ambient

I've never liked steel strings, I prefer nickel. Steels do vary too, I found Dunlops very rough feeling, whereas D'Addario were much smoother and more nicer.

In my opinion at least, a reasonable knowledge of harmony, rhythm, interpretation of each with regard to styles/genre, is something every musician should know. However, it's up to each person to make their own mind up how much they want to learn, and feel that they need to learn. In fact it quite baffles me as to why people belittle knowledge, and those who have it, or strive to have it.

[quote name='bubinga5' timestamp='1475935942' post='3149917'] ooh ooh dont forget theory is also rythm . Ok everything in any song ever written has to do with theory.ill shut up now. [/quote] I see where you're coming from. I'd have included rhythm in with styles though, at least that's where it came at uni. We covered rhythm when we'd look at latin, jazz etc. Different genres where rhythms each have their own individual feel. Reggae for instance has it's own 'feel'. I can't play reggae to save my life. Jazz, latin etc are no problem, but I've never gotten reggae.

I think people are confusing things. To me at least, theory is the harmony side of things, scales, arpeggios etc. How you use them, what you play and when is more a styles kind of thing. You use each of them to to be able to play to a good and versatile standard. Reading is just that, reading. At least that's how things were broken down and taught on my degree course. My knowledge of harmony/theory teaches me what notes can be played over a given chord sequence or in a part. My experience and teaching of styles tells me how those notes should be played given the genre or song that I'm playing. My sight-reading skills get me paid gigs and opportunities like playing for a summer on a cruise ship around the med 6 years ago. And playing at shows at Birmingham Rep theatre. Getting called for last minute paid gigs because the guys know I can turn up, and just play, and not have to faff around learning each song. [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Being a good sight-reader goes with the other things. I can sight-read something, and use the information given to me in the chart, it's not just dots don't forget, to play in a way that will sound right for that song or piece of music.[/font][/color] Whether anyone needs to have, or to bother and learn anything, is entirely down to that particular individual. However neither being able to sight-read pretty much anything put in front of me, or having a really good harmonic knowledge has ever held me back creatively, in fact it has helped me enormously.

[quote name='mikeswals' timestamp='1472075173' post='3118379'] I dig shedua, especially with fairly heavy ribboning: And if you like pink, then can't see why you wouldn't like violet either! [/quote] I love the top 2, I don't like coloured one though, why hide that beautiful wood ? I've never played a Way, always been intrigued by them though. I've only ever seen one in real life too, and that was an amazing 6 string one owned by the guy that had my Roscoe 6 string fretless. They seem to encapsulate what a real instrument should be, same as Ken Smiths and Fodera etc. I

[quote name='danonearth' timestamp='1475873971' post='3149497'] Thanks again, everyone... [color=#141414]I was just wondering if people prefer to re-position their hand so it is placed on the new root of the chord (as if you were starting a new scale), or keep their hand in the original scale position and always play from there? So, in a sense do you play within a scale, or move as in chords on a guitar?[/color] [/quote] It would depend on what was coming up afterwards whether I'd shift position. If I'm given a chord chart/lead sheet to play that's new to me, I can usually get through anyway, but I like to quickly scan through it first of all, given the time. Most notes can be reached from pretty much one position.

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1475869874' post='3149460'] Knowing what note or chord you are playing is hardly theory. I know the notes on the fretboard and guitar chords but I dont read music. [/quote] Reading music isn't theory, it's reading music. There's only one of my current students that is learning to read, but they're all learning some theory/harmony. Knowing what notes you're playing, and knowing how they work against a given chord or scale is theory, or harmony. If you can construct an arpeggio then that again is demonstrating a knowledge harmony.

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1475851752' post='3149254'] Well, surely they did learn what fits, and in real time. They learned the notes on the neck at the same time, and while learning a song. Also, lots of new stuff can come from a happy accident. As for playing a minor blues scale run instead of a major? perhaps thats exactly what the player intended, it fits but its not what the music theorist would have played. [/quote] Well no, they didn't learn, that's my point. Whenever their band started a new song, it'd be trial and error writing a bass line. Minor over a major isn't anything to do with a theorist.

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1475844921' post='3149175'] Its Rock and Roll, there are no rules. [/quote] It's music, no matter what you call it, or how you dress it up, and there are rules. You can learn or study them, or discover them accidentally, but they're there. I remember seeing a similar thread a while ago. Someone posted that they didn't know what they were playing, and used to just play all the notes randomly until they found something that would fit over a chord, then they'd do the same over the next chord. So trial and error. Wouldn't it be easier and quicker to know what you could play over a chord, and how what you choose to play would sound like ?

Silly question maybe, but have you tried phoning them ?

One thing I would add to my previous post, is don't get caught in the trap of relying on shapes and patterns, play notes not bass lines. Also, neither knowing what you're playing, or being able to read music will ever impede your creativity in any way, shape or form.

It's always been an interest of ,mine, I have loads of books collected over the years, and it was one of my best subjects on my degree. In my opinion I think the average person just really needs to know the notes on the fretboard, and basic chord theory, major, minor, dominant etc. So they know what notes they can play over a given chord. That's how I set about teaching anyway.

[quote name='solo4652' timestamp='1475751355' post='3148417'] Further fussing and simplifying gives this, which I'm fairly happy with: Verse: We were rolling through the Rockies... [font=courier new,courier,monospace]|-------------|--------------|-------------|-------------| |-------------|--------------|-------------|-----------3-| |-----1-----3-|-----1------3-|-----1-----3-|-------------| X 1 |-1-3-----3---|-1-3------3---|-1-3-----3---|--1-1----1---| [/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace]And there was a god in heaven... |-------------|------------|-------------|--------------| |-------------|----------3-|--1-3-----3--|-----------3--| |----1-----1--|---1--------|--------3----|--1-----------| X 1 |--1-----1----|-1------1---|-------------|----1----1----|[/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace]We were headed straight for Eden |-------------|----3--------|---5-3---------|------------| |-------------|--3-----1-3--|-3-----5-3-----|----------3-| |----1-----1--|-------------|-----------1-3-|------------| X 1 |--1-----1----|-------------|---------------|---------1--|[/font] [font=courier new,courier,monospace]BRIDGE: I guess something... |-------------|-3---------7-|-------------|-5----------5-|----------| |----------1--|---3------7--|--3--5-----5-|---5----------|----------| |----1---3----|-----5-------|---------5---|-----3----3---|------1-3-| |--1----------|-------------|-------------|--------------|----------|[/font] [/quote] As per my previous post, and as others have said. It's mostly whole notes using the root, with the occasional half note/quarter note maybe 8th note fill.

It looks fine to me, though odd that the guy doesn't know what it is. The little metal cups the strings fit into will fall out when you take the strings off. The neck pocket will be cut too big, and will be lop-sided. I had one, it was awful.

Have they got a Facebook page ?

I wouldn't worry about it too much, maybe easiily said though I guess. Zon are an established company with a good reputation.

I tried 2 sets a few years ago. I play fingersyle very gently, the black came off in a couple of hours.

[quote name='wateroftyne' timestamp='1475754501' post='3148460'] I must be missing something here... why are you writing a line for a song that already has one? [/quote] That's what I wondered too. The one on the track is nice and a lot simpler than the one above too.

[quote name='ians' timestamp='1475751628' post='3148420'] Ok lets say you decide to have a go at bass and you learn to play simple two time from say C to G country style which simple as it is one would more than likely 'understand'....is that not playing an instrument irrespective of how you went about learning the piece. [/quote] I would say you were playing whatever you were playing on the instrument. I wouldn't class it as being able to play an instrument. You'd be a bit stuck if they decided to play D to A instead I guess. There was a guy posted earlier about him being somewhere and the bassist had learned a blues in E, but the band played in A, so he was stuck. I recently started playing for a jazz band. I got asked my a keyboard player friend. The guy they originally had for the first 2 rehearsals had said he was better than he actually was. He'd just learned the first four songs off the set list. He couldn't play from a lead sheet, he had to go away learn the song. The 2 rehearsals were spent with my friend showing him what notes to play. My friend is a retired music teacher, so luckily he's quite a patient guy, though his patience was wearing a little thin toward the end.

[quote name='ians' timestamp='1475749671' post='3148394'] Hello. Its funny I rarely ever get rattled by much but your post has hit the button. What a load of nonsense. So when I and thousands of other competent musicians sit down and have a go at a bit of Chopin at the keyboard or whatever were just.... "COPYING"..... something that has no worth????. Thanks. I'd forgotten what its like to let of a bit of steam...feels good, but no hard feelings yes. [/quote] You have totally misunderstood what I said. Sorry, I maybe didn't explain it, though the first part of what you've quoted says 'without understanding what they're actually playing'. A competent musician would know what they're playing. I was referring to my previous posting, where I said that there are many people who don't actually learn to play their instrument, they use youtube videos, and TAB, and just learn where to put their fingers, they just copy what they're seeing and hearing, without having any knowledge of what they're actually playing, and how it works with what the rest of the band is playing. You've also misquoted me, where do I say that it had no worth ?

This coming Sunday . Free admission, beautiful and innovative music, nice surroundings, a cafe bar with a good selection of food and beverages. What more could you want ?

[quote name='josie' timestamp='1475710163' post='3148216'] I saw a really nice example of moving on from this a couple of weeks ago at Aynsley Lister's guitar tuition weekend. There was a beginner bass player there who had been taught how to play a simple bass pattern in a standard I-IV-V progression - so he played something acceptable in the first jam session - but had no idea what he was doing or how to do anything else. Aynsley's bass player, Steve Amadeo, did a brilliant job of explaining that and developing it, and by the end of the weekend he was moving around the fretboard and throwing in little variations and well on the road to learning more. There is a big step up though from playing a song you've practiced, to getting up at an open jam session and being thrown in with musicians you've never met before who insist on playing a song you don't know and maybe don't even know what key they're playing in and being able to wing it. [/quote] There's a guy that I'm teaching at the moment. He'd been having erm....'lessons', off a guy for about 6 months. In that time, all he'd been shown was how to play bass lines for songs using TAB that the guy used to take along. He knew absolutely nothing else. I set off teaching him the notes on the fretboard, I got him playing root notes to blues songs right from the first lesson. Just blues in A, C and E, along to recordings that I did for him in Logic Pro. Pretty boring maybe, but he loved it, he was playing music, creating his own bass lines, and was learning the notes on the fretboard, if only 3 at a time. I've been teaching him now for about 8 weeks, he's learned more in those 8 weeks, than in the previous 6 months. He's now this week started having 2 lessons per week, he's enjoying his learning and playing so much.

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1475705668' post='3148191'] I doubt you'll get much support from those of us that work hard on covers. In many cases if you don't have sone advanced training or knowledge of theory learning some covers would be very difficult. Anyway, IMO the comparison to paint buy numbers is nonsense.But I do understand for some it's all about sitting in the bedroom alone. Blue [/quote] By painting by numbers, I mean someone learning a song/cover without really having any understanding of what they're actually playing. Getting a piece of TAB off a website, sitting down and watching someone play it on Youtube, or listening to it on Spotify and just copying it, isn't playing a musical instrument, at least to me. It's like painting all the number 2s red, all the 5s brown and ending up with the Mona Lisa or something.

A mixture of whole notes, half notes with quarter notes and the occasional 8th note fill would work best, pretty much what the bass on the track is doing. It's all about the vocal really on a track like this, staying out of the way, yet he's quiet melodic too, on his EUB.

It's interesting to see that people class being able to copy or learn to play a bass line, as being able to play. Whilst I totally understand that for many it's all about the playing with others, and doing gigs. To me it's kind of like buying a painting by numbers set, and saying you can paint.