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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 13, 2020 9:21:52 GMT
Struggling to get through self isolation with her husband stranded in another country, rock and pop icon from the 1970s, Suzi Quatro, has become a bass guitar teacher, and she is a very wonderful teacher! Stay safe Suzi. Shine On Michael
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Post by Stevie on Apr 13, 2020 12:49:56 GMT
She's right about feel. I've been playing my bass much more recently because it's not up on the wall hook due to the static weight gradually removing the screws! Naturally enough what she's playing has little technical problem (at least for me because my initial classical guitar education inculcated apoyando) but getting the timing just right so folks like us don't pick up on anything, well that's another thing. A bit like that slight delay between the swing of the stick and the resultant thump on the tub. Fond memories of watching Suzi on TOTP. She has more hair than me and I know I'm not alone there!
As you said MM- stay safe gal.
e&oe ...
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Apr 13, 2020 13:21:18 GMT
..ah yes Stevie, but the trick is to play bass a gnats todger behind the beat - that's what makes the music swing. IMHO one can be a fantastic, technically trained bass player having been to music acadamies etc and passed all the exams. but until one accepts that a bass in a band is part of the rhythm section and not a perfectionist solo instrument, it ain't going to work. Playing bass in a band is all about feel and knowing where the "one" is, whatever else is going on and wherever the rest of them are flying to. Have a listen to McVie on the Beano album and early Fleetwood Mac as well as all those early Rock'n'Rollers, the Chess stuff, the Fire stuff etc. I think it comes from the fact that a double bass note blooms - you don't get the instant percussive attack that an electric bass gives so you have to adapt and leave that gnats gap. As Jerome Arnold said to me in the late 1960s, "Just feel it, man."
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 13, 2020 17:21:58 GMT
...Part two! Rock on and stay safe Suzi X Shine On Michael
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Post by wezzywest on Apr 13, 2020 19:42:00 GMT
I love this video, a Bass playing masterclass from the great Carol Kaye.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2020 22:17:09 GMT
..ah yes Stevie, but the trick is to play bass a gnats todger behind the beat - that's what makes the music swing. IMHO one can be a fantastic, technically trained bass player having been to music acadamies etc and passed all the exams. but 1: until one accepts that a bass in a band is part of the rhythm section and not a perfectionist solo instrument, it ain't going to work.
Playing bass in a band is all about feel and knowing where the "one" is, whatever else is going on and wherever the rest of them are flying to. Have a listen to McVie on the Beano album and early Fleetwood Mac as well as all those early Rock'n'Rollers, the Chess stuff, the Fire stuff etc. I think it comes from the fact that a double bass note blooms - you don't get the instant percussive attack that an electric bass gives so you have to adapt and leave that gnats gap. 2:As Jerome Arnold said to me in the late 1960s, "Just feel it, man." :)1:Jaco excepted. 2: Funnily enough a bass playing chum of mine once asked the late and great Pops Popswell how he played a certain lick and he said exactly the same thing!
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Post by Michael Messer on Apr 14, 2020 7:18:08 GMT
The first instrument I took seriously as a young teenager, having played a bit of guitar when I was a child, was the bass, both electric and upright. Recently I have spent time listening to Paul Chambers (Miles Davis - Kind of Blue) and soaking it up.
Suzi has a very nice approach to playing. She grew up around jazz musicians and that shows in her feel.
Shine On Michael
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Post by Stevie on Apr 14, 2020 7:38:58 GMT
PD I know exactly what you were referring to, but I was explaining how I personally find it difficult to keep monentum going "in time". For me it's as though the instrument is being treated more as percussion, although as part of a rhythm section that's no real surprise. It's the inertia of those relatively massive telegraph wires combined with the loss of adjacent rest string on the low wire. Those apoyando strokes need to be performed with little fleshy hammers rather than plucks? YMMV / $0.02 etc.
Playing imperceptibly off the beat does indeed afford that sense of swing, Charlie Watts and Ringo come straight to mind- but I wonder how this works if the bass player is swinging off and the drummer is too? There must be more to it and I believe it's knowing what feels "right" on the fly and innate anticipation of your fellow player's "muse", something that matures over time?
The valid point you have raised goes a long way towards explaining what is so wrong with quantising these days (not to mention painfully obvious ubiquitous vocal pitch correction?)
e&oe ...
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Post by stevie2sticks on Apr 14, 2020 7:50:46 GMT
what an interesting post, thank you Suzi & Michael.
back 46 years ago, in Bradford West Yorkshire, I hazily remember Devil Gate Drive and Newcastle Brown Ale.
Best wishes
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Post by Pickers Ditch on Apr 14, 2020 9:15:42 GMT
Playing imperceptibly off the beat does indeed afford that sense of swing, Charlie Watts and Ringo come straight to mind- but I wonder how this works if the bass player is swinging off and the drummer is too? There must be more to it and I believe it's knowing what feels "right" on the fly and innate anticipation of your fellow player's "muse", something that matures over time? e&oe ...There you have it Stevie. NB - I'm talking about bluesy, jazzy,subtle type stuff here - Heavy rock is a different matter, I think. In my limited experience, bass players and drummers either "click" playing together or they don't. There's an old saying that a good drummer makes a good band - I'll go along with that with no problem coz a good drummer will lock it completely allowing the bass player to sit in the pocket and do his bit rhythmically. This never ceases to amaze me - listen to / watch the whole lot - relaxed or what?
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