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GMC Forum _ Introduce Yourself ! _ Any Other Bass Players Here?

Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 11 2009, 08:35 PM

Just joined - love the site. I've been stealing licks and solos from the free vids for a couple of weeks and felt guilty. They put a lot of time and effort in to this site and deserve to get paid. I am a grizzled old codger who has been playing/gigging/recording for about 30+ years. I was never a guitar player - originally I was a cellist and moved to bass because I felt it held the power and drive in a band. (And also because it's hard to get layed when you play the cello - the really naughty girls don't flock to the cellist) The guitar gets to put the icing on the cake most of the time but the bass is the cake. I studied music at the University of North Texas way back in the olden days and learned some jazz in the lab band (not the one o'clock) but was mainly a classical player and studied comp and theory. Now I gig in all styles - in my area, country is what pays. I hate country music but have no choice - it pays twice the money or more here in Texas. I still do Jazz, Rock, Fusion or any other gig that comes along but mostly they pay like crap here - they do keep me from going crazy. The guitar players get to have more fun in country so I might start learning to play guitar also. I'm not so old of a dog that I can't learn new tricks.
I've been learning to apply a lot of Emir Hots licks to the bass - some are technically difficult/impossible due to the limitations of the instrument but much of it is useful in soloing regardless of the instrument. I love the way he manages not to sound like he's playing a lot of patterns - he breaks off and changes just before it would get monotonous, which is very important. I wish more players would get that particular skill set. Sometimes we all get caught up in our own technique and forget we are trying to wow an audience, they are often more sophisticated than we give them credit.
Anyway - just saying Hi - I don't know any of you yet and hope we can all help each other.

Posted by: Red Jul 11 2009, 08:52 PM

Welcome smile.gif

Nice idea to apply licks from the guitar to the bass, never thought of it like that.
And the only bass player I know about is Bogdan, but I suppose that you already know about him smile.gif

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Jul 11 2009, 09:23 PM

Hello and welcome to GMC Buddha! Im really glad to see another bass player on the web site! We got quite a few bass playing GMCers onboard now...Check out this topic that was opened recently : http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=28261&st=0&p=392472&#entry392472

It will be great if you could be active here in the forum so we can share low end talk and everything wink.gif

Cheers


Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 11 2009, 09:29 PM

Nice idea to apply licks from the guitar to the bass, never thought of it like that.
And the only bass player I know about is Bogdan, but I suppose that you already know about him smile.gif
[/quote]

Hi Red - good to meet you. I like Bogdans lessons but so far it's all geared toward the beginners and basic bass line construction, grooves etc. Nothing really on soloing techniques specific to the bass. I used to transcribe Charlie Parker and a bunch of other similar stuff and play it on bass but it will tear your fingers to pieces. The guitar is so similar that a lot of it still works even though the tuning drops to a major third between G and B, some of that gets a bit tricky but there is always a work around/different position you can use for the offending lick biggrin.gif

Really good to meet you Bogdan - I like the lessons I've seen of yours. I would really like to see some advanced soloing stuff for bass on here. I've been in kind of a rut lately playing the same old Jaco and Stanley Clarke style stuff that I always have. I've been working on the double thumb stuff ala Victor wooten but it's still awkward for me - that takes some serious work to get a decent sound and be consistant. He's been doing it since he was 3 years old so I don't feel too bad that I aven't mastered it. Who are your big influences?

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Jul 11 2009, 09:51 PM

Hello,

improvisation lessons for bass are on my to do list definitly! smile.gif Victor is crazy , I saw him live with SMV band last night and it was amazing performance.He did a solo spot with a loop station and it was amazing and crazy - only he can imagine and play those grooves...Regarding my influences, foremost can be Paul McCartney as I always loved the Beatles music and its what driven me to start playing and everything.I love the bass lines of Flea, he is so nice and melodic. Of course Victor Marcus and Stanley are always there to inspire me to practice smile.gif heheh

Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 11 2009, 10:17 PM

QUOTE (Bogdan Radovic @ Jul 11 2009, 03:51 PM) *
Hello,

improvisation lessons for bass are on my to do list definitly! smile.gif Victor is crazy , I saw him live with SMV band last night and it was amazing performance.He did a solo spot with a loop station and it was amazing and crazy - only he can imagine and play those grooves...Regarding my influences, foremost can be Paul McCartney as I always loved the Beatles music and its what driven me to start playing and everything.I love the bass lines of Flea, he is so nice and melodic. Of course Victor Marcus and Stanley are always there to inspire me to practice smile.gif heheh




Paul McCartney is definately one of the most inspired and original of bassists - he really thought outside the box most of the time. I've always thought Flea must have pondered McCartneys lines quite a bit also - some obvious similarities in the way he constucted some of his most famous non slap grooves. I also like a lot of the old Parliment, Funkadelic and Larry Grahm stuff - talk about hammering a groove down until the audience can't help but dance - cool stuff.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jul 11 2009, 11:54 PM

Welcome aboard man, nice to read that intro! Enjoy your stay, hope to see you on the forums smile.gif

Posted by: Pedja Simovic Jul 12 2009, 11:59 AM

Welcome to GMC ! smile.gif

Posted by: Muris Varajic Jul 12 2009, 12:04 PM

Nice introduction, welcome to GMC. smile.gif

Posted by: Emir Hot Jul 12 2009, 12:26 PM

Thank you for the nice words. I am really interested to hear how you applied my licks to bass guitar smile.gif They are often very fast for the bass but some can be a good technical exercise.

Welcome to GMC smile.gif

Posted by: NoSkill Jul 12 2009, 03:30 PM

Nice to see more old codgers! Welcome!

Posted by: Santiago Diaz Garces Jul 12 2009, 04:01 PM

Welcome to the site man! You can find here a lot of differents styles/techniques to analize and study but I think Bogdan will be your best guide. I'm really glad that Bass players starts to appear in this site. It's awesome because it means that GMC is growing up a little every day wink.gif

Posted by: Stephane Lucarelli Jul 12 2009, 04:40 PM

Welcome to GMC ! Great to have you here! smile.gif

Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 12 2009, 08:38 PM

QUOTE (Emir Hot @ Jul 12 2009, 06:26 AM) *
Thank you for the nice words. I am really interested to hear how you applied my licks to bass guitar smile.gif They are often very fast for the bass but some can be a good technical exercise.

Welcome to GMC smile.gif

Some things are actually too fast in all but the very highest register - they start to sound like drum rudiments at tempo down low, are difficult to play clean and lack defintion. I'll have to find a way to record it when I can afford the equipment so you can hear what I mean.

Posted by: skennington Jul 12 2009, 11:35 PM

Welcome Buddha, I'd love to hear some bass solo's of yours. You can pickup an inexpensive device like a Pandora or a Toneport that should do the job for you.

Posted by: Jerry Arcidiacono Jul 12 2009, 11:40 PM

Welcome to GMC dear bass player smile.gif
I love the bass and I play it sometimes.

Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 13 2009, 04:37 PM

QUOTE (skennington @ Jul 12 2009, 05:35 PM) *
Welcome Buddha, I'd love to hear some bass solo's of yours. You can pickup an inexpensive device like a Pandora or a Toneport that should do the job for you.

I'll see what I can do - My head fried recently so I had to buy a new rig. PayPal screwed up and took the money out of my checking account instead of the credit card I chose, so it caused a bunch of checks to bounce - fees etc.. I'm still trying to untangle the mess and dig out of the hole. Not the first time PayPal has done that! It was all I could do to sign up for this site. Things will get better but I can't afford anything but food right now. Maybe next month.

QUOTE (skennington @ Jul 12 2009, 05:35 PM) *
Welcome Buddha, I'd love to hear some bass solo's of yours. You can pickup an inexpensive device like a Pandora or a Toneport that should do the job for you.

actually - I did just find a solo of mine on an old "Soul Providers" CD - it's not a very technical solo since it would have been inappropriate for the tune to play a bunch of really fast runs - I actually did one in the studio that way but the producer (Harvey Gerst) picked the more melodic solo for the release. Let me see if I can figure out how to post it. Can somebody give me a clue how to rip a song off a CD and post it here? I'm old and tech challenged. huh.gif

Posted by: OrganisedConfusion Jul 13 2009, 04:49 PM

I play bass. Better on bass than I am on guitar by far smile.gif

Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 13 2009, 05:39 PM

QUOTE (Buddha Long @ Jul 13 2009, 10:37 AM) *
I'll see what I can do - My head fried recently so I had to buy a new rig. PayPal screwed up and took the money out of my checking account instead of the credit card I chose, so it caused a bunch of checks to bounce - fees etc.. I'm still trying to untangle the mess and dig out of the hole. Not the first time PayPal has done that! It was all I could do to sign up for this site. Things will get better but I can't afford anything but food right now. Maybe next month.


actually - I did just find a solo of mine on an old "Soul Providers" CD - it's not a very technical solo since it would have been inappropriate for the tune to play a bunch of really fast runs - I actually did one in the studio that way but the producer (Harvey Gerst) picked the more melodic solo for the release. Let me see if I can figure out how to post it. Can somebody give me a clue how to rip a song off a CD and post it here? I'm old and tech challenged. huh.gif

OK - the production copy has a copy-protection and won't let me convert but I found a preproduction copy (kind of noisy - recorded on analog and this was a quick rough mix before they pulled out the noise) that will let me convert to mp3. Solo is somewhere around the middle - This is early 90's cheesy "smooth" Jazz but it has a few bright spots.

 Track11.mp3 ( 6.22MB ) : 171
 

Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 13 2009, 06:11 PM

Here's a different tune in a completely different style - no bass solo in this one but I remember having a tough time playing and singing this one at the same time. I'm sticking it on here because the guitar player (David Moore) on this cut has a cool run somewhere toward the end. This cut was "live in the studio" - no overdubs. We went back and fixed the inconsistancies in this tune after this rough cut version.

 Track08.mp3 ( 2.73MB ) : 167
 

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic Jul 13 2009, 06:35 PM

AH cool tracks , I really liked the groove in the smooth jazz one! smile.gif

Posted by: Red Jul 13 2009, 06:50 PM

QUOTE (Buddha Long @ Jul 13 2009, 07:11 PM) *
Here's a different tune in a completely different style - no bass solo in this one but I remember having a tough time playing and singing this one at the same time. I'm sticking it on here because the guitar player (David Moore) on this cut has a cool run somewhere toward the end. This cut was "live in the studio" - no overdubs. We went back and fixed the inconsistancies in this tune after this rough cut version.


You got a great voice smile.gif
I Liked the song.

Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 13 2009, 07:46 PM

QUOTE (Bogdan Radovic @ Jul 13 2009, 12:35 PM) *
AH cool tracks , I really liked the groove in the smooth jazz one! smile.gif

Thanks Bogdan - that tune was originally written as a rock ballad with a lot of shred guitar. The producer decided it would be more marketatble to do the smooth Jazz thing with it so he stuck an acoustic guitar in Daves hand and said "try this" so we had to come up with a groove that fit. Glad it worked for you. It got some airplay on the jazz stations but the CD sold badly and lost our primarily Blues-Rock audience so that was the on the bands last CD. We lost our recording contract. Sometimes change is good - sometimes "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." lesson learned.

Red - thanks man!

Posted by: Emir Hot Jul 13 2009, 11:37 PM

QUOTE (Buddha Long @ Jul 12 2009, 08:38 PM) *
Some things are actually too fast in all but the very highest register - they start to sound like drum rudiments at tempo down low, are difficult to play clean and lack defintion. I'll have to find a way to record it when I can afford the equipment so you can hear what I mean.


Ok, let me know via PM if you get that recording done.

edit: I just heard your songs. Very cool stuff

Posted by: Santiago Diaz Garces Jul 14 2009, 04:58 AM

Great Stuff man!. Congratulations!

Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 14 2009, 08:48 PM

QUOTE (Ivan Milenkovic @ Jul 11 2009, 05:54 PM) *
Welcome aboard man, nice to read that intro! Enjoy your stay, hope to see you on the forums smile.gif

Hi Ivan - I'll be very interested in doing some collaberations when I get some recording stuff - I'm broke a the moment - I've checked out quite a few of your lessons, very cool.

Posted by: Buddha Long Jul 15 2009, 04:56 PM

QUOTE (NoSkill @ Jul 12 2009, 09:30 AM) *
Nice to see more old codgers! Welcome!

I love the cartoon - very cool biggrin.gif

To everyone who replied:
Thank you for the welcoming words! I have to say the more I see the more this site blows me away - so many great teachers all in one place. Every one of you is top notch in you own styles and specialties.I never really considered playing guitar before since there are so many good guitar players in my area and so few really good bass players, almost no good keyboard players - most of the guitar players have a hard time finding much work here. There are just so many cool things on this site that don't really apply to bass that I borrowed a guitar from a friend I gig with sometimes and am trying to learn to use a pick. I feel like a newborn trying to learn to walk - the left hand doesn't give me any problem but I sound like crap. I don't know how to mute with a pick in my hand so I have string noise all over everything and I'm so awkward with the pick it isn't funny. On a bass I can play fast, on a guitar I'm at a snails pace. I need to work on some of the lessons that will teach me how to use a pick in the least amount of time - any suggestions are more than welcome.

Posted by: Velvet Roger Jul 18 2009, 04:03 PM

Welcome to GMC! smile.gif

Posted by: Mrblomme Jul 23 2009, 10:16 AM

Welcome man!

I'm also playing bass. smile.gif

Posted by: Toni Suominen Jul 23 2009, 11:38 AM

Welcome!

A bass is next on my wishlist! smile.gif

Posted by: mhskeide Jul 23 2009, 11:54 AM

Haha, that intro was great read. Love the reason why you moved to bass biggrin.gif I moved to bass because there were to few of them and too many of the guitar players, but now I`m really starting to like it!
Very cool song btw, you sung on it aswell?

Posted by: audiopaal Aug 1 2009, 07:56 PM

Great intro, welcome to GMC smile.gif

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