Bilbo

Each to his own but I have always found Ken Smith basses to be ugly looking things. They can sound ok but not sufficiently 'idiosyncratic' to make them a 'must have'. I wouldn't buy one even if I had the money.

[quote name='Beneath It All' post='798184' date='Apr 6 2010, 11:13 PM']Pretty good- bar 20 needs some work!!![/quote] What's up with it? (can't download pdfs in work)

An iconic moment in jazz fusion bass. Beautiful in its exquisite simplicity.

Bass projects, Chris. You may have heard your tone as an audience member for the first time!! When you stand near the amp, you are not hearing what the audience is hearing. You probably sound better than you think. :):)

I just need some reassurance on thumb position playing. I was watching John Patitucci play on a dvd (w. Horacio Hernandez) and his thumb postion playing looked effortless. I assume the searing pain in the side of my thumb which I experience when I use this technique will pass as the famous callouses develop? Has anyone noticed that Paul Chambers never played above thumb position?

Dafyd Lewis does this kind of work. He's down here as daflewis. He's approachable and a great player.

I am always one to share my learning so here is a tip for everyone who is trying the upright for the first time. Don't slice the top of the index finger of your left hand with a bread knife. Damn those hot cross buns! Now waiting patiently (not) for it to heal before tackling Cherokee at 340 bpm....

I agree that muscle memory is an essential part of your playing but the emphasis, here, is on the 'part'. When you are playing complex lines, you need to be able to think about what you are playing and execute the lines you intend to play. If you are playing massive chunks based on muscle memory, you will fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time. A lot of soloists can fall into the trap of relying on their own mm cliches and just start flapping around to create the illusion that there is something going on (I am a world champion in this - ). I guess the secret is to have muscle memory that is very detailed. Its like you memory for words; you do not need to say 'plasticine' very often to remember it but it doesn't jump out in the middle of sentences unless you plasticine, sorry, intend it to. If your muscle memory is linked to you mental processes, it can serve you very well indeed. If not, it can lead you up a blind alley very quickly. So its is important to have muscle memory that is full to the brim with options. For me, one of the most difficult aspects of being an improvising musician is getting your mind sharp enough to be able to think and execute ideas in real time. It is far easier to get your fingers to do the work for you but this is untimately self defeating as it quickly turns you into a boring player.

[quote name='cameltoe' post='796942' date='Apr 5 2010, 09:03 PM']You got the tab for this? [/quote] Don't use that tone with me!!

Noone spotted the best bit of the thing........

[quote name='Major-Minor' post='793690' date='Apr 1 2010, 08:22 PM']Bilbo - you got me fair and square ![/quote] I do apologise. My intentions were honourable

It's hard, mate. Although Joe could play it backwards.

[quote name='Marvin' post='793624' date='Apr 1 2010, 07:08 PM']Bilbo you do realise that you are not supposed to play after midday. [/quote] Depends which country you are in. The noon thing is UK only and I don't really give a rats'

Oops - wrong pdf. Will try again

This piece is unquestionably the hardest piece of music I have ever tried (and failed) to perform. It is a solo bass piece written, ironically, by a Welsh pianist (and my first theory teacher) Joe Stuessy (from a small village called Nanty Fychlan, north of Cardiff). Joe was an astonishing player and a real innovator. He derided gimmicks like slapping and tapping etc and advocated his student just focussed on using conventional techniques and complex modern harmonic theories to express themselves. Like many prophets, he was ‘shunned in his own land’ and, that part of Wales being very rural, he was unable to play very much in public. In truth, many of his compositions were so difficult to play, in this rural setting he often couldn’t find any musicians good enough to perform them – as soon as anyone got good enough, they left the area for Cardiff or London, wherever the bright lights took them (former sidemen include Lawrence Cottle, Percy Jones and Pino Palladino). He tried sending his music to various musicians to try and make a name for himself as a composer and arranger but their lack of commercial potential condemned them to the rejects bin. Joe got really depressed and started drinking (he used to drink deeply from a Diet Coke bottle when I had my lessons and I am convinced it was laced with vodka or something else. I couldn't tell). He died in the early 1990s. This is one is his compositions for solo bass which he gave me but, I have to say, I have never mastered it. It is so difficult, I can’t get passed the first few bars. It is designed to be played with a lone percussionist so the empty bars are not actually silence! It is called ‘E Elannod’ which is Welsh for ‘For Eleanor’. If anyone nails it, can they record it and credit Joe as composer? It would be cool to see some of his work out there at last. E Elannod – Joe Steussy – Bilbo's Bass Bites

[quote name='fatback' post='793472' date='Apr 1 2010, 04:44 PM']What about chord charts then? A useful half way house or the lazy man's read?[/quote] Neither. They are an established shorthand that require you to have considerable knowledge and experience to draw upon in order to use them properly. If you take a rock guitarist and put him in front of a jazz band with a chord chart saying C maj 7, Dmin7, Emin7, he will probably sound like a git, just the same as if you put a classical bassist in front of a rock band and counted her/im in. It requires more than the ability to read the chord chart i.e. recognise the chord names, but a profound understanding of chord voicings, genre traditions, groove types, harmonic theory, voice leading etc. It is not part of the hierarchy of reading at all per se but an alternative means of communicating. On their own, they are of limited value. Tied in with an experienced player, they can be a great way of making music.

[quote name='4 Strings' post='793097' date='Apr 1 2010, 11:15 AM']"The local shops were asking £2,200. I got mine from GAK in Brighton for £1, 499" There lies much of the problem. Local shops providing free hire for trying out gear before buying on-line or for bigger discount shops to make the sale. £700 difference is a big call (might the local shop have had a go at matching?) that sounds unbeatable, but I always try to buy local as I don't mind paying to have a local music shop in which I can try things etc.[/quote] I get that, I really do, but, in reality, I almost never try anything in music shops - haven't for at least 10 years. They almost never have anything I am interested in. I tried a Markbass amp/cab in Bass Merchant in Essex recently because I wanted to know if I could get a sound that could compete with my Eden without the weight. The answer was I couldn't so I walked away. Not their fault but certainly not mine. If I couldn't have tried it, I certainly wouldn't have bought it elsewhere. But, if I could save £700 by buying it elsewhere, I would have. Not because I am disloyal but because I can't AFFORD to throw away that much money to be 'loyal' to a perfect stranger. A tenner maybe, even £20 but £700? Not a chance. To be blunt, if they closed every music shop in East Anglia, I wouldn't notice. They have closed every cd shop except HMV (who I never go to) and it had no consequence for me at all and I buy upwards of a hundred cds a year. If they didn't cater for me (no jazz) and only catered for 12 year old girls, why should I worry? Virgin et al had forced me onto the internet years before they collapsed.

Years ago, in Fleet in Hampshire, I tried out an Epiphone Joe Pass. I was in the market for a hollow body jazz guitar and, whilst I loved the sound of an ES175, I thought to myself, I'm not good enough a player to justify that amount of outlay. So, I tried the Epihone and thought, yeah, that's cool. I'll get the money together to buy it. Whilst doing so, I got to try the real thing; a Gibson ES175. The difference, even to a lightwieght guitar player like me, was staggering and I had to have one. The local shops were asking £2,200. I got mine from GAK in Brighton for £1, 499. Buying gear is a complicated process and if I am shelling out between £1k and £3k (or more) on an instrument, I want to look at a few, and try some out. Odds are that I am NOT going to buy most of those I try but, if the deal is good and the instrument I WANT is available, I will buy. It is not MY role to support my local music shop! If that was the case, I would have to spend my life playing cheap nasty pointy guitars covered in flames. Its a myth - its their role to sell me stuff not my place to buy it, whatever it is. If they don't have what I want at a good price, I reserve the right to go elsewhere. Like most professionals, my 'tools' are not available in the high street. The problem is that there is no effective infrastructure for musical instruments over and above the beginner level (and even that is poorly catered for if you want to play anything other than trumpet, violin, viola or guitar. You want to play sax? - the local shops will have a choice of 2). If you need something unusual, you have to travel. OK, so we all go to Denmark Street. But if what we want is not there, where do we go next? Yes, we can spend days and weeks, even months travelling around the UK spending hundreds of pounds on FARES trying to find the instrument we want. Eventually, we commit to something, parting with the biggest sum of money most of us ever pay for anything other than a car or house, before realising that there was something else available that was better; if only we had known!! We then kick ourselves and live with the resulting GAS until we can get the money together to get the new bass/amp of our dreams. I understand the frustration music shops feel at the stream of people NOT buying their wares but, get real, why would anyone just go to their local provincial music shop and spend thousands on something without looking outside of their postcode area? Music fares are the best place to go to try gear. Everything under one roof

Most double bass players don't use their 3rd finger independently for the first few positions. Could be an omen?

[quote name='Low End Bee' post='791794' date='Mar 31 2010, 12:46 PM']It's not as if you're being recruited by a Sun Ra tribute band.[/quote] Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me Me