Bilbo

Here you go, Dave. 'The Spirit' https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/the-spirit-magnum/

Mostly OASTN. I will do a couple tonight and let you know. I am looking forward to this ( do I sound like a saddo?).

Anything from KoM, Magnum II or Marauder? Love that era. If you have a vocalist who can do a Bob Carley, I would like to hear that.

No need for that, my friend. Just enjoy the website and 'pass it on' in any way you can.

A bit of fun today. Kermit Driscoll's part for 'Washington Post March' from the 1992 Bill Frissel album 'Have A Little Faith'. Great fun. I had to change the octaves a few times to keep the chart playable on a 4 string. There is an A below a low B in there so I suspect some detuning was going on. A couple of great licks in there but mostly is it roots and fifths. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/washington-post-march-bill-frisell/

I use Transcribe from Seventh String. It only costs about £35 so it is not expensive and it is incredibly versatile. I have had my copy for years and have been upgrading for free repeatedly ever since I first got it. Incredible value for money. You can slow stuff down to 10% speed without changing pitch and you can isolate passages to focus in on one note or a phrase etc. It's marvellous for those tricksy little licks that you can't quite hear at full speed. I could never have done half of the stuff on the website without it. Highly recommended. I then transcribe onto Sibelius which I have on a subscription for less that £20 a month (I can't remember how much). https://www.seventhstring.com/ If you want any Magnum tunes off Chase The Dragon transcribed, let me know. I loved that album when I had more hair. 'The Teacher' is already up there!

It all depends on what you use music for. Most people have a very superficial relationship with it nowadays. In my day, it meant everything to nearly everybody but, now, it is mostly the soundtrack to computer games and box sets. Let's face it. The market is saturated and most bands have an audience that is too small to generate an income. Like all marginal activity, it is economically unviable. Musicians are increasingly a minority interest, like poets and painters. We all have our favourites but no-one is generating the kind of universal interest that surrounded bands like The Beatles, Zeppelin, Maiden etc. That's all nostalgia now. You realise we are all turning into Jazz musicians, don't you? Our audiences are just other bands waiting patiently to have a go themselves before going back to the day job tomorrow.

A partial transcription this time. This is the first 78 bars of 'Heart Of A Child' by Jeff Berlin from his 2002 album 'In Harmony's Way'. It stops where it does because, in a nutshell, I just could not figure out what he was doing. 5 over 4 sixteenths or 6 over 4? Or maybe both? If you can figure it out, let me know and I will try again. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/heart-of-a-child-jeff-berlin/

I just watched this again (I have done so so many times) but this time I was listening through a £350 pair of headphones. Mike Rutherford is astonishing on this, throughout. A massively underrated player. So much creativity and talent - and a Status double neck!!

Another Mike Rutherford chart but this one is just a simple exercise for people to play on their first day as a reader. There are only two notes to read but it is all in reading the rhythm and phrasing the notes confidently. Commit, people. Commit! 'Broadway Melody Of 1974' from 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/broadway-melody-of-1974-genesis/

Mine too, Chris. I have been listening to that one on and off since it came out. It remains an absolute favourite.

There are a lot of Rock and Fusion players I struggle to transcribe because it is hard to hear detail. Especially if there are effects or too much growl and they are shredding furiously. I have had to abandon a few Anthony Jackson charts when his is bubbling around at the low end. It just gets lost in the mix a lot. It does make you wonder - if I can't hear it slowed down by 80%, who else is going to hear it?

Jazz has been my go to for decades but my passion for that genre is about preference and doesn't mean that stuff that isn't Jazz is looked down upon. I love Prog, Rock, Funk, Classical, Pop, MoR, AoR etc. Earth, Wind and Fire are one of my off piste favourites and Boogie Wonderland is still a tune I love. Eva Cassidy, Frank Marino, Kim Mitchell, Max Webster, Level 42, Nik Kershaw, Alanis Morrisette.... The list is endless. Brazilian genres, flamenco, Astor Piazolla, Cuban music. If it's good, it's good. Not getting the TS thing, hate rap, Dub Step, etc. but there is plenty of Jazz I don't like. Don't really like machine driven music and prefer hoomans playing with other hoomans but, in the main, there are no barriers.

Dave Holland has some great records where the bass is easy to capture, clearly articulated and high in the mix. Not everything is that well recorded (Marc Johnson is one who I struggle to transcribe). I thought I had done Lazy Snake but clearly not. Those ECM albums are great.

I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment so here is another one; Mike Rutherford's bass part to 'Counting Out Time' from the 1974 Genesis album, 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/counting-out-time-genesis/

Sorry, fella. Some of the older links on here don't work because the YouTube video I linked to at the time is no longer there. Try this one. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/roundabout-yes/

The Roundabout link opens for me, mate. If you cannot get it to work, PM me your email address and I will send over the PDF. My 16 year old nephew tells me Roundabout is a big deal with gamers for some reason. How cool is that? I am glad you are enjoying the website.

Yeah. I will have a look at the Roundabout link

While I am on a roll, here is the part to 'Weird of Hermiston' from the same album. I so wish this website had been around when I was starting to learn how to play. I guess that's why I do it. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/weird-of-hermiston-jack-bruce/

I am on a nostalgia trip today - I got this album in the 1980s after hearing 'Tickets To Waterfalls' performed by the Cozy Powell band that featured Jack Bruce and thought it sounded really dated so it didn't get the listening it deserved. It was dated, of course, but going back to it, there are a lot of great tunes on there. This is the opening tune, the wonderfully titled 'Never Tell Your Mother She Is Out Of Tune' from the 1969 Jack Bruce solo album 'Songs For A Tailor'. Thanks to Jeff Berlin reminding us of these great tunes. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/never-tell-your-mother-shes-out-of-tune-jack-bruce/

Is that how you spell wah? I don't think it is?

I have been working on three really heavy charts recently and the progress is slow (I have had to slow things do to 30% to hear the details on one of them). I had a break this evening and had a look at the first solo I ever learned (I think so, anyway). I have just posted Geezer Butler's opening solo for the tune 'N.I.B.' from the first Black Sabbath album (1970 - I was 7 years old). I think I even bought a Cry Baby wha-pedal to get the proper effect! https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/n-i-b-black-sabbath/

I have to be honest and say that one of the reasons that my transcriptions are 'free' is that I don't think that many of them are of a sufficiently high standard to be considered professional. No-one complains if you share your amateurish efforts for nothing but, if you charged for them, people would have the right to winge....

That kind of formatting is one of the frustrations I have with Sibelius although I did figure out how to put beams over rests yesterday which definitely does make things more readable. I can revisit a few of my old charts now and tidy them up.

I am on a big Miguel Zenon binge cat the moment!