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I just started a jazz combo that practices at my house. No books are allowed. We meet once per week and add 2 new standards each week. I felt the books were a crutch for me, and I didn't really know the songs as Ron Carter notes above. Even if I knew the songs I was nervous to play without a...

2. Thou shall not Covid thy neighbor...

I'm taking lessons from Jason Schooler (Portland Symphony). He has helped my playing a lot in a couple of months. He does play French, but I think French and German bows are more similar than they are different. If you are an advanced player you might need a German teacher. If you are a...

Hi All, I you have a little time, could you listen to this? We recorded one of the songs our worship leader wrote. I was excited to be able to play bass on it. My wife sang backing vocals. The song is called Glory. Glory, by Intown Music

The only thing I bought for my bass I didn't like was the Realist Sound Clip. It always sounded awful no matter how much I messed with it. I gave up on it and had a Fishman Full Circle installed. It sound great and just works.

I've always enjoyed jazz. I was a very engaged student when I took a class in the history of jazz back in 1990 in college. I would immediately go to the listening lab when new music was available. However, my enjoyment increased exponentially as I studied it and tried to play it. The...

Well said. That's me too. Regardless if I'm listening or playing my response is emotional not analytical.

This is a good discussion. For my part, I believe jazz is difficult to appreciate by non-musicians. To get the maximum amount of enjoyment out of it you have to have a deep understanding of harmony and rhythm. It reminds me of a discussion about learning Greek in C.S. Lewis's Weight of Glory...

Hi All, My wife and I wrote a song a few years ago. We did a quick recording of it on Saturday. We were planning on playing it in church in a few weeks. I thought folks might be interested in a voice + upright bass recording. Hopefully Soundcloud works here. Let me know what you think:

They set up another jam session. I sent the leader this email: I think I'll bow out of the future sessions. This last session was way too frustrating as everyone besides the drummer was way too loud, and no one was listening. I could start bringing an amp, but I don't want to get into volume...

Thanks everybody. This is just a jam in the basement at someone's house. I can understand being amped at a gig. I play at my church most Sundays, and I always have an amp there. I could bring an amp, but amp wars will just make the music worse I think. I was thinking of just having people...

So I went to a jam session. This is my fourth time and my worst experience there. There were two tenors, guitar, keyboards, drums. The drums was probably the quietest instrument there. Both amps were pointed at me, the guitar player likes to play roots with his thumb. It was just relentless...

I think playing music at church is like helping in any other way (making coffee, teaching kids, setting up, etc.) I'm happy and feel lucky to be able to have such an enjoyable way to help the church's ministry. We have a part time paid worship leader who is responsible for leading worship and...

I thought bowing was a waste of time until I tried it. It made my left hand much stronger and my intonation much better. I'm slowly going through Simandl. It really helps with my pizz playing. I play louder with a better tone because of the bowing practice.

That's a bummer. That is the bass I played for a few years before moving to upright. It was a great bass that was a lot more versatile than the squire shiny neck. You could make it sound like a standard bass or a fretless depending on how you played. The mwah effect is overrated and...

This is my view also. I think improvisation is just composition sped up. It's better to learn things from well crafted compositions than from solos, because the quality is much higher. It has the additional advantage in that you've learned a song. My focus is really learning songs backwards...

Ok, I don't have any experience with ampless setups. However, I never used compression or overdrive with my amp. I did use the EQ a little. I just had a little cube amp that had an XLR out to the PA. I never played the CCM style, so I could see where you might be trying to match sounds on...

I'm always amazed at all the equipment people use for their basses. When I was playing electric I just had a fretless J with flats and an amp. I had total control over my tone. I feel every time you add a piece of equipment you take something away from your sound. What is uniquely you is how...

Don, I've been trying this. Thanks for putting it up. What does "MF" mean?

Chris, Thank you for your videos. They have helped me a lot in thinking about thumb position. The biggest advantage to me (which you pointed out) was that is gives you an extra digit. This makes the bass much more guitar like and allows you play more legato and fluid with fewer (and smaller)...

How did it go? I play upright every week at my church. It's the only bass I own. People seem to like it a lot. We don't do any CCM though. We are about 50% originals and 50% reworked hymns. We are also mostly accoustic (piano, accoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass and drums).

I've been working on this for the last few months. I currently force myself to play everything in thumb position (heads and solos). It is improving. Based on my (limited) experience, transitions are much, much easier if you are already very comfortable with thumb position.

I agree. It's what he is playing that is most important, not the sound he gets. I do like that you can hear what he is playing more clearly than the work in the 60s (as noted by Sam Sherry), even if the DI sound is a bit to much. I was afraid this post was going to be about the awfulness of...

I'm taking lessons with David Friesen. He has done a lot of Solo Bass work over the years:

I bought an upright bass about 18 months ago. I sold my fretless jazz bass guitar soon after (the only bass guitar I have). I didn't want to play it anymore, since I much prefer the upright. If I'm not playing upright, I'd rather be getting better at a chording instrument like guitar or piano.

Thanks Tom. I saw you. You had a talkbass shirt on! I was too embarrassed to introduce myself after screwing up a Bb blues. I'll look for you tomorrow. -Dan

The string height is higher on this bass too (than mine). I liked it when I started playing with it. The guy next to me said "it sounds like a cannon" because it was so loud. I also had to curve my fingers on my left hand more, and I do have to work harder with the strings higher. I may...

I did see you play tonight. You sounded great! I think it was good that I tried to play without an amp this week. I think I learned a lot doing it about projection, string height, etc. I think Jamey's bass is a lot louder than mine. This is probably mostly because of the string height...

I decided to push through without an amp. This was probably a mistake. I have two big blisters now. I don't have the cramping anymore though.

Thanks Chris. I will. It's both hands actually. I'm using a loaner bass without an amp. Nobody is using one in our combo training group. That's probably some of my problem as I'm trying to project over guitars and drums. I'm going to try to keep going with the bass I have. I sold my...

Well I just had my first day of camp. It was the combo weekend training. My hand started to seize up and "claw". I also feel a blister coming on. I'm not sure I'll survive the week. Any suggestions on surviving an intensive week playing bass?

Not Jaco - it's Francis Rocco Prestia

I do a lot of that stuff. Mostly Allen Bradley and Automation direct. PLCs, HMIs and SCADA. I'm an engineer so it is the context of the project I'm working on.

I think I know where you are going with this now. I always practice enough to "feel" the song and play the groove. I have to have an emotional connection to the song groove, melody and harmony to be able to play it. I always practice enough to be able to "feel" the song.

I though I would try to see if it made a difference. It didn't seem to. That said I still have to practice the songs before I play them. I would say I have the songs half memorized by the time church starts. There wasn't a difference between my normal half memorized songs and the full...

I guess I expected more from the Praise and Worship Band Bassist Club.

Is this sarcasm?

Spirocores made my bass sound much better. Before that I had strings that were better for arco (not something I'm focused on). I think it's really important to play slowly and get the maximum value of each note. This helps you to better your technique in getting a good sound out of the bass...

I did what you suggested for two songs this week. I'm not sure what was supposed to happen, but I didn't have an epiphany this week or anything. I think it's good to memorize the music in that you know it better, but I don't see the problem with having music stands in front of you.

Ok. Sure, I can do this. I have quite a few memorized already. We have hundreds of songs we draw on each week, so memorizing all of them is a lot of work. Also there are a lot of hymns with a lot of chords. When I work on music during the week I focus on learning (and memorizing) jazz standards.