TKenrick

New note-for-note transcription of Louis Johnson's part on Michael Jackson's 'Get On The Floor'

Having spent the last couple of months enduring all sorts of self-induced technical hitches it's finally time for some new content. First up is part 1 of a clinic with Janek Gwizdala that I bootlegged in 2007 when I was studying at ACM in Guildford. Here he talks about what he learned by 'ripping off' great players like Herbie Hancock, Allan Holdsworth and George Benson: There's a PDF of the transcribed speech/widdling available HERE

I was hoping to come up with an answer, but I lasted 28 seconds before I couldn't take any more...

Thanks for including my site in the list, currently having a nightmare with server upgrades but should be back up and running ASAP!

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1496389421' post='3310933'] I use the pinky a lot, but I tend to use double bass style fingering lower down the neck, where the hand spans three frets and the pinky is supported by the ring finger behind it. [/quote] This. Pretty much all the time, including higher registers - it just feels more secure and allows me to keep my fretting hand more relaxed and maintain a relatively straight wrist. [quote name='danonearth' timestamp='1496371426' post='3310883'] [color=#191919][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=4]...so I am favouring a more spread out position (which doesn't seem to hurt my pinky as much, but I have also even just begun playing it with index-middle-ring fingers and no pinky at all) ---------------4-5- --------3-5-7----- -3-5-7------------ Thanks![/size][/font][/color] [/quote] This makes my hand hurt just thinking about trying it. Biomechanically speaking, your hand isn't really designed to stretch too much between the middle and ring fingers.

[quote name='Steve Woodcock' timestamp='1494520737' post='3296737'] Mr. Brightside is in the key of Db major (key signature of 5 flats). [/quote] Thank you for this - the mounting pile of C#s was beginning to make me twitch.

I almost lost it when having to decide between two equally awful slappity-poppity notegasms, but I soldiered on. Just out of interest, were the tapping examples Michael Manring and Billy Sheehan? Think I managed to clock everything else, but those ones had me stumped. I found myself having numerous internal debates as to whether it's harder for someone to convincingly play a simple sounding groove in an odd time signature or complicated sounding sloppy slap tricks in 4/4...

Glad you got something out of the post! Just re-read your original post and this jumped out at me: [quote name='j1mu5' timestamp='1494180747' post='3293857'] I'm currently having lessons every other week which give's me something to work on but feel like I could do with a template or guide to ensure I'm maximising my practice time. [/quote] Without wanting to pass comment on your lessons - about which I know nothing - this is really an area that [i]any[/i] teacher should cover sooner rather than later; it stops you wasting time (and money) and ensures that they don't spend lesson time recapping too much content from the previous lesson. Everyone wins. If a teacher can't outline some clear and effective strategies for practising that are directly applicable to you then, well...

Have a read of this, which summarises most of what I've learned in 17 years of [i]trying[/i] to get my sh*t together: http://www.freebasstranscriptions.com/2014/02/02/7-steps-to-better-practice/

Something old, something new-ish: Bob Babbitt's groove on 'Inner City Blues' Grooving with harmonics: Squarepusher - 'Iambic 9 Poetry'

Here are some thoughts about GAS and how to manage it: The full article is HERE Here's some Herbie Hancock: Groove of The Week #42: 'Palm Grease'

[quote name='Grangur' timestamp='1491938430' post='3276680'] It seems to me that there are those who can't read who argue "there's no benefit". Has anyone who has learned ever said "it useless, I wish I'd not bothered"? [/quote] This is one of the finest posts I've seen here. Nail, head, hit.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1492008032' post='3277144'] My piano teacher got bored of me saying - "but it's the same note" [/quote] That implies that your piano teacher's explanation of this was [i]sub-par[/i] to say the least...

If you play any E and play a C# [b]above[/b] it then you've gone up a major 6th regardless of which string or fret it's located on. If you play any E and play the C# [b]below[/b] it then it's still the 6th degree of the E major scale and is referred to as 'the major 6th' within the key even though technically you've gone down a minor 3rd to get to it (a minor third being the interval that you get if you invert a major 6th). It's important to differentiate between naming a note according to its function within a key and labelling individual intervals within a melody or bass line. If you play the open E string followed by the highest C# possible on your bass then you're still playing the tonic followed by the 6th degree of the scale, the functions of those two notes remain unchanged even if the 'distance' between them on the fretboard is different. EDIT: After writing the above I went back to practising and realised that adding the following might help... Identifying notes by their function versus labelling the interval between them: Let's stick with the OP's choice of E to C# (9 semitones, definitely a major 6th) and imagine that we're playing these notes against the I chord (tonic, 'home', 'key chord', however you want to label it) in each different key: In the key of E the functions of the notes (their position in the scale) are the tonic (or root, or even just '1') and 6th. If we change keys and move to A major (A B C# D E F# G#), E to C# is [b]still [/b]a major 6th but the E is the 5th of the scale and C# is the 3rd. Changing keys again to D major (D E F# G A B C#), E to C# is [b]still[/b] a major 6th, now the E is the 2nd and C# is the 7th The same interval viewed in different harmonic contexts will have a different function, but the distance between the notes remains the same. Apologies if any of this is unbearably patronising, but I wanted to provide the most complete answer possible. Articulating this in writing is a bit like trying to give swimming lessons over the phone, but hopefully this clarifies things rather than adding to the confusion!

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1491924909' post='3276536'] See, for me that's not clickbait. 'Clickbait', as I understand it, is about enticing people to click on stuff for the sake of generating advertising venue (from click-through fees). [/quote] It seems that I have a different view of what constitutes clickbait in this context - as I see it, videos with titles like 'The ONE scale that you need to know' or '5 EPIC practice hacks' are all about enticing as many views as possible by using a carefully selected style of language to appeal to the broadest audience possible. To me, at least, that seems like clickbait. Please note that none of my comments are intended to pass judgement on the [b]content [/b]of that video or any other - Scott has done an [i]incredible[/i] amount for the bass community both in terms of the academy and all the free content that he produces. Ditto for Janek.

Right on cue... [sharedmedia=core:attachments:242808]

[quote name='MisterT' timestamp='1491776936' post='3275337'] Have you noticed the trend now to clip the videos up? They delete the unnecessary frames, probably keeps interest and packs more into a shorter time for people with shorter attention spans. [/quote] This is also an editing trick to weed out any footage that isn't up to scratch - maybe they've gone off on a tangent, flubbed their lines or said something contentious that seems too severe at the editing stage (at least that's how I use it...). Bob Reynolds (a superb sax player) has a long running vlog, which is full of great advice spliced in with footage of him doing mundane 'real life' things like driving his kids to school and I always find it a pain trying to skip through the dross to get to the good stuff. I was really enjoying the Janek vlog up until he started timelapsing his therapy sessions, but each to their own.

Hi Thomas (and anyone else who might be interested) I've suffered from and successfully rehabbed playing-related tendonitis as well as other injuries in the past so have a massive interest in posture and ergonomics for electric and double bass. I wrote my dissertation on tendonitis and RSI and have run workshops on injury prevention for bass students at ACM Guildford. I teach in SW18, not far from Earlsfield station. Let me know if you have any questions! Tom

[quote name='dand666' timestamp='1491380062' post='3272497'] Nice. Have this at a gig coming up. Although they've changed the key [/quote] Damn singers!

Almost 3 years late to the party, but I've never had to gig this until recently and found that I enjoyed it more than anticipated (mainly due to gratuitous octave pedal usage): [media]http://youtu.be/MXxs67toUmc[/media]

An unlikely example of great envelope filter usage (and generally filthy bass playing throughout): http://youtu.be/MSXP8jQZWT4

How to 'fake' synth bass using an octave pedal on Clean Bandit's 'Rather Be: Transcription link is HERE

[quote name='JohnR' timestamp='1489945012' post='3260998'] A massive thank you from me for the great work and generous share. [/quote] Cheers John, means a lot to get such positive feedback!

The site has had another facelift and is still having its 'back end' done up... New transcription and play along video of Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now': http://youtu.be/OFRUtk69FOU Transcription pdf is HERE I also put on my Big Girl Pants and did my first ever gear review, demoing the much-hyped Noble Preamp: http://youtu.be/YsuuPfxFXvA

Another High Action Club member here (whoops, starting to get a little too much like Talkbass...). Although there are some proponents of low action/light touch who do great things, I can't get on with it at all. [quote name='gafbass02' timestamp='1488833527' post='3252256'] I've always needed my strings a hair off the board, it seems like every bass I pick up has what I consider a huge action, and I just don't get how people play with any fluency on them!? Super low for me [/quote] I always have the opposite problem - I try other basses and feel like everything is choked and there's no 'room to move'!