urb

That's like saying "What's the importance of learning words and grammar if I want to learn to speak?" - music is a language and learning scales will create the means by which you can join things together, and 'say' things that make sense. It may seem overwhelming at first but learning major, minor and diminished scales will get you on the right track - get a book on them (I haven't used one for ages but I'm sure some people here can suggest some great ones) or have a look around the web. Learning the modes is also a very good thing to do - the more of a vocbulary you have, the more ways you can express yourself, the easier you will communicate with other musicians. Cheers Mike

OK chaps - hope one of you has some experience with Ableton. My problem - I've made a shiny new tune using Ableton Live 6 - and I used BFD for my drum part - I recorded them as an 'audio' file as they don't really work as a VST Midi unit - but they do come ujp as a VST. I recorded a groovy drum part and it all sounds great in Ableton - but then I 'rendered' the file to disk - ie created a mix-down to listen to - and the track went over fine as a WAV file but it was MINUS the drum part... which makes me think there's a problem exporting these files or rather 'samples' - if any of you have an idea about where I might have gone wrong - or what buttons I need to push to make the drum samples exportable I'd be really grateful. Thanks Mike

My tupence worth on this is short and simple - don't play music that isn't 100% your thing. I did it for years and I kind of regret not just playing what I like best - i.e. jazzy funky stuff - not only has my playing improved immeasurably since I've played in bands that the music is totally my thing - I've enjoyed gigging and recording and I've also got paid more often than not. As for band politics, honesty is the best policy - ego's are bull**** - one of my bands almost split up becuase the drummer had the most unbelievable row with the singer - but we patched it up and it's all the better for having cleared the air... seriously don't put up with pricks - they just ruin everybody's day - and the music suffers too. M

[quote name='Higgie' post='87684' date='Nov 13 2007, 12:51 AM']Is it just me or is the second vid down? The first one was great! Im gonna have to learn how to do that, heh.[/quote] Hi Higgie - the second vid is defo still working - but the start looks a bit crap thanks to Youtube flash video compression - not the way I intended it. Let me know if u can see it ok M

A totally kick-ass, killing band - a really funky bunch playing cool music - what more you want???

I'm ga bit utted I won't be there - I was seriously looking into transport a few weeks back and the cost is pretty bad from London - and I would have had to stay over which would have meant more dosh - so it's lucky I have a gig at Notting Hill Arts club on Sunday to keep my mind off it! I hope you all have a wicked time and if anyone would be kind enough to film Hadrien Feraud's set and post on YOu Tube that would be bloomin' ace! I've seen all the other bassists a lot so it's mainly Hadrien I'd want to check out - but it's a long way just to do that. Look forward to hearing the general banter about it next week. Have fun Mike

I don't know if I can do five but here goes: 1 Flea 2 Stu Hamm 3 Jonas Hellborg 4 Les Claypool And a massively distant 5th place to... Vic Wooten... I still love him as an overall bassist - just a bit bored of his solo style and music - but he's still a giant of modern day bass and an incredible teacher too. M

[quote name='Sibob' post='85497' date='Nov 8 2007, 03:47 PM']I like the big *Sigh* at about 0.35 in the top/first video lol Cheers anyway, been practicing this for a while now Si[/quote] Cheers Bob - glad it's been useful - I'm not depressed honestly! *calls bass doctor...* M

Sorry to be a bore but here's a little groove with this technique - I've been working on getting it even and steady at slow tempos and being able to switch from steady 8ths to fast 16ths to 32nds etc - it's becoming much more instinctive now as well - so I don't have to think about it as much - which is nice

go to www.basplayer.tv and check out the 'Artist Features' and look at the whole lot of Bobby Vega stuff - this guy is sensational and dare I say it even more funky than Vic with the double thumping - he replaced Larry Graham in Sly And The family Stone so he must be good right!? Anyway DT-ing is quite an old technique now but check out the way Bobby uses it to get that really greasy funk vibe going - not for lots of triple time fast stuff - he just grooves like a monster and throws in some really tasty chords and incredible syncopations. My only advice as someone who got possibly a little-too into the whole Vic thing (I have his book of tune but I couldn't be bothered to learn them!) is just to say don't get too obsessed with these techniques at the expense of developing ear training, harmony knowledge, timing etc etc - these are fantastic 'tools' to have in the bag and really open up the possibilities oof the bass as a solo instrument - but playing great with two fingers, with great timing and harmonic taste will get you way, way more work! Keep it up you are doing incredibly well. And to see me at my most excessive DT stage (this was made about 2 years ago) here's a clip oof me too: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dSLrM_1Ico"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dSLrM_1Ico[/url] - yes I have a spazz face... M

Hey Pugz - good job - I see you've discovered and mastered the joys of double-plucking - as opposed to double thumbing - you demonstarted how it can make things sound more complex but is actually easier to execute than double thumbing and actually (especially live) jumps out more. I also liked the way you do the tricky counterpoit part - I've learnt this tune in the past and I could play all the right notes on that bit as Vic always hammers the bass line below the 'tremelo' part on top my hand ended up hurting because of the stretches - your soluiton worked great. Anyway - well done and I'm sure if you keep at it you are going to turn into a truly great bassist by the time you are as old and cynical as me - you're already kicking some serious butt! Keep at it... Cheers Mike

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='81877' date='Oct 31 2007, 06:38 PM']What..........you mean you aren't having a Shuker made !.[/quote] Yeah - nutter eh? M

[quote name='Nate' post='70013' date='Oct 5 2007, 01:50 PM']Try Portriat of Tracy. That'll sort your harmonics out...! Amazing Grace is a fun one to play though. Sliding harmonics is great![/quote] Portrait of Tracy is definitely harder - I've tried to learn both of these tunes - the thing that is very hard with Wooten's Amazing Grace is playing the synchopated version as funkily as he does - he just doesn't stop grooving like a monster - and for the record you can play this tune on a regular four string - and Tenor tuned bass - if you have his excellent Bass Day 98 DVD he plays it on his Yin Yang bass on that. Victor makes a lot of very hard stuff look very easy - but that's becuase he practiced like a nutter for years before he ever became famous. His starting point for harmonics was Portrait Of Tracy - he says this on the 'extras' on the aforementioned DVD - well worth getting if you are going through (what I like to call) "Your Wooten Phase" - don't worry I went through mine a few years ago - I've moved on to other things since... Good luck M

[quote name='fusionbassist1' post='80163' date='Oct 27 2007, 04:33 PM']The technique in the video makes me think of victor wooten but instead of a more thru-string slapping technique with the thumb you seem to utilise more of a stroke. You've naield the techinque though btw. Konnakol is something i've been entranced by very recently as I've always found it hard to coutn say a bar of 4 while letting my hands move independantly in groups of anything but 4 (3,5,7 etc). I'd highly advise you go to [url="http://www.bassplayer.tv"]http://www.bassplayer.tv[/url] then click on artist features and watch kai eckhardt's videos where he demonstrates his use of konnakol. Really inspiring and overwellming to me anyway. Rather similar technique to yours actually. Thanx for the ideos.[/quote] Thanks for the tip - I'm a huge fan of Kai's playing, he's an awesome musician and a great, great teacher - so I'll certainly check it out. Likewise I'd recommend you check his band Garajmahal - they are truly slamming and he plays like a groove monster with those guys - I think he's actually my favourite slap bassist around today - so groovy and really flowing. Anyway glad you dug the video and ideas - thanks for the tips in return. Cheers Mike

[quote name='fusionbassist1' post='80156' date='Oct 27 2007, 04:19 PM']firefox :S ??? won't let me watch[/quote] Hey there - it's just an MP3 - if you have installed Quicktime on your computer it should play fine - but with IE being a bit narky when it comes to Apple-orientated software, this site tends to work better with Firefox - if you sign up to the site you can download it for free... Hope that helps - it's a fun solo. Cheers Mike

Wicked - thanks G - I think it's all very reasonable really - considering what it would have cost 10 years ago etc. Unfortuntely I'm about to pay for my new Sei bass - and that's my last 'toy' for a while - but I will start to put something like a home studio together at some point - it's good to see how you have done yours. M

Awesome Gary - looks ace - I'll have to study it in more detail when I have time - one question that springs to mind is any idea how much a used MOTU 828 goes for these days? Just thought you - or others here - might know - I think I can borrow one. Last other question - and slightly cheeky (PM if you prefer) but how much did all those bits and bobs (minus laptop) cost you? Cheers dude Mike

That groovy - and amazing - French bass don Dominique DiPiazza has developed his own special bridge system that can make a fretted sound like a fretless - I'm not sure he's using it here on this clip but I think he is - [url="http://youtube.com/watch?v=y7wZZPYWQzQ"]http://youtube.com/watch?v=y7wZZPYWQzQ[/url] but I think he definitely is here [url="http://youtube.com/watch?v=V8Dw3PGDSLc&mode=related&search="]http://youtube.com/watch?v=V8Dw3PGDSLc&amp...ted&search=[/url] Not sure I like the idea of having two basses in one - my fretless (see avatar) has the nicest board on it and as it gets older and more worn in it's definitely getting more character. Anyway - interesting bass that - not sure about the slapping tho... M

[quote name='Mikey D' post='77513' date='Oct 21 2007, 10:14 PM']Same here...but after about 10 years of two fingers it is a hard habit to break. Nice video btw.[/quote] Thanks Mikey - yes it is a hard habit to adapt from - but I still do 95% of all my playing with 2 fingers and that is hard enough to get smooth and consistant and grooving - however it's nice to expand your technique a bit after a few years - I've been playing for 23 years and I'm still working on stuff eveyday just to be consistent. One NEW thing I did this weekend was start checking out the Southern Indian rhythm system of Konnakol - performed with the voice. I got a video with John McLaughlin demo-ing it - see [url="http://www.konnakol.org/"]http://www.konnakol.org/[/url] for more. It's absolutely brilliant - so simple yet can create amazing complex sub-divisions of beats. All without drums. Link to the McLaughlin video: [url="http://www.abstractlogix.com/features_view.php?idno=22"]http://www.abstractlogix.com/features_view.php?idno=22[/url] Anyway I started playing those rhythms with 4 fingers and got in creating accents on the 1 of groups of 2, 3 and 4 - and did this with the metronome - and within an hour or so I was coming up with new stuff. So I'm going to keep at this - trying to keep it musical and very much in time and use it to sub-divide grooves, melodic ideas and chords into different time feels - the long and the short of that being that overall my timing started to improve immediately... Damn there's so much to learn. Thanks for the feed(backing) Mike

[quote name='pip' post='76675' date='Oct 19 2007, 07:18 PM']Cheers Mike! I'm still learning the technique on the side, but I'm thinking of getting a ramp fitted to my warwick so I can practice the technqiue alot better, I seem to favour the bridge pup most of the time. Phil[/quote] Hey Phil - I love my ramp - I still dig playing basses without one but they really do help - anyway I've finally started using this stuff in a live context and it's working well - I just use it sparingly! It's a nice buzz when it's working in a groove. Cheers Mike

Hey people Just made a clearer video demonstrating the various ways you can use thumb plus index, middle and ring fingers to create all sorts of effects... Hope you like the title and incidental music too Thanks for watching Cheers Mike

Sweet guys - I really dug it - I surprised myself and watched most of it - didn't get too many dips in the signal - now off to watch the new episode of Heroes - sorry I am addicted to that bloody show - and I've already seen the latter half of it so I know what happens at the end - still really good tho. I wish we could have more of these live streamed gigs - I think it could catch on this internet thing... - I'll let you know if I get sent any others in advance of them happening. Take it easy out there - no binge drinking now!!!! M

Go Poogie! Hey a fretless Fender too!!! I've heard that Marcus is looking at other amps to endorse - I have to say that I got tired of my EBS sound - it's great gear but tends to favour the slap bassist - and I'm much more into fingerstyle now - I love my SWR combo and Epifani 502 This is a wicked gig - I'm gonna check him in London on Nov 5 and 6 M

[quote name='NickThomas' post='75729' date='Oct 17 2007, 07:51 PM']Bloody bassist... Late again lol[/quote] Yeah I agree - but I'm usually early...Dare I say Marcus may have partaken of some Dutch 'hospitality' - anyway so far so good - I'm impressed with the camera work and the quality is superb - webcasting has really improved since the early days... M