TKenrick

Me'shell is definitely one of my favourite players, ridiculous groove and an amazing feel. Some of her simplest lines are really hard to recreate properly because of her articulation. Her part at 2:30 through this always makes me smile:

There's a really good iPhone app called Dr. Betotte which is fairly pricey in app terms (think it was about £6) but it has all the functions of metronomes that retail for £50+. Tempo range from 10-310bpm, switchable subdivisions and odd-meter settings.

[quote name='Gareth Hughes' post='1102450' date='Jan 25 2011, 05:58 PM']What - no juicy details? What happened? Prying minds (with feck all else to do) must know!!![/quote] Not that many juicy details I'm afraid - was recording all morning, turned on phone during lunch break and got the good news. My friend went over to Waterloo to pick it up and delivered it to me. Needless to say he was massively apologetic about the whole thing and told me to never lend him anything ever again... [quote name='MIJ-VI' post='1102522' date='Jan 25 2011, 06:37 PM']You owe karma a favour...[/quote] I couldn't agree more.

This was on my transcription list, thanks for posting it and saving me the effort!

Got the bass back safe and sound this afternoon, fairly relieved to say the least! Thanks to everyone for their support/advice Tom

[quote name='bumnote' post='1100563' date='Jan 24 2011, 11:04 AM']Are you shure it hasnt gone all the way down the line? Waterloo to guildford ends up at Portsmouth doesnt it?[/quote] The fast train goes all the way to Portsmouth, this was the slow one that only goes as far as Guildford.

Latest news is I have to wait until tomorrow when the lost property backlog from the weekend will have been processed - I've spoken to another BCer who works for south west trains and unfortunately there's nothing I can do to speed this up. The bass was left on the service running between London Waterloo and Guildford on Friday night. Having checked lost property at Guildford on Friday night, it appears that the bass is most likely at Waterloo, unless someone has taken it... So if any London/South East based people see a black Jap Precision with a maple neck and gold scratchplate and a badass bridge then please get in touch! It was travelling in a grey Protec Contego gig bag. [attachment=69842:IMGP3692.JPG]

Thanks for all the responses guys, my friend has of course said that he'll replace the bass - I've known the guy a long time, we dep for each other regularly and I'm certain there's nothing suspicious going on other than a moment of massive incompetence on his part. As others have already mentioned, it's really not about the monetary value of the bass. I don't care about getting another bass, I care about getting THAT bass back again. If there's no news tomorrow morning I'll start a search operation, might need BCers to keep an eye on their local pawn shops... And yes, lesson learnt.

I recently lent a friend my beloved 80's P-bass for a recording session... Just had a call from him to inform me that he somehow managed to leave it on a train last night, and that the lost property office isn't staffed at weekends so I can't find out anything until Monday morning. It's going to be a long Sunday... Keep your fingers crossed Basschat!

'The Rumble' and 'Cool' (particularly the middle section) are probably the most taxing bits of West Side, the rest of it isn't too bad. As the others have said, get on Spotify and get familiar with the tunes - you might well be surprised at how many of the tunes are actually well known to you already. And yes, the Dave Grusin arrangements are amazing, well worth checking out.

This can be answered easily in two words: Anthony Jackson Ultimately it should be a question of what will produce the best tone, not what your preferred technique is. And a massive +1 to checking out Bobby Vega

[quote name='funkle' post='1083442' date='Jan 9 2011, 07:01 PM']Becoming a full-time jazz musician still doesn't look like a terribly viable career option to bring home the income, although I'd love to do it, so if I want to play jazz I've got to pay the bills somehow...[/quote] Jazz isn't a viable career option for me either, pop gigs/weddings/teaching pay the bills and studying/playing jazz is very much the hobby. [quote name='Delberthot' post='1083819' date='Jan 10 2011, 01:05 AM']If on the other hand you want to be a studio session musician or do pit work Then perhaps what has been said previously is the best thing for you to do and what i have said is complete bollocks.[/quote] I'll agree with this bit. There are players who want to really study certain aspects of music and there are players who are comfortable with the knowledge that they have - neither approach is wrong. Each to their own and all that...

Many thanks for the comprehensive reply Pete, it's much appreciated. What you've said about the exercises involving different methods of approaching chord tones and tensions definitely sounds familiar, I hadn't realised Jeff Berlin had studied with Banacos but of course that makes a lot of sense now... In terms of the ear training exercises, I've never really got into solfege in any real depth so will definitely spend some time on that. I've been working on exercises from [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hearing-Writing-Music-Professional-Training/dp/0962949671/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294588475&sr=8-1"] Hearing and Writing Music [/url] for a while as a means of being able to transcribe without an instrument but still have a long way to go. I totally know what you mean about work getting in the way of serious practice. I'm a full time musician and still find that work interferes with my practicing and takes me away from the things I want to be working on. Tom

Hopefully these are 3 that you don't know already... Don't know if the Umbrella one is 100% accurate, it was done towards the end of learning 65 tunes in a week for a similar scenario. Good luck! [attachment=68210:Umbrella.pdf] [attachment=68211:Forget_You.pdf] [attachment=68212:Use_Somebody.pdf] I'm pretty sure there was a transcription of 'Man In The Mirror' posted in the theory and technique forum not that long ago.

[quote name='funkle' post='1079223' date='Jan 5 2011, 09:49 PM']I've done everything up to and including 'A' in all 12 keys, and am currently working on a lot of other Charlie Banacos exercises as opposed to this stuff, but I intend to return to this and finish off everything from Ab onwards as time allows. My neck knowledge isn't perfect but it's a lot better than it used to be.[/quote] Am I right in thinking that Charlie Banacos is pretty much the guru when it comes to ear training and jazz improv exercises? Any chance you could shed some light on what the exercises focus on?

I think all instruments are fair game when it comes to transcription - I've done a few bits of Wes, along with some George Benson and a whole lot of Pat Metheny. I always find checking out other instruments rewarding as it results in me playing ideas that I wouldn't come across if I only transcribed bass players.

Here are some things that I've found helpful in terms of designing practice routines for myself and my students: 1. Set yourself some clear, achievable playing goals - these will depend heavily on the genre(s) of music that you're passionate about and the players that you admire. 2. As Jake said, practice in 15 minute blocks with short breaks in between. This stops your brain/muscles from getting overloaded and means that you retain more information, making your practice time more effective. Think [i]quality[/i], not quantity. 3. Keep a practice diary, noting everything you practice each day. Not only does this help you remember what keys/tempo you practiced yesterday, it also helps you to measure your progress over the course of weeks/months/years. 4. Become content with making small improvements in your playing. Progress will not be immediate, and sometimes it's hard to realise that your playing is developing. Don't beat yourself up about making mistakes, they're an essential part of practicing (funkle's post said this and more in a much better way...) 5. Keep reviewing your practice routine to evaluate what works and what doesn't, then adjust accordingly. In terms of areas to study, I'd suggest splitting your 60 minutes into quarters and tackling technique, harmony, reading and transcription. Some BCers will know I'm a staunch advocate of the benefits of transcription as it acts as it helps to develop your skills in hearing and writing music, builds repertoire and provides an excellent basis for developing your own musical vocabulary. This is all just opinion, and it seems like you're on the right track already, especially regarding your attitude towards practicing. [quote name='Tandro' post='1076386' date='Jan 3 2011, 03:49 PM']What about a 1 hour lesson every other week, is that too little? I dunno if I can even swing that. The going rate seems to be around £25-30 an hour? (As I'm out in West London, I had called Techmusicschool and they quoted £40 an hour, which seems a bit high).[/quote] I'm based in Chiswick, so if you have questions on any of this stuff then feel free to give me a shout. Tom

[quote name='wotnwhy' post='1045118' date='Dec 2 2010, 02:14 PM']And anyway, it doesn't matter how hard you hit the strings, you'll never be heard un-amplified. So why work harder? [/quote] I agree with this, up to a point... While I'm definitely in favour of not using too much effort when playing, I find that there has to be a certain level of attack in order to produce what I'd term a 'solid' tone (of course, tone is an entirely subjective thing). Having been to clinics with Todd Johnson and spent numerous hours trying to imitate Gary Willis' right hand technique, I find that the tone generated by floating thumb playing is a tad 'weak' for my tastes. While I appreciate that it has benefits, and lends itself to certain playing situations, I think it lacks a certain something when it comes to playing grooves. Obviously it's a matter of personal opinion, but I find that I produce a stronger, more defined tone from using anchoring and rest strokes.

[quote name='lojo' post='1027076' date='Nov 17 2010, 05:00 PM']What we need is a random note on the stave generator that will set a bar or 2 of notes to play along to at a time, and at a tempo set by the user (slow for the YTS guys )[/quote] There's a really good random note generator here: [url="http://garywillis.com/pages/lessons/read.html"]http://garywillis.com/pages/lessons/read.html[/url] You can adjust the range of pitches as well as the percentage of accidentals, and you can set the tempo to what ever you like as long as you have a metronome to hand...

[quote name='jakesbass' post='1024501' date='Nov 15 2010, 12:12 PM']If it's Sibelius how do you get the cross note heads for deadened note...? I've searched high and low![/quote] The shortcut for dead notes is shift + alt + 1 (this works on a mac, I assume it should be the same on a PC). Changing the number gives different note heads. Tom

Last week mostly involved me learning 60ish tunes for an audition - the bulk of them were fairly uninspiring, but a couple stood out due to some nice bass work. I thought I'd post them here for those who want some fresh reading material. 1. Beyoncé - 'Deja Vu' The thing that caught my ear about this was the contrast between the catchy 2 bar vamp and the high register fill at the end of the verses (good ledger line reading practice!). Some nice lines in the prechorus as well. [attachment=63641:Deja_Vu.pdf] 2. Cee Lo Green - 'Forget You' Really simple verse groove, the real highlight for me is the bridge, which has some nice Motown licks in there (the first bar of the bridge reminds me of 'Bernadette', the fill over the D7 in bar 7 is pretty much stolen straight from Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons 'December 1963') [attachment=63642:Forget_You.pdf]

It's also a good tool for learning the accidentals in each key, especially if you're interested in reading/writing standard notation. If you start at C (no #s/bs) and go clockwise (up in 5ths) then each successive major scale has one more sharp: G major has F#, D major has F# and C#, A major has F#, C# and G#... The same process applies with flats if you move up in fourths from C (F major has Bb, Bb major has Bb and Eb etc) As Jennifer has already said, lots of chord progressions move up in fourths (or down in fifths), so practicing things around the cycle of fourths helps to prepare you for a lot of 'real life' musical situations. Tom