Mother Man exercise

I’ve not been practicing as much as I need to recently… that a trend that’s lasted about 4 1/2 months. Last night, while wifey was at class (she’s juggling our first pregnancy, a new job and her 2nd master’s at the same time – yesterday I had to cook for myself and find my own socks!), I decided that if I’m not going through the IIB stuff regularly, or any other material, I’d at least do something short and get some exercise out of it.

Well, over the last year, I’ve found that Roger Patterson (RIP) from Atheist is fast becoming my favorite bassist. I’m a huge fan of Alex Webster, Steve DiGiorgio and Jeroen Thesseling, but Patterson has been quietly and posthumously climbing past them. I’ve been driving with the remastered Unquestionable Presence (among some other CDs) since at least last summer and still can’t stop playing it. His fingerstyle playing just blows me away. Its such a tragedy to the bass world that he died so young. I read somewhere that someone basically said that he was the extreme metal equivalent of Cliff Burton, and I’m inclined to agree with that assessment. He has so much feeling in his playing, yet makes it fit into a metal context. Its been about 20 years since he was killed in an accident, and I’ve only now begun to grasp at his proficiency and really hear what he was playing. I love his style.

Syncopation on bass – videos

Yesterday, I posted an entry about syncopation, after reading a thread about it on TalkBass. Afterward, I checked Youtube for some video examples and found a few interesting ones, including explanations and exercises on the subject.

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Here’s a syncopation exercise from a British bassist named Yolanda Charles. She uses counting to show how mixing up what beat a note is played on can be used to determine if a rhythm is syncopated.

Yolanda Charles and Phil Gould: Bass Syncopation Exercise

Here’s a blurb about Yolanda from her Myspace site:
I am a musician who has worked as a bass player in the music industry since my 1st ‘session’ for Jimmy Sommerville back in 1989. I then went on to work for Artists such as Marcella Detriot, KD Lang, Paul Weller, Roddy Frame, Carleen Anderson, Robbie Williams, Dave Stewart, Mick Jagger and BB King. I’m working as a songwriter most of the time these days.

Syncopation on bass

So, wifey and I went for the anmiocentesis on Thursday last week. Its a girl! We’re not doing pink. My baby is going to be scarier than that. Today’s wifey’s first day at her new job as well. She’s at Columbia University now. If time and energy permit, I’m curious about music classes there… but that’s something for the future. I still need to work through all of the IIB lessons still.

Anyhow. I was between client calls and emails, so I snuck off and grabbed some food. Breakfast is a novelty to me. While I ate, I read a post on Talkbass about syncopation. I found it really interesting, especially two posts. One explains syncopation in terms of the downbeat and the space between downbeats (or upbeat). The other offers an exercise with some information about what you’re gaining through unconscious cognition and how it translates to rhythmic fluency.

Forming a triad

Its not what you think. The cat’s finally out of the bag, so I can say it online. Wifey made the announcement. We’re 15 weeks in, and I’m gonna be a daddy. So, yeah, my practice time has been a bit reduced for the past few months.

Wifey wanted time to pass so that she was more certain that she wasn’t going to lose the baby due to any complications (she’s high-risk). She still wanted to let some of it out though, before she told friends and family.  Its our first.

So, anyway, here’s a link to the blog she started. I co-write it a little.

• Books for Two

If you’re wondering about the title… she’s a librarian. She worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for about six years, and just this past week she resigned. She’s moving on to Columbia University to shush people there. I, of course, will continue to learn the bottom end, and soon, I’ll be smacking that side of a bouncing baby boy or girl and telling it to eat its vegetables (even though I stay away from them myself).

If I’m lucky, the tyke will take an interest in music and maybe even bass. Should that happen, I’ll grab it a U-Bass from Kala or something and see what trouble we can cause for mommy.

Mick Hutchinson – Polyrhythmic Jazz Funk Bass Solo in A Minor

I came across this video yesterday when I was reading up on the Hungarian Minor Scale. The player, Mick Hutchinson, blew my mind. He’s apparently a guitarist/bassist who’s been playing since the 60′s. He taught licks to Jimi Hendrix. I know that its en vogue for us bassists to dismiss guitarists who pick up bass (!!), but in this case, I make an exception.

Mick Hutchinson – Polyrhythmic Jazz Funk Bass Solo in A Minor

Here are some other links about Mick:

• Mick Hutchinson’s Youtube Channel
• Mick Hutchinson’s Guitar & Bass Tuition (this is where he gives online lessons from)

Here’s a link with a notes about him, his playing (mostly guitar, and some bass), album reviews and other stuff. It appears that he originally played with Clark Hutchinson.

• Clark Hutchinson – An Appreciation

The Hungarian Minor Scale

I know, I know. I’ve been posting very sporadically as of late. What’s even worse is that last Monday (3/4) was the one-year anniversary of my starting this blog. I had such high hopes of posting about all of the things I’ve learned over the course of my first year studying bass and looking back at my fumbles. What’s even worse than all of THAT is my dismal practice routine since December… namely, there really hasn’t been one. I’ll confess my sins in a later post though. For now…

I had a little bit of free time this week and dug out Extreme Metal Bass by Alex Webster. I read through the intro again (its been a while) and then went on to the opening “Technique” chapter. The first thing he presents us with is the Natural Minor (Aeolian) Scale. I think that I have a handle on that, although I know it can be better, and I wanted to try something different, so I went on to the next item: the Hungarian Minor Scale.

I have to say… I love it! I love the sound. I can see why its also called the Gypsy scale.

Flexing muscles long unused

The Road to Nowhere…

Its been a while since I posted, and its been even longer since I last practiced. Until today, I don’t think I’ve touched my basses since sometime in December. Things have heated up a lot at home and at work, and my learning to play has suffered for it… there’s give and take, like so much in life and I’m hoping to be able to take more time again to dedicate to practice.

Work has gotten insane recently. I work six days a week:  Sunday – Friday. Its been this way for 8 years. Next month will make it 9 years for me at my current company, and its beginning to pay off. We’re gaining traction in the industry. Our main product is a clinical electronic medical record (EMR) program for nursing homes which I’ve been presenting to potential clients more as of late, and the maturity of our design is beginning to turn heads away from all the flash-in-the-pan companies with governmental backing and political ties that have surfaced in the past few years (I don’t want to get into the corruption chat, but its a dirty business wherever Medicare & Medicaid dollars come into play – we keep our heads out of that nonsense).

Practicing the Major scale – tips and tetrachords for bass

Here’s an interesting 3-video series from MarloweDK on practicing the Major Scale. MarlowDK is famous on the internet as a bass instructor. I’ve seen some of his videos before, but not these. I came across them while looking at an article on No Treble, a bass website with interesting interviews and other material that I’ve only just begun to explore.

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Practicing the Major scale – tips and tetrachords for bass (1/3)

The first 3 minutes of the first video feature Marlowe playing something in G Major. Once that’s completed, he explains that he was actually practicing the scale in a musical way. Its interesting to see him do that. He also goes on to show how a major scale and its octave can be played as two tetrachords. These are 4-note scales. Essentially, a major scale can be played as a four-note pattern which is repeated twice.

Hal Galper’s Masterclass – Musical Vocabulary

I watched another video from Hal Galper and was blown away again. This one is about musical vocabulary. Its making me think a bit differently about why I’m learning scales & chords.

Hal Galper’s Master Class – Musical Vocabulary

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In this video, Mr. Galper talks about learning music by playing it, not intellectualizing it. I think that I’m somewhat guilty of doing this. My understanding isn’t comprehensive, in any way, but I’m fascinated by all of the moving parts, and I overwhelm myself. It seems that this might be an essential step though. Its the building of a vocabulary, and a familiarization with the creation process. Hal says that more vocabulary lets you perform the process better, and I think that he’s right. I think knowledge gives you the options to pick the best tool for the job when playing – but it seems that having too many tools can potentially be a detriment as well.

Hal says that he still uses bebop vocabulary, but in his own way, when playing. His current band plays some sort of avant garde jazz, but he brings what he knows and loves to the table. His claim is that no two people hear the same way, which is a concept held in psychoacoustics, the science behind the crafting of music studios. Different musical elements appeal to different people.

TB – The five most important lessons I’ve ever learned about bass

At the risk of sounding like a guy who’s in touch with his feelings (all I feel are hunger and gas – I’m still working on rhythm - just ask my wife), I present the following:

 A TalkBass member named AlmightyPancake made an enlightening post about lessons that he learned from playing bass. Its not as much about technique and how to play as it is about perceptions of playing and philosophical interpretation of creating music. I found it interesting though.

• TalkBass – The five most important lessons I’ve ever learned about bass

Here’s the text from the original post. There are several pages of responses to it in the thread.

 

I recently was speaking to a close musician friend of mine, and we were discussing our musical evolution. We each chose the most influential things we’ve learned during our musical career, and some very interesting introspective points came up.I’d love to share these with you all, my favorite group of fellow musicians, and I’d be interested to hear yours.For my experience, I have been playing music now for over 13 years. I am fluent at bass guitar, guitar, percussion, and piano. I can get by on violin and upright bass if need be. I am very technically proficient, I have several years of music theory under my belt (including two years of composition and film scoring) and have played with well over 300 different musicians and any style you could possibly care to name. I even get a royalty check for a musical score I did for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s educational show (for which my boss received a regional emmy!), and did some scoring/sound design post-production work for the Discovery channel.I’ve gotten around quite a bit. I like to think I’ve learned quite a lot along the way as well. Hopefully some of this information will come in handy!

 

Note: I chose not to post these in the “best musical advice you’ve ever gotten” thread simply because they aren’t all advice, but rather mostly experience and trial/error.