Bilbo

Prefer music to the bass guitar by a long chalk. If I was young enough to start again, I can see why other instruments may be preferable but, at that time, the bass was the only one I could make sense of sufficently to be able to invest in it emotionally and financially. I am a musician first and bass player second.

For that money, I'd suggest a second hand Stagg EUB. They have a good rep and a double bass for that price is going to need money spent on it that will double or even triple your budget easily (e.g. set up, pick up etc). A Stagg EUB can be picked up for £200 and its gig ready (doesn't sound like a double bass but you would certainly get away with it at one or two gigs a year).

An audience, what's that? I am a jazz musician. Seriously, though. My lowest is the usual single figures (poorly promoted bands in dodgy venues the same night as England matches etc) and the biggest, if I am right, was an open air event at Stroud House in Oxfordshire. The irony is that the low level audiences were rock and blues bands and the biggest was a jazz septet. That's that myth busted, then

Why would this need s seperate book? Just use any book containing one octave exercises and play them on one string. Or write your own?

I nearly went for the Busetto before settling on a Gedo Musik 5 string. |I just liked to shape. Can't comment past that, other than to say the brand appears to have a good rep amongst its players (most of whom are first timers like yourself).

The whole treble clef/ledger lines/8va debate is one I have never been able to resolve in my own mind. I probably do it differently in every transcription. I guess the rule is, if it goes up there for a couple of beats, iyou seek one solution, if it stays up there for bars and bars, its another.

Just playing it on my ipod but can't download pdfs in work. WIll be interested to see how you have dealt with the rubato nature of the performance in written form.

Let's put this in context. Music theory is the whole shebang, not just the maths. If you know every single chord, scale arpeggio and substitution, you are not finished. The theory attached to playing a groove is still theory. The theory attached to ear training is still theory. The theory attached to any element of performance is still theory. The theory attached to bleeding every ounce of emotion out of one note is still theory. The learning we need to undertake to become better players is infinite. The theory bit is in understanding every element of what we do in order to be able to make the million minute adjustments per second required to execute a perfect performance. Being able to groove is not seperate to chord theory or scale theory, They are completely symbiotic. What theorist are appalled by is the 'bang away and if it sounds good it is good' school of playing. It may happen if the planets are aligned but, IME, if you don't understand, on at least some level, WHY something works, you will not be able to replicate it. If you understand it, and particularly if you can explain it, it is a theory that you have absorbed. If you don't understand what you do, you will remain a lightweight, a mimc and the musical equivalent of a child dressing up like his or her parents. You may be a millionaire doing it, and good luck to you if you are, but you will remain a musical lightweight.

Learning these patterns is very useful but you need to internalise the sounds of the scales as, depending on the music you are playing, thinking in neat little boxes will only get you so far. Once you get into more advanced playing, you rarely use a scale in the way you learn them in the early days. If you want to sound contemporary, you will have to start chopping them up with chromatic passing notes, tri-tome substitutes and conscious dissonance. Then the shapes can be a hinderance and the sounds become more useful to you. So, learning scales is not about the scale itself but how it sounds when you are playing it in the context of a performance. A lot of basic learning is like learning to spell. You eventually develop the skill to spell/pronounce any word but you still need to understand what it means to be able to use a word in a sentence and you still need to have something to say to give the process value.

I did a golf course gig once in Berkshire, an afternoon gig over 10 years afo. All this nonsense was in place but whilst we were there, there was this young woman in the bar with a see-through dress on who was not wearing a bra. Funnily enough, she wasn't asked to leave. These old school values are so quaint it is unblievable but the membership still buy into the whole thing. All you can do is laugh and play the game or refuse the gig. I guess its no different than wearing a tux in a pit orchestra. You deliver what the customer wants, even if he's a total prat. If you want a [i]real[/i] laugh, park in the captain's parking space to unload your gear

[quote name='xgsjx' post='1366503' date='Sep 8 2011, 03:15 PM']is that your way of saying you have an audience of 1? [/quote] No but they would rarely fill a coach

Never seen what the purpose of the legislation was. Let's be honest, the factors that determine where live music is played will be the size of the room the size of the potential audience and the cost of the band. Most of the venues I play coudln't take more than a 4 piece without there being no room for an audience.

Learning to phrase from non-bass instruments is a tried and tested method. I almost never learn bass solos as they contain a lot of bass cliches. Takes a saxophone, trumpet, keyboard etc anytime. Singers too, absolutely.

Its just not a sound I find emotionally engaging. A beautifully bowed cello, a nylon guitar, a saxophone, bass clarinet. All sound lovely and, when played, are deep instruments, complex tonally and profoundly versatile in terms of putting emotion into a piece of music. These tapping extravaganzas always sound two deimentional to me, even the good ones (the Epic Love one here and the one by Kevin Glasgow elsewhere on here). At worst they sound like someone threw a plugged in bass down the stairs. They are generally very repetitive (four note patterns created using two fingers off each hand then the arpeggio is moved up a whole tone etc) and there is little vibrato, little dynamic range etc. Just party tricks, rudimentary compositions played using a trick that is as much a visual thing as it is musical - played on a piano, it would be a bit naff. And, for my money, [i]so[/i] not worth the time investment required.

Playing with Nic France again on Sunday (my regular guy is still out of commission) and this guy: [url="http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/alss/deps/mpa/staff/kevin_flanagan.html"]http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/fac...n_flanagan.html[/url] Its getting exciting. I have to say that, whilst I can play 'more' on the Wal, I am really enjoying the double bass. It makes me sweat and my hands/arms are occasionally sore at the end of a gig but I still love it. I can now deliver 2 sets on double bass without any problems. Still taking the electric as back up, though

Am having a strange time at the moment. All I seem to want to do is practice, compose and play my own stuff, rather than keep absorbing anyone else. Maybe I have last reached a point where I am ready to 'eat my father', to quote Steve Swallow. I have a trio gig this Sunday in Bury St Edmunds with these guys.... [url="http://www.nicfrance.co.uk/"]http://www.nicfrance.co.uk/[/url] [url="http://www.kevinflanagan.net/"]http://www.kevinflanagan.net/[/url] [url="http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/faculties/alss/deps/mpa/staff/kevin_flanagan.html"]http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/fac...n_flanagan.html[/url] Quite excited, really......

One step at a time. Slowly. No short cuts. No magic bullets. Just tedious repetitive practice. Scales. Arpeggios. I love it. PS. Don't waste time with double thumbing and two handed tapping.

Bump in case anyone missed this link. Increadibly useful resource if you are looking for a chart.

Smokin;, Pete. I feel a night at the computer coming on!!

All from Albino Cubana gigs.... I didn't even know they were being taken (it was a Press photographer for a local rag)

Martin Kemp (Eastenders) was the bass player with Spandau Ballet. Those of us over 30 will know this already but younger BCr's may not. For the record, he has had 49 film and tv acting jobs whilst SB produced only 7 albums and was acting before he played bass. I guess that makes him an actor!!

31 years of gigging. Lesson no. 1 More trips carrying less is better than less trips carrying more.

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='1362672' date='Sep 5 2011, 10:43 AM']Living and working in the centre of London im always moaning that we have to travel out of the capital to play most of our gigs, an dit would be great to play one where i can walk or just get a tube to it. Saying that, on the odd occasions that we have had inner London gigs they have been a right pain to get to, load in (especially), park etc so i dont blame anyone for not relishing playing in London, but i would never turn a paying gig down just because its more hassle (as much as i would like to sometimes)[/quote] Well there's the solution... Swap gigs with the OP asnd you'll both be happy

The version most people heard first..... the great Miles Davis. I suspect the version that Caron used as a source. Nothing in common with the Caron version other than the melody. Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and Herbie Hancock. Less immediate, less superficially entertainig (less of a wow factor) but, for my money, deeper. But no criticism of Caron; he's a great player.

I have to say that all I hear in these videos is a journeyman (journeywoman?) player and a competent singer. I am not really a fan. Maybe I am just averse to hype but I can't see what all the fuss is about.