funkle

Neck and rear pickups both down at 60-70% of max (but equal), tone turned down to somewhere between 50% and max, depending on strings - perfect for straightahead jazz, very mellow indeed. Turn up at amp if more volume needed. NOT the same tone as turning up both pickups to max and turning the tone knob down. Don't ask me why this is, I don't know. It just works. Other settings essentially as per previous posters. Pete

Just sold a bass head (Markbass F1) to Mr Platypus. As smooth a transaction as could be desired! Pete

[quote name='johnDeereJack' post='1189655' date='Apr 5 2011, 08:44 PM']Time to start a feedback thread methinks! [/quote] Me too! Ian bought my TE Boxer 30, smooth transaction, all went very easily. Deal with him in confidence! Pete

[quote name='Stuart Clayton' post='1167007' date='Mar 18 2011, 12:53 PM']That's an excellent article, and bizarrely, is similar to something I've been working on recently.[/quote] Yep, what you describe sounds pretty familiar. Amazing what one solo can do. I've been playing a Gerry Mulligan solo from 'All The Things You Are' for the last month and getting it up to speed (210bpm). Only now am I ripping it apart and taking all the constituent 'bits' (ii-V-I's, minor ii-VI's, V7-I resolutions, diminished runs, etc) and putting them in all 12 keys. I will [i]own[/i] these one day. It's a good thing I like this solo, 'cause I'm going to be living with it for a long time... Pete

Glad you enjoyed it! I have found the website to be excellent also, and have added it to my RSS feed.

I recall a thread discussing what we all do with our transcriptions a while back. I found a very good article on the same theme and thought others would enjoy it also. [url="http://jazzadvice.com/how-transcribing-one-solo-can-entirely-change-your-approach-to-improvising/"]http://jazzadvice.com/how-transcribing-one...to-improvising/[/url] It's really very good. Pete

Quick note for anyone interested. Charlie Banacos' daughter Barbara is responding to emails sent to Charlie's email and is still taking on correspondence students (in conjunction with Gary Diall). The materials are all from Charlie's legendary book of exercises. See www.charliebanacos.com. Jeff Berlin is also doing lessons over Skype. I'm thinking of going back down this road again, since I know him well enough now. When I see Joe Hubbard also does Skype lessons, I think that it seems we live in a time when we have an embarrassment of riches, in terms of quality materials and teaching available. Pete

[quote name='Joe Hubbard Bass' post='1086736' date='Jan 12 2011, 02:25 PM']Many of the top bassists, and musicians in the world have studied with Charlie. Alain Caron, Jeff Berlin, Jimmy Earl, Lincoln Goines, Bruce Gertz and many, many more. I studied with Banacos for ten years through his correspondence program. He really didn't do the ear training stuff in the same way that he did in-person, but he took me through several exercises near the end of my study with him. There is a great story that Charlie told me about Mike Stern when he was with Miles Davis. For the unwashed, Stern was a student of Banacos' for the better part of thirty years. The last time I attended Berklee, Stern was unknown and the most awesome player; he was truly awe inspiring and I got to see the likes of Stern and Jeff Berlin playing small jazz dives every week for a year. Anyway, Stern got the gig with Miles and they were rehearsing at Miles' brownstone in Manhatten. While they were taking a break, Marcus Miller was at the piano playing these ten note cluster voicings and Stern was naming every note from top to bottom- no problem. Miles was rather unimpressed by the whole thing, but that was just the way Miles acted. The next day when they began the rehearsal, Miles handed out charts to everyone except Stern. Stern then sheepishly asked Miles, "Where's my chart." Miles just said, "If you can really hear alll them notes, you don't need no chart." You see, that exercise from playing the cadence and then learning to hear one note progresses to eventually hearing clusters played together. Wayne Krantz told me he went through the same program as did Jimmy Earl. Anyone who is interested in studying these types of improvisation exercises with me either in-person or via Skype, click on the link below for further info: [url="http://www.joehubbardbass.com/study-bass-with-joe-2/"]http://www.joehubbardbass.com/study-bass-with-joe-2/[/url] Peace Joe[/quote] Wow, great story. When I was studying with Jeff, he used to tell me stories about how he and Mike Stern spent hours by a piano testing each other with that exercise. I can't remember how many notes Jeff made it to at the same time, but I can tell you he has intimidatingly good ears. Now I'm going to do some ear training...excuse me.. :-) Pete

[quote name='Faithless' post='1085844' date='Jan 11 2011, 06:09 PM']I've just finished doing ear training thing using that program Funkle advised. I was in C, guessed only between major scale tones (C excluded) in wide range (a three or so octaves I believe..) and, out of 50 guesses I went for 47 right, which makes it 94% percent accuracy. It was relatively easy, I got to say.. I'll now go for other keys, we'll see if it's cool with those..[/quote] That's good work. The next step is to get it going for all the 'chromatic' tones also. Then, get it to change key every time a new pair of tones are played. Enjoy! Pete