endorka

Thanks for the namecheck :-) The Yellow Bass indeed! With added Seymour Duncan 1/4 pounder pickup goodness. I've a couple of clips of it online. Go into "Live at the Queens Hall 2009" clip in the music player, URL below, and it's between 1:20 and 5:00. It still amazes me that a bass so cheap can sound so good. If only they were available back in the day when I started :-) [url="http://www.jenniferclarkbass.com/music.shtml"]http://www.jenniferclarkbass.com/music.shtml[/url] Looking forward to seeing how the customisation on yours turns out. I'll try to get some photos of the yellow bass for this thread. Jennifer

Well that's the theory. As Bilbo points out though, it is incredibly difficult to achieve musical coherence doing this. In reality, a lot of jazz belongs to the aforementioned two dimensional grouping. It is wonderful when it does not though! Jennifer

I think Andy's post about recording rehearsals is good advice. When I am trying to memorise a tune that I can't get right away, I find it help to break it down into smaller chunks that I can memorise. Sometimes these will be very short, e.g. a couple of bars. I work one on short section at a time until I am secure with it, take a break, then work on the next. Before you know it you've memorised the whole tune. The key is to allow plenty of time for this process to happen naturally, and not try to rush it. I also read somewhere that after 20 minutes of practice, the ability of the brain to retain information diminishes. Therefore it is most efficient to practice this stuff for 20 minutes, take a break, then come back to it for another 20 minutes, and so on. Sleeping on something is also good. The brain seems to sort it out for you. I find it usual to be having a tough time memorising something one day, then the next day it is easier. Jennifer

If people are putting in extra hours above and beyond the average band member, then I think they are justified in asking to be paid extra for this. It can take a lot of time, money & stress organising gigs. However, the same could be said for your contribution with the website. Jennifer

[quote name='Bilbo' post='1170630' date='Mar 21 2011, 01:29 PM']Ironically, because the next gig is on a boat and space is limited, I have been asked to bring the electric not the double bass.[/quote] This sometimes happens to me as well. If the music suits the DB better, I try to persuade whoever is organising the gig that myself and the double bass don't take up more room than the bass guitar. This is especially true if the gig is unamplified, in which case I take just a little bit more room than someone sitting on a chair. They tend not to believe me until they see this! Jennifer

I did this for quite a bit a couple of years ago. In my experience the bow radius was good for bowing, although I did set the string height quite high - at one point I had the strings as high as they could go. I also used proper double bass strings. I was also well chuffed with the sound from the Wav. The main problem I had with the Wav was getting it steady enough so the neck wouldn't move about when playing. Nothing I tried could really stop this, which made intonation more difficult than it is on a proper double bass. Needless to say, making intonation even more difficult is not something you want, especially when playing arco. That, and the lack of a neck heel, is the reason my Wav is now sadly neglected in its case. Jennifer

[quote name='DanOwens' post='1163199' date='Mar 15 2011, 03:17 PM']I suppose the crux of what I'm saying is 'go as low-tech as possible'. I play in a band with 4 laptops but we have about 20 contingency plans in case everything goes wrong (and it does). Dan[/quote] Dan speaks the truth. Having witnessed several disasters in some of the most professional / high budget areas I can think of, I have concluded that domestic computer equipment and especially laptops are just not stable & rugged enough for prolonged and routine onstage use. Yes, even Macs. Jennifer

Isn't a video featuring the Chapman stick overdue in this thread?

[quote name='bassbloke' post='1159754' date='Mar 12 2011, 07:41 PM']Jennifer, check this out.[/quote] Great playing! I concur with dlloyd though, that I'd prefer to hear the upper register strings without the chorus type effect. On the other hand, I think he is trying to get a hammond organ type sound this way, and I'd say he does get pretty close. This type of sound seems quite common in jazz/fusion; a lot of musicians in that genre seem to straddle the fine line between a great sound and a cheesy sound, and to my ears, the balance can tip quite alarmingly one way or another with ease, even within the same song. I liked the upper string tones more towards the end when I "got" what he was trying to achieve with the effect. Jennifer

That's an interesting approach, and certainly more involved than anything I've done. At the moment I'm trying to combine jazz and classical styles of scale learning in my double bass practice. First of all I practice a scale in several static positions across the fingerboard, usually starting on the 7th, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th. e.g. for F major the first position would start on the open E (essentially E locrian), then G (dorian), then A (phrygian), then C (mixolydian) then D (natural minor). I do this for a while then move onto playing one octave scales up and down a single string. After a bit of this I try to combine the two approaches by playing 2 octave scales with various fingerings. A lot of the reason for practicing scales on the double bass is to refine intonation, as well as the other benefits, so we may have different requirements here. Jennifer

[quote name='Evil Undead' post='1158946' date='Mar 12 2011, 07:53 AM']Has anyone else every felt too protective of their favourite gear to gig with it, or am I just being paranoid?[/quote] I wouldn't say you are paranoid, because accidents can happen, but I would question the true value of an instrument that you never use in anger. Are you a bass player or a bass collector? Jennifer

[quote name='munkonthehill' post='1156367' date='Mar 10 2011, 10:55 AM']Ah Jen, still giving me lessons, feels like the good old days Just a shame im not primarily based in Glasgow any longer In saying that, are you still teaching or are you too busy with the tours and bands?[/quote] I am indeed still doing private tuition. Give me a shout if you'd like to sort a lesson out - where are you based these days? Jennifer

[quote name='Earbrass' post='1156378' date='Mar 10 2011, 11:01 AM']Might one way round this be to use guitar-style fingerpicking, with the thumb plucking bass notes and the other fingers picking chords? (Painful till you get the thumb callouses though!)[/quote] That sounds really interesting, I'd love to hear someone doing this! Jennifer

Assuming you play a 4 string bass, my inclination here would be to try a five string strung E A D G C. The high C string will allow some clearer chords to be played, and also allow you to play the usual bass parts on the same instrument. However, as others have pointed out, it may not work as well as you think. If you are playing chords, typically someone really still needs to be playing bass. Depending on the band format and musical style, the bassline will be missed more than chords. In trio situations where the guitarist is soloing, I usually find it best to play simple and melodic lines in the mid range of the bass guitar. This keeps all the parts really well glued together. Think Paul McCartney / Jack Bruce / Geddy Lee. Jennifer

[quote]Get some gigs booked - rehearsing on its own will never get you gig-ready, you need something in the diary to really focus their minds.[/quote] [quote name='munkonthehill' post='1156286' date='Mar 10 2011, 09:46 AM']One of the guitarists (the one not pulling his weight) suggested the same thing. I just dont have any confidence with them at the moment though and possibly down to poor comms in the band I dont think the singer and guitarist are fully aware its their fault[/quote] I concur that it would be a good idea to book a gig, and see if it sharpens them up. Be prepared to test this theory to destruction, however. Quite often in these situations you find out that some people don't really want to gig, for whatever reason. Jennifer

[quote name='redstriper' post='1154145' date='Mar 8 2011, 05:40 PM']Proper job: [attachment=74278:holy_bass.jpg][/quote] Did the late great Pepsi Tate not own something similar to this? In pink, if I recall correctly. Jennifer

I used an ancient Pentium III 450 with 512 megs of RAM to record a gig lasting several hours last night. Recorded 10 channels at 44.1KHz 24bit simultaneously, using about 75% of CPU resources, and it worked great. My card is an M-Audio Delta 1010LT, which has zero latency monitoring, so latency is not an issue when overdubbing. Jennifer

[quote name='chris_b' post='1147940' date='Mar 3 2011, 02:02 AM']Our musical theory only applies to a very small part of the music that's been made by humans. Music without theory is easily made and music has been performed by many cultures for thousands of years before theory was invented.[/quote] That's true, but from what I can gather, music of this kind almost universally consists of simple melodies over a drone note. I'm not saying this is necessarilly bad, but it is limited. It's a long way and a lot of theory from there to Gershwin. Jennifer

[quote name='pantherairsoft' post='1144065' date='Feb 28 2011, 12:12 AM']So not only have I proven that once again I'm right...[/quote] I'd say so. By the measurement here my hands are 7", and I have all shapes and sizes of basses: 4,5,6 strings, 34", 35" and 42" (double bass :-) string lengths. After a few days of playing I can get used to any of them. Current bass of choice is a 5 string precision with standard precision string spacing. The seemed huge at first, but after a couple of days it was working just the same as any other. Jennifer

[quote name='silddx' post='1143840' date='Feb 27 2011, 09:05 PM']Lack of legato and staccato is a particular bugbear of mine. So little use of it.[/quote] Indeed. As you point out, recording with other instruments helps a great deal with the realisation of this, and what sounds staccato when played with the ensemble sometimes isn't quite as stacatto on the bass, due to the tail of the note being masked by other instruments, such as the snare drum. All these things are important. A problem is that everyone in the group you are playing with has to be of a sufficient standard for them to make any difference. Even at the basic level of external dymanics, it only takes one insensitive musician to ruin the effect for everyone. Never mind grace notes, vibrato, or playing around with beat placement, all of which will be essentially wasted if someone in the group's timing is poor. I think you've hit the nail on the head - in the absence of like minded musicians, recording yourself in a controlled environment is probably the best way to develop these skills. Jennifer

Impossible to comment unless I can hear an example of what you speak of. Any chance of posting something? Jennifer

[quote name='fatback' post='1141785' date='Feb 25 2011, 09:10 PM']It seemed to me from the start that Simandl may be very well suited to players who need to read parts, but for improvising over chord sequences it doesn't make much sense.[/quote] I found this to start with, but after a short time it began to make sense, even to the extent of employing good improvised fingerings ahead of playing them. I think your brain just starts to think a little more in advance in terms of technique than you need to with bass guitar. However, I seem to recall reading a bit of Susan Blackmore's meme book where it claims that the brain only has the illusion of making a decision after the fact, or something similar, so maybe I'm just kidding myself on :-) Jennifer

[quote name='Hector' post='1141163' date='Feb 25 2011, 01:10 PM']Jennifer, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Vance book once you've had a go with it. I'm working direct out of Rabbath, and wouldn't mind comparing if it's ok with you?[/quote] Will do! Really looking forward to getting into this actually :-) Jennifer

I seem to recall lessons in the early sections that are initially feature a bunch of enharmonic notes on the same string, then similar but with "joining the strings together". OP, is this what you are referring to? Jennifer

[quote name='fatback' post='1140589' date='Feb 24 2011, 10:38 PM']Just found an interesting comparison from a teacher: [url="http://doublebassblog.org/2006/11/rabbath-versus-simandl-comparative.html"]comparison[/url] He's found Vance / Rabbath best for learners & intermediate and Simandl for advanced / orchestral.[/quote] Sounds interesting I'd say! I've just ordered the Vance book vol. 1, I plan on a good stint in the woodshed a month or so from now, let's see if it will clear my muddied mind :-) Jennifer