A small attempt at jazz...

Norwegianwood · #1 06-05-2005, 10:06 AM

Well, my experience with jazz is very short. But I thought it was pretty cool to jam over this crappy midi file of autumn leaves that I found...Since I've played jazz for such a short time, my vocabularity is very limited, but I still tried not to rely that much on licks. I'll happily accept any feedback on my playing:

http://home.online.no/~pertlars/autumnleaves.mp3

There you are...Don't need any comments on the tone, as it's NOTHING compared to what I get out of my thunderfunk/schroeder. This is just a crappy mic, on my even crappier epiphone amp.

Whafrodamus · #2 06-05-2005, 01:43 PM

Nice work, my only real comment is on the solos. You need more dynamic and rhythmic variation. I need not lecture you about these things. Nice work though.

33degrees · #3 06-05-2005, 02:32 PM

great stuff man! some nice sequences in there, and you have a nice touch, like to hear some more stuff!

Norwegianwood · #4 06-05-2005, 04:18 PM

Thanks for feedback. Good point there, Whafro, and I totally agree with you. I feel that the terrible recording facilities made it hard for me to get full control over the tone and dynamics. But I have no excuse for the lack of rythmic variation.

Norwegianwood · #5 06-07-2005, 01:27 PM

Ok, I just came home from a practice, and we jammed on the song...So I recorded it with a crappy minidisc-mic. It doesn' do any justice to my rig, but still, what do you think about my sound?? Here it is:
http://home.online.no/~pertlars/autumnleaves-01.mp3

I know I mess up all the time...improvising a solo like that, alone, is very unusual for me. But I feel I'm improving every time I try.

33degrees · #6 06-11-2005, 06:16 AM

here are man , i wipped up this recording of a standard cold! just picked up the bass and played it! that's the best way to record, if you warm up for 5 hours then you don't have any ideas left!
check it out man.......
http://www.myspace.com/guyatone

Norwegianwood · #7 06-11-2005, 08:16 AM

Cool man, you most certainly got the Jaco thing down!
Nice playing and in tune as well

Bassist4Life · #8 06-11-2005, 09:02 AM

Dude, that was very cool. I really enjoyed listening to your improv. I'm not a big midi fan either; but it is what it is, and it IS a great tool for improvisation. I dig the mellow tone of your bass. The only advice I would give is to give your phrases a little bit of space. Sometimes it helps when I pretend that I'm singing what I am playing. I say pretend because nobody wants to hear me sing.

I recently did a recording to work on improvisation. It's an all-bass recording of Blue Bossa. I used my upright for the intro/ending and the latin line. I used my Fender P-bass for the chords, melody, and solos. It's the first time I recorded every part of a tune using basses.

Here is the thread that led up to this recording:
improvising over changes/playing outside

Here is the link to the file:
http://www.michaeldimin.com/joebossa.mp3
Right click, choose "save target as..." It's around 3.5MB

Let me know what you think.
Joe

Norwegianwood · #9 06-12-2005, 02:54 PM

I like it....and very interesting thread! The only comment I have on you song,is that I think the third beat of the bars should be "heavier." In bossa, you basicall don't wanna have such a "heavy" 1. beat. (Hope you understand my wicked english

) The third beat is very important, even if you play a syncopated rythm like that. Other then that, I like your playing but not your sound

Hope you have checked out my "live" recording. I mess up alot, but are still happy with the sound:http://home.online.no/~pertlars/autumnleaves-01.mp3
(And boy am I mad that I messed up that last phrase!)

THanks for feedback...

Bassist4Life · #10 06-12-2005, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Norwegianwood

I like it....and very interesting thread! The only comment I have on you song,is that I think the third beat of the bars should be "heavier." In bossa, you basicall don't wanna have such a "heavy" 1. beat. (Hope you understand my wicked english

) The third beat is very important, even if you play a syncopated rythm like that. Other then that, I like your playing but not your sound

Hope you have checked out my "live" recording. I mess up alot, but are still happy with the sound:http://home.online.no/~pertlars/autumnleaves-01.mp3
(And boy am I mad that I messed up that last phrase!)

THanks for feedback...

Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate it when someone like you listens carefully enought to make suggestions for improvement rather than just saying, "It's good, I like it." My "bossa" line doesn't really have a "3" in it. For this line, I generally play on beats 1, the "and" of 2, and the "and" of 4. Concerning the sound, there are some issues when multitracking 4 bass parts. Things can get muddy really fast. I picked a tone on the brighter side to avoid this problem. I have 4 tracks:

Track 1: Shen 3/4 upright w/Fishman full-circle pickup playing funky intro/ending and latin line.

Track 2: Fender P-Bass playing guide tones only (3rd's and 7th's of each chord). Right hand plays close to the bridge.

Track 3: Fender P-Bass playing the melody

Track 4: Fender P-Bass playing the solo in the middle as well as the solo over the repeated melody at the end.

I listened to your live recording. I think your phrasing is better on this recording. I'm still loving your sound too. I do tend to favor a brighter sound for my own playing though. I'm really into Mike Dimin's chordal technique and if I use a darker sound, it tends to muddy up the chords a bit. Thanks for the feedback on my recording and thanks for sharing your recording with us. Nice job!

Joe

Norwegianwood · #11 06-12-2005, 11:48 PM

Yeah, I know what you say. But I still feel that the 1. beat is a little bit to heavy. I would have emphasized (or hovewer you spell that word!) The syncopated beat more. But that's just me, though!
But interesting discussion, lets bring on more of them!