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Victor Wooton Ain't So Great


Lowender
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Well, he is really really good. lol. BUT... he doesn't really do it for me. No disrespect. That's just my taste. His tricks are terrific but his playing with a band isn't particularly interesting. TO ME. His slapping is good but so is the slapping of thousands of blokes.

So it comes down to his two handed tap/chord melody playing. That's where he's the master, right?

Well, check this out.

I believe what this guy is doing is so far beyond what Wooton has ever done. He's stupidly great. Never heard of him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2wuhDDhzoU

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Some of Victor Wootens stuff is great. He loses musicality a bit sometimes, but usually when he's playing by himself in some booth or something (advertising some product by playing a million notes a second, he's just doing it for the money). His playing Bela Fleck and the Flecktones is awesome.

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrlpFA5BbuU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrlpFA5BbuU[/url]

And on a purely technical level I think he's above anything in that video you posted.

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[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1381415848' post='2238773']
Basschat's own Andy Saxton does this better than anyone, in my opinion.
[/quote]

Seconded. Here's a newer one of his.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UyZm459eck

Edited by icastle
Link fixed.
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[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1381413901' post='2238726']
His tricks are terrific but his playing with a band isn't particularly interesting.
[/quote]

Playing with a band isn't supposed to be interesting, its supposed to be part of the band being interesting, otherwise its playing in spite of the band.

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[quote name='Ziphoblat' timestamp='1381415038' post='2238747']
Some of Victor Wootens stuff is great. He loses musicality a bit sometimes, but usually when he's playing by himself in some booth or something (advertising some product by playing a million notes a second, he's just doing it for the money). His playing Bela Fleck and the Flecktones is awesome.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrlpFA5BbuU[/media]

And on a purely technical level I think he's above anything in that video you posted.
[/quote]

We can debate preference all day long but i have to disagree on the technical aspect. I know I can work out what Victor plays on that clip by the end of the day. It's mostly fast pentatonic stuff and I can play fast. But I wouldn't be able to do what the guy in that clip does if I practiced it 5 hours a day for the next 5 years.

Now again, if you don't like it you don't like it.

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[quote name='BassBus' timestamp='1381416179' post='2238782']
Seconded. Here's a newer one of his.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UyZm459eck
[/quote]

He's great. More lick-y than chord melody but great nonetheless. Wasn't he mentioned in that "Top 10 Best Bass Channels on YouTube" article?

Edited by icastle
Link fixed.
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[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1381416281' post='2238783']
Playing with a band isn't supposed to be interesting, its supposed to be part of the band being interesting, otherwise its playing in spite of the band.
[/quote]

Okay, that's absurd. You don't think James Jamerson or Chris Squire or John Entwistle or Paul McCartney or Steve Harris or Anthony Jackson or John Paul Jones play anything interesting? They play in spite of the music? Come on.

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[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1381416296' post='2238784']
We can debate preference all day long but i have to disagree on the technical aspect. I know I can work out what Victor plays on that clip by the end of the day. It's mostly fast pentatonic stuff and I can play fast. But I wouldn't be able to do what the guy in that clip does if I practiced it 5 hours a day for the next 5 years.

Now again, if you don't like it you don't like it.
[/quote]

I wasn't suggesting that what Victor plays on that clip was technically more challenging. :rolleyes:
I was simply using at as an example of good musical playing by Victor against the argument that his playing within a band is uninteresting.

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Hmm the OP video just isn't interesting at all, it took me 30 seconds to turn it off and that's because I wanted to give him a bit of time to do something, I just thought the playing wasn't clean enough for that type of performance, for me the tone was naff and I just wasn't interested! I love Victors arrangements and covers, those are fantastic although I do often think he and anyone like him are too overcomplicated and try to fit too many things in and it looses all sense of a song and just because a show off fest! There's as much to be said about presentation and understanding as there is for chops.

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[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1381416700' post='2238793']
Okay, that's absurd. You don't think James Jamerson or Chris Squire or John Entwistle or Paul McCartney or Steve Harris or Anthony Jackson or John Paul Jones play anything interesting? They play in spite of the music? Come on.
[/quote]

If that is the case, are the rest of the band not relevant to the music? I'd say that the rest of the band is entirely necessary to the piece, and their bass parts are exact that, parts. No-one would have ever heard of Jamerson as a solo artist, the massive strength in his playing was from serving the song. that being his job as a paid session musician.

Edited by Mr. Foxen
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Victor seems like a lovely bloke, and I really admire his committment to music education and travelling the globe showing people how he does what he does, but his playing has never been to my taste. He has got some incredible skills, but he has never found a proper outlet for those talents, in my opinion , and once you strip away the flash , what is really left? His playing leaves me cold, I'm sorry to say, but the thousands of bad imitators he has inspired drive me crazy! A generation of young bass players have grown up thinking that the point of playing the bass is to try and find any excuse to try and execute a kind of palm-muted double thump classical extravaganza. Badly.

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[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1381418212' post='2238831']
Victor seems like a lovely bloke, and I really admire his committment to music education and travelling the globe showing people how he does what he does, but his playing has never been to my taste. He has got some incredible skills, but he has never found a proper outlet for those talents, in my opinion , and once you strip away the flash , what is really left? His playing leaves me cold, I'm sorry to say, but the thousands of bad imitators he has inspired drive me crazy! A generation of young bass players have grown up thinking that the point of playing the bass is to try and find any excuse to try and execute a kind of palm-muted double thump classical extravaganza. Badly.
[/quote]

Think a bunch is because he has never done anything but play bass/music, so his music hasn't got a life to talk about other than playing music, so it doesn't connect to people outside of that level. think in that Bass Extreme's DVD, Steve Bailey says somehting about things you did as a kid, and Vic was 'Nope, I just played bass with my brothers'.

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[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1381418378' post='2238840']
Think a bunch is because he has never done anything but play bass/music, so his music hasn't got a life to talk about other than playing music, so it doesn't connect to people outside of that level. think in that Bass Extreme's DVD, Steve Bailey says somehting about things you did as a kid, and Vic was 'Nope, I just played bass with my brothers'.
[/quote]

Pretty much.... you read his book and it does come across that way

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