Don't give yourself the chance to 'learn' what you are reading, just read it.

I knew who a guy who bought his kid a bass and set up some lessons for him. After the first lesson he asked him how he got on, The kid said 'It was great, Dad. I learned all about the E string. It goes E F F# G G#. His father was chuffed to see he was getting into it. After a week, the kid went for his second lesson and his Dad asked hm again how he had got on. 'Dad, I love this instrument. Today I learned about the A string. It goes A A# B C C#. HIs father knew he had found something valuable for his son and gave him a pat on the back. After another week, the father said 'How was your lesson this week, son'? 'Cancelled it, Dad. I had a gig'. .

Sometthing that may help. \[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XYOptXkE9k"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XYOptXkE9k[/url]

I just think he is one of the most creative 'non groove orientated' bass players out there.

I can get A gig. I want THE gig..: lol:

I am moaning about the fact that I never get to play with Dave Liebman and Adam Nussbaum. That and the fact that I am an ungrateful little s***

Not a gig but a recording session last Saturday night in which my trio recorded 6 of my tunes wot I wrote. I am purposely leaving the tapes alone until I come back from an imminent holiday but some of it felt pretty much ok so I am looking forward to seeing whether or not I have a credible demo at last. If I have, I can progress on my website trioeast.co.uk (which is not currently up and running).

You are, of course, correct but that kind of compromise is occasionally a little wearing when there are no standout moments Having said all that, I am waiting for news today of a possible weekly session where I will be part of as rhythm section playing with visiting frontline players like John Etheridge, Jim Mullen, Don Weller, Alan Barnes etc etc. So maybe things will pick up there.

[quote name='silddx' timestamp='1350472634' post='1839231'] There is a simple answer to your troubles, Rob. Stop living in Felixtowe [/quote] You're gonna laugh but the drummer in my trio, who has played with Martin Speake (alto), Pete Oxley (Guitar), Mark Lockhart (Sax), Richard Fairhurst (p), Steve Melling (p), Simon Spillett, Don Weller, Claire Martin and 1000 other leading players, actually lives in Felixstowe!!

...is that you always need other musicians to be able to do your thing. Yes, I know there are a number of solo bass players out there but, frankly, I think most solo bass stuff sucks and I have no desire to sound like that. So, like most of us, I am reliant upon the interest and goodwill of others (and, no doubt, on my competitiveness as a performer on the 'scene') to engage with the things I would like to do. I can safely say that, in 30 years of playing, I have been 100% satisfied with the ensembles I have performaed with on no more than a tiny handful of occasions and have had to settle for pretty mundane, journeyman stuff. I now have a trio I like to write for and perform with so it's all good at the moment but I wonder how much better I could have been if I had been surrounded by great, enthusiastic, sympathetic, searching players instead of struggling to find something to do with my bass that didn't involve Chic tunes. There, I said it.

I was driving to a gig a few years ago and the other guys were talking about being approached by girls after gigs. I pointed out that, in 30 years of gigging with all sorts of bands, this had never happened to me in any way, shape or form. At the end of that same gig, there was this woman who had been taking photographs who approached the guitarist/singer/leader of the band and struck up a conversation in which she revealed that she played bass. After she had gone, he said to me 'Fcuk me, Rob, even the bass players don't want to talk to you'!

I figure, if you can't get it out of an Eden, you probably can't get it out of your bass EEEEEdun! EEEEEdun! EEEEEEdun!

What a beautiful looking (and sounding) couple of basses. How is the piccolo bass tuned? I enjoyed the tune too; did you play the keyboards etc as well? And what is the distortion effect? Are we there yet?

I am being unfair. I have seen LC live on several occasions and hear JP all over his playing but he is perfectly within his rights to do a Jaco tribute; as much as Joe Lovano doing Frank Sinatra, Dave Liebman doing Coltrane or the whole Mingus Big Band industry. My opposition to these types of project are a matter for me and do not negate the contribution made by these major players to the status of the wider Jazz idiom. I am not the Jazz Policeman, just a bloke in Suffolk who is probably too far up his own a*** for his own good

Nice one, Garry. Way off my radar!

I know LC is capable of making his own contribution and I guess that is why I get frustrated when I hear another 'Jaco' event featuring him. Seems such as waste. But, then again, I am a Jazz Nazi so my extreme views should be treated with appropriate contempt

Not on cobblestones, Spike. The three-legged milk stool was designed because cobblestones are always uneven. It doesn't matter how uneven the surface is, the three-legged stool remains stable where a 4 legged one is all over the place. It is perfect for the job it is required to do.

Cottle has made a career out of coppng Jaco licks and now his Big Band cops a whole chart. Talk aout missing the point. More evidence of Jazz as repertory. As 'accurate' as the performance is, he should be ashamed of himself. It's nice but so is this but this is also real..... [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27D-YUvgUOU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27D-YUvgUOU[/url] (You knew, didn't you, Mike? )

We live in a state of technological flux that has created the belief that technolgy is always progressing and taking us forward into new and innovative places. But this is a falsehood. A lot of technological improvements are not about improvng the product but improving its marketability, cheaper production methods etc etc. The obvious example is the mp3; it is not as good as a lot of aother versions but, because it can be move around easily and 'transported' for minimal cost, it has found its way to the top of the tree. But there are plenty of examples of technological 'perfection' that have never been improved upon (other than aesthetically); the piano, the saxophone, the double bass etc have all been tweaked but are fundamentally unchanged for a hundred years or more. Or the three-legged stool. Or the knife, fork and spoon. If you think about it, technological 'progress' 'is not all its cracked up to be.

S'nice. Love the Rhodes sound.

I use various methods. Playing along with recordings is an abvious one but I do use a chromatic tuner also (one that clips onto the bridge). My ear is goo after 26 years of playign fretless electric so referencing intonation with open strings is usually enough to keep me on track.