XB26354

Sting is not, and never will be a "twat" when it comes to music. I don't really go for mainstream artists that go all folky (a gross simplification but you know what I mean). He tried some similar stuff on Mercury Falling and it wasn't really to my taste (especially the one that starts off like this and ends in 7/4 with a sax solo!) He's had a very distinguished and successful career in the Police and solo, and as he's not far off 60, I wouldn't expect him to be jumping round the stage to three-chord punk...

One other small point - transcribing by writing down [i]and[/i] learning the music - really helps with your familiarity with notes, rhythms and melodic sequences. The added bonus is that it gives your ear a proper workout

I'd just add that access to as much varied music as you can really helps to improve your reading. I'd recommend all the above - anything that starts off simple and stays within the first five frets (as this is where most meat and potatoes bass happens anyway). When you do change position and shift up the neck, try practicing same-string shifts of four, the five then six frets etc. slowly without looking at the neck. After a little while you can "feel" where the shift is. Best of luck and persevere. My first reading gig was with a Sunday big band - 400 page book of written notation only with NO chord symbols, no timing indication (other than "fast", "med" or "ballad") and a 30-piece brass and horn section plus a psychotic piano bandleader to keep happy! I survived by the skin of my teeth (and played a lot more wrong than right notes) but learnt a huge amount. Building Walking Bass Lines and Expanding Walking Bass Lines by Ed Friedland will get you well-versed in quarter notes. When you get a bit better try some cello stuff (like some easier Bach) as it is really helpful for all the twists and turns music can throw at you... Rule 1 - keep playing no matter what. Rule 2 - something played out of time sticks out a lot more than a bum note. Rule 3 - always play rhythmic timings as written - new learners tend to cut notes short or leave them hanging over the beat/bar when silence is notated. Rule 4 - always make sure the music isn't going to slide off the stand right at the tricky bit Rule 5 - TAKE YOUR EYES OF THE DANCING GIRLS IN FRONT OF YOU

That's the funny, thing, he's not that easy to clone. I picked up the bass because I found a copy of Spirit of Radio in my brother's room (along with Jimi Hendrix, but that is a whole different story). I bought a Wal eventually, learned every line note for note from 2112 to Grace Under Pressure, and never once did I ever sound anything like him So I gave up. Probably the best thing I could have done but still not a bad introduction to bass. I'm with a few of the others here. I've listened to Snakes & Arrows god knows how many times but still don't really like it - apart from Armor and Sword it's just a bit dull song wise. I'd say Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, Grace Under Pressure, Hold Your Fire and Counterparts show the bands' progression best to me. When they mix Vapor Trails better I'll add that too, but here's hoping for a more exciting next album...

Also bear in mind that it may not be Fender's fault - most of them are one-piece maple necks which can move in a change of climate and humidity - like sunny California to damp England! They do usually set up a medium rather than low action on the BNIB one's I've tried - although even some of the newest ones had badly cut nuts (just like you'd expect on a cheap copy).

Yeah, I voiced my annoyance at that on the Make Music forums as almost all guitarists and bass players would need x-notes but few if any require all the functionality of Finale. I don't and I really like Print Music's simplicity - I used to use the score function in Logic which was horrendous in comparison!

Another tip is to play something really slowly and focus on two things: 1) Reducing the amount of pressure you use to fret each note - it is probably less than you use now 2) Reducing the tension across the fretting hand by playing slowly enough to be able to relax the hand between notes. Point 2) above is greatly helped by using the thumb to pivot as mentioned above. As someone who used to get hand cramps and pins and needles, the above has helped tremendously. I have reasonably large sized hands and am now fine playing one finger per fret down to the nut on a 6-string with 35" scale, even for three or four hours with no pain or tension.

It is legit - you are setting intonation in relation to the lines. I used to have an Ibanez GWB and came across this issue. In the first example the 12th fret finger is almost a quarter tone sharp. As the "frets" are farther apart near the nut this means you would have to play further past the fret to be in tune. All Willis is saying is that setting up a lined fretless with intonation similar to a fretted bass means placing your finger so the edge is where the fret would have been. Of course it would be different on an unlined fretless as there aren't the same reference points.

Thanks Bilbo, I've just uploaded one with a few revisions - at the key change to Gb I forgot that the b5 of Bb is Fb instead of F, and the b7 of Cb is Bbb, not Bb. Splitting hairs maybe, but I like to get things right

[quote name='Faithless' post='615719' date='Oct 3 2009, 02:33 PM']Of course, it's important to know chords, arpeggios, and scales, but it won't help you to create an interesting bassline, in my opinion.[/quote] If you don't know the available chord and scale tones for a given chord, at least when you are learning a tune, you will struggle to produce a convincing line. Ed Friedland's books are excellent and they concentrate on these very elements - but a chromatic approach note only exists because there is a valid scale or chord tone to follow. In other words, you have to know where the scale or chord tone is in order to relate it to the chromatic approach. Otherwise you're either playing bum notes or free jazz

With regard to improvising - yes, most bass players start off root-oriented because that's what we're used to playing. As has been said elsewhere, it is vitally important to learn to play melodies convincingly to move away from being an accompanist. There are essentially three approaches to improvising: 1. Linear - this usual employs scale tones or fragments of scales, and also chromatic movement - can sound very smooth but too much of it can make a solo sound stagnant. 2. Intervallic - by using wider intervals you create bigger jumps which grab the ear. After working on diatonic arpeggios, practice diatonic 4ths, 5ths, 6ths and 7ths and then try combinations (up one interval, down the next). 3. Sequence - this is to take any musical idea and repeat it across bar lines and chord changes. A sequence can be made up of linear and/or intervallic parts Try exploring all three ideas - in order to learn any concept you must concentrate on just that concept. Linear, start off with a chord sequence of an easy tune at a medium-slow tempo. Play quarter notes starting at the lowest playable scale tone that fits the first chord on your bass. Keep going up in diatonic scale tones until the next chord appears. Then play the next available scale tone that fits the second chord and keep going through the chord sequence until you run out of frets or the sequence repeats. Do the same going back down, but pick a different route on the bass. Intervallic, do the same as above but slower as it is a lot harder! Also experiment by inverting each second interval. you can create some amazing lines this way. Sequence - take a three or four-note melodic idea low on your bass. Lift the idea up in scale tones until the next chord, then continue the sequence, adjusting any notes that need to change to fit the new chord. Start maybe with the first four eighth notes of the bar. When you get more confident try sequences that cross over bars and create cross rhythms (such as a sequence of sixteenth notes played with an accent on every third note). Once you've got things working with these ideas separately slowly bring them together and you'll find it pretty easy to improvise (as long as the tempo isn't stupidly fast - watch out for sax players that look edgy or hyper - they're bound to call Cherokee at 300bpm!) I've never seen or heard a good soloist that didn't have a command of these three ideas. One other point about walking bass - it is important to use roots but most advanced players are capable of playing a line that is so strong in itself that it implies the chord and context excellently, even if there are few roots (or even chord tones). At its best, this approach can turn a "bass line" into a counterpoint to a melody or solo. Some key books (mentioned here before): The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine Building Walking Bass Lines (and Expanding Walking Bass Lines) by Ed Friedland Concepts for Bass Soloing by Marc Johnson - absolutely excellent book with stunningly beautiful upright from Marc Any of the Aebersold playalongs that cater for less experienced jazzers (check the web or the back of any book) Oh and last but very much not least - listen to lots and lots of Jazz - all the answers are there

Off beat - main riff to Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream - notes 5-8 inclusive are all on the off beat. Back Beat - Billie Jean by Michael Jackson. Notice the snare, a doubled synth snare and handclaps all end up on beats 2 and 4 - the back beat.

The scale length doesn't guarantee a good-sounding B string, only a change in tension if you use the same gauge of string. My current bass is an MTD 635-24 which has a 35" scale, and the B is awesome. I recently tried an old Warwick Dolphin 5 with a 34" scale, and the B was even better - the B string felt as tight. The difference? The MTD has a wider range of tones as it is made from ash and maple with a wenge neck and board. The Dolphin has a Boire body, wenge neck and board. So it would seem that dense hardwoods tighten up the low end - I've never played a Warwick with a dull B, and they've all been 34". Too much hardwood in a body restricts the variety of tone. That's why Warwicks are great, but they have "that" sound. There is a sticky at the top of the page about this. One final thought: the OP mentions stubby fingers. Well Anthony Jackson is one of the baddest people ever to pick up bass. He's quite short, with small hands, and he plays a 36" 6-string with wide spacing and 28 frets. Don't worry about the scale being too long - go for what sounds and feels right.

Get the American - you won't be able to try out the Japanese one and the resale will be much better should you want to shift it in 6 months' time. From what I've seen American standards are extremely good - and you won't get the nice SKB hard case from Japan either. The US ones also crop up in the for sale section fairly often so you could get yourself a bargain!

I've played quite a bit of Latin (the rather gross umbrella term for Cuban, Afro Cuban, Salsa, Merengue, Guaguanco etc) music over the years. A lot of Cuban, Latin and South American music is felt in cut time with a '2' pulse - so it is written with four quarter notes to the bar but the pulse (or metronome) clicks every half note. The basic pulse of Latin music is the clave. It is a five-note rhythmic device that serves as the pulse (like a metronome on beats 1,2,3,4 in rock). Read about it [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clave_(rhythm)"]here[/url] The basic unit of bass in Cuban and Latin music is the tumbao, named literally after the low-pitched drum that plays this rhythm. It is formed by playing a note tied over the and of beat 2 and on beat 4 (which can itself tie over beat one of the next bar). Note the big shift from western music - [b]the bass part seldom lands on beat 1 or 3[/b]. This alone can stump new learners! For practicing you'd be much better advised to use a drum machine or sequencing software to program a clave and practice tumbaos with that instead of a metronome on beats one and three. I've attached a very basic tumbao as an example. Search out some classic latin music such Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Tito Rodriguez, up to Los Van Van and Bobby Valentin. It won't do you any harm at all to learn some basic percussion parts too - in fact it is almost impossible to play without understanding the layers of rhythm and how they interact. I agree that Funkifying the Clave is a great book but it's not really for learning Latin music, more for how to put a modern, funk-derived spin on traditional rhythms and forms. I found these two books really useful - wish I'd seen them when I started playing in a 15-piece Latin band (reading too, God!): The True Cuban Bass by Carlos Del Puerto (Sher) - great for a history of Cuban styles and the background behind the development of the music. It's in English and Spanish too! The Latin Bass Book by Oscar Stagnaro (Sher) - a great all round primer for playing latin and South American Music. Oscar's feel and time placement is awesome, and the 3 recorded CDs are superb. Includes more obscure Peruvian and Bolivian styles... I'd also give a nod to Brazilian Music Workshop by Antonio Adolfo, and the Salsa guidebook by Rebeca Mauleon - not necessarily bass-oriented but well-worth a look.

I'd agree with most of the above with one caveat: If after making these adjustments over a period of time you still can't get the setup you want, it's worth taking the bass to a reputable bass luthier/repairer to be looked at. Slightly high frets, a badly cut nut, a twist in the neck or flattened fret crowns will all mess with the ideal setup. Of course if you're confident with tools go for it, but I'd rather give my bass to someone that does fretstoning, profiling and nutwork every day of the week.... Once this has been done you should be able to do maintenance tweaks until one (or more) of the above crops up again, by which time other things might need looking at as well - kind of like a 10,000 hour service

That's unfortunately all too common. As a lot of musicians need all the income they can generate, many turn to teaching. They may be able to play really well (or even famous). However if they can't communicate, don't have the experience, time and patience to pass on their knowledge then they shouldn't be teaching full stop. Rich's advice above is excellent Personally I use one finger per fret right down to the first fret and in 15 years+ on a 6-string it's not slowed me down, but I look at how each student plays before making a judgement. It certainly suits Motown stuff as James Jamerson used this fingering almost exclusively. In any case an experienced teacher would be able to pass on the right information and monitor your progress. Perhaps you can check on here for a local teacher? Teaching yourself is fun and rewarding, but only when you've got the technical (and theory) sides up to scratch. Unless you're Jaco you may find years of frustration and learning/unlearning bad habits or crutches... be whatever, be persistent!

As (I assume you are) a beginner I highly recommend getting at least a few lessons with a good local teacher. In that first stage it is oh so easy to pick up bad habits that can become very hard to undo. A good teacher will have you playing efficiently and comfortably fairly quickly. If a lesson with a good teacher is £20 it is imho £20 better spent than on a book. Books generally help you to branch out into other areas or test your ability with more difficult exercises or ideas. Of course we have Basschat but you can't ask a book questions *** and before anyone comes out with it, no, your ability to be individual, rock out and express yourself will [i]not[/i] be harmed by having a good teacher and learning some theory (and dare I say it, even learning to read a bit!). Just keep an open mind. Tablature is all well and good but either ignore the whole theory/reading thing or learn all of it. In 20 years doing sessions and gigs not one bandleader or arranger ever put a sheet of tab in front of me! I learned by ear, or read a (chord or written) chart *** Notwithstanding the above, some books to get you going might include: Beginning Bass Guitar by Peter Pickow - a small, thin book that is surprisingly good as an introduction to playing bass. It was one of the first books I used after playing for a little while and I dipped into again after a looooong time. I was quite impressed Building Walking Bass Lines by Ed Friedland - as it mentions, it basically teaches walking bass used in jazz, but has some good basic tips on playing bass and an introduction to theory, plus all the examples are pretty easy even for a beginner until you get near the end of the book. Standing in the Shadows of Motown - an all-star presentation of the life and music of James Jamerson. The examples are notation only but CD's are included plus a biography and some nice spots by a wide range of the best people ever to pick up a bass. Also the Bass Player book as mentioned by deaver is great for all-round knowledge and making you want to play more. Cheers Mat

[quote name='funkypenguin' post='606889' date='Sep 23 2009, 05:56 PM']i'd pitch my tent in Anthony Jackson's camp and go for 6 (BEADGC) being the new standard [/quote] ...adding in that as the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family, it should always have had 6 strings The 4 is standard only because a. Fender derived electric bass from double bass (esp the tuning) and b. every other manufacturer followed suit. If Fender had created a workable 6-string bass guitar first then that would be the standard today. It might have been like a baritone guitar or tuned straight in 4ths as the most common incarnation is now. Anyway, a great player is great whether they play 2-string or 12-string. It ain't the bass that makes the sound happen, it's the player. The 4 was the classic bass throughout the 50's, 60's and 70's so it will always remain the "standard" bass. However there is enough potential in 5- and 6-string basses for them to be perfectly viable alternatives - again, it depends on the player.

Excellent advice! With regard to reading up the neck, do you mean changing position or just playing a piece higher up the neck? if you mean changing position then there is an old double bass exercise I used to use: Fret the A string at the first fret with the index finger. Without looking at the fingerboard, shift and fret at the second fret. Go back to the first fret. Repeat slowly over and over. Then go 1st-3rd fret, again without looking. Continue up until you are shifting a whole octave on one string. It can be done and if practiced regularly you'll never have trouble with position shifts. Other alternative - buy a 6-string As for playing higher up the neck, I recommend taking and bass lines or stuff you work on that mostly covers the A, D and G strings and shift it to cover the E, A and D. Also try learning scales with 4 notes per string, as per the example using C major below: 8th fret E-string: C-D-E-F 10th fret A-string: G-A-B-C 12th fret D-string: D-E-F-G 14th fret G-string: A-B-C-D And back down. This is what I call the "crab-walk" as your hand is almost constantly shifting. It is surprisingly challenging as it forces you to look at information horizontally rather than vertically. This is all of course practice - on an actual gig stay in position where possible - if there is a high passage and you have 30 seconds before starting to play, jump to it and quickly work it out. Cheers Mat

I don't know why, but my uncle had a lovely azure blue Ford Capri Ghia about 25 years ago, and for some reason this bass reminds me of it. I'll work out why one day Nothing nicer than a rescued bass, and a very good job done!

There's been more than one (long) thread in this sub-forum about modes. Have you done a search? If not ready the excellent pinned post at the top about ancient Greek music as it will fill in the (alleged) history. If you're still unsure after all that: Take the major scale in C. Play it up from C to C, then D to D, E to E etc. These are the modes of the Major scale. They are commonly used nowadays for improvising over certain chords. If you analyze each major scale mode you'd end up with the following 1 Ionian - major scale, works over major triad, Maj7, 9, 13 chords. 2 Dorian - minor scale with natural 6th - works over minor triad, Min7, 9, 13 chords (depending on the harmony - see Aeolian). 3 Phrygian - an odd mode that does not really work with major or minor, try as sus4 chord with a b9 interval 4 Lydian - like the major scale but with a raised (sharpened) 4th degree. Works like a major scale but sounds great with a Maj7#11 chord. 5 Mixolydian - like the major scale but with a b7 - use over dominant 7th chords 6 Aeolian - like Dorian but with a b6 - works over minor triad, min7, 9, 11 but NOT 13 (clashes) 7 Locrian - rarely used minor scale, most common with a min7b5 chord (but the scale has a b9 which sounds very dissonant if held). If none of the above makes sense then do some more reading on harmony and hopefully it should click. The above is a gross simplification but a good starting point. The key is that there are 12 different major scales, so each major scale has the above 7 modes. If you play each mode starting on the same note (i.e., C) then their differences should become apparent pretty quickly. Cheers Mat

They're substituted chord changes - the originals are lost in Giant Steps, the point being able to create new, more interesting chord progressions. The substitution in improvisation occurs on the original changes, implying different changes to make it more interesting. It's all just talk though - as long as it sounds OK that's all that matters.

Hi all, Just to complete a little look at this album, here's a transcription for I.G.Y. - a very simple bass part played with absolute precision from start to finish by Anthony Jackson. Listen also to the use of call and response (how dare he not play on the one!) and also the care taken with note lengths and articulation. Once again feel free to let me know if you see any mistakes. Cheers Mat