Sneakyfish

It depends what problem specifically you're having. If you're missing the lower string try to include a little more arm motion perhaps? Maybe you're catching the skipped string accidentally? I guess I'd practice string-skipping leading with each RH finger. Rotating the hand at the wrist slightly when passing over the skipped string can help a bit, you can see Altesa doing this in the video Mudpup posted. Altesa uses the anchor point of her thumb as the center of the rotation.

Thank you!

Haha! I'd love to hear him testing mic's too! He certainly is 'possessed by the music'. I'd like to hear the bassists other work as well. We all get something different out of sonic experiences. Especially this kind of avant-garde or free-jazz. This sort of thing can really test people and challenge their definitions of art, as it seems to have done for you. It can drive them genuinely insane as well. I personally love it for that, its very punk! His vocalisations are just that. Vocalisations. This doesn't limit him to specific words, harmony or rhythm. It could be considered quite dissonant. But interestingly, I saw a Rick Beato video recently where he discussed the idea of 'immunity to dissonance'. If you hear a dissonance or musical oddity enough you acclimatise to it and it is no longer dissonant or odd to you, just another fascinating harmony. 7/8 is 'odd' time, but we all got used to it. It's not strange anymore. Immunity to dissonance, while utterly alien at first, is central to this performance I feel. I found it was interesting to listen to with my 'soundscape head' on. The beginning brought the image of someone working with wood outdoors to my minds eye. I'll readily concede that it's not musical in the classical sense of the word. It's not Trane, Ornette Coleman or Sun Ra, but it does have a certain something. I once went to an enjoyable free-jazz/avant-garde gig which closely resembled this but used prepared piano, drums, bari-sax and electronics in addition to voice and bass. I found it made a refreshing change from the usual diatonic harmony and evenly divided rhythmic content. When I was younger, I remember feeling the way that you feel about this, but for all Jazz. The music was unpredictable (which I took to be bad at the time) and harmonically beyond my understanding. So, like a typical monkey I interpreted that which was unknown to be bad and avoided it. As I have matured, this has obviously and quite necessarily changed. For me, this performance clearly demonstrated the difference between improvisation in a conventional jazz idiom (where we expect the usual cliches of approach notes, time on the ride cymbal, walking bass, extended harmony etc.) and improvisation in a free setting such as this, where any sound can be interpreted musically. John Cage had alot to say about this. He held that all sounds/silences are musical, it is the listener and their ability to hear the sounds as such which varies. Don't actively listen to it I say, just be part of the thing. This is what I would call "inhabiting a sound-space" or passive attention. Very meditative if you're into that stuff. Similar to when you put on a record while doing some chores. The tune simply accompanies you as you go about, you're neither ignoring nor focusing on it. Performances like this are highly introspective, interpretive and, as with all music like this, requires completely different priorities from the listener. If everybody walks away from the performance with the same thing, then this music has definitely failed. Think about abstract expressionist art. It doesn't ask you to recognise use of forms from reality in the work (in this case the parallel would be use of conventional musical laws in the piece). The point is not to say: 'Look how well they depicted this scene or that tree.' or 'Look how well the bass outlines harmony x or rhythm y'. Nothing so literal. Rather, the purpose is personal, unique from hearing to hearing and often difficult or impossible to convey with words. P.S. The little "Ooo." from Minton at the end made me laugh.

Ah, the educational quest continues! Good morning from sunny London Jeff.

He has some impressive Youtube videos! And admirable finger-style technique to boot. He's clearly sunk a lot of work into that. It's nice to hear harmony from a bass instrument! I do think his intonation is a little off, but he doesn't have super-long fingers which makes playing the melody and bass accurately difficult on such an instrument. Maybe he'd have a better time of it if he arranged for two-handed tapping or perhaps two basses? I don't think I'd personally commit so much Bach (or any single composer) to my repertoire. This guy seemingly made it his personal mission to become a Bach recitalist though, gotta love that dedication! I'd like to hear him tackle some Rachmaninoff (C#m Prelude maybe? ). What do I play? I'm fairly eclectic. Mainly (but by no means exclusively) in the heavier sphere, influenced by the other spheres I encounter. So, progressive-metal and extreme-metal in general. Lot's of respect for all-fingers metal bassists who have consistent attack, without an insanely low action on the bass. Have a massive love for all things jazz/fusion. Have spent time as a dub bassist, still like to jam on mi sleng teng. Been getting back into playing funk recently, Parliament-Funkadelic, Tower of Power (love u Rocco!), that "Bootsy Collins Rule of the One" stuff. Synth sounds too. Love aggressive monophonic lead (with glide) and diffuse "voice of the gods" sounding pads too. What about you? What sort of music do you play?

*Sneakyfish: becomes self-aware. Congratulations! [10exp]* *Sneakyfish: develops brain and wants to learn everything. challenge accepted.* *Sneakyfish: flops hopefully into the Basschat pond amongst others. [30exp]* Greetings to all from the primordial sludge of SW London! I'm a lefty playing righty multi-instrumentalist, my main focus being the 'big three' (drums, bass and guitar). I've some rough keyboard technique (developing slowly, learning to like it) alongside primitive violin ability, also a bit of didgeridoo for fun but they're not really my bag. I generally kick, scream, shout and make noise, but out of all of them, I play bass most often. I've recently been thinking that Anaxagoras' theory of: "In everything, there is a share of everything", applies to music neatly. I love cross-training on instruments this way. I also feel that this applies more or less to stylistic considerations in music as well. Because I have definite preferences, I've never found a style I could objectively 'hate', dislike maybe but hate? No. I've never had any formal training, I've been studying music in earnest for 10 years now, it's the best decision I've made in my life. I can now use my obsessive nature to pursue a high musical standard. And the work makes me genuinely happy every day as I see that week-on-week improvement of myself and others. Was a bedroom hero for a while. Started playing live around Central London about 4 years in. Done live and some recording work as a drummer and bassist. Hoping to have a great time being part of a bass culture hub like this one! Current bass arsenal includes: //Ravenwest 7-string extended range surfboard (long-term modding project). Main instrument. //Cort C5h with flat-wounds, for chilling out with. //A hilariously 'metal' Vintage VWR99 Metal Axxe, also my first bass.