Bilbo

Here you go, guys. Let me know if you disagree with any details and I will probably ignore you https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/fool-for-your-loving-whitesnake/

I have finished (90 minutes) and have discovered something really interesting using the above isolated bass tracks. I found that about 98%of the tune was easy enough to write out but there are a few fills I couldn't hear, even slowed down by 75%. Revisiting the transcription with the isolated bass tracks reveals that the bits I couldn't hear are actually fluffed. I can't hear them because they aren't played. They are approximations, near misses, nearly but not quite fills. They are unplayable by most of us because they are were unplayed by Mr Murray (who I also rate very highly). I will post the transcription tomorrow on my website and post a link here.

Does anyone have any contact details for Henry? I have tried Facebook but not got any response. Email or phone would be cool. PM me if you can help.

Kids are playing Donna Lee when they are 5 now so chops mean nothing. It is the ideas that matter.

I used to have 'Jeff Berlin' chops (I could play at that speed but, if I am honest, never had the ideas to back to up) but have not worked on my chops for decades. I have been transcribing a lot of Jeff Berlin recently and it has shown how much I have 'slowed down' over the years (not because I can't but because I don't). Someone one said that he had never met a musician who didn't have more chops that he knew how to use and that was definitely me. The problem with having a lot of chops, especially if you live out in the sticks, is that there is no-one else to work with. Jeff Berlin with no Bruford, no Allan Holdsworth, no etc etc. So, unless you can find an outlet for those chops, you lose them. There is also the issue of whether the gigs you do are improvisation based or arrangement based - chops for written parts is different to chops for blowing (which is often why classical players are better technicians than improvisers but can't play without the dots). Nothing in this tune that is that chopsy.

Of course there are physical limitations but Neil Murray is no Hadrien Feraud (although he did dep for Jeff Berlin in Bruford). There are only about three or four fills in FFYL that are four consecutive sixteenths. Most of it is 8th notes with occasional hammer-ons, almost all diatonic.

Fast lines are just slow lines speeded up. If you can do the slow licks, there is no reason why you can't do the fast ones.

It's taking a bit longer than I expected but should be ready tomorrow. I am 3.44 in but got called away.

I may yet eat my words, thebigyin 😄

Of course

An hour's work. I have to access a copy of the recording to work from but it seems easy enough.

Seconds Out remains a favourite of mine (first Genesis LP I heard). I was going to see Hackett doing it live in November but it has been put back to 2021.

I actually have the single. It's a great little tune.

MIke Rutherford's bass part for the tune 'Evidence Of Autumn'. It was recorded around the time of the 'Duke' cd and was released as the B-side of the single 'Misunderstanding'. I am not sure why this never appeared on the album as I think it is one of the best songs Genesis ever recorded (and I say that as a massive Genesis fan). Link is to the website. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/evidence-of-autumn-genesis/

Something from Bobby Sheehan, bass player with the legendary Blues Traveler. The tune is called 'Felicia' from the album 'Straight On' til Morning' and carries some interesting phrasing. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/felicia-blues-traveler/

Interesting little transcription today. A tune called 'Akasha' from the Jonas Hellborg CD, 'The Works'. 0.54 long, its a beautiful little thing that pretty much all of us will be able to play. Link to the website. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/akasha-jonas-hellborg/

VID_20200801_192108.mp4

I recall it was the bass part from a children's TV programme and, whilst I can remember the bass part itself, I cannot recall the programme it came from.

Today's little diamond is a full transcription of the second version of Jeff Berlin's 'Joe Frazier', entitled, imaginatively, 'Joe Frazier Part II'. Some great playing here; (bar 73) - triplet sixteenths all over the place, (bar 151-2) 'what the f*** happened then' and a great little 'shout' chorus that crosses bars very inventively. Link is to MY free transcription website; Bilbo's Bass Bites. https://bilbosbassbites.co.uk/joe-frazier-part-two-jeff-berlin/

To be fair, I am critical of my school for failing to recognise my developing interest in music and nurturing it but it was in early music lessons, when the teacher played us a video of Ravel's Bolero and Disney's Peter and the Wolf, that the fire ignited. I remember running home to tell Mum and, as chance would have it, she had Bolero on a record. I wore it out and still love it to this day. School started the ball rolling and then, sadly, missed a trick.

Musicians do a lot of things and stagecraft is not necessary in all situations; pit orchestra, big band, string quartet, orchestra, studio work etc etc. As tinyd said, most Jazz bands don't do stagecraft (some do). I am also not entirely sure that the Dave Lee Roth's of this world can be taught what they have. It's as much about their personality as it is about their 'craft'. Maybe that's not fair. I don't know.

I think the thing to be wary of is the potential for people to use the 'theory hampers creativity' argument to justify their ignornace and laziness. As a Probation Officer, I learned that people will develop all sorts of justifications and minimisations for why what they do is ok (yes, that applies to pretty much everything, however abhorrent the rest of us may think they are). This is extreme in the cases of serious offenders but it is also something we all do. Why I don't give up fags, why I don't lose weight, why I don't mow the lawn etc). With musicians, it is 'why I don't learn theory'.....'because it will stifle my creativity'. It doesn't actually make any sense whatsoever and is just a means of making it OK not to study properly and just keep the fun bits like gigs and 'stagecraft' (whatever the chuff THAT is).

Arguably, you made a improvisation decision based on theory although some have called improvisation 'instant composing' so it's a pointless distinction. I have often put in licks using theory (e.g,.hearing a repeating saxophone link and then harmonising it is thirds). It's all good though. I guess it is sometimes difficult to work out what is knowledge and what is experience. I always think of learning theory as preparation for application as opposed to academic knowledge for the sake of knowledge..

I don't think I have ever made a composition decision based on 'theory'. Knowing this stuff doesn't necessarily give you answers to creative problems. Sometimes it makes you think 'I can't do that because it is too obvious' thereby preventing the creation of things that are beautiful in their simplicity.

Like an 88 note Steinway - you don't HAVE to use them all every time.