Recent content by lament

Think about color. One color has wavelength 700nm, another 450nm. It's all relative and arbitrary. But I'm sure you would find it disconcerting to look at your favorite painting when all the colors are shifted. The reason for that is that when it comes to color, you have the equivalent of...

I always sort of remember what E and A and D and G sound like. If you play bass, you probably do, too. This is usually sufficient to figure out what a given note is. You can't really develop "perfect pitch" much beyond that. People with true perfect pitch are actually different, as shown by...

Ooh, just looked up the E-Bow, seems like a pretty amazing piece of gear!

I'd like to know this too. I'm playing traditional Brazilian music and they often use the trombone for the bass counterpoint to the main melody. The attack-free legato sound with lots of vibrato works really well with that role (bass melody, not bass percussion). I was thinking MIDI was the best...

This is the best argument for standard notation that I've ever seen. I play classical piano, and though I suck at sightreading, I hardly ever think of individual notes when reading.

Pretty!

Yes. F C G D A E B. What is unclear? Well, actually, nobody requires that the first note in your partial cycle of fifths has to be the root of the scale. And, personally, I see no strong reasons for preferring either lydian or ionian as the "default scale". The fact that F is the only note that...

I have also learned it starting from F, in a music school. The reason is simple: You cover all the notes of the C major scale (the "white keys") before going to any accidentals. F C G D A E B and only then, continuing, F# Db Ab Eb Bb. In the opposite direction ("circle of fourths") we learned...

1) Look at your wrist while you're playing. It should be straight, same as when the hand is relaxed. You might need to adjust the position of the bass or your technique to achieve this. 2) Are you using one-finger-per-fret on the lower frets? Don't.

Tap quarter notes, sing your bass line and see how it fits. If that's not good enough, tap eighth notes instead. If that's not good enough, tap sixteenths... Depending on the bassline maybe it's better to tap in triplets instead...

The notes C,D,E,F,G,A,B form the major scale. It just so happens that in the major scale there's only half a step between E-F and B-C, while there's a step between all the other notes. This is just how the major scale works. If our whole tonal system was not based on the major scale, the "holes"...

Why? Do you mean knowing theory is beneficial? Otherwise, I don't see how just knowing a notation system gives any magical benefits when you're not using it. I play classical piano, so I have no problem with standard notation, sometimes four staves at a time, but I don't see how that makes me...

Do other beats have names too?

The Latin Bass Book is wonderful.

Try to analyze the music you play or listen to in terms of its harmonic content, scales, chord patterns, etc. Music theory can be pretty dry unless you see how it is actually applied in real music.