So I've been going to Bradley School of Music in Lafayette, CA for some time now. Many of the teachers are Berklee graduates and fantastic, but in particular my teacher has this amazing gift for figuring out what each student needs at particular times. I had shoulder labrum surgery about 4 weeks ago, I'm still in a sling. I can't stop myself from wanting to pickup my bass, but I can't rotate my arm further than about the 10th fret. So I've been doing a lot of music theory instead. But in my lesson last night, he said they all got together and found a song that I could play entirely at the 10th fret and up, without too much movement! Lots of room for improv, and my right hand technique working on muted thumbing and deadnotes. Check this out! Marvin Gaye - Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) Music for when you can't reach below your 9th
It blows my mind how difficult it is to get the smoothness of James Jameson. He was drunk much of the time, apparently recorded "What's Going On" so wasted that he was lying on the floor with the bass on his chest when he finally got that perfect take. Blows me away, I can't effectively drink more than 2 beers while playing live if I want to sound okay. He recorded a significant number of bass lines for the most popular Motown hits in his time. Definitely worth studying that era!
Inner City Blues was Bob Babbitt though. There are 2 reasons I know that: 1) Bass Player Magazine did a transcription/interview with Babbitt where he talks about recording high and low bass parts. And 2) Jamerson rarely moved out of first position. C/S, Rev J
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