XB26354

[b]MTD[/b] - totally skint now and can't afford decent strings

brilliant!

Well bebop is no different to most other forms of jazz - it requires a walking bass line in either 2 feel (2 beats to bar or 4 beats to the bar). The tempo means that you normally have to simplify what you play to some degree until you have the ability to navigate the changes. With regard to chord changes, go through the tune playing only roots - at 200bpm this will sound OK. Then try Root-Root-5th-5th when there is one chord in a bar and root-5th-root-5th when there are two chords in a bar. As a lot of bebop tunes are based on old show standards the root movement will borrow a lot from the Cycle of Fourths (e.g. C to F to Bb to Eb to Ab to Db to Gb to B to E to A to D to G). The root-5th approach then has a nice leading tone into the next chord. Where there are awkward root movements (e.g. first two chords of Donna Lee = Abmaj7 - F7) use scale tones or a chromatic note immediately above or below the next chord). At this stage keep the root on the first beat and you should be fine. Arpeggios are useful in the long run but with a week to learn it's better to stick with roots, 5ths and chromatic approach notes (if you're feeling adventurous!) If you're talking about improvising - then the other posts contain lots of good advice. Cheers Mat

Oh blimey! I got caught up in the previous reading thread and made some personal comments to Max about which I sincerely apologise as they were uncalled for and unnecessary. Now I like Jazz and I like the idea of being free to improvise over a set of chord changes, but it has had extremely limited popularity for a very long time. I've got a fairly wide collection of music (including Jazz) but I like rock, pop, latin, funk whatever. Whilst most genres still produce genuinely brilliant music the vast majority of the jazz I own is 30-60 years old, because that's when it was more popular, and most of the acknowledged "greats" produced their best work. As to it's value, well if you played some as background music in coffee shops or restaurants I'm sure it wouldn't drive everyone away (in fact Caffe Nero play tons of it, for better or worse). BBC is also entirely right about image - as soon as television came along and there was someone to look at as well as to listen to things changed (e.g. the Beatles' moptops, Elvis being filmed from the waist up because his hips were "too provocative"). We all like to say that image isn't important but who really wants to watch a band stare at each other, the floor or their instruments? Mat

Max - you're certainly right about current Warwick prices. I don't know if it is the Euro, but my Streamer Stage 1 6 is now £3617 rrp The 2-piece bridge is a big improvement and as you say it makes a lot of sense just to call them Warwicks so they are associated with the premium price instruments. The other good thing is that you can now pick up very nice Warwicks secondhand for stupid money compared to the rrp - a student of mine recently got a lovely early 90's Corvette 5 (with wenge neck too) for under £300...

Probably because you come across as an arrogant self-satisfied knob bragging about your many achievements (which I suspect most people couldn't give a toss about), and I'm at a loss as to what your pompous posturing has got to do with both this thread and this forum.

Yeah go on Max, tell us all how it's done! I've got my hand on my (volume) knob as I speak...

whatever mate, life's too short. You win, I'm giving it all up. How could I be so blind?

[quote name='maxrossell' post='476542' date='Apr 30 2009, 11:47 PM']I think that that's a massively arrogant statement. People who choose to not gain expertise in a particular specialist field of their disciplines are not just afraid or ignorant. It's pathetic to look down on people just because you've chosen to learn something they don't consider all that important.[/quote] No it isn't. You've never learned to read. Whether you made a choice about it or not, how on earth do you think you can make a coherent argument against something you chose not to do? As for being pathetic, well I'm sure resorting to insults is very noble

The fact is there are great musicians that can read, and those that can't. Therefore reading has no effect on the ability of a great musician to perform, entertain or move an audience. By all means learn how to sightread like a monster, prove yourself in professional situations all around the world in every musical style, then come back and say it's a waste of time. Until then to me it's just fear of the unknown and ignorance. If we were talking about classical music then this conversation wouldn't even be happening, and we all know nothing of any value has ever come from classical music

So what you're saying is you had a bad teacher who told you that you'll never be able to read, and that put you off. If that teacher had been the opposite and you'd learned, who knows? You're basing your opinion on something that happened a long time in the past (and would have been out of your control) and your whole viewpoint to this day is coloured by it. I don't agree with you, but as you said, it is your opinion!

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='476017' date='Apr 30 2009, 02:15 PM']Just a thought. Most types of retailers offer crap service, possibly because they're often horrible places to work with no training and a brooding manager to boot. Why should musical instrument retail be any better? Perhaps we're expecting too much from the sector.[/quote] ... and add to that the fact that pay in music shops is almost always crap!

[quote name='maxrossell' post='476296' date='Apr 30 2009, 06:58 PM']I have a 1st class degree in music. I have written, produced and co-produced four albums and a half-dozen EPs or original material all in association with exceptional musicians. I'm going on for my fifteenth year as a performing musician. I even briefly had a publishing deal. I've scored three plays and two short films. And yet I have never learned to read music. For me, written music is a convenient tool to be used in a handful of situations that don't allow for practical communication between musicians, such as when the musicians are not in the same location, or when you're having to show a lot of musicians how to play something simultaneously. But that's all. I personally have never had to use it and most likely never will, because it's used to work in ways in which I don't like to work. And I would never trust a musician who needed to see something written down rather than just using their ears.[/quote] Well done. Good thing you can read and write English though, otherwise it would be quite hard to post here. If you'd learned to read music when you were young who knows what you might think? Like any tool, reading music is only of use if you know how to do it. As you can't then I won't be booking you to conduct any orchestras!

[quote name='Mikey D' post='383122' date='Jan 17 2009, 01:12 PM']As bilbo said, just with a few things I found useful. Obviously we tend to use the ascending form of the melodic minor. When applying to jazz (and other music obviously) you can get a lot of value from learning the melodic minor harmonies, especially when used on the dominant. Cmin/maj7 (can be applied in IImi in Bbmaj and Cm when it occurs as a tonic) D7susb9 (Ami7b5natural9/D)(Apply as a sound in V7 situations) EbMaj7#4#5 (apply in tonic and sub dominant situations) F7#11 (apply to V7 and IV7 situations or when F7 is a tonic such as in a blues) G7 b6 (apply to V7 situations) Ami7b5 (apply in minor cadences) Bmi7b5 or V7 alt (b9#9ª11b13) (altered) Therefore the mode generates 4 dominant (V7) sounds V7 sus b9 V7#11 V7 b6 V7 alt So over G7 you can use: F melodic minor which generates G7 sus b9 C melodic minor which generates G7 b6 D melodic minor which generates G7#11 Ab melodic minor which generates G7 alt[/quote] I know where you're coming from but most musicians would have to be extremely careful about using F melodic minor, and especially C melodic minor, over a G7 chord. In most of the music I've come across a susb9 chord is a reharmonisation, meaning that the other musicians in the band have to be hip to it or it'll sound like a mess. The problem (in jazz at least) is that most players like to mess with the straight V7 chord and one of the first tones to go is the 5th as it is not needed to spell a G7 chord. The C melodic minor scale has both major 9th, perfect 4th and perfect 5th in G (A, C and D), which don't sound that great when you play the b13 (Eb) over a G7. The b13 is most commonly sounded with the altered scale (which moves the problem 4th and 5th tones up a half step). If I think of any C scale over a V7-1m then it would probably be C harmonic minor as it at least has the b9 and #9. All of this is of course a matter of interpretation as every scale mentioned has been used by somebody at some point!

[quote name='RhysP' post='475282' date='Apr 29 2009, 05:17 PM']Anthony Jackson spouts an incredible amount of horseshit. He's right to be worried about the demise of the large recording studio as they're the only places that can comfortably accommodate his great fat arse.......[/quote] ... where he'll no doubt lay down a kick ass mother of a bass line that most of us could only dream about doing.

Whoa there, say what you like about him but what has being fat got to do with it? It did state that he was (rightly or wrongly) giving his opinion as to the future direction of music. Of course there's been talent shows as long as there's been TV to show it, but the massive proliferation of sing-a-bit, dance-a-bit, act-a-bid losers on both UK and US TV shows is unprecented (perhaps he's envious of Randy Jackson). When I read that I thought that most of that had already come to pass anyway.

Anyone ever see that green Carol Kaye book, I think it was Electric Bass Lines Vol. 5? There was a transcribed line/solo in there she played with an orchestra. My best advice is don't try learning it because it was very, very hard. Any bass player capable of that deserves respect, no matter what politics went on about who played on what. That and the number of tracks she actually did play on.

Get on the Northern Line to Camden and get yourself to the Gallery. Best bass shop around.

Sounds lovely! I read a Bass Player 5-string shootout where the testers mentioned the MTD was quite hard and unforgiving of sloppy technique. Wouldn't know . Haha, seriously, My experience is like yours - the more you give, the more you get back out. Even though Wenge is the hardest neck wood commonly used I don't find the tone has too much of an edge - perhaps the warmth of the custom wound Barts even things out.

[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WARWICK-6-STRING-THUMB-BASS-GUITAR_W0QQitemZ310137980540QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV?hash=item310137980540&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1688%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318"]This[/url] is a real eye-opener. Apparently a BO Thumb 6 is "£3400+" new. Well according to Warwick's price list from their site the new retail is £2297, and can be had on the high street for about £1800. Anyone want to buy a second-hand bass for £400 more than a new one?

That is without a doubt the ugliest looking bass I've ever seen. The body shape and scratchplate look like someone's vomited tomato and black olive pizza onto an Ikea table.

.. do you think Hiromi would give "lessons" too? I mean, if I ask really nicely?

Cheers! Every time I look at that top on your MTD Josh I get this terrible pang of envy! What's the ash neck like compared to a maple neck. Michael says on his website that it's half way between maple and wenge... never understood all this talk of MTD's being unforgiving of sloppy technique - mine just eats it up whether you play lightly with floating thumb or dig in hard. It's not clinical or particularly active-sounding either. The eq is really powerful and can radically change the tone - and the pan actually pans!

[quote name='alexclaber' post='469266' date='Apr 22 2009, 08:34 AM']I believe the Buzz Feiten system just spaces the nut and frets slightly differently to compensate for the greater change in static tension when you fret in the lower positions, hence everything's still perpendicular. Cunning. Alex[/quote] Really? I looked on the website and their retrofit kit uses a nut with staggered nut slots. Perhaps when instrument builders build it in they play with the fret/nut measurements. I must say I like the zero fret - allows a lovely low action with exactly the same camber as the frets...