Your latest bass milestones....
Hey guys, I see there's 5 of you online. How are you all?
Last night I had one of those 'spine tingling' experiences playing bass. You know, when your fingers just know where to go without thinking about it. I was playing a blues jam with the instrumentals based on arpeggios (instead of riff based). Just for the hell of it I started playing a fast arpeggio based line of my own and it fit so well I was almost blown away. It was as if someone else was playing, someone with some talent. hahahaha
Maybe I'll learn to play yet.
So have any of you passed some major milestones in your playing recently? And I don't mean playing with a beer bottle with your arm around a groupie Dave. LOL
ROFLMAO! Well in that case
ROFLMAO! Well in that case NO!....LMAO!
: )
Dave
Yes
I've gone three weeks without any pain in my left hand. No heating pad at all, still taking tylenol arthritis though. I think I'll try to play a bit tonight.
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So what do bass players that can't play do?
I have the solution
To eliminate pain in your left hand take an anti-inflammatory (pick your poison... there are many of them) then sell your MM and buy a Barker Bass :) Puts your left hand in a more comfortable position. I heard from Lee Barker that he is going to release a lower cost Barker... could be the answer.
Opportunity for a gratuitous picture of my Barker ;)
Pete
No milestones, maybe a
No milestones, maybe a kidney and/or bladder stone now and then but nothing bass related. ;P
I am just waiting until I get me recording gear back together. I got me 4 completed songs and I want to get them recorded. Hopefully I can talk the guy down the stree to lay some drums down when I do record.
Hazz
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"WHAT ARE UUUUU DUUUUUING IN MAA SWAAAMP!!
Musicians Collaboration Studio
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
Musicians Collaboration Studio
Actually I have been having
Actually I have been having a great deal off issues with my fingers lately. My Bich has just gotten so bad that I've been walking away from every gig with bloody fingers. We'll do a Friday night gig and my fingers will be bleeding and sore. Then Saturday is Hell! We had a cancelation this weekend so I'm finally getting a chance to heal. Hell I could even practice for about a month just trying to heal in between gigs. Normally I play everyday! Now one gig I got all girly and put mositurizer on my hands twice that day and didn't bleed that night. I'm thinkin dry skin isn't helping much. It was funny at one gig someone asked me how the Hell I play the way I do without ripping my hand to pieces. I said I have three bleeding fingers right now so I don't. I'd be happy just hitting the milestone of a bloodless gig....LOL!
Dave
I haven't played much since
I haven't played much since Haden arrived. But I have been plucking on the bass the past couple of days and it feels good. I think I've been discovering, of late, the importance of arpeggios. I've always been a scales guy. All of my learning on the bass is based on scales, going all the way back. There's nothing wrong with scales, of course. They're essential. But knowing arpeggios (especially playing them through the harmonized major scale: C, Dm, Em, F, G(7), Am, Bdim) gives you amazing bass-line-creating power with minimal effort. And you can use the scales to pull fills, rounding it out.
I've sketched out part of a lesson on this concept, but I haven't had time to finish it yet.
I've also found that I used to just practice them wrong. If you can find a little groove pattern, and then play that through all the harmonized scale, you get lots more useful ideas than simply playing up and down in straight time. So, to the extent that I've been playing at all lately, it's been focussed on arpeggios and grooves.
Wheat
bassplaying.com
My milestone is more of an
My milestone is more of an economical one. Since money is tight and WalMart is selling strings, I thought I'd be better off spending $10 (hangs head in shame) on those rather than the $20-30 for "name brand" strings at GC. This has forced me to do two things:
1. Since WM doesn't sell five string sets, I'll make due with four (P bass and Peavey T40),
2. Having only four strings forces me to find new ways to play lines; primarily using inversions. For example, playing in Eb has been a challenge for me because of my fretboard vision and my absolute, hard-headed resolution in NOT tuning down. I've always tended to see the scale shape as it is taught to beginners. So instead of doing that and playing in the middle portion of the neck, I've forced myself to drop lower for blues lines, etc; hence inversions.
I don't know if that explains my position very well, but trust me, it's made me have better fretboard awareness and forces creativity. Keeps my on my toes.
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Peavey T40; SX/Squier P-bass; Spector Legend 5
Roland Bass 30 Cube
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Peavey T40; SX/Squier P-bass; Spector Legend 5
Roland Bass 30 Cube
well ya know.....
those Walmart strings are just any old no name strings either......they are GHS so at least they are made by one of the major players in strings....
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Greg
Http://www.myspace.com/kybassmaniac
Http://www.upthecreekstudios.com
*and it harm none,do what thou will*
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Greg
http://www.youtube.com/user/BroknDreamsBand
Http://www.facebook.com/brokendreamsband
http://www.reverbnation.com/brokendreamsband
*and it harm none,do what thou will*
Some of 'em are US made too.
Some of 'em are US made too. Interesting considering hardly anything at WalMart is US made...(ducks)
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Peavey T40; SX/Squier P-bass; Spector Legend 5
Roland Bass 30 Cube
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Peavey T40; SX/Squier P-bass; Spector Legend 5
Roland Bass 30 Cube
WHAT!!!???
Does anyone know if Walmart Canada is selling strings? I'd try anything once, and saving money on bass strings is always something to try.
My latest milestone came with the Natural Scale. I started doing all kinds of scale type excercises using only the C and Am scales. From the nut to above the twelfth fret, I have learned a lot more about my fretboard. Just knowing where the natural notes lie has helped my geography during a song. Now covers we've been playing for years have opened up, whether I am trying out new things, or just gaining a better understanding of the theory behind a song. It's amazing how much a seemingly small detail can chain react to greater things.
Jack Casady & Barker Bass
I have spent all of my bass playing time working with my Barker Bass. I recently bought The Bass Guitar of Jack Casady DVD which comes with a book that has all of his stuff on the DVD in notation and tab. Jack is a really great bass player. I bought the DVD to go with my JC Epiphone semi-hollow, but have been using the material when practicing with the Barker.
Although... this site is soooo slow on my home PC, I'll pick up my fretless or the Line6 and noodle around waiting for pages to load.... and I have a cable modem.
Pete
Hi everyone, how are you
Hi everyone, how are you all?
I've been really happy with my playing lately, my stage performance is a lot better and I can now get through a 3 hour gig mistake free or close to at least if I try.
I've done a few recordings lately and I was really happy with how tight my playing was, that's something I've been trying really hard to get over the last two years.
What I'm doing next: I have on my phone the phone numbers of 4 of the hottest bass players in Sydney or Australia for that matter and I'm going to have some lessons from them and pick their brains for info.
Mostly about harmony, secondary chord options, Left hand positioning, and Jazz (all of it)
Thanks for listening.
Jaymie Murray
Hi Jaymie. Nice to see you
Hi Jaymie. Nice to see you online again. Good to hear you're happy with your playing. That sounds great to be getting some lessons from the best of the best. Let us know how it goes.
Hey Paul
[quote=Paul Warren]Hi Jaymie. Nice to see you online again. Good to hear you're happy with your playing. That sounds great to be getting some lessons from the best of the best. Let us know how it goes.[/quote]
Yea thanks Paul, good to get a chance to say hi and see what's been going on here at BP.com
I will let you know how the leesons go, I'm looking forward to them.
So how have you been Paul?
??
[quote=jaymie]...
What I'm doing next: I have on my phone the phone numbers of 4 of the hottest bass players in Sydney or Australia ...
Jaymie Murray
[/quote]
So does that mean the lil' Mrs has left? Just kidding.
Good to hear from ya. Bit of a hurry here so I post up again later.
Hazz
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"WHAT ARE UUUUU DUUUUUING IN MAA SWAAAMP!!
Musicians Collaboration Studio
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"Carburetors man!! That's what life is all about."
Musicians Collaboration Studio
Hey I didn't say they
Hey I didn't say they weren't female, hahaha
Yea it's been a long time dude, we need to catch up.
So much has happend since.
What's been going down over way?