Bilbo

Expectations vary. I have had guys send me two cds with 32 tunes to learn by rote for one gig (I didn't) and I have done deps where I turn up knowing nothing and busk the whole gig. I have seen charts where every note is written out (the most relaxed gigs, in my experience) and where charts are written on fag papers in crayon. It is often about relationships; you are booked as a dep because someone respects your ability and gets along with you. Sometimes it is ok to crash and burn on the occasional tune as long as everyone can laugh about it and keep some perspective. It is rare to be depping on the last night of an internation tour; it's mostly one off functions in places where the audience are only half listening. You don't need to 'know' all of the tunes; it is often enough just to recognise them (this is getting harder for me as I never listen to the radio and there is next to no music on TV so I don't know the 'hits' past about 1990) and then approximating stuff. Most 60s through 80s stuff is already in there but more recent stuff is a tougher call for me personally. You may find it the other way around.

It's called The Inner Game of Music. How self talk disables you as a performer. The best playing is done in a zone where external factors are completely ignored. Achieving that state takes discipline. It is fragile and can be broken far more easily than it can be achieved.

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1438937675' post='2838747'] You must be the only person who does[font=Helvetica][size=4]… [/size][/font] [font=Helvetica][size=3][size=4]My idea is currently a cross between Brazilian capoeira music and Caribbean dancehall/[color=#545454][font=Arial]reggaeton. [/font][/color][/size][color=#545454][font=Arial][size=4]Neither of which countries are home to tigers, granted. But that's what I'm hearing in my head; so that's where I'm heading... And besides, tigers are good swimmers, right?[/size][/font][/color][/size][/font] [/quote] Asia to South America? I think their swimming runs to about 100 yards across a slow running river but, hell, I can't talk about idiomatic integrity? My tiger plays a bhodran!!

[quote name='Bassassin' timestamp='1438892260' post='2838534'] Plus he did base his early career on sounding ever-so-slightly exactly the same as Mr. Squire, which might help. [/quote] An interesting point in that I remember vividly having conversations around that time in which it was commented upon that they sounded quite different not the least because Squire played with a pick and Lee with his finger. Nevertheless, I get your point. $64,000 question, though. Could his high voice replace Anderson at the same time!!!

The great Brazilian Tiger..... I know him well.

Nuevo Flamenco is the thing!!

Plenty of non bass players like a decent bass solo. I get applauded regularly by lay people

Some wisdom in that post, Skank, but it does require a consensus on conventions. The biggest barrier to basses playing solos 'as well as anyone' is that most of a bass guitarist's career is spent NOT soloing. S/he, therefore, spends proportionately less time developing the phrasing etc of which you type than, say, a saxophoinist or guitar player. There are players who, for reasons known only to themselves, have spent an unusual amount of their time focussing on the art of soloing and who, consequently, are more adept at it. These specialists are generally more worthy of our attention because they are better practiced and do it better. Some of their work is more successful than others but we are into subjectivity again. The ability of a bass guitar to project in a way that the double bass cannot makes it a perfectly credible alternative to many other instruments. Violins and cellos have their limitations too. I think there are some highly pertinent examples of how this works when you move away from pop music and start looking at things like flamenco where a solo guitarist is actually an isolated accompanist. A lot of classical music was written for ballet but is performed without dancers and so on. The music to Noggin The Nog is one of my favourite pieces from childhood but, sonically, it shouldn't work. It is far more complicated than your post suggests.

I always think that, in these circumstances, they shoudl look for someone radically different to the original to avoid compaisons.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1438853537' post='2837952'] It was released 48 years ago. It was one of the very first concept albums, the first to have no gaps between songs, the first to have lyrics printed on the cover and the first gatefold sleeve. It was one of the very first to include signal processing as a creative process, the idea of producer as an effective member of the band, and one of the first to use extensive multi-track recording. It was made as a studio album with no intention of ever having the band play it live, so could go anywhere, and did. In short, it was completely groundbreaking and started the cult of the pop/rock album. It was the benchmark to which subsequent bands compared their own output. [/quote]

I like good bass solos and don't like bad ones. The trouble is, I don't know which it is going to be until I have heard it. If I hear it and like it, I am glad I heard it. If I hear it but don't like it, I am still glad I heard the guy or girl try. Not all music performance is about perfect execution every time (although some is). Sometimes it is about just trying. Improvisation is a high risk undertaking and, sometimes, the results are sublime. At times, however, it can be painful. The art is in the attempt and not in the success. In terms of the debate, there are composed solos (Stu Hamm's 'Country', Jeff Berlin's 'Dixie' or Michael Manring's 'Red Right Returning'). There are improvised solos (Scott LaFaro's 'Gloria's Step', Jaco's 'Donna Lee'; there are millions of examples). There are 'solos' that are featured parts of songs (the melodic bass in 'A Remark You Made', the opening of 'Motherlode' by Jeff Berlin or Duff McKagan's part on 'Sweet Child Of Mine') which amount to melodic hooks played by the bass rather than solos per se. There are bass solos that are essentially substanive compositions written around the instrument ('Bottesini's Double Bass Concerto' or Squire's 'The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)'). To paraphrase Duke Ellington, there are only two kinds of bass solos; good ones and bad ones. I like the good ones. That is, I accept, a subjective position but, I propose it is one that we all share. Like all music, there are some performances that I 'get' and some that I don't. Some bass solos are about entertainment and not art. If you are looking to be entertained, they will work better for you. If you don't like Jazz, you are probably not going to like a be-bop orientated bass solo. The boundaries we place around the music we listen to are likely to be mirrored in the bass solos we prefer to listen to (or not). If you don't like guitar solos, why would bass solos appeal? If your preference is 'song' orientated genres, solos will appeal less. If your preference is for 'melodic' material (a dumb concept if ever I heard one - all music is melodic, some is just more accessible than others. A furious Coltrane solo is chock full of melody if you know how to listen), then a rhythmically complex solo played over complex chord sequences will leave you cold. Like all art, it is all entirely subjective. As for the 'bass is made to be a supportive instrument not a solo instrument' comments. Sorry guys but who put you in charge? All instruments are made for whatever the artist chooses to use them for. No instrument inventor I know of ever put conditions on it's use. Your preference may be for solid bass lines underpinning a song but that isn't everyone's bag and composers and performers alike are entitled to use them for whatever context their vision suggests. My own preference is for improvisation in context as opposed to featured soloing (Anthony Jackson in Steve Khan's band is a great example) but, if anyone genuinely loves music, the only defensible position is 'I like good solos and don't like bad ones but it is entirely down to me to decide which is which'.

It is on my list of 'iconic LPs I have never heard'. So, in short, I have not got the foggiest.....

Here we are! A strange mix of Asian pentatonics, string quartet and a reel played with a plectrum on a seven string bass. Kudos to Dad for letting me have his title!! https://soundcloud.com/robert-palmer-1/thy-fearful-symmetry

I have finished mine. Will upload tomorrow. It's fearfully symmetric. Oops; no I won't. I uploaded an audio mixdown last night and, when uploading it to Soundcloud this morning, have noticed that it has got a couple of serious glitches in it relating to effects. Also, the opening notes have been clipped off so it doesn't make sense until the second time around. Will have to revisit the mixdown. Bear with, bear with.

The wisdom of Solomon. 😃

You bastard!!! You stole my title!! Completely stole it!!!!

Should have no effect.

Got another hour in last night and it's coming together nicely. Another session or two and I will be home and dry. Grrrrrrrrrrreat!

I cannot access the video (in work) but from reading the post, it sounds like the mistake you are making is to consider the role of the chord to be necessarily defined by the bass note you are hearing. Whilst that is normally true, there are occasions when the bass note is changed to re-orientate the voicing. Most slash chords are actually a major, minor or dominant with the third or fifth in the bass. The chords that are used are defined not by the root notes but by the way in which they are used. The same three notes that make a voicing can be any number of chords depending on how they are used as opposed to what chord they 'spell'. For example; CEG is a major triad in a C chord. They are, however, also the 3rd, 5th and 7th of a Am7 chord, or the 5th, 7th and 9th of an F# half diminished and so on. The chord will be defined not by the notes alone but by the chord before it and the one after. I suspect, but cannot be sure, that your bass notes in the Air tunes are not root movement and so your chords are skewed. Often, the actual movement is simpler than you think and probably amounts to a diatonic sequence redefined by some unusual note choices in the bass.

Made a good start last night. Written a skeleton piece that needs fleshing out. Layers; I need layers.

I can imagine the scene as the Police dispatch worker gets the call. Send an ARU, Nobby Fishcake has compromised Beyoncé's earnings by 0.00001p. Ripping has always been illegal. As a criminal justice worker, I cannot recall many prosecutions.

Not an intro but I learned a long time ago not to play a rhythm changes tune right after a 12-bar Jazz blues.

Agree with bassace. Jazz IS the drummer.

I have a Roland 60W guitar cube I can use but I practice a lot on bass and guitar without an amp or on double bass which has the massive advantage of not needing amplification when not on a gig.

I have played both for as long as I have played and, although I consider myself to be a bass player who plays a bit of guitar, I do use it a lot for wrinting/recording etc. I just got a seven string bass that I have tuned BEADGBE so it is literally a bass and guitar and I play that with a pick. It is a really interesting experiment. In the meantime. my advice is to learn music not bass/guitar. The notes are the same, a major triad is the same on both instrument. A minor scale is the same, as are all the intervals and so on for every piece of musical theory. It all apllies equally to both intruments. Learning 'guitar' licks won't help you bass playing and learning bass parts won't help you guitar. Learning 'music' will help you on both instruments. I also recommend you learn to read music on both bass and treble clef as it will take you places musically that you would never otherwise go. I know this is a big ask but it is so worth it in the long run.