Jeff's Thread. No Topic! Just Go for It. But, Be Nice!

[SBassman]

Also, Many of JJ's lines were memorable melodies in their own right, sometimes better than the vocal melody

+1.

As I say to anyone who will listen:
JJ's lines didn't just Support/Enhance the tune, many of
those lines - Made The Tune. I don't think alot of people get that, but I really think it's true.

As far as I'm concerned, JJ Invented modern bass playing. Others brought other branches, but JJ is the Tree of modern bass playing.

 

[Flongoid]

Hi Jeff. What books would you recommend to learn sightreading?
Let me clarify - I can read music, but very very slowly. It takes me a while to figure out notes and rhythms etc.

 

[longrange]

+1.

As I say to anyone who will listen:
JJ's lines didn't just Support/Enhance the tune, many of
those lines - Made The Tune. I don't think alot of people get that, but I really think it's true.

As far as I'm concerned, JJ Invented modern bass playing. Others brought other branches, but JJ is the Tree of modern bass playing.

++1 It's a terrible thing that no biography of the great man has been written. Heartbreaking as it would be, surely the man deserves something, doesn't he?

 

[M0ses]

I'm gonna take something from my trumpet playing here. I've been playing trumpet for seven years now. And as a person who can play any wind instrument, and is fairly proficient on bass, I can say that trumpet is HARD. DANGED hard. The human mouth is simply not designed to do that. And here I am, trying to force it to do it, anyway.

This is what my teacher says over again: you build up your trumpet house one brick at a time.

Now the speed we're talking about in bass is an athletic thing. It's about your muscles, not your music. In trumpet, the athletic thing we all strive for is the high notes. But my teacher, who is an excellent teacher, has never had me do a single high note excercize. I play my long tones, my scales, my lip slurs, my tonguing excersizes, etc. I have never just sat there and played high notes.

And, well, I know it sounds arrogant, but I'm a senior in high school and I'm one of the best my school has ever seen.

It's the same for bass. When I started, I couldn't come close to playing with one finger on a fret. 5 years later, I can do it easily even at fret one. Have I ever done "stretching" excersizes? No, of course not. It just happens.

So keep practicing.

I wanted to share something funny that happened, and reinforce this a bit, I guess.

As I finished writing the above, a friend of mine came into the room, as we had made plans to go frisbee golfing and my friends just come into my house. Anyway, he read it as I finished and said, "It's just happens? That's silly, of course it doesn't just happen! A few months ago I had to do all kinds of excersizes over-stretching my hands in order to play a very difficult piece for my piano teacher by a deadline. I played it, but soon afterwards had to take a break from the piano, because I got tendinitis."

Exactly my point. I laughed heartily at him.

 

[Jim Campbell]

++1 It's a terrible thing that no biography of the great man has been written. Heartbreaking as it would be, surely the man deserves something, doesn't he?

the sitsom book contains a decent amount of bio.....few session guys have received as much....liner notes generally omit session player credits......berry gordy was inclined to keep a tight rein on his session guys and jamerson had to play under pseudonyms on side gigs,as gordy discouraged them

 

[longrange]

the sitsom book contains a decent amount of bio.....few session guys have received as much....liner notes generally omit session player credits......berry gordy was inclined to keep a tight rein on his session guys and jamerson had to play under pseudonyms on side gigs,as gordy discouraged them

Yeah, I read 'Divided Soul', the David Ritz work on Marvin and that was covered in some detail there too. I guess that whilst he means so much to all of us the audience of such a bio would still be a drop in the ocean. Still...

 

[southpaw76]

Hey Jeff,
I just wanted to say thanks.

You may not remember but I met you at a clinic at Ace Music just before you opened the players school. At the time I had only been playing the bass for about 5 years. I was already studying theory and beginning to learn to read.

There were a few things that you were demonstrating that really opened the flood gates for me. I had never used a metronome but still managed to always be in the pocket (although that could have more to do with growing up in SoFla and being around latin music ).

But it wasn't until you pointed out how you felt about relying on a metronome and how it can handicap you that I started to realize that I was on the right path. This prompted me to study some of Paul Hindemiths work on reading rhthyms.

The other thing that stuck was how you apply harmony to the instrument. It forced me to look at the instrument from a composers view as opposed to a bass players view. This lead me to reading music that was written for every instrument other than the bass (Beethoven, paganini, chopin, coltrane, tatum and even zappa among others).

I was always a broke musician and I could never afford lessons, school, a metronome, or even a tuner. I just had a lot of determination, an open mind and a hunger for understanding the language of music.

I apologize for the long post but I just wanted to say that despite all the criticism that Jeff has received, his approach to learning and understanding music is way ahead of most. So thank you Jeff for doing what you do and being honest about it. The world needs more musical minds like you.

sp

 

[SBassman]

Some of the names of the tunes on Jeff's In Harmony's Way:

This Is Your Brain On Jazz
Emeril Kicks It Up
Everybody Knows You When You're Up and In
Leibman On a Jet Plane
Reggae Ricardo

How can you resist? What are you waiting for?

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[JeffBerlin]

Jeff - wanna give us your two cents on - James Jamerson's contributions?

You know what I know. Nothing to add. He's was great!

 

[JeffBerlin]

No one has mentioned Bernadette, so obviously someone is looking for a fight!
But seriously I remember hearing that and Gladys Knight's Heard it Through the Grapevine when my parents had a Chevy Bel Air (of course this was the short period of time they were uncool cars) and hearing the bassline to those tunes.

The tune Bernadette attracted me to bass. I started revisiting those last week to work on my rythmic stuff, hadn't played them in years, working on For once in my Life now. Alan Slutsky is to be commended for all his work (and he's a guitar player!) in really getting JJ's name out there.

I LOVE Bernadette. This was one of my favorite Four Tops tunes. In fact, it was one of the tunes that I tried to learn when I was a kid.

 

[JeffBerlin]

I'll repeat to everybody what I've said on Talkbass before: if you wish to make a living doing this, I think listening to what Jeff has to say will help you out a lot.

Now. To an important question. When's the new CD out, Jeff? I'm still waiting to buy a copy...

Thanks Pete. I might add (with all humility) that if you don't wish to make a living at this, and just wish to learn how to play better, you will be vressed to find anybody who knows more about this than I do. Egotistical? No way! I'm not better than anyone else, just smarter in this area due to what I have found out about music over the years.

Hey Peter. My CD is in manufactor mode right now. It is a jazz trio, three guys in a room playing together. The time speeds up, moves around, I play mis-fretted notes, Richard clams sometimes on piano, and Dany plays his cymbals as if he were on hyper juice. It is sometimes a mess, gobbled, interactive, and I left all these things in to offer a true example of live interplay.

I used a guitar amp along with my regular Markbass 15 inch cabinet to produce a rather crunchy yet warm tone. I rolled most of the high off of my bass (which is not recommended to other people to do. Studio guys want to hear highs coming off of one's bass guitar). My amp was SO SENSITIVE to what I was playing that if I moved my right hand hand up or down while plucking the notes, the tone changed. Amazing actually! This happens on practically ever recording that I have ever done, but on "High Standards" you can really hear the tone differences, probably due to the mikes that they put onto the speaker cones.

The CD is pure standards with one short vignette, a Ravel piece where I extracted and wrote a bass line from parts of the left and right piano hand. This piece is one minute and 18 seconds, and I practiced the bass part for three weeks straight before we recorded it.

 

[JeffBerlin]

Peter - great post.

I wish I lived near Jeff's School. [although, I'm probably not even worthy]

Everyone else - I'm going out to grab a bite and some down time with my wife. Everyone behave.

Do you wish to improve as a bass player? Anybody who attends any special bass or music event falls into this categor. Trust me, you are worthy!

 

[JeffBerlin]

I'm currently playing "Do I Do" a lot - just makes me happy to play it. What a fun, awesome song, with a fun, awesome groove.

Did you hear the example of chord tones that I soloed over? I mostly recorded this for you. It is somewhere on this thread.

 

[JeffBerlin]

Yes Jeff you DO need to let us know what you are up to !!!!
But can i just say that i have been working pretty solidly for the last twenty years as a bass player and ALWAYS get called back for gigs and i have been called the most musical bassist in my area .
And it's all thanks to your goodself and your "chord tones for bass system" i bought and applied myself to.
It's such a simple approach just use the tones of the chord to emphasis the tonality and make other musicians sound great and you "get work" LOL !
Cheers Jeff i owe you dinner.

Ahhhh, you owe me nothing! Just stand for a higher vision of bass and music (few bass players do and we as many guys to do this). Do this and you have paid me back. Look for a great teacher and continue learning music and bass the right ways. Good luck!

 

[JeffBerlin]

That sounds just awesome to me, too many schools that I've looked up seem to expect you to pretty much not need their help before you go in, which, uh, kind of makes it a little pointless to me, unless you want a masterclass, I suppose.

I designed The Players School of Music to help players who couldn't read a note, who couldn't play anything, and give these people music that would changes this for them. The "Good stuff" that is, the more involved elements of study are always available here to the good player/readers who need to upgrade what they are working on. But, the newer less experienced players are usually left out of an academic situation because they sometimes fail the audition to learn. This never made any sense to me, to audition to learn. This is why I truly dislike auditions. I've said this before but it bears repeating;It isn't your job to qualify to study with me. It is my job to qualify to teach you at whatever level of musicianship that you show up having.

 

[Billnc]

It isn't your job to qualify to study with me. It is my job to qualify to teach you at whatever level of musicianship that you show up having.

Nice quote Jeff.

 

[JeffBerlin]

Nice quote Jeff.

Pretty good, eh? This is a Jeffy original!! And it applies in education. It is how I operate.

Some guys are simply scared to come and study with me because they think that they aren't good enough to work with me. Nothing is further from the truth. Ask CDweller about how things go over here. Ask Peter Weil as well. Maybe there are some other guys who also attended the school on TB and they can give you a little insight.

Here is the truth about attending the school:

Audition: Will You Practice? Yes or No!

If Yes, then Congratulations! You've passed the audition!!

 

[longrange]

Pretty good, eh? This is a Jeffy original!! And it applies in education. It is how I operate.

Some guys are simply scared to come and study with me because they think that they aren't good enough to work with me. Nothing is further from the truth. Ask CDweller about how things go over here. Ask Peter Weil as well. Maybe there are some other guys who also attended the school on TB and they can give you a little insight.

Here is the truth about attending the school:

Audition: Will You Practice? Yes or No!

If Yes, then Congratulations! You've passed the audition!!

Jeff - have you any plans to bring your school to England?

 

[JeffBerlin]

Hi Jeff. What books would you recommend to learn sightreading?
Let me clarify - I can read music, but very very slowly. It takes me a while to figure out notes and rhythms etc.

I cannot emphasise strongly enough that you should get a teacher to help you with this. If you can't read, then I will also assume that you might not be able to play well at this time either. Get a teacher who knows what they are doing and let the responsibility for your musical improvement rest on their shoulders.

But, if this isn't possible, then trombone books are good to start with, just the simple ones.

 

[JeffBerlin]

Jeff - have you any plans to bring your school to England?

I actually had the hope to bring England to my school!

There is a special event that is going to happen in September, the same event that CDweller attended this past March. If you or anyone else wants to know about this event, then email Vicky at [email protected] She can give you. Or if you prefer, I can tell you guys about it here. Just let me know what you would like me to do.