Do not teach yourself. You are not qualified to teach yourself. Go and find as good a teacher as you can find. And, yes, also take piano lessons because piano is the only orchestral instrument in all of music.
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Hi to all from Jeff Berlin
- Thread starter JeffBerlin
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Do not teach yourself. You are not qualified to teach yourself. Go and find as good a teacher as you can find. And, yes, also take piano lessons because piano is the only orchestral instrument in all of music.
Jeff, one more thing....and I know this is a touchy subject: if you could only pick one, which would you?
a) It's better to have a "ear" for music & not read
b) It's better to read music than have an ear for it
My opinion is they both go hand in hand. Being a old Eb alto sax player, I was fortunate to read treble clef & then bass clef for baritone. It really helped me playing bass.
I am jealous of friends of mine you have (IMHO) God's gift of perfect pitch.
Thank you for your time. Looking forward to your replies.
Kev
a) It's better to have a "ear" for music & not read
b) It's better to read music than have an ear for it
My opinion is they both go hand in hand. Being a old Eb alto sax player, I was fortunate to read treble clef & then bass clef for baritone. It really helped me playing bass.
I am jealous of friends of mine you have (IMHO) God's gift of perfect pitch.
Thank you for your time. Looking forward to your replies.
Kev
Writing music comes from work and a smidgen of inspiration. Beethoven heard the melody Da Da Da Daaaaaaaaa in his head and wrote four movements around that original inspiration. In a simpler manner, listen to everything, imitate what you hear and soon, you will start to find new ideas. I know that this works because this worked for everybody in history who ever wrote music.
Jeff, a question again about your Dean bass:
Are they currently producing the passive version with Bartolini's or the active version?
I can't seem to find them in stock anywhere....
Are they currently producing the passive version with Bartolini's or the active version?
I can't seem to find them in stock anywhere....
To compliment what Jeff has said.....every musical instrument is based on the piano.
Some of my best lessons where learned from not even picking up the bass.......I know on the rock spectrum, music has no rules....but in music theory..it does.
Excuse me, but I am not sure about what you are referring to. Can you clarify your thought for me?
I thought that they did. Did you contact them andask about this? I believe that they are selling this very bass. But being the business idiot that I am, I am not totally sure. Contact Dean Guitars and ask for John Puhl (sounds lie Pool) and he can give you the correct information.
Hey Jeff, I've been playing on and off for 21 years, pretty regular the last 1 1/2 years. I need someone to assess my playing to help me fix things I'm doing wrong. There is a very good, young instructor here locally that i can take lessons from. Being that he relatively young (26, I think), Can I assume that he knows how to get the most out of his practice time?
Jeff, I guess I should have worded it this way.....people who can read music (not tab) as opposed to those who cannot.
I have a guitar player friend who cannot read a lick of music, but has perfect pitch. I really believe some of us are born with this talent, while others have to work at it. No different than a "natural athlete".
Hope that explains it better.
Once again, thanks!
LOL I just got shivers. People laugh when I say stuff like that. Most of my life I've played with guys who thought it was cool to act like their favorite band or just to get girls. But you're right. I'm a boring office worker by day and that will always be my profession, so success in music isn't the motivator. But music is the only thing that has gotten me through the trials of life and to this day getting older it's only even more fun. Cheers to you.
Hi Jeff,
Who influences you harmonically? The quality I most love about your playing is the freedom you have in your lines..i.e. there are not stock licks/phrases that crop up. Do you compose your music on bass or do you get an idea and develop it independent of any instrument. When are you playing Miami again?
God Bless,
Tony
Who influences you harmonically? The quality I most love about your playing is the freedom you have in your lines..i.e. there are not stock licks/phrases that crop up. Do you compose your music on bass or do you get an idea and develop it independent of any instrument. When are you playing Miami again?
God Bless,
Tony
Hey Jeff -
Any chance you, Stu and Billy are coming back to Ramshead Annapolis, MD soon? Your shows are awesome!
Take care -
Dennis Maron
Silver Spring, MD
Any chance you, Stu and Billy are coming back to Ramshead Annapolis, MD soon? Your shows are awesome!
Take care -
Dennis Maron
Silver Spring, MD
I haven't any idea how to answer this. I can suggest that if this fellow reads music well, has some jazzs background experience (this is ESSENTIAL in music studies) then try him out. I always had the skill to identify inside of 1 minute what a player needs to practice to improve. This could appear as a sale, but if you can come to Clearwater Florida from March 16-March 20th, The Players School of MUsic is having its One Week Intensive. If you make it, you will go home totally changed and have a million ideas about what to practice.
The guitarist/composer in my new band did all of the bass and drums with his Mac computer. I spent 2 weeks listening to the songs transcribing the bass lines (around ten of them) and yesterday was it was not accurate for some of them. How would you deal with this?
OK. I understand now. Thank you for making your thoughts clearer for me.
To begin, tab is a terrible form of reading to regard. It doesn't exist anywhere in music except in magazine and website where non-readers go to check out their information. If anybody has a wish to improve in music, they should run, not walk to the nearest school or teacher and learn music, not tab. Tab is useless, apoligies for the bold comment. It simply has no benefit for a player.
secondly, perfect pitch is also a useless skill to have and is no worthy of trying to acquire this skill. THere is no use for perfect pitch anywhere in music. but there is a need for relative pitch, which allows musicians to identify tonality and relate it to other pitches. Perfect pitch and relative aretotally different concepts. One should be ignored and the other should be embraced.
I would say that I became the bass player that I became through every study, every bit of music that I listened to, every transcription that I wrote and practiced, every lesson with Charlie Banacos I ever took, every gig I played, and every practice moment that I ever worked on. Absolutely everything that I ever did in music was rich in meaning. This is why I tell so many to forget metronomes, forget groove classes, forget teaching yourselves, forget rock lessons. These things are not rich with content and are not worthy of the tuitions that some pay to learn this way.
Jeff, after seeing this picture I have thought many times how cool it would have been to be there and see this performance live. Three of my absolute favourite bassists all on stage together!
Are you saying that the parts you listened to weren't correct? Or that you had a difficult time playing what you listened to on the Mac?
Sure. These guys wer a lot of fun to play with. I remember that gig in Annapolis. I was on a "funny binge" if I remember correctly. I think that my stand up improve comedy act was in full flow that night.
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