Bilbo

A cheeky little transcription, this is Tom Fowler's bass part for the tune 'Aurora Pt.1' from the 1976 Jean Luc Ponty album 'Aurora'. A few interesting time changes to grapple with but watch the 5:4 pick up. It's a tricky little sucker. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/aurora-pt-1-jean-luc-ponty/

Story of my life. I recorded an album last year. When the band released a promotional video of the first single from the album, it featured another player miming to MY bass parts.

I think Tony is a massively underrated player and should be spoken about more often than he is. His work with Colosseum and Greenslade was exceptional.

From the 1973 Greenslade album, 'Bedside Manners Are Extra', this is Tony Reeve's bass part for the tune 'Time To Dream'. Tony Reeves was another big influence on me as a kid and I spent a lot of time with his playing. Lots of quality playing to enjoy across this album and the other two he recorded with Greenslade, the first album and 'Spyglass Guest'. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/time-to-dream-greenslade/

A beautiful Jeff Berlin bass led ballad called 'Sean En La Madrugada' from the 1997 Berlin CD 'Taking Notes'. There is a second solo on the tune that is overdubbed but this transcription includes the lower 'bass' notes as opposed ot the second solo. I will transcribe that later and post separately. The chart is up in the Gods in terms of ledger lines so I am going to re-do it with 8va indicators when I get the chance. The website now features both the 8va version and the first draft. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/sean-en-la-madrugada-jeff-berlin/

Fretted. That was just the Sibelius template I used.

Have a look at this, mate. Tell me if it ties in with your version. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/vital-signs-rush/

From the 1981 Rush album, 'Moving Pictures', this one is the full Geddy Lee bass part to 'Vital Signs'. Vital Signs – Rush – Bilbo's Bass Bites

I remember vividly the thrill of hearing Tommy Vance reading out my name on The Friday Rock Show when I did a session for them in 1981. What I never realised at the time, when I was 17, was that this would probably be the highlight of my career 😂

I have had four HBs. They are great fun and will get you going in terms of trying things and exploring ideas that require specific kit but, ultimately, they have limitations. I think the high spec builders are safe. It is the other budget models that are competing.

Bloody hell. 1084 hits yesterday!

A full transcription of Jeff Berlin's bass part to the tune '|Emeril Kicks It Up' from the 2009 album, 'In Harmony's Way'. A really interesting composition against a sweet shuffle groove, the transcription includes Berlin's bass solo. One bar that I struggled with (5 against 4 sixteenth notes?) but it's mostly there. Emeril Kicks It Up – Jeff Berlin – Bilbo's Bass Bites (just spotted something going awry in the closing bars; will have a look and post the amended score on the webiste when I get the chance)

A chum just posted this. What's the chances? https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159033063401477&id=521361476

A few thoughts on transcribing. As many are aware, I have recenlty (July) posted a website making transcriptions I have done available to other players. I was always frustrated at the lack of decent reading material to practice with when I was learning to read and thought that posting some interesting parts would be helpful to people who wanted something credible to practice with. After posting the old transcriptions I had lying around (God knows where many of them have gone), I started to prepare some new ones and, so far this year, I have completed over 140 new transcriptions – some quite short but some, like Close To The Edge (Yes), La Villa Strangiato (Rush) and Tenemos Roads (National Health) quite long performances and long transcriptions. The process has taught me a few things about transcribing that I thought it may be interesting to share. Firstly, I have learned that transcribing is not as exact a science as I would have previously thought. If you take a line like, say, ‘Peaches’ by The Stranglers or that part from 'The Chain'by Fleetwood Mac, it is fairly clear what the notes are and what is right and wrong in terms of note placement. When you are looking at complex tunes like ‘If You Can’t Stand The Heat’ by Bruford, however, it is not nearly as clear what the specific notes are and where to find them on the neck. Even when you slow the piece down to 25% of it’s original speed, it is often still difficult to be absolutely clear on some of the detail. When players play long and complex lines at furious tempos, it is not uncommon for the occasional note to be missed or the execution to be a little clumsy, rendering the exact note momentarily inaudible. The transcriber has three choices; take a guess using musical logic (is the sequence of notes a scale or chromatic run and, if so, what SHOULD the note be), leave it blank or add a ghost note. Of course, this begs the question, if I can’t find a note at 25% of the speed of the original performance, how important was that note in the first place? Secondly, everyone makes mistakes. It’s ok. Nobody ever died from a wrong note. Slowing down performances allows you to hear the clinkers and, similarly, to hear the ‘fixes’ where a note is re-recorded or the player dropped in for a passage they clearly missed the first time. You quickly learn that many of the most iconic bass performances were not executed flawlessly the first time around (e.g. Geddy Lee’s monster bass fills in ‘YYZ’ were recorded separately to the main bass part. How many takes was it, Gary? 2 or 2,000? We all have the potential to put down impeccable performances when we have the studio time and technology available. Recording perfect parts is easier that performing them live. In addition to this, another defining factor in the accessibility of note recognition is the tone of the bass and the mix of the recording. Neil Murray’s bass part on ‘Tenemos Roads’ was a good example where the tone in context occasionally made it difficult to determine whether a note was an F# or a G. A well timed cymbal, a bass note on the paino or keyboard or an overly intense vibrato and the core note can quickly get lost! Sometimes it is obvious but not always. Thirdly, transcribing notes does not necessarily reflect the definitive elements of a performance. Bass sounds like those of Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Percy Jones and a host of others cannot be written down and the authenticity of any performance of the transcription by anyone other than these individuals will always be suspect and will depend heavily on the player’s familiarity with the original performance and the specific tones, attack and effects used. Some of these details can be approximated in a transcription but many cannot. Next, there is the issue of key signatures (this bit is reproduced from another thread). I was discussing this recently with greater minds than mine (remember; as a reader, I am self-taught so there are inevitably gaps). I asked the question 'what key signature would you use for a Blues in F: would it be F or would it be Bb major (given that F is an F7 and, therefore, the V chord of Bb major)? It was explained to me that there is a subtle difference between different genres and the ways in which music is engraved (written down). Without over-generalising, what I was told was that, historically, music was written in certain keys e.g. Nobby Fishcake's Symphony in A minor, Giblin Blapp's Concerto in E and so on. With popular songs like Jazz standards or show tunes, it is common for the key changes to be all over the place with the harmony slipping in and out of keys throughout. Also, the use of dominant 7th chords in blues type tunes creates chaos when you try and put a key signature on the chart as the key centre and the passing chords are conflicting with the key centres all of the time. As a consequence of this, there is a tendency in Jazz to write the whole thing out without a key signature and to include the accidentals in the way I have done in many of my trancription. A lot of the lines in bass playing linked to Jazz and other secular musics are chromatic and lead into chord tones which means key signatures can interfere as you can have the same note three times in bar, one sharp, one flat and one natural; sometimes more than one of each. Key signatures can confuse the issue even more. In short, there is no universal solution to these pitfalls and people deal with it differently. I try to use key signatures when it makes sense to do so but, sometimes, it makes more sense to keep things open. I am constantly reviewing this, though, as I am aware that this is 'a thing' and that my knowledge of notation is potentially flawed. Finally, there is SO much detail in a performance that it is difficult to write down. Jack Bruce’s bass solo on ‘El Cid’ from the Cozy Powell album ‘Over The Top’ has bends within bends that cannot be reproduced on the score. Same with a lot of Percy Jones’s techniques, sliding harmonics, weird right hand techniques etc. Slapping and popping is another difficult thing to write down (I have pretty much bottled out of doing so). I think it is possible to do it (I have seen transcriptions that have been done of slapped parts) but is takes infinitely more time as you have to develop a means of indicating slaps, pops, hammer-ons, double thumbing, l/h vs. r/h fingering for tapping – it’s a minefield and, frankly, I am not inclined to spend the time traversing it. There is also no means of recording whether a player use a pick or fingers, for instance (there are ways of describing different ways of hitting a violin string with a bow, for example, but, to my knowledge, these details have not transferred readily to modern bass playing). Finally, all transcribing is a personal expression; ‘this is how I hear it’. Unless you have a direct line to the bass player responsible for the original performance, there is every possibility that you will get the thing wrong. My Jasper Holby transcription of ‘Abraham’s New Gift’ prompted a response from Jasper himself that said ‘Many thanks for that but you for the time signature wrong’. Remember, a transcription is NOT the performance, it is a representation of the performance and that can be interpreted in many ways by a transcriber. Is it a bar of 7:4 or a bar of 4:4 followed by a bar of 3:4? Is it a 4:4 triplet feel or 12:8? It is not a question of being wrong as much as it is of interpretation. The ‘correct’ way of transcribing a piece of music is in rendering it readable as opposed to accurate. When an engraver (a person who writes out music parts for performance) is producing a chart, it’s success is measured not by the transcriber but by the player who uses the transcription to execute a performance. I like to think of transcriptions as part of a dialogue. 'This is what I think. Do you agree'? I have had correspondance with others on details on specific transcriptions and it is interesting to see how different people hear the different parts. It's less about who is right and who is wrong and more about consensus. I hope these thoughts help my bass playing chums to gain a little insight into the philosophy of transcribing. I am thrilled that so many people (over 4000) have been able to use my transcriptions to further their playing. I have enjoyed doing this work and seeing the website grow and develop. Bilbo's Bass Bites – Bass Transcriptions

Everybody's fantasy

I have done a gig with Jason Rebello, the keyboard player on this. He is a monster.

Billy Don't Be A Hero - Paper Lace

I thought Westone. Thought it might be a custom job.

Yes, I knew it was a Beach Boys cover but always loved his version. He had a great voice.

I remember the Cassidy/Donny Osmond wars from the mid-70s. It got ugly. I always preferred Cassidy. I was talking about him the other day after a quiz question and looked this up on YouTube. This bass player has a great live sound and feel. I can't quite catch the bass and certainly don't know the player. Any ideas? Google is drawing a blank.

I think there is a lot of potential in pick playing - Steve Swallow has used one since picking up the electric bass in the 60s. I recorded this 7-string using a pick and found it strangely liberating. I would love to try it on a gig but people are so wary of anything 'new', particularly in Jazz circles. There is a perverse dichotomy between innovation and conservatism. I think this sounds like a strange mix is Steve Swallow and Jim Hall

A real landmark transcription for me. Neil Murray's bass part for the tune 'Tenemos Roads' from the first National Health album (1977) - released at the heightof the Punk era - commercial suicide (not that this kind of Prog has ever been commercially successful). The tune is over 14 minutes long and the transcription is10 pages long. Lots of time signature changes so a great opportunity to practice counting. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/tenemos-roads-national-health/

The focus on the flute players face is so intense - all on one leg. A dance tune in 7:8. So much great music out there and we have to listen to Kanye West .and Little Mix. I recommend you stick with this one!

Then I heard thois guy at the Bracknell Jazz Festival The story was that I had gone to the Bracknell Jazz Festival to play with a quartet I was working with; a fringe event and not part of the festival per se. As is often the case, musicians get tickets to all the gigs they want to and I went to see a large orchestra playing Steve Reich tunes. Anyone who knows Reich will know that his stuff can be droney and repetitive and, having done a few late nights, I fell asleep with my back against the rear wall of the auditorium (a school hall type set up rather than a theatre. I woke to this.....this was where I heard Russo for the first time and where I heard a Hurdu Gurdy for the first time. He sounded like Hendrix!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBw2XWHnB2M