Bilbo

It is as simple as that, although I can lecture you some more The problem you have is attitudinal. Your self talk is distracting you all of the time and denying you the right to make conscious decisions about what you want in preference to short term, low input, high return activity (posh talk for 'noodling'). You need to control your self talk and keep focussed on what it is you are trying to do. To be fair, not all books work on a 'start at page one and move on' principle and may require you to jump about but, either way, the focus shoudl be on the required learninig not the bass in your hands. So, if you want to learn the material in the books you have, tell youself regualry to stay focussed and don't let that frivolous side of yourself win every argument. There is a temptation in learning to race forward to the cutting edge of your technique at all times rather than to concentrate on the fundamentals. Playing clever licks faster and faster is a fools errand (I know, I've been there). You need to learn to play the bass as God, Bach and Leo Fender intended at first then start moving into more sophisticated concepts when you are ready. Victor Wooten licks etc are pretty much useless in most musical settings - this is the glamourous side of bass playing in the original sense of the word glamour: a magical-occult spell cast on somebody to make them believe that something or somebody was attractive`. Learn basic theory, good time and genre specifics and you will work forever. So, choose a book, go to page one and stick with it until you see the inside of the back cover. And, as MM says, there is no such thing as 'jazz theory'; its all just theory. If you don't deal with it, you will never reach your fullest potential and remain a lightweight forever.

More of the same. Purchase without a hitch - good communication. Stress free shopping

[quote name='Pete Academy' post='666025' date='Nov 26 2009, 11:08 AM']How good is the bass part on Gaslighting Abbie.[/quote] Yum Yum, Pig's Bum.....

Just got a copy of Two Against Nature. Its marvellous. Some top toons on there and lovely 'pockets'. mmmmmmm nice!

17 years old in a HM band in a club in Barry Island. Half way through the first tune, the roadie sidled up to me and said, 'you're out of tune' - I tried to deal with it whilst playing but, in my inexperience, was probably making things worse. At this point, the club manager comes across and tells the band to turn down. The guitarist (an old hand of 32) say 'f*** this' and stops the band, tells us all to pack up and we went home. I was gutted, not even a whole song!! The only silver lining to the story was that the club had done no publicity and there were only 2 people in the audience (really). I went home close to tears. Had a second gig a week later. We nailed the sucker and went down a storm to 120 people in The Mason's Arms in Pantygasseg (near Pontypool). THat was in December 1980. Early in 1981, we did a Friday Rock Show session for Radio One and appeared on Heavy Metal Heroes Volume 2 (HM Records). Been gigging ever since and had my best year (120 gigs) in 2008/09. Its all about Tenacity!!!

I'm with Jake. Bad technique is different to unconventional technique. There are all sorts of ways of getting your strings to make noises and some of them are well documented: two finger technique, pop, slap etc. There are other odd idiosyncracies that we all have they evolve over time. I have all sorts of weird and wonderfull ways of making moises: on ballads and Latin tunes, for instance, I often mute strings with my palm and use the thumb like a classical guitar player would, playing the notes 'dead' - I heard Anthony Jackson making this sound and, in the absence on any other information on how he did it, developed a personal way of achieving it. I also get false harmonics the way a guitar player does rather than using Jaco's method of using the thumb. I also sometimes use the volume pot on my Wal to create the effect achieved by a guitar player with a volume pedal. I can even get a wah sound using the tone pots and the pot that balances the pick ups. All of these are little tricks and textures I have developed over the years. The secret is to make sure that the 'bad' techniques are not causing you harm (CTS, tendonitis etc) or prevevnting you from gaining the most potential out of your instrument. Jamerson's one finger technique is no different to the double bass players of the time: Ray Brown, Paul Chambers (mostly) etc all used primarily on finger to make the noise. Geddy Lee is the same. Its not 'wrong' in any way at all just less popular amongst bass players today.

This one I started years ago, before I got Transcribe software. I was never able to finish it at the time but I got hold off another transcription in Double Bassist and was able to fill in the gaps!! Yes, I cheated but you all get the benefits for free so don't sue me Need to apologise for some of the beams; my Sibelius is defaulting to an unhelpful pattern of linking triplets across whole bars. Makes it hard to read but, if you print it off and use tippex, it should be of use

Not sure what happened here but I had this down as Chambers' solo on Seeing Red from the Curtis Fuller LP with Red Garland. But I just listened to it an it isn't so God knows what it is! If anyone recognises it, let me know

This section features Chambers in unison with Bill Barber's tuba on The Buzzard Song off Gile Evans' Porgy and Bess. Beautiful textures and feel.

Solo off title track of CD of the same name. Sorry about the triplet thing: I was trying something out

This performance is on several Coltrane/Chambers packages inc High Step (vinyl), John Coltrane's Tranesition etc

Solo of the opening track on his Chambers' Music LP

Paul Chambers' solo on 'Cool Struttin' from Sonny Clark's album of the same name. I did a load of Paul Chambers transcriptions for my biography but am not going to use them so here they are....

Percy Jones - Nobody Goes To Sweden or Wal To Wal off Brand X - Product

Signature Tracks - a selection to get us started Jaco – A Remark You Made and Havona (off Weather Report’s Heavy Weather) also Donna Lee and Portrait of Tracy off ‘Jaco’ Stanley Clarke – Silly Putty (off Journey To Love) Billy Sheehan – Shy Boy (off Dave Lee Roth’s ‘Eat Em and Smile’) Geezer Butler – N.I.B (off Black Sabbath) Steve Harris – Phantom of the Opera John Patitucci – Got A Match (Chick Corea’s Electric Band) Marc Johnson – Acknowledgement (off Bass Desires) Paul Chambers – Dexterity (off Chambers’ Music) Dave Holland – Four Winds (off Conference of the Birds) Jimmy Johnson – Grasshopper (Wayne Johnson’s ‘Grasshopper’) Anthony Jackson – Why Not? (off Michel Camilo’s ‘Suntan’) Jimmy Haslip – Ninos (off ARC) Ron Carter – Footprints (off Miles Davis ‘Miles Smiles’) Marcus Miller – Run For Cover (off David Sanborn’s Straight To The Heart) Mark King – Hot Water (Level 42) Pino Palladino – Wherever I Lay My Hat by Pal Young

Used to live in Victoria Aveneue, Baneswell (left there in 1994). Drove though there in May and its three times the size now!!! Still got family in Cwmbran and St. Julian's. I'm the only bass player, tho

Where are you in Wales, Andi. I am from Cwmbran originally (now if Suffolk). Welcome to Basschat!

[quote name='Major-Minor' post='664083' date='Nov 24 2009, 05:53 PM']And Bilbo - believe me it IS a great achievement to successfully transcribe a piece of music, regardless of how complex or simple it is, or whether you can't physically play it yourself. If you are trying to copy a virtuoso player's solos, then at least you know what you have to work on, even if you might not finally achieve that level of playing. After all, having something to aim for is what drives every player to work on their technique and their musical understanding. If you want to commit to memory what another player has already put down on record, then I would suggest putting away your manuscript and pencil, and copy it directly into your brain and into your fingers. It helps to "see" the written notes in your head, but its great training for your muscle memory and musical memory if you take it straight from the audio into your head. Then you can copy their every inflection plus all the things that are so difficult to write down.[/quote] Fair point. I guess its about deciding why you are doing it in the first place and making sure you get out of it what you are looking for. For me, learning TO PLAY transcriptions by Parker etc was the way I learned be-bop phrasing etc. The mathematical relationships between the notes were one thing but the spirit of the music was another. That was harder to write down and was primarily an aural experiece.

Can you raed tihs? Olny srmat poelpe can, alelgdely. cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. As I always say, the three most important things to take away from your basic education are Literacy and Numeracy.

I agree with that. If you can't play what you have transcribed, you haven't really achieved much other than copied down a series of noises in order of pitch!

I love recording. Ironic because I have never actually recorded anything I can say I am 100% happy with. If I had to find music to put on a MySpace page, I would struggle to find anything I could say I was proud of. Sad but true.

I use 'Transcribe' software from seventhstring.com. It slows stuff down up to quarter speed without changing the pitch and has some other features that work for me (like isolating and looping passages etc). Its available as a download for about £40. Tom's advice is sound. I would add that you need to make sure that, if you are transcribing the bass parts or solos off recordings, you also need to make sure that you have the chords available or can transcribe them also. This is as important as catching the lines you are transcribing as, without the context, the learning is limited to playing by rote, a pretty useless skill in improvising/writing your own lines. If you don't know the chords, or aren;t sure, post them here. Someone will tell you where you are going wrong (Major-Minor is great at that). As Tom said, start small and work upwards. Sometimes it is important to catch every detail but sometimes this is less important and catching the core riffs/patterns is enough. Trying to work out every single lick in a 12 minute Dave Holland tune is probably not worth the time spent (arguable, I guess). I woudl also recommend you place due emphasis on READING the charts you write as well as writing them. I have doen loads of complicated transcriptions that I can't play. The learning is limited there also. A Joe Lovano solo where he is playing 11 over 8 at 320 bpm is unlikley to be of much use to you! Sometimes transcribing a two bar sequence is more useful to you that a six chorus Coltrane solo. Good luck and don't forget to post some of your efforts here!

[quote name='Mykesbass' post='661323' date='Nov 21 2009, 08:31 PM']Where the Abersold series fell down for me was that it was for lead instruments - this looks like it's going to break you in gently into the rhythm section. I'm definitely going to try some. Mike[/quote] I find them useful as they let you take the bass out by turning the balance to the left which isolates the piano/guitar. You can transcribe lines if you want to. All good stuff.

Sounds great. Would love to try out but its a bit too far for me (70 miles?). Never mind. Hope you find someone useful.

[quote name='Major-Minor' post='658291' date='Nov 18 2009, 04:33 PM']My orchestral bass cost me £300 in 1973. It's now worth in excess of £25K. Now that's a good investment ! The Major[/quote] I'll give you £350 for it