Check out this message I just recieved on youtube, and weep:

i saw your bass tapping intro and wanted to point out that you tell your viewers to play an F# (9th fret A string) along with a G (12th fret G string). note that an F# and G are only a half step away from each other and do not fit musically. (if you play them together on a piano you’ll see what i mean if you cant hear it already.) anyways just thought you might want to correct this before new musicians get the wrong idea and are out there playing the wrong notes. remember music comes first before motor skills.

very respectfully,
BM

Urggg.  See, this is what gives theory a bad name.  Theory can be a useful tool, if used in the right ways, and used as a “theory”, rather than being used as something that potrays music as a black and white world of rules and regulations.

“This can’t work with this.  This won’t work with that.”

Ignore it.  Or at least learn it, and then remind yourselves why you should try and ignore most of it.

The riff he’s speaking of sounds absolutely fine.  There is no harmonic conflict there at all.  Infact….it sounds pretty damn good.  Ok, in theory it “shouldn’t” work.  But it does.  Here it is:

Paul Mcarteny and John Lennon did tons of things that theoretically shouldn’t have worked.  This is what gave them their edge, and their different sound.  They experiemented.  They ignored the black and white rules of regulation, and saw music as a colourful world of potential creation.

As I mention above, theory CAN be useful, and is obviously a must when identifying specific notes with other people.  But don’t let it dominate your creativity.

And that is my main message:  Don’t let theory dominate your creativity.

Use and train your ear.  Learn to hear music.  I mean really hear it.  If it sounds good to you, then it sounds good to you.  If you like how it sounds, then it is your right to call it a song/riff/line, whatever.  Because music is freedom, expression.  What you have written may sound crap to the rest of the world, but if you like it, and it comes from your heart then it is as relevent and as important as any other famous piece of music.

Trust me.

Theory is just a theory to make communication within music easier.  It is not a “How to” of everything creative…

Please read the annonotations on this video, to understand why I made it squeeky!

If anyone has any questions about this, I’ll happily answer them!

By wackiirahki from Youtube. I must admit, I am VERY impressed. He’s got the “feel” right, and everything. Check it out…

Here is a post about keeping up with your practice. It is in a guise of a little story that happened to me. It doesn’t only relate to bass guitar…

On staying on the path.

Excuse the Hollywood-esqueness of this story. But I can tell you, hand on heart that it is 100% true. I swear on my Musicmans (for those of you reading this without a knowledge of bass guitars, a musicman is a make of bass, and my pride and joy!) life.

Some time ago, in the late summer, I was going for one of my wanders. I normally wander quite a bit, taking my bass with me, and if there is no-one around, i’ll have a little jam, and maybe write a little song or riff if i’m lucky. I normally do this out in the sticks, because it’s much more inspirational out there, and is so much better to play music in.

I’d gone quite far on this occasion, and it started to get a bit dark. I had a good idea what direction I needed to head off in to get to where I wanted to end back up. Instead of turning around, and going back the way I had come, I found a fork in the path, and took another track that headed back in the direction I wanted to go.

As it got darker and darker, I noticed that there was a wood I had to go through to get to the other side of the path. Now, I’m the first to admit that my imagination can still get the better of me (even at 33) on certain ocassions.

(Those ocassions normally being me, walking through a dark woods with beasties and spooks that probably don’t exist, but defiantly exist inside my stupid head whilst I am doing so.)

I had gone some distance at this point, and turning round, to go back the way I came would certainly double my journey time. It was the safe option, but not the exciting one, and one that would take quite a while. I stood there for a short while, looking behind and forwards, before I made my decision to carry on.

I grit my teeth, held my bass like a battle axe, and began to walk through the dark woods…

Now, I can’t say that that decision was a comfortable one for me. If i’m honest. I couldn’t see the path, and it just got darker and darker as I walked on. I felt spiderwebs on my face. I heard things. I saw things. (Well, at least I think I saw and heard things. The reality is probably very different.) The path was muddy. The only way I knew I was going in the right direction was by attentively staring at a slight bit of light in the far-off distance. This…became my mantra.

The light got closer and closer, step by step, and when I actually saw the exit hole of the woods, I ran. I ran like a six year old runs up the stairs when it’s dark, and they think something might be behind them. It had that same panic. I ran like a girl. I ran for my life.

Unfortunately, in my panic, I didn’t run very well, and fell over quite a few times. Me being on the floor, just added to my panic, and I let out a little scream as I scrambled to my feet again. As far as was concerned, the non-monsters and ghosts were right over me. And they had big teeth. I kicked out at empty space, and swore at nothing. Got to my feet, and moved quickly on to the exit…

…and what I saw when I got there was mind-blowing…

I came out onto the top of a large hill that looked over a Castle. Above that was the biggest orange moon I have ever seen in my life. It was spectacular. I just stood there and watched.

It was so spectacular that I hadn’t realised I was covered head to toe in mud and cow shit.

And here comes the Hollywood and hard to believe part. At that point, a massive firework display started at the castle. I sat down on the floor, and watched the Moon, castle and fireworks. I picked up my plop stained bass, and started playing. I then put it back down again because it was too cold. I just sat and watched. It was amazing.

Now, what does this have to do with bass playing you may ask? Well, apart from not recommending dropping your bass in cowpats, quite a bit!

To get to where we want to be, we need a goal of some sort. Like my light at the end of the wood, you need to have it firmly in your head. Now, regarding bass playing, that could be to learn a new technique, gain more strength, learn more scales, find a band, do a gig, become a millionaire rockstar, or whatever. The goal, is your own personal goal, and only you can, and should choose it.

And this doesn’t only relate to bass playing. It can be anything in life.

The journey I set myself was a difficult one. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the woods when I entered it. I had to persevere a bit before it appeared. Sometimes in life, we have an idea where the goal is, but we can’t see it yet, so we have to go on. We have to move forward. We have to try. We have to have faith.

Now, the easy option would have been to give up, turn around and go back onto the original path I came from. That was the easy option. To give up. But I had to muster enough mental strength to carry on. Even though I was scared to death (I really was), and had no idea where I needed to be (I really didn’t), I knew the exit was in that general direction. And when I finally saw it, I headed to it. When I fell over, I got up and carried on. I never stopped. If I had done, the ghosts would have got me.

When you start your journey with your bass, or whatever in life, you will come across a metaphoric wood like mine. You won’t know where you’re going. You’ll be confused, and a bit lost. The easiest thing to do would be to give it up, turn around, and go for the easy option. The known path, rather than the un-known. The track most walked.

Also on this path will be lots of mental monsters that you will find. Those monsters that whisper to you in the dark “give up” “You can’t do this” “You will fail”, but you have to shut those monsters up, and keep on keeping on…

…because Sometimes in life, we make monsters in our head that don’t exist. Our own personal monsters, that feel very real.

But trust me when I say this. You’ll appreciate the goal so much more if you have to fight for it. The castle, fireworks and moon were proof of this for me. The journey may seem too hard, and you will really want to give up. It’s at these times the monsters will start their whispering. Ignore them. Move on. You’ll feel lost, maybe a bit lonely, but move on.

It was lucky I had my bass on me, because it made me link this story with the journey we take when we take up an instrument, or anything worth achieving in life. That is why I am sitting here in the cold, watching the Moon, Castle and Fireworks whilst frantically writing it down. The path is behind me. This is spectacular.

Stick with it and fight for it. Trust me. It’ll be worth it if you do.

*Just an added footnote. As I was walking back down the hill to my car, I fell over, rolled most of the way down and hurt my knee a bit. I have no idea what this means.

I am a proud man.

I remember being about 17, at school, having just purchased Rage’s first album. This must have been about ’93 time. I remember carving Anarchy symbols into the back of school desks, even though I had no idea what it really meant.

I remember arguing with the head of year and prefects about their tastes in music that dominated our six form social area stereo.

90′s dance music, with ugly bursts of Madonna and the like in-between.

I remember breaking that stereo.

Back then, we were the minority. The long-haired ones that would do nothing with their lives. The ones that would probably be in a band that would do nothing, or something. Probably nothing.

Well, they were right.

And they got stronger and stronger, and bigger and bigger, as the industry adjusted itself, Whilst our types and our types of music just got weaker and weaker…

But there was something that they always seemed to miss. And it’s the same thing that supporters of the programmes like the X-factor seem to miss as well.

There is more to music than gain.

And since those days, my friends have lived and breathed music. Played it everywhere we could. Played it in forests, woods, on beaches, on hills. Done thousands of gigs. Laughed, jammed and cried. We’ve lost soldiers, we’ve gained soldiers. Every part of our lives has been about it. Playing, inventing, sharing. There is no money here. There are no big lights. There is no backing track to sing along to. We are the backing track. Ever since those days of broken stereos, we have done this. And we will continue to do so. It’s dirty, noisy, emotional, and most important of all….it’s real.

And now, i’m thirty-something. I still have the same passion I had for it than when I was seventeen. I’ve seen the industry turn uglier than it ever was. I’ve seen it become a characature of itself. I’ve seen it spoonfeed the masses. I’ve seen it lie.

But yesterday, Rage against the machine were announced number one in the U.K for Christmas. Beating, the X-factor winner Joe cliche. All on the back of an internet campaign that one guy started. The internet, being used as a communication tool of those people that share the same as I have written above. All of us, coming together as one.

Look. At. What. We. Achieved.

To say that i’m proud is an understatement. I have a brand new daughter, and when she looks back at the Christmas number one when she was born, it’ll be “Killing in the name of”. The band her Daddy was so passionate about for all those years. The mindless sheep I saw yesterday buying Joe Cliches single at Sainsbury’s, whilst discussing what happened in Eastenders last night have, for once, been silenced.

Now, we have the choice to further this. To keep it real. These…are exciting times…

Excuse the noise, but we had just heard some great news…

I love playing Bass.

It’s always been the exciting instrument for me. For many people, it’s guitar, and that is the instrument that a lot of people head for, when picking one.

It’s been that way for years…

But these days, i’m noticing a lot of people heading towards the bass as their prefered instrument. It used to be the case that bands needed a bass player, so some poor soul would be lumbered with it, whilst secretely wishing he could play guitar. It used to be the un-cool choice. The “sit at the back and be a good boy” choice.

But it’s come so far, you know? The electric Bass is such a young instrument. In it’s infancy, it’s number one ability was to sit back, hold time and maintain the low. Now, it’s still like that, don’t get me wrong, but we’ve come to realise that there are many ways of achieving this…

Tapping is still a new technique being used on the bass, and we’re finding out new things, daily. In my interview with Jean Baudin, he says it’s his favourite technique, because there is still so much to be found. Very true. Slapping and popping is a pretty new technique as well, pinoeered by Larry Graham. We are playing melodies now as well, just like in my video here. Again, people are doing more and more different things with it. We are adding more strings, more effects. We are experimenting.

These are exciting times to be a Bass player.

So when that lead guitarist tells you you shouldn’t be playing slap and pop, because it takes the shine off his solo, tell him it’s evolution. And when the old-school dinosaurs tell you not to experiment with your Bass, and keep it traditional, tell them it’s evolution…

As long as we maintain the low, and keep good time, we can be allowed to dream…

So that’s why I love playing Bass. Why do you?

(If you like this post, please tweet it, or post it around your favourite forums etc)

I’ve always enjoyed Tool, but never been massively into them as I have with other bands. But this video blows my mind. The thought, effort that must have gone into the construction of this song is awesome…

I like it when people make a bit of an effort. Check this out, guys. Defiantly worth watching all the way through:

Ok, here is my funk playlist! Yea! Umm, I couldn’t get ALL the songs I wanted to on here, because they weren’t available. This is a good list to get you started, anyhow…

Listen to the severe lack of slap and pop in these songs, and learn that although slap and pop is closely linked to Funk, it is barely used.

Listen to how the bass lines are so tight with the drums on these songs. Feel the grooves, and understand how soulful it all is.

Especially listen to Prestia’s playing on the tower of power bass lines. Listen to his fingerwork, and how quick and tight it is.

Feel the funk! Turn it up!

Some singles of the above:

Albums of recommendation:

Sly and the family stone:

Essential Sly & Family Stone

Tower of Power:

The Very Best of Tower of Power: The Warner Years

Ohio players:

20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Ohio Players

Funkdelic:

One Nation Under a Groove

The Meters:

The Very Best of the Meters

Stevie Wonder:

Stevie Wonder – The Definitive Collection

Flea is THE number one reason I picked up the bass guitar. His intensity and energy pulled me from joining the Army one evening, and launched me into a life of music and creativity, instead. Whilst I still call myself a big fan of Flea, I do prefer his older stuff. When he was really innovating, and crossing over the “funk and “punk”. That being, playing funk with the intensity of punk…

For me, Flea was at his greatest on Mothers Milk. Blood sugar Sex Magik comes a very close second. To this day, I still jam the chorus to “Under the bridge” because it is such a great line!

Both these albums are definatly worth a look:

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Mother’s Milk

As well as those two albums (I actually recommend ALL their albums, but those two are great places to start!) i’d have to recommend Fleas “Bass tutorial” DVD. Lol, it isn’t so much a “tutorial” than a fascinating insight into Fleas mind and philosophy. I used to watch this vid (it was on VHS back then) religiously. Definatly check it out!

Flea: Adventures in Spontaneous Jamming and Technique

Lastly, if Flea’s style interests you, then check out my premium video, “Red Hot Slap ‘n pop”, which covers Flea’s much muted method of slapping and popping!

Well, what can I say about Larry Graham that you old school pro’s don’t know? Not much!

The reason for that is that any bass player that has been playing for a while will know who larry Graham is. If you don’t, let me educate you:

Larry Graham was the first person to slap and pop on the eletric bass guitar. That’s right, the FIRST person. All these techniques we use to day all come from him. Larry was in a soul/funk band called “sly and the family stone”. DEFINATLY worth checking out if you have never heard of them. The chilis covered their version of “if you want me to stay”.

Larry Graham is one of my hero’s. If not for this video alone. This is him at his best. Oh, check out the funky Boogie nights-esqe dancing in the middle….classic!

Here is a recommendation of some sly and the family Stone stuff. Have a good listen, and check out those slap and pop lines in their infancy!

Essential Sly & Family Stone