thepurpleblob

[quote name='martthebass' post='603148' date='Sep 19 2009, 08:58 PM']Stuck in the Middle: For some reason I always want to go back to G in the D to A bridge part.................numpty.[/quote] I haven't played that in ages, but I do remember it requiring slightly more skill than I had at the time (and probably do now too!)

[quote name='ezbass' post='602729' date='Sep 19 2009, 09:42 AM']Walk Of Life, probably because I dislike it and it doesn't hold my interest. How many country music bass players does it take to change a lightbulb? One, Five, One, Five.........[/quote] I briefly did some rehearsals with a Johnny Cash tribute band and despite my initial thoughts that stuff it quite hard to get nailed down and get the right 'feel'. Still mind numbingly dull though - (sorry JC fans!)

[quote name='beerdragon' post='602727' date='Sep 19 2009, 09:39 AM']Use somebody by KOL. I just cant get the timing right at the beginning, the drummer does this funny beat and i usually find myself watching the guitarist to see when he's going to change.[/quote] KOL have a lot to answer for. Someone told me that they can't play their own songs live either

Melissa Auf der Maur brushed by me in a corridor - I could only manage my best 'stupid face'. That could have been more related to the attractive woman factor than anything else, though!!

I was thinking - there's a few songs that despite quite a lot of effort I have never been able to play right through without messing up. The received wisdom is that they should be easy enough. Here's a couple of mine.. * Town Called Malice - main riff utterly beyond me * Gangsters - inevitably fluff getting out of the octaves run * Sex on Fire - well we've talked about that Anybody else want to confess?

[quote name='BigBadBass' post='601358' date='Sep 17 2009, 02:49 PM']hello! ive started jamming with a new band where the guitarist tunes in d standard, drop c and C standard because it suits his vocals better. the band has a kinda funk vibe to it. i have always played a 5 string as the first 'proper' bass was a 5. I have never needed to change tuning before playing in standard or even drop d cause i have those extra notes on the 5. i found it easier to tune to him for jamming purposes for some of the riffs hes playing. Any advice on tuning down and keeping as much tension on the strings as possible? cheers Steve[/quote] That's metal band talk. They seem to have to pick weird tunings and then all tune the same to show solidarity or something. I don't understand why the bass player can't just leave it alone - more so if you have a 5 string.

[quote name='Bassmingo' post='601448' date='Sep 17 2009, 05:01 PM']the emphasis is on the second note: doo DOO doo doo doo, doo DOO doo doo doo etc[/quote] Huh? You saying it's 5/4 for that bit?

To be honest, it totally got me. I still can't count my way through the intro.

[quote name='TheBlueFalcon' post='599712' date='Sep 15 2009, 10:52 PM']I don't want this to be just another new aspiring bassist thread that just asks the same old questions, as everyones journey is different and (to a certain extent) there really is no set path for each person to follow. Having said that, I would like to ask how people started out and why, what they wanted to achieve, where they are now and if they are happy with how things have turned out or not. Which is really just a build up to my main question.... How long do you feel it took for you to become a "decent" bassist and roughly how much time/practice did you have to put in to get there?[/quote] I started playing the bass when I was 38 and I'm 45 now. I'll let you know when I get any good at it I'd played the drums on and off since I was ten and I'd got really pig sick of that a few years earlier but fancied getting back into music again. Bass and drums always seemed like an unholy alliance so it was a logical instrument to learn. I thought there'd be less stuff to carry as well - there isn't!! They say it takes about 1,000 hours before you can call yourself competent at a complex skill. If you practice for an hour a day that's about three years. Getting really good takes forever though. Having said that you don't need that much skill to get by. I played in a very busy function band for a number of years and made reasonable money at it and I was only ever vaguely of any use. Depends what your aspirations are.

[quote name='XB26354' post='599637' date='Sep 15 2009, 09:36 PM']It's the secondary dominant of the next chord because the basic flavour of the chord has been changed to make it a V leading into the next chord - F7 leads to Bb (which itself becomes the dominant for EbMaj7). As far as substitutions go, in Giant Steps chords and melody and soloing are all playing the substitutions - there are no "original" chords as such. If you wanted to use Giant Steps as a basis for improvising outside the original chords then chordal players need to be hip to this and play the original chords, or else the improvising and harmony will get rather lost as you say. This is a matter of experience (like "feeling" the right thing to play at the right time, as in every other style of music). I don't lay any special claim to having an ear for jazz - I just ended up listening to a lot because I liked it. As basically no-one knows about jazz nowadays unless they're pretty old (and therefore probably grew up with it) or they're a musician, is it any wonder that it appears alien and hard to "get"? Take your favourite songs. I'd imagine you've listened to them dozens of times, you probably know the lyrics off by heart and can probably play the song (or already have done). Imagine if you knew some jazz that intensively? Heard it on the radio every day, in bars and clubs all over town. Maybe if it was all around you like the X Factor it would be more familiar and hence more acceptable (or not!) You don't have to like it. Really. If you stick with learning and listening to jazz and after a couple of years you still don't like it, don't listen to it or play it. It will still be there in some form or another. And it will have improved both your ear and your ability as a musician, so nothing wasted![/quote] Thanks for clarifying the secondary dominant thing - I get it now. To be pedantic - I'm losing the grip on how these are substitutions if the "originals" are lost. How do you know they are substitutions at all? Why could he not just have thought "oh, that (the final) chord progression sounds good". Then someone comes along and says, "well, if you really twist it about you can see a way to describe these as substitutions over II-V-I" Re. taking any kind of interest in this. I am the sort of person who doesn't like to not understand things. It's just the kind of sad person I am. There's a whole bunch of craziness in jazz that doesn't seem to turn up anywhere else. As I say, I'm not quite yet convinced it's all particularly musical which makes it even trickier.

Another question...... [quote]2. Original replacing Im7 with I7 (secondary dominant) - F7 / / / |Bb7 / / / |Ebmaj7 / / / |[/quote] I don't understand how I7 is the secondary dominant of Im7 or am I reading this wrong? A secondary dominant is still a fifth away from the 'root' of the chord even if it then has notes outside of the key. That's how I thought it worked anyhow

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='599069' date='Sep 15 2009, 11:21 AM']Giant Steps is undoubtedly a bit rich for people who have been brough up on a diet of, errr, Pixie Lott... but, PLEASE. can people get the word random out of their vocabularies when discussin gjazz. Its is never random. It can be bad and you may not like it (I don't give a rat's..) but it is NEVER, EVER randon Jazz is a VERY broad church and many of us who visit regularly would suggest that Fourplay just aren't jazz (they told Larry Carlton NOT to play blue notes - how CAN that be jazz ). I'll give you the rest, Major.... but all of that is an argument for another thread. The trouble is that people keep going to listen to the hard stuff without developing the ear required to 'get it'. Yes, most of this stuff is improvised - that, at least, is one variable that is common to most things that sit under the umbrella term 'jazz', but some of it is beautifully written too. Try some Duke Ellington stuff: go to Spotify and look up Johnny Hodges playing ''Isfahan', Day Dream', or 'Blood Count' or look for 'Such Sweet Thunder' or 'And His Mother Called Him Bill'. If you don' t 'get' that, you are dead from the neck up - I am not saying you have to like it, that would be too much to ask, but you should 'get it'. Try Medeski, Martin and Wood playing 'Julia', 'Tequila and Chocolate' or 'Legalise It'. John Scofield playing 'Georgia On mY Mind' or Pat Metheny on 'Don't Know Why'. T'ain't rocket science, guys.[/quote] Well... it's all semantics is it not? You could argue that any improv has a certain 'randomness' to it. That's the point surely? But, yes, I take your point. I think that if the most complicated chord you have ever encountered is a major seventh chord and then you come to this stuff it's going to be a difficult listen. Like all music, it's mostly about what you are used to hearing. The Coltrane stuff just sounds like a bunch of wrong notes to me - totally discordant. This makes a discussion of his changes very hard to grasp as I keep asking, "why would you want to do that - it makes it sound all wrong?". BTW... one thing I really don't get. If these chord substitutions are over a II-V-I progression. Who is holding down the basic progression. Am I right in thinking that the sax is playing the substitutions and the bass is playing the basic chords? I'm struggling to see how the basic progression doesn't get completely lost in the melee EDIT: I think rocket science might just be a little easier to understand. I still haven't heard anybody explain WHY this works - or is supposed to work. My ear says it doesn't, yours says it does. I don't know where that leaves us

[quote name='RhysP' post='598786' date='Sep 14 2009, 10:26 PM']If you're idea of fun is playing a bloody walking bassline while some fat old guitarist plays endless clichéd pentatonic solos then you'll have a blast. If you detest the blues as much as I do then most jam nights are the Seventh Circle of Hell.[/quote] Nothing wrong with a good blues song.... just the one possibly, though

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='598714' date='Sep 14 2009, 09:13 PM']Keep us posted- I'm also interested.[/quote] This is what I found.... some seem more likely than others but it's still a hell of a list... [url="http://glasgow.openguide.co.uk/wiki/List_of_open_stage_events"]http://glasgow.openguide.co.uk/wiki/List_o...en_stage_events[/url]

Ok... next question then... does anybody know of any in the Glasgow area? I found a list of what was described as 'jam nights' but they all turned out to be 'open mic' nights which I'm guessing is just singers.

[quote name='Happy Jack' post='598664' date='Sep 14 2009, 08:38 PM']Not sure the previous replies have actually answered your question. Firstly, if you've really never done this before, then go along as audience rather than player. Don't take a bass, don't tell them you play. Just have a pint, look & listen. If the mood takes you and you think "Christ! I could have done this!" then the house band bass player will usually be prepared to lend you his bass (it's part of the job description). When you get to a jam intending to play, ask who's "running the list". Usually there will be a paper list in the keeping of the organiser, sometimes there's a blackboard (yuk), and sometimes the organiser just keeps it all in his head (double yuk). What you want is to introduce yourself to the organiser, tell him what you play, and be completely honest with him. Tell him the sort of standard you play to, the sort of songs you can play, and ask him to put you up with people who'll help you - ideally it should be the house band. Eventually your name will be called. You walk up on stage and plug in (having tuned up earlier of course), and there will be a quick whispered conference as to what you'll all play. Then away you go. With that format, the emphasis is on songs which either (a) everyone knows ([i]Sweet Home Alabama, All Right Now, All Along The Watchtower[/i], etc.) or ( are easy to play if you don't know them (most 12-bar blues). If you'd rather be prepared, then practice a specific slow blues ([i]Red House [/i]is a good call) and a specific fast rocker ([i]Johnny B Goode [/i]or something) and ask if you can just play those. Be prepared to stand your ground. If one of the guitarists wants to do, say, [i]Little Wing [/i]and you don't know it, do NOT agree to "give it a try" ... you'll be crucified! Stick to what you know. When I started going to jam nights (only a little over two years ago) I frequently got caught playing stuff I'd never heard. So after each jam night I went away and learned whatever song it was that I'd cocked up. Within a few months I had most of the regular songs sorted. Good luck.[/quote] Cheers. Am I getting the impression here that Jam nights are really blues nights? (I think my band played a 12 bar blues song once!)

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='598653' date='Sep 14 2009, 08:30 PM']Sometimes it's all about jamming on songs... here's the last song of the night from an open-mic my mate runs round these parts. Only some people knew the tune, but it's easy enough to pick up. This is the appeal of these things, IMO.[/quote] Interesting.... at the risk of laboring the point.... I've never heard that song before. "It's in G" would have got me to the end of the first bar, then I'd be fumbling to work out what the next chord was

[quote name='YouMa' post='598634' date='Sep 14 2009, 08:19 PM']Just learn the pentatonic blues scale first when they shout "its in A" move the scale to the 5th fret and stay within the confines of that scale,and move around in a pattern,that would be a good way to start,basic improvising is just adding little fills and random stuff really.[/quote] I didn't say I couldn't play at all. Ha ha ha. I've been playing for quite a few years now but only ever in covers bands and in an originals band where somebody else wrote the bass parts. I've never really had to improvise in any meaningful way. Mind you that blues scale thing keeps coming up. Would you really just hammer that out regardless of the underlying chord (especially if it's major!) ??