Portrait Of Tracy on my fretless Bongo

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Hi everybody.

After my first semester trying to teach some of my students this piece with satisfying results in most cases, they asked me to record a video for keep checking it out during the vacation time. I tried to do my best but of course the usual mistakes always appear. Anyway, I think this is a half-decent version and I wanted to share it with all of you. I played it on my fretless Bongo with flatwound strings. One thing I noticed after my first attempt at playing this piece seriously while seated is that it's much easier for me to play it while standing (specially the D# stretch). I have to work on that. Hope you enjoy it!

Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjjin47XFko

[markjazzbassist]

sounds great man, good job. i like that you kept a nice slow tempo, it had more expression and sounded beautiful with all the space. hope your students like it to man.

[BOOCAKE4U]

it takes a brave man to cover jaco (especially on youtube, talk about a tough crowd)...gracias y pozo hecho (y apesadumbrado para mi espanol malo..hehe)

i think you must be a good teacher, the best ones are always learning along with the student...i'm watching your tapping videos now (just for fun), but the site is being very slow

[Dr. Cheese]

Alvaro, you sound great. Work on not looking so serious when you are playing! It's all good man, music is fun!

[Yvon]

Great playing!
I never played a lot with flat wound, but I am suprise of the clean tone you get out of them.

[Vorago]

Nice dude!

Now, can someone please send me a transcription that's readable, or explain how the transcription on Pickford's site works?

[dukerutledge]

awesome video, I wish I could make the stretch for the 2/6 harmonic without using my thumb.

[Mike Flynn]

Dude - I believe you've always had a few nice words for my bass bollox - but now it's your turn to get some props - excellent work - and if I ever see a more laid back performance than that...I'll let you know - that was lovely - well done.

Cheers - and keep it cool.

Mike

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Hey guys, thank you for your nice words! And Mr. Flynn, you're totally right. I've missed lots of your posts for sure, but every time I have the chance to see you in action I'm always in awe of your style and command on the instrument. Thank you for your kind words!

Hey Bruno! Here's my story of how I learned (well, still learning) to play this beautiful piece:

It started around 1994, I think, when I was literally a slave of the instrument. I was trying to learn lots of things and "Portrait Of Tracy" was one of them. I could get the intro at the time, but then I entered the university, started my double bass lessons and archived the song. It was like two or three years ago that I wanted to complete my unfinished job. My process (from the very beginning) was:

1- Getting a real understanding of how harmonics work on the instrument. I think this is the best way to do that. Then learning at least up to the 7th harmonic in each string.

2- Watching Jaco's "Modern Electric Bass" video. Although he isn't in good shape there, he clearly explains the tune's key tricks like getting that D# and the final chord (although that's the hardest way for me), plus he also shows you that some notes are played in unison, something that a regular transcription won't tell you (I've never seen the Pickford one. After checking his "Come On, Come Over" transcription, I was frankly disappointed).

3- EARS. I remember when I was trying to learn the intro back in 1994. I had to stop and repeat the track so many times for getting the fast harmonics succession at the very beginning. Of course, I already knew how harmonics work (see # 1).

4- Using the Real Book transcription when ears weren't good enough, but just for knowing the pitches. As far as I can recall now, there are one or two mistakes there, but it works perfectly. I never tried to read the rhythms. I think that after you know all the pitches, you must appropriate the song. This is a piece of music that must flow freely after you understand it with your ears and your soul. Not trying to understand mechanical rhythms from a piece of sheet.

I always wanted to teach this song, not only because of its beauty or its technical problems, but also because I feel this piece as essential in a competent bassist' culture. But it was a real puzzle to me how to teach it. I even started a thread at TB about it. This semester I decided to experiment with my best students and, after making sure that they had a solid knowledge on harmonics (again, see # 1), I started teaching them little by little, just by pure imitation and armed with a copy of the Real Book transcription. As one of them told me: "You're teaching this by oral tradition". And it's working! I'm really happy about that. Most of them are playing the song in its entirety, or at least understand how to play it. I hope my video will be a tiny bit of help for those of you interested on playing "Portrait Of Tracy". Thank you again for your comments!

[dukerutledge]

I never knew there was a real book transcription of the song. I have a transcription from bass guitar world from way back by victor bailey, as far as I know it's almost 100% accurate, none of the online tablature or transcriptions that I've seen have caught the nuances of the song like the victor bailey transcription does.

[Asaf]

wow man ! sounds great !!

[Vorago]

Originally Posted by Alvaro Martín Gómez A.

Hey guys, thank you for your nice words! And Mr. Flynn, you're totally right. I've missed lots of your posts for sure, but every time I have the chance to see you in action I'm always in awe of your style and command on the instrument. Thank you for your kind words!

Hey Bruno! Here's my story of how I learned (well, still learning) to play this beautiful piece:

It started around 1994, I think, when I was literally a slave of the instrument. I was trying to learn lots of things and "Portrait Of Tracy" was one of them. I could get the intro at the time, but then I entered the university, started my double bass lessons and archived the song. It was like two or three years ago that I wanted to complete my unfinished job. My process (from the very beginning) was:

1- Getting a real understanding of how harmonics work on the instrument. I think this is the best way to do that. Then learning at least up to the 7th harmonic in each string.

2- Watching Jaco's "Modern Electric Bass" video. Although he isn't in good shape there, he clearly explains the tune's key tricks like getting that D# and the final chord (although that's the hardest way for me), plus he also shows you that some notes are played in unison, something that a regular transcription won't tell you (I've never seen the Pickford one. After checking his "Come On, Come Over" transcription, I was frankly disappointed).

3- EARS. I remember when I was trying to learn the intro back in 1994. I had to stop and repeat the track so many times for getting the fast harmonics succession at the very beginning. Of course, I already knew how harmonics work (see # 1).

4- Using the Real Book transcription when ears weren't good enough, but just for knowing the pitches. As far as I can recall now, there are one or two mistakes there, but it works perfectly. I never tried to read the rhythms. I think that after you know all the pitches, you must appropriate the song. This is a piece of music that must flow freely after you understand it with your ears and your soul. Not trying to understand mechanical rhythms from a piece of sheet.

I always wanted to teach this song, not only because of its beauty or its technical problems, but also because I feel this piece as essential in a competent bassist' culture. But it was a real puzzle to me how to teach it. I even started a thread at TB about it. This semester I decided to experiment with my best students and, after making sure that they had a solid knowledge on harmonics (again, see # 1), I started teaching them little by little, just by pure imitation and armed with a copy of the Real Book transcription. As one of them told me: "You're teaching this by oral tradition". And it's working! I'm really happy about that. Most of them are playing the song in its entirety, or at least understand how to play it. I hope my video will be a tiny bit of help for those of you interested on playing "Portrait Of Tracy". Thank you again for your comments!

Thanks for the long post!

[lilboo77]

I am posting this so I can come back to it later............

[Fretless5verfan]

Fan-stinkin-tastic. Then again, i expect nothing less from you. I'm stunned at the harmonics you get out of that bad boy with those flats.

[KJung]

Wonderful!

[musicman5string]

I thought it was really great, but you fingered the last harmonic chord wrong. You should be barring the 9th frets of the g,d and a strings with your index finger and then "harmonic fret" with your pinky the 13th frets.

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

Originally Posted by musicman5string

I thought it was really great, but you fingered the last harmonic chord wrong. You should be barring the 9th frets of the g,d and a strings with your index finger and then "harmonic fret" with your pinky the 13th frets.

That's the first option, the one that Jaco used, but you get exactly the same notes by barring the 6th fret and "fretting" with the pinky at the 9th fret or barring at the 3rd fret and the pinky behind the 6th fret (what I do). Try them out and you'll see that you get exactly the same pitches.

One more time, thanks everybody for your interest and comments!

[Juneau]

Originally Posted by musicman5string

I thought it was really great, but you fingered the last harmonic chord wrong. You should be barring the 9th frets of the g,d and a strings with your index finger and then "harmonic fret" with your pinky the 13th frets.

Not wrong, different. It didnt ring out real well, but it was the correct notes, just in a different position.

Originally Posted by dukerutledge

I never knew there was a real book transcription of the song. I have a transcription from bass guitar world from way back by victor bailey, as far as I know it's almost 100% accurate, none of the online tablature or transcriptions that I've seen have caught the nuances of the song like the victor bailey transcription does.

Would you possibly have the ability to scan that and email it to me? The one Im using is the one in the tab archive here, and it is wrong in several places.

I started trying to learn this song when I had only been playing about 6 months. 2 years later, Im still learning it, but its taught me just about everything I know about harmonics hehe.

[CanadaBass]

Great work Alvaro!

[Yvon]

there was a transcription in bass player a few years ago.

I might try it out.