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I had a two page argument with a guy on walking basslines where he simply did not believe that you could walk a Dm7 to G7 using D - D# - E - F. Finally John Goldsby posted, saying that weird things can still make a walking bassline work.
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Apr 17, 2009 15:26
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 12:38 |
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The Jeff Berlin threads were really interesting. I'm not sure I agree with Jeff on some things (most things, even) but it was a refreshing diversion from 'name your favourite bassists, part IIIV'.
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Apr 17, 2009 16:08
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Scarf posted:Cliff notes? I didn't feel like reading it. One time, Jeff Berlin posted a thread saying that he had heard that people there had problems with some things he had said and if he could help straighten out any misconceptions. It instead turned into a big Q & A session where people could pick Jeff Berlin's brain for an hour or two. He posts a new thread every couple of weeks, I think. If you go to the Bassists forum, you can see a stickied thread called "Hi from Jeff Berlin" and from there search for all his posts. Scarf posted:Oh, not really relevant but I got to shake hands w/ my idol, George Porter Jr. last night Wow! Did you instantly become funkier?
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Apr 17, 2009 16:40
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I suppose Money might be a bit trickier due to it being in 7/4.
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Jun 14, 2009 22:41
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Also, transcribe as much as you can. You'll find that other bassists have come up with nifty patterns in the past, and can help break you out of the box. Also, for anyone who hasn't seen it, there's a nifty video of Larry Dimarzio interviewing Roger Sadowsky at his shop, so you can see how they make all those basses that you'll never be able to afford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSJtt41VLKo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfjYC2mcPZc
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Jun 22, 2009 01:52
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Gibson bridges can be pretty weird. My main bass is a Gibson Les Paul, and tinkering with the bridge to get the action where I want it has been a real chore.
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Jun 24, 2009 16:08
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Jan posted:I love my Epiphone EB-3, love the sound of it, and have been thinking of getting a Gibson EB-3 (short scale, to reduce the dreaded neck dive) when I feel ready to invest in a four digit figure instrument. Would your Les Paul has been worth it over, say, a Fender MIA or another comparably priced instrument? Yes, but I had something specific in mind when I bought it. I was curious about Darkstar pickups, so when deciding what kind of bass I would put them in, I figured a big, heavy chunk of maple would suit me just fine. So I had customization in mind from the get-go...that said, it sounds amazing. Lots of bite and presence, but still versatile.   So if you're trying to decide between a Fender and a Gibson, then I guess that doesn't help much...nevertheless, I think they do make good basses, although the sound might be a bit too 'raw' for, say, jazz.
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Jun 24, 2009 17:52
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Scarf posted:Awesome darkstar action there. Thanks! I think you're right for the majority of what Gibson puts out - good for rock, blues, maybe r & b, but not good for jazz or softer types of music. I think the one exception, though, is Gibson's Money Bass. I tried one out, and it really does have a nice smooth kind of sound that would work well in a lot of contexts. Nice, fast neck too.
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Jun 24, 2009 18:16
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Is that the short-scale one? I really dislike short-scale basses...like Jack Bruce says, "I feel like I'm playing a toy!"
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Jun 24, 2009 18:30
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There's one hollowbody I'd give a kidney for: Lakland, baby 
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Jun 24, 2009 18:45
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I'm tempted to save up my pennies for it too, but meh. I already have four basses - the Les Paul, a Danelectro with flatwounds, an 8-string, and a Fender fretless. I think I'm good for the time being, until we can get some more gigs to justify whimsical spending habits.
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Jun 24, 2009 19:07
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Indi86 posted:Always have wanted, always will want. Darkstar pickups are absolutely stellar. If only they weren't so goofy looking on most basses. Lakland really needs to design a non-dark ages of bass design pickup cover for them. Lakland doesn't actually make darkstar pickups. Instead, they're made (and hand-wound, I might add) by a guy named Fred Hammon: http://www.hammoneng.com/ They did appear on a few Laklands though, either the Joe Osborn or the Bob Glaub basses, I'm not sure which. I think their Chi-Sonic pickups were supposed to be something along the same lines, though. Darkstars are interesting because they force you to really pay attention to your right hand. They're really sensitive to dynamics, so when you first play them, they're all CLONG CLONG CLONG. So you have to learn how to use a lighter touch and really control your dynamics. They really cut through though, and very high output.
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Jun 25, 2009 06:20
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http://www.bassbooks.com/shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=174&cat=SIGHT+READING
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Jun 25, 2009 15:22
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Scarf posted:I'm thinking about picking up his Groove book. Any experience w/ it? I ordered it from Amazon, so I'll let you know how it is once it arrives.
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Jun 26, 2009 00:14
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Ok, so I received "Bass Grooves" by Ed Friedland on Monday and have been poring through it since then to provide you folks (i.e., threetoes) a review. First off, I guess I would say that the book is useful to beginner, intermediate, and advanced players. For advanced players, there won't be a lot in here that you haven't heard before, but can be used as a "workbook" in one's practice routine. If you sit down and draw a blank in front of your metronome when you want to work specifically on timing and groove, then this book gives you a lot of concrete material to go through. For beginners, there's likely to be a lot of styles here that you might not have played before. Furthermore, he introduces techniques that will help to develop your rhythmic independence, such as practicing with the metronome just on 2 & 4, or just 2, etc. For intermediate players, some things that might be new are his use of rhythmic syllables instead of standard counting words. For example, sixteenth notes are counted "dig a chick a, dig a chick a" instead of the usual "1 ee an a, 2 ee an a". There are a lot of variations that he presents, and I find that they do help in breaking in to the "sound" of particular rhythmic figures. It's important to note that the book relies heavily on the use of a drum machine (or sequencer) to recreate drum parts from various musical styles. So much so, in fact, that if you don't own a drum machine or something that can sequence drum sounds, then you might as well not buy the book (I use Cubase with some sampled drum sounds). The point of this is to get the bassist familiar with the drum dynamics and patterns of a given style, to play them as authentically as possible and to determine the limits of what you can and can't do. As the blurb on the back states, the book is "a style encyclopedia that leads you through the inner workings of the essential bass grooves..." Ed comments on why he took this approach: "One of the goals of this book is to familiarize you with different grooves by showing you the drum parts along with the bass lines...when you've programmed a drum groove yourself, you gain an intimate understanding of each element, how hi-hat, snare, kick drum, toms, etc. all combine to create a unified feel that influences your interpretation of a bass line. Knowing how to play many different styles presents you with a greatly expanded set of opportunities." It's also worth noting that the included CD isn't intended to be used as a play-a-long, Aebersold style. Since the drum and bass parts are already notated, the CD is pretty much redundant, as Ed himself points out. Its main purpose seems to be for verification - if you want to check an example see just how ghosted that snare drum needs to be, then you can give it a listen. There are three main sections to the book. In the first, he gives an overall look at rhythm and groove in general and how to approach rhythmic concepts. Section 2 is the "style encyclopedia" and goes through examples of a number of popular styles - Zydeco, Soca, Reggae, Blues, etc. The third section has some interviews with notable bassists such as Phil Chen, Harvey Brooks, and Victor Bailey on the subject of groove. There's also an epilogue of sorts, discussing Ed's philosophical views and bass playing and groove but to be honest, it's a lot of fluff. The first section is a very good and thorough introduction on how to analyze and break apart rhythmic concepts to solidify your sense of time. He goes through eighth notes, triplets, sixteenth notes and various syncopations and assigns them syllables that can be used to get a feel for their sound. He also goes through the importance of note length, rests, and consistency. He also stresses the importance of being able to play grooves at a wide variety of tempoes. Playing a driving Motown beat, for example, at 40 BPM is more difficult than it seems (as is speeding it up to 180 BPM), but it's an important exercise in hearing a tempo and detecting the rhythmic current underneath. Here's a typical example from the first section:  The second section, as mentioned already, provides drum parts and bass lines for common styles, and the variations thereof. You might not have thought that Go-Go and the Twist were in that much demand, but I'm willing to take Ed's word for it. He also uses nicknames for grooves that may seem unfamiliar - "the flat tire groove", "bom bom", "vinny-boom batz", but he goes through them in some detail and I think it emphasizes his organic, sing-able approach to rhythm. For any given style, he'll show different ways a drum groove might be played and how the bass can accompany it. He'll sometimes show how much you can get away with, but overall emphasizes simplicity and simply letting the groove breathe. Here's a typical excerpt from section two:  Section three contains interviews with Phil Chen, Harvey Brooks, Victor Bailey, Hutch Hutchinson, Gary Grainger, and Jack Casady, on the basic subject of groove and rhythm. The interviews are short, no more than half a page each. It's moderately interesting, but doesn't really add too much to the overall package. Mostly because the idea of what it is to lock in and find the right groove with a rhythm section is such an ethereal kind of subject that all of their descriptions are bound to be somewhat vague. There's also some fairly useless warm-up exercises provided by the interviewees. Nevertheless, the whole book is pretty solid and well worth having in your library. Regardless of your skill level, I think there's a lot in here to keep you busy for a while. Seventh Arrow fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Jul 1, 2009 |
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Jul 1, 2009 19:05
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That depends on whether by "groove" you mean "a specific musical style" or "rhythmic tightness, in-the-pocket playing", or both. In any case, I think both can be taught. To say that "you have to develop it on your own through experience" doesn't really single out where you can get those experiences from. Take jazz for example...I never really knew how to play it that well before going to college. But I had teachers there who taught me details about how to construct a walking bass line, how to solo over changes, how and when to play in a 'two' feel, etc. And as far as rhythmic tightness, that too - a teacher can show you things to enhance your accuracy (practice with a metronome on 2 and 4) and feel (walking lines are played slightly ahead of the beat). Heck, I could swear that I started to learn more about jazz just by sitting in the same room as Don Thompson. So, sure, the teacher can't do all the work for you - but that's true of anything you learn, and not specific to groove.
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Jul 2, 2009 17:13
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I haven't, but I just remembered that John McLaughlin has an instructional DVD on konokol, the Indian method of keeping time: John McLaughlin: The Gateway to Rhythm I remember seeing some excerpts for it on YouTube and it looked kind of interesting.
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Jul 3, 2009 01:46
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Haha, did anyone read the Letters section of this month's issue of Bass PLayer?quote:I'm a new subscriber to BASS PLAYER magazine and I just received my first issue. I considered offering my expanded opinion after reading the magazine but have changed my mind because what I have to say will not please many readers and because I'm 71 will be considered just an old fart with a chip on his shoulder. So I'll just offer my two cents. Why you youngsters and your six-string basses and yer pick-playin'!
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Jul 6, 2009 03:06
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Billy Sheehan also uses three-finger technique. I think possibly Alphonso Johnson does as well.
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Jul 10, 2009 00:22
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Good glory, Jamerson was just the man...found this track of just him supporting an entire vocal arrangement, and the whole thing is melodic and perfect all the way through. Awesome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCrO3iVWZE8
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Jul 11, 2009 20:11
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Ugh, 4-finger plucking is rough. When I first went to college, I started taking lessons from a guy who plucked with 4 fingers...he was amazing, he could play bebop solos, fast violin etudes, all of that kind of stuff. My problem was that I had only been playing a few years at the time, so I think it was too much to handle. I eventually dropped it for the usual 2-finger method. To think I was practicing 12-16 hours a day at the time, and it could've been better spent if my right hand technique weren't so high-maintenance.
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Jul 11, 2009 21:37
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I posted this on Talkbass, but I figured it might do some good here as well...it's a brief lesson on walking basslines: I'm starting this thread because every now and then I see people asking either how they can make walking bass lines, or how they can get better at walking bass lines. When I was in college (and dinosaurs roamed the earth), my teacher suggested keeping a library of walking bass "licks" in order to keep my walking lines interesting and not as repetitive. Just like a saxophonist might use the Charlie Parker Omnibook so as to have some soloing licks at the ready, bassists can also use walking bass "licks" or phrases to navigate through even the more angular jazz chord progressions. So I decided to post some from my own collection, and I hope people learning this stuff will come up with more of their own. I'm not any sort of jazz pro, although I have played a great many of these before guys like Pat Labarbera, Don Thompson, and Charles Tolliver with no complaints. Some notes: 1. Most of these (except for the rhythm changes and modal sheets) are collections of discreet, two-bar phrases. So don't look at them as one big page of continuous II-V (for example) vamps...sorry if that's confusing. 2. Because of that, the accidentals usually reset every two bars...oops. Again, sorry about that. 3. The naming convention is a bit weird, but I wasn't sure where to go with that. The page that's called "II-V basslines", well obviously you can also use that for I-IV or III-VI chord progressions too...I just wanted to present the different ways that a walking line can get from point A to point B. 4. You'll notice that not all the lines start off on the root. You're allowed to do this, believe it or not! But, you have to use your ears and discretion. It can depend on some factors, like tempo, style, what kind of band you're playing for, etc. Some of the walking lines have more emphasis on making a nice "shape" rather than spelling out the chord exactly...there's stuff here that will be easier to get away with at 300 bpm rather than 70 bpm. 5. You'll notice some repetition, mostly because my emphasis will be on getting from point A to point B, and not necessarily on getting from point B to point C. 6. Make sure to transcribe from the masters! So here's the II-V licks:   Here are the pages for I-II-(V) Bb7-A7-(Dm7) type chord progressions I-VI-(II) chord progressions IV7-#IVdim-(I) chord progressions Bb7-C7-Fm type chord progressions I-IIIm7-(VI7) chord progressions I7-V7-(I7) chord progressions Walking lines for repeating chords Rhythm changes (mostly eight bar phrases) Modal (four bar phrases)
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Jul 14, 2009 02:07
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h_double posted:As a guitarist who has been trying to expand my bass chops a bit, this is incredibly useful on several levels. Thank you so much for posting these! No prob...don't forget that if you add triplets, eight notes, and other kinds of fills, you can come up with a lot more variations.
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Jul 20, 2009 07:48
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bitches aint poo poo posted:So... $100 is an OK deal for something I would just be using as a practice amp? Serious question, it sounds like an OK deal to me. Yeah, $100 is totally ok for a practice amp. As long as you can get a half decent sound out of it and, well, practice with it then you're gold. You'll eventually want to save up for something you can use on gigs but for now a $100 practice amp is fine.
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Jul 21, 2009 23:27
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pantsfish posted:Anyone care to recommend some good ear training songs? I've spent the last few days exhausting my iTunes library and am running out of thing at my skill level (intermediate at best). I'm currently struggling through the chorus of "Owner of a Lonely Heart" but am down to learn any genre from country on up. I guess stuff that would be in the "not too advanced" area would be: Graham Maby did some neat, melodic bass lines with Joe Jackson, that would be worth checking out. Same with Bruce Thomas on the early stuff he did with Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Any James Brown stuff. Also, the rock band Free has some cool bass lines, while not being too advanced harmonically...mostly blues scale type stuff. They have a couple of "greatest hits" type albums, with good songs like "Mr. Big", "Walk In My Shadow", etc.
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Jul 21, 2009 23:34
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This is the transcribing stuff that's been keeping me busy these days...most of it's pretty easy, although Ron Carter can have some weird note choices sometimes. Walking bass lines can also be tricky because there's more than enough records where the bass gets buried under the band.  
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Jul 22, 2009 19:13
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If you go into the EQ section of Transcribe!, it'll let you boost the bass but I haven't seen a program that isolates it entirely. That said, Transcribe! is a good program for learning music and worth getting. Also, unless punk bass has radically changed in the last while, I think a lot of it is root notes and shouldn't be too hard to figure out.
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Jul 28, 2009 16:54
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Cathab posted:Thanks man. Would you be able to post an example of an EQ that's modified to boost the bass? I've not had any experience with EQs at all and have no idea where to start. Actually my evaluation ran out so I can't post a screenshot right now  It has a bunch of presets, though...you can bring up a screen with different options, like pitch shift, speed, and EQ. On the EQ screen there's a list of options and one of them is "bass select", which boosts the bass and seems to muffle everything else.
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Jul 29, 2009 19:51
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So I'm going to once again shamelessly post an instruction I originally put on Talkbass. This one has to do with developing your timing: So when I first started playing, my teacher noticed that sometimes my timing would speed up or slow down or sometimes not even be on at all, so he had me practice with a metronome. First on all beats, then with the click on 2 and 4. This was all well and good but then I noticed that I tended to lean on the click a little too much. It seems that if the drummer didn't play the snare or high-hat on 2 and 4, or if I had to play for a long stretch where the drummer drops out, my timing would suffer. So I developed this exercise to test one's timing, and I guess rein it in somewhat as well. You need a drum machine or a sequencer and essentially what you do is to set it up with patterns that are not so predictable. For example, in the file below, you have a count-off and then it plays a click on 2 and 4 for four bars. Then it drops out for a bar and comes back in. Is your timing still in place? Did you speed up or slow down? Then it drops out for two bars before coming in. Then eventually it drops out for four bars before coming back in. And then things get switched and sometimes the click will only play on beat 4 or beat 3, etc. The point is to get the practicing to a point where you develop your own internal sense of timing. What do you think - good idea or no? Try the file below (it's at 120 bpm) with a walking bassline or a riff that you like and see what you think. Clicks at 120 bpm Clicks at 60 bpm Clicks at 180 bpm
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Jul 29, 2009 19:56
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Reminds me of the time I rented a Musicman Stingray...once I started turning knobs, I couldn't get the sound back to where I wanted. Curse them and their fancy pots!
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Sep 8, 2009 01:26
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For one-input audio interfaces for PC, the M-Audio Fast Track USB is pretty good. I've been using it for quite a while and it should be able to do what you want it to.
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Jul 9, 2010 03:08
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Here's a question...I have a Bergantino cab and awhile ago on a gig, some drunk knocked it and my Eden head over. Everything was ok, except that the tip of the cable broke off inside the input jack of the cab. Think I could get it out with just some needlenose pliers, or am I gonna have to go to a repair shop?
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Jul 20, 2010 21:38
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Hey, that's not a bad idea...I'll give it a shot.
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Jul 20, 2010 22:16
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Scarf posted:Huh, learn something new. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z91l_lPz1oc&videos=oJlQ5M2zZN8 Also, check out this sick Alphonso Johnson bassline: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClnSxd9CUrQ&videos=Uv32W80PpWc
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Jul 27, 2010 04:53
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So awhile ago I bought one of these babies: It's a Danelectro '63 reissue (long scale), I fitted it with flatwounds and I like the nice thumpy sound I get. Unfortunately, the action is also a mile high...I think this due to 1) the nut is too big and 2) the extra tension from the flatwounds has made the neck bend somewhat (ok, a lot). I took it to a jam night and my hands were crying for mercy by the end of the first song. Thing is, it doesn't have a truss rod as far as I can see, so I may be hosed as far as fixing the neck. It's just an el cheap-o $300 bass and I could always switch to something else, but I like the way the lipstick cover pickups sound with the flats.
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Oct 19, 2010 02:41
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Scarf posted:Is the neck bolt-on? You may have to take the neck off to adjust the truss-rod. Yeah, that sounds about right...I'll have to check it tomorrow. Although I seem to recall those kinds of truss rods require a screwdriver (and an unusual amount of wrist strength) to adjust. Guess we'll see.
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Oct 19, 2010 06:05
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Yeah, I'm working on it now and it does indeed take a standard allen key. However, I've been forgetting the whole "subtle adjustments" thing and have had to take it apart a few times to try and get the action where it should be. The nut appears to be plastic and it does look a bit too high to me...maybe it needs to be that way to get the right amount of clearance, though.
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Oct 19, 2010 17:38
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Well I agree that sometimes adjusting the truss rod for action is sometimes not the answer, but there are those occasions where it is. Anyways, in this case the bridge doesn't really offer a lot of room for adjustment, so there's not much choice. It's not too big a deal, just a bit of a hassle to readjust.
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Oct 19, 2010 19:24
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Walked posted:edit: Anyone have rhythm exercise suggestions? Quarter notes; and eighth notes I'm generally okay. Adding rests (especially on the quarter notes) or swing notes just goes right and fucks me up. Exercises, metronome work, etc - I've got a drum machine, so I'm totally open to suggestions. http://www.vaughn-s.net/bass/rhythm1.pdf http://www.vaughn-s.net/bass/rhythm2.pdf
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Dec 5, 2010 15:03
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 12:38 |
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I think owning a bass like that would condemn you to a life of fusion gigs.
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Dec 7, 2010 02:57
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