After nearly a year my 'ear' is still struggling

[iconic]

This is quite strange for me, maybe it's common I don't know


For example, I can play MFSB Mysteries of the World, The Whispers And The Beat Goes On and It's A Love Thing by working it out by ear, it may a take a little while but hey I'm thrilled I can do get this far, I should add that I can not sing, at all, not a note, and my old piano music teacher told me I was musically tonedeaf....I can't be that bad!?!

.....and then I seem to struggle with something simple, like this song from Climax Blues Band. What I do know is that anything faster, funkier is far easier?

..............something that I thought of yesterday, is that my right ear has a 'hole' in the frequencies it can hear, the left ear less so. I know this from having proper soundbooth hearing tests every 3 months from 20 to 24 when I was a test engineer at Lucas CAV, I performed 'cold room tests' starting a 6 litre diesel engines @ -40c in a big freezer with ear protectors, as a result I had to have very strict medicals on a regular basis.

The company doctor thought the ear problem may have been the result of years of Kart racing with a 100cc 2 stroke engine thrashing away @ 12K rpm a few inches from my right ear, and a little shotgun shooting when I was very young, both without ear protection....don't me wrong I can hear but some tones/notes seem flat of missing....I just wondered if this maybe the cause or this song has some wierd chords or something I can play it but still 'find' wrong notes too easily.

[essexbasscat]

Hi there

Firstly, a big thank you for posting that clip, always loved that song. I played the slot just before the Climax Blues Band at the Standard Walthamstow in the mid 90's. They were a great band. The bass player used a Smith 6 string and was even nice enough to comlement me on my playing the first chance he got. Bless him.

The hearing problem. Have you practiced listening to intervals by themselves with a piano or another similar instrument ? going up and down the keyboard may identify any difficulties with certain frequency ranges, but you won't know until you try. Just an idea here, not based on previous experience or research etc.

Or is it the presence of other instruments in certain frequency ranges while playing the bass ?

just my 2p's worth

Good luck with it, whatever happens

T

[WHUFC BASS]

Climax Blues band are somethng else. I used to go see them everywhere they played in the early 90s in London. Always really tight and always had a sh*t hot bass player (they used a few as far as I know including a black bloke who was f***ing amazing) in the line-up (sh*t hot musicians to a man as it goes). I've got most of their stuff and still listen to it now. Brilliant band.

essexbasscat, I think I may have even seen your band - (what were they called?), as the Standard was just down the road from me in the 90s and I think I saw the CBB every time they played there up during that time.

Edited February 27, 2010 by WHUFC BASS

[essexbasscat]

[quote name='WHUFC BASS' post='758903' date='Feb 27 2010, 10:02 AM']Climax Blues band are somethng else. I used to go see them everywhere they played in the early 90s in London. Always really tight and always had a sh*t hot bass player (they used a few as far as I know including a black bloke who was f***ing amazing) in the line-up (sh*t hot musicians to a man as it goes). I've got most of their stuff and still listen to it now. Brilliant band.

essexbasscat, I think I may have even seen your band - (what were they called?), as the Standard was just down the road from me in the 90s and I think I saw the CBB every time they played there up during that time.[/quote]


At the time it was called The Thin Blue Line. I don't know why, it was just a name the guitarist used for bands from time to time. THe guitarist was Steve Green, drummer Clive Nash and another guitarist who's name escapes me at the mo.

I would go and see the CBB again anytime. fantastic band.

[Mickeyboro]

[quote name='essexbasscat' post='758912' date='Feb 27 2010, 10:14 AM']I would go and see the CBB again anytime. fantastic band.[/quote]


Sadly Colin Cooper, the sax player/deep singer is no longer with us - passed away about a year ago.

What a band, though...ta for the clip

[essexbasscat]

[quote name='Mickeyboro' post='758914' date='Feb 27 2010, 10:21 AM']Sadly Colin Cooper, the sax player/deep singer is no longer with us - passed away about a year ago.

What a band, though...ta for the clip [/quote]


AAaahhhhhh !!!! I'm genuinely sorry to hear that.

Thanks for letting us know

T

[Balcro]

I've just listened to the video and I can see how you might struggle. If I was learning it, (I've got the original LP somewhere) I might do the same. It's a fairly busy piece with a smooth overall feel to the production & lots of interplay. On some short, usually downward phrases, the bass is softer than elsewhere. I think there may also be some short "rests" in there as well. So don't knock yourself out. Tabs anyone?

Balcro.

[iconic]

I'm going to throw my bass (well the cheap one I mate lent me!) out the FFFFing window if I can't do this 1st form bassline by end of today..... it's still driving me crazy....I just can't get the chorus right....even with the help of this vid...think I try something easier like Stomp Brother's Johnson

[thunderbird13]

I have a real problem with working things out as well so your not alone. I've tried ear training and software which slows it done but nothing seems to help basically if it aint on tab I'm not playing it ! Unfortunately I cant find the tab for this one

[thepurpleblob]

I've been playing for 10 years and my ear is still crap. But... the good news is that it's better than it was.

I'm not sure that I have a coherent theory here but I have a couple of bits of advice....

* Some things are just hard to hear. There's lots of reasons; the bass is low in the mix, the band is out of tune, he's confusing you with technique (lots of notes, bends, slides etc etc), it's a fretless (!). Slowing down software can help but some bits you just have to guess and that's not a bad thing.

* Keep trying. Keep learning songs by ear and you *will* improve. It might be slow progress but that's life. Keep at it.

* Learn theory, scales, arpeggios etc etc. Knowing what to expect and to be able to try the things they *might* have played is a huge help. Example, if you know the chord is (e.g.) a Cm, what would *you* play over a Cm that fits. Try it... quite often it turns out to be what the guy on the record played.

* Getting the chords for the song from a reliable source can be a huge help, especially if you are in a hurry.

[Paul_C]

another thing you can do is play it an octave or two higher than the recording, which, for me at least, makes it easier to tell if I'm playing the right note

[Balcro]

Presuming you've already got the song as an mp3, open it in "Audacity" (shareware/freeware download?). When the spectrum display appears, click on the greyish panel to the left of the spectrum to select it. Then go to the "Effect" menu and scrolldown to select "Low-pass filter. A box will pop up giving you the option to set the low-pass filter point.

For example, tell the program to cut all the program content above 450Hz. Audacity will take a couple of minutes to process the file with the program content above 450Hz progressively stripped out. Save the new file under another name. then play it back. It will sound wooly, but with vocals, mids and some treble content greatly reduced, you may be able to pick out the bass line better. If there's still too much non-bass content obscuring the bass, re-run the process and set the cut-off point to alower level; perhaps 375Hz.

Good luck,

Balcro

Edited March 1, 2010 by Balcro

[iconic]

many thanks guys for the tips and help

[Bloodaxe]

Can't help with the tabs, but this one seems to have better definition:



I've only the one Climax album - "Tightly Knit" from when they still traded as The Climax Chicago Blues Band:

[Balcro]

[quote name='Balcro' post='760743' date='Mar 1 2010, 02:02 PM']Presuming you've already got the song as an mp3, open it in "Audacity" (shareware/freeware download?). When the spectrum display appears, click on the greyish panel to the left of the spectrum to select it. Then go to the "Effect" menu and scrolldown to select "Low-pass filter. A box will pop up giving you the option to set the low-pass filter point.

For example, tell the program to cut all the program content above 450Hz. Audacity will take a couple of minutes to process the file with the program content above 450Hz progressively stripped out. Save the new file under another name. then play it back. It will sound wooly, but with vocals, mids and some treble content greatly reduced, you may be able to pick out the bass line better. If there's still too much non-bass content obscuring the bass, re-run the process and set the cut-off point to alower level; perhaps 375Hz.
Good luck,
Balcro[/quote]

Hi,

Further to what I said above, I've run a few trials with Audacity. If you can download that youtube track from "Bloodaxe", do it. Convert to mp3 format if necessary. Open the file in Audacity. Go the Effects menu and select BASS BOOST: set at about 200Hz and boost by 9dB; click OK. When its done play it to check the sound. Press Stop. Go back to the Effects menu and now apply LOW PASS FILTER set at about 640HZ. Click ok. That should make a difference.

Balcro.

PS. The changes on an original track appear to be cumulative. If you do the above and then repeat them to make small changes, just change by 1 or 2 dB or 10Hz or so.

Edited March 3, 2010 by Balcro

[iconic]

thanks again gentlemen.....I left this song for a day or so, and then came back to it and now I can't see why I had a problem...strange?

Edited March 4, 2010 by iconic

[Sean]

[quote name='iconic' post='763601' date='Mar 4 2010, 07:34 AM']I left this song for a day or so, and then came back to it and now I can't why I had a problem...strange?[/quote]

Happens to me all the time. It's as if it's all too much for your brain to take in on first pass and then after a sleep and being away from it it all falls into place.

Last one that was like this for me was Dancing Queen. Obviously being a proper bloke and all, having never heard the song before and being completely unaware of the artist previously didn't help ;-)