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[quote name='bilbo230763' post='107533' date='Dec 21 2007, 11:12 AM']Cut your nails shorter.[/quote] +1 and keep them short - I cut mine once a week - I hate having long nails!

Kevin Glasgow - awesome Scottish bassist - is the one UK guy I know who's really got this stuff on a high level: And yes, he's using a pick

My rules of er, thumb, for funkiness are: Repetitious, syncopated patterns - mix up long and short notes, fragment your phrases and keep them steady as a rock - funk is about creating a continuous groove that people just can't help but move to - so try not to break the flow with fills and fancy noodling. M

Going mental on my now defunct funk band Jasco's last gig in Thailand in 2005 at the Koh Samui Music Festival - the end of a dream week in the sun playing alongside some amazing bands (backing up Laurence Cottle's quintet, and Da Lata on two separate nights was awesome) - and just leaping about the stage barefoot, spazzing out playing funk to a packed (250 capacity) club... wicked! Here's a vid from one of our other gigs that week: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfplFGY3tJQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfplFGY3tJQ[/url] M

[quote name='David Nimrod' post='105202' date='Dec 17 2007, 09:16 AM']I dig the music, and it *is* incredible playing... but it doesn't have the dangerous edge and real emotion of Jacos playing; it's a little too clean for that [/quote] Yeah I agree - but no one can do that quite the same way Jaco did - that's what made him Jaco (love him or hate him) but I just like the fact Bireli's nailed the style and plays brilliantly - few guitarists can match this kind of 'feel' on bass...

I will have three as of January - so it's 602 - will be 603 in a few weeks... yes the Sei is almost ready!

Hey doods While there may be a few Jaco clones around still I personally don't think anyone takes him off/pays tribute to his style better than guitarist Bireli Lagrene - who toured with Jaco when he was just 18 back in the 1980s. Lagrene was a freakish child guitar prodigy who was a gypsy jazz guitar virtuoso when he was 9 - there an amazing clip of him playing a solo spot on the mainstage at the Montreux Jazz festival aged nine and just ripping it up - it's amazing. Anyway enough waffle - Lagrene also plays a mean 70s Jazz bass and gets the tone, technique and most importantly feel of Jaco so spot on you could shut your eyes and think it was the man himself - the fact he was a personal firend of his for years has probably helped - but then so does his immense musicianship - I shut up now - here's the clip: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY_wH15a7C0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY_wH15a7C0[/url] The tune is Freedom Jazz Dance - it has a complicated melody at the end buit the whole funk jam is just in Bb7 for the whole tune. Hope you dig it Mike

Generally I hate music shops - I hate the atmosphere in them and I really don't like some of the staff - some of my experiences in the past have resulted in me almost arguing with the guy in the shop over my personal choice of gear/boutique basses - with him being arrogant enough to imply that I hadn't got a clue what I was talking about and generally stating his views as 'facts' - when they obviously biased BS - that was in GAK in Brighton by the way... I go to one shop only now for my bass stuff - The Gallery in Camden - the very best bass shop in the UK - full stop. No one is better informed, friendlier or better able on and one to one basis to give you what you want - and they are very competitive on price IMO. Believe it or not I have recently bought an Onyx Satellite Base station from Sound Control on Tottenham Court road - really friendly and helpful staff - and I also bought my KRK Rokit6 monitors form Turnkey as they had them in stock - and Thomann didn't - and they were on 15 quid more than online - so I thought sod it. I actually can't imagine a more miserable job - if you are into to or work in music - than working in a guitar shop - I think it'd drive me mental. Cheers Mike

[quote name='Nate' post='100387' date='Dec 6 2007, 05:27 PM']Just wondering if anyones going? I'm gonna be there and like Music Live, would love to meet some fellow Bass chatters... Let me know if you're gonna be there. I'll be the one looking tired at the ampeg stand and at the Club Stage in the evening. You may even see me looking angry at how good Linley Marthe is...!!![/quote] Hi Nate I didn't realise there was more than one - the big one in Vernona has been and gone - and obviously the Manchester one was shortly after - I'm sure you'll have fun - I'm off to the Musik Messe next year - so that'll be my excessive dose of bass-noodling. M

[quote name='bassjamm' post='100004' date='Dec 6 2007, 09:22 AM']Hi Mike... Just had a listen mate...that is the best i've heard you play my friend...the whole band in general as well, just awesome...very much the sound and vibe i'm digging so much right now, you should be proud of yourself!!! Great stuff man! Just as a slight side issue...how do you get so many tracks in your media player on myspace...do you have to add someone as your friend? Thanks J[/quote] Thanks man - much appreciated - re the Media Player - I noticed recently some musicians on MS had more tracks on their players - so when I added these I discovered you are now allowed to have 6 up there - they've also upgraded the player so you can scroll through the track once it starts streaming - which it didn't let you do for a while. PM me your address and I'll burn you a CD of this stuff - the sound is much better when it's not been squashed to hell by a Flash player. Thanks again Mike

As someone who has been very well behaved in the GAS stakes I've always sworn by a decent amp and a decent bass - and now I have my Epifani 502 I'm a very happy bunny indeed as this amp has stupid amounts of power and extols the tones I love - which are 'punchy' and 'warm'. If anything I lean towards the importance a good bass first and amp second - for a personal set up, yes I want the amp and bass of my choosing. In the last month at various rehearsals and gigs I've plugged my vintage Thumb bass in a Masrshall 800 something, a Trace 1x12 Combo, a Warwick Wamp combo, my SWR Baby Baby Blue and my Epifani - while the overall quality of each of these varied a lot - yes the Epi was the sweetest but the Wamp was/is lovely, the SWR is great and even the Marshall provided a really decent tone - it was my playing and the bass's tone that helped me get a good sound every time. I'm happy with my amps right now - I'm certainly open to trying new stuff but all I'm interested in now is portability - hence my only GAS is for an Epi UL112 - anyone with one to sell for a good price I might be tempted... Get a decent bass first - save up for a good amp second - if you can afford both, have both. M

[quote name='Mikey D' post='59740' date='Sep 13 2007, 09:24 AM']I would get a good teacher from day one and not have wasted one minute practicing things like slap and tap.[/quote] Yeah I kind of regret getting so heavily into slap at one point - er, not so long ago - but it's a tool in the bag that I can use anytime now. I have to say that having worked hard, and by still working on my two finger picking, general right hand technique - my playing is very relaxed now - grooving with a couple of bands for the last few years has really helped too - so those that mention this above, keep at it - it worth the pain. For me I guess I wish I had studied harder with my reading when I first started but I had a couple of good teachers who pointed me in the right direction. Having played for 23 years I still have a mountain of stuff to learn - but all I'll say to echo what others have said is - get into your rhythm in a big way - well placed notes can do a lot more than a squillion noodly doodles any day of the week - learning how to modulate (i.e. switch) between 3/4, 5/4, 6/4, 7/4 and KNOW where the ONE is - that's the shizzle - if you know that really deeply - you'll be the most popular bass player you know! Drummers will look at you like some time keeping deity... - only kidding - but I guarantee - beyond chops ect etc that so, so important. I work on it myself...all the time.

[quote name='fleamail' post='97026' date='Nov 30 2007, 10:47 PM']WOW!!! GROOVE! Amazing bass sound too! Great overall recording, I think the only think that is missing is a little more definition from the drum kit and less compression there too, but it still sounds good with just an overhead and a kick mic! Old school![/quote] Old School indeed! The thing with improvised music - it applies to all styles too I guess - is you really need to warm up and relax - doing this in a 'proper' studio with the clock ticking - and even a click track - really kills the vibe - We trid this before and the whole thing sounded dead - this is basically how we sound and we finally managed to record it after two years of playing together. Points duly noted about drum compression - and yes the baby blue + Thumb bass is a greet sound. Thanks for listening - glad you like it Cheers Mike

Hey guys and gals Just finished mixing the tracks from my band [b]Big Fan[/b]'s recording session last Saturday - all done in the luxurious surroundings of the guitarist's front room. The results have surpassed my expectations, we just miked the kit with one overhead and a kick drum mic - sax and guitar were miked too - bass went direct from the back of my Baby Blue combo - we just used a MOTU 828 and a Macbook with Garageband - but the energy we captured is the main thing. These are all original tunes - [b]Push, vanishing Point and Life In A Loop[/b] are by me - [b]Juicy Dangler, Snake Oil and Central Line[/b] by the guitarist Christian Miller - he absolutely kicks ass on all of them, as does Jack Beeche the sax player and our drummer Sophie Alloway is just brilliant - so few great female drummers in London, and she's one of the best. I'd love to know what you think - this is just a really grooving, vibing band with loads of energy - we just love playing together and we all feel there's a certain chemistry - hope you like some of it: [url="http://www.myspace.com/bigfanjazzband"]http://www.myspace.com/bigfanjazzband[/url] Cheers Mike

I saw the title of this thread and thought it was about actually suffering pain, discomfort or agony for the sake of playing bass...I have just got back from a long day of recording - now even tho it was only three hours actual playing, I'm increasingly finding my old Thumb bass very heavy - not just to stand and play but to carry in its gig - my back is really sore (yes I know that's bad) and getting around London on the tube is a f-ing nightmare - and I had to take both my SWR combo and my bass with me on the tube - so I feel like even tho today was a great session and we got some good stuff down - I've been suffering! Can't wait till the Sei bass is ready - about a month tops now - it's going to be so light by comparison... oh well. In NO way am I likening myself to Jaco - but I have bendy thumbs too: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8VTLM1r4Ew"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8VTLM1r4Ew[/url] They are just naturally that way - I don't think they help with any kind of 'spacial' bass techniques - they just sit nicely for a little old floating thumb action. M

Great stuff guys thanks - love that video of the footcontroller - shame the music sucks! Groovy thread - thanks for all the brilliant tips - just wait for my finger to heal up and I'll get looping. M

[quote name='Nate' post='92572' date='Nov 22 2007, 10:15 AM']I don't think it's a question of "what kind of theory"... ALL theory is relevant... It's just a matter of knowing what chords work well together (or which are dissonant, if thats what you want). You can do this with just your ears. I'm a big theory geek but it's not the be all and end all. It just means you may take longer to figure things out if you don't know the relationships between keys/chords/notes....etc... Try and write 8 bars of something similar and post it! It's not as difficult as you think. Just use your ears...[/quote] I agree - listening to what this guy is doing it's basically in D minor and E minor and A minor - with a bunch of other chords thrown in - to my ears it just sounds like he's playing 'diatonically' in these keys - which means he's creating chords by moving through intervals in those scales - for example building three note chords from adjacent notes in the scale, like open E with an E-G-D chord played two octaves higher etc - but the 'composition' here seems to be created by him 'making it up' - there's no real secret to it - he's just playing what sounds good to him - and there's nothing wrong with that - it's how most people write songs. If you want to start getting into this stuff get yourself a book on scales for bass guitar - and this is a great book on bass guitar chords by Jona Hellborg: [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chord-Bassics-Compact-Reference-Library/dp/0825610583"]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chord-Bassics-Comp...y/dp/0825610583[/url] Well worth buying. Hours of fun to be had M

[quote name='kneal6' post='92549' date='Nov 22 2007, 09:13 AM']If you're playing bass at the same time, you probably want a foot pedal to trigger different parts/loops with, I've got a behringer fcb1010 which is very good for this, and it's got 2 wah-type pedals on it as well which you could assign to anything - a low-pass filter on the main out is fun, you can make your own wah-wahs, weird pedal-controlled effects, it's only limited by your imagination really. Then you can use the buttons to trigger either individual loops or groups (i.e. one stomp for verse, one stomp for chorus); you could also use them to mute/unmute tracks, then have everything playing at the same time and just bring them in or out with the pedal.[/quote] OK next stupid question - a. I assume you connect this pedal by USB etc to your laptop? b. do you use the MIDI functions in Ableton to assign various presets - how do you do this? I'll send you the cheque for these lessons soon I promise...! Thanks again M

Damn that foot-switch sounds great - thanks for the ideas - Ableton is great so I'm pleased I've got it but all these ideas are really exciting - my only problem now is - I have a sore finger from a cracked callous - I've been playing too much recently - time for a break I think! Thanks mate M

Thanks Ped - I'm normally pretty good at working this stuff out - I am using the manual and lessons but sometimes it's just good old lateral thinking that works best - I appreciate your help on this - I don't know many people who use Ableton - thanks again dude. M

Thanks Ped and Kneal - I actually tried this again and got it to work so it's part of the fun of getting to know this thing! What I'm still slightly struggling with is the whole 'idea' of Ableton being a great ting for creating live mixes with loops and live playing at the same time - I guess what I'm trying to say is - if I am to jam along with some pre-recorded loops in a 'live' situation - what's the best way to record this while I play it? At the moment I am just using Abelton like any other music software i.e. creating parts, mixing and editing as I go - but on the 'demo' in the package you can just mess around with some loops and do all sorts of crazy stuff - I feel I'm missing the point of Ableton or just being a total noob... any thoughts or advice appreciated. M

Hey doods I've been trying to figure out ways to mix the Wooten thumb stuff with the Garrison technique I've been getting into and this is my first attempt to record some of it - it's a bit messy but I think the general idea is there - it's just a different way to play all that bassline-and-chords stuff - anyway let me know what you think. Cheers Mike [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41OOLaoRON0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41OOLaoRON0[/url]

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='89230' date='Nov 16 2007, 08:52 AM']That's why I said "subtract 5 frets for each string you skip (e.g. major sixth = 1 string and 4 frets)" - I'm afraid I couldn't think of a simpler way to put it...[/quote] That's fine dude - it's not very easy to explain - my version isn't much better... - I just wanted to attempt to describe the importance of getting to know how to do this - no offence intended OK Cheers Mike

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='89120' date='Nov 15 2007, 08:26 PM']half tone = one fret whole tone = two frets minor third = three frets major third = four frets perfect fourth = five frets flattened fifth/sharpened fourth = six frets perfect fifth = seven frets minor sixth = eight frets major sixth = nine frets minor seventh = ten frets major seventh = eleven frets octave = twelve frets eleventh is a fourth plus one octave and a thirteenth is a sixth plus one octave - that's a bit more complicated but you get the hang of it eventually... Then subtract 5 frets for each string you skip (e.g. major sixth = 1 string and 4 frets) and you're sorted - also learn the chromatic scale to get used to practising the intervals, coz it uses all of them[/quote] This is a good start - but I really meant that you need to know how to play the different intervals across the strings - because the way you've writted this out - while being fantastically clear - only deals with a single string. It's obviously essential to know where intervals fall on a single string too - but practically speaking you are most likely (or should hopefully) play bigger intervals over several strings. IE Playing a major tenth of C major - when you play the C on the 8th fret of the E string - is only ONE fret higher but on the G string... the note is E - but it's 10 notes away from C... so you should try and learn the scale from E string to G string - and up each string - see the diagrams on the link to the Angelfire website I posted earlier. Another good way of looking at scales is on a piano - it's the clearest way to get a 'visual' image of how they work. OK last bit - the way I learnt many scales was by developing a mental image of them - so I can visualise a shape in my head - and project it onto the finger board - while I don't think the names of each note I do know how they 'sound' - ER the difference between a minor or major third, flattened seventh etc - so I can aim for the 'chord tones' (the notes that make up a chord, as in 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th etc) so if I'm improvising or not looking at the neck for whatever reason - I have my mental map to guide me. Visualising stuff is key to 'looking ahead' and thinking ahead when playing a tune - for getting your hand in position for a key change etc - anyway it's a big subject - loads of good advice here - best thing is to get a Scales Thesaurus and get working on it. Any more questions just shoot M

[quote name='4StringHell' post='89008' date='Nov 15 2007, 04:30 PM']Hey guys, I'm at a slightly emotional crunch point in my bass playing and could really use some guidance. (I know nothing of the crunch) After several years of cheating my way through learning bass... I've finally realised its time to learn it properly. I've <just> gotten away with only 'learning' tablature, basic patterns, slides and chords, and basically learnt to play in the 'Oliveri box' stoner rock style. Its not bad for the grunge bands I've been in... but now I'm in an art/rock band with some classical muso's and my half arsed approach has me somewhat ashamed of how little I know. I've been re-inspired to try and get to the next level! I've got three questions which I'd really appreciate some help with: Firstly I blatantly need to learn my scales and notes, but should I learn the fretboard before I learn the scales...?? 'cause if I start with scales I'll be thinking in tab... which is pointless I guess. Secondly I never learnt the whole thumb behind the neck / 4 fingers on 4 frets thing as I switched over from guitar and just stuck with that thumb over the top style as I coudlnt reach 4 frets! Should I start on this as well or is it not such a problem? I'm hesitant 'cause it'll be a major setback. I've noticed some pretty ace players not doing the 4 fret reach. Do 3/4 length necks help much or is that cheating ?? Keep in mind I dont need to play walking or funk bass parts. Lastly I love playing in drop D and was wondering if this is a bad way to learn? Should I tune my whole bass down a half and get used to that instead?? I dont want to get a 5 string as I find they slow me down a lot. The whole sometimes in E, sometimes in D just confuses what little note response time I have! Any bass Yoda advice would be hugely appreciated !!! Its time to knuckle down and do my Warwick some justice!! Thanks a million guys![/quote] I'm sure others will have loads of good advice but I'll give you a few pointers: Re scales - there are some good bits here: [url="http://www.angelfire.com/id/bass/"]http://www.angelfire.com/id/bass/[/url] My general approach was to learn every scale all over the neck from top to bottom - Jaco demos this on his video and all it means is being able to play C major for example - everywhere. Going vertically 'across' the neck and then horizonatally - up and down. Practice scales slowly and look at the relationship between notes on the fretboard - half tones, whole tones, major and minor thirds - and then bigger intervals like fifths, sixths, sevenths, elevenths, 13s, etc - take it slow. Re hand position on the neck - some people can play loads of stuff without holding their hand correctly but I've foind that by having my thuimb properly secured behind the neck that my fingering hand works effortlessly - and it's also less likely that you will do yourself and injury - good techniques are developed for both ease of playing and 'health and safety' reasons - it's not the law but it does help you play better and look after yourself better IMO. Thirdly the drop tuning thing is cool - I drop D on my Thumb bass quite a lot but I've learnt how to finger octaves and some scales with it - but you might make a whole heap of more work if you dropped your whole bass down a tone - but it might be very cool too. You could always get a 5 string - I love a low B too - so there are lots of options - my advice is experiment and see what feels best to you. Hope some of that helps - I'm sure others can provide a load more good advice - I hand you over to SAlun and the boys Cheers Mike