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Double Bass REALLY Learning a tune

#201
jjqq123 said:
After D F A C, the closest note from G7 would be, going down, the B (on G string). But going up the D (1 tone away from C, on the G string). If you go to the D you started with again, isn't that a change of octaves?

This is what I don't understand...
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This is what I don't understand, why do you think it changes octaves? The D is the same pitch (open D string), the F is the same pitch (F on the D string), then open G string, then B on the G string. Think proximity, you're looking for a fingering that keeps the most common pitches (D and F are the same) and movement of the other 2 pitches to a half step or whole step. The A moves down a whole step to the open G string and the C moves down a half step to B.
Is that any clearer?

If you move up a whole step from the 7th of D minor (C), then you are keeping NO pitches in common so, for the purpose of this exercise, WHY would you do that? I don't understand why you say "the closest note from G7 going down..." when what the exercise outlines is playing a 2nd inversion dominant chord (fifth, seventh, root, third).
Maybe I'm missing something...
 
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#202
I've never had problems in the past but I've been trying to learn Joni Mitchell's song 'both sides now' for months. It's unlike anything I've tried to learn before. Thanks for the elaborate descriptions of other tune-learning methods. I'm almost baffled enough to give anything a try.
 
#206
Steve Freides said:
Hasn’t someone figured out the tunings to all her songs and published sheet music?

-S-
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I would have thought so, but none of the chords submitted to ultimate guitar were right. Most of them were close. One was only accessible to paying subscribers. Her chords probably just confuse people due to them frequently including augmented or diminished notes (I assume due to the open tunings). I can't read sheet music, unfortunately. I just play by ear.
 
#207
Rowan Galagher said:
I can't read sheet music, unfortunately. I just play by ear.
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That's a thing you can work on at any age. If you'll forgive me for a small rant on the subject, it's something I can't understand. I know people who have learned to speak a language but never learned to read and write it - it's possible, and it's certainly better than nothing, but I can't imagine forgoing the ability to read and write in any language I want to be fluent in. I'm on the other side of this one from you - former college music theory and ear-training teacher and all around music reading geek. Yesterday I was accompanying one of my double bass students, me on piano, as he's preparing for an audition on an unrecorded orchestral piece, and I played from the orchestra score.

I was never a big Joni Mitchell fan when I was younger but lately I've become one. I found "The Joni Mitchell Sheet Music Collection" online and am ordering it for myself as a book (not the e edition). When it gets here, I'll have a look and see if I can be of any help to you.

-S-
 
#208
Steve Freides said:
That's a thing you can work on at any age. If you'll forgive me for a small rant on the subject, it's something I can't understand. I know people who have learned to speak a language but never learned to read and write it - it's possible, and it's certainly better than nothing, but I can't imagine forgoing the ability to read and write in any language I want to be fluent in. I'm on the other side of this one from you - former college music theory and ear-training teacher and all around music reading geek. Yesterday I was accompanying one of my double bass students, me on piano, as he's preparing for an audition on an unrecorded orchestral piece, and I played from the orchestra score.

I was never a big Joni Mitchell fan when I was younger but lately I've become one. I found "The Joni Mitchell Sheet Music Collection" online and am ordering it for myself as a book (not the e edition). When it gets here, I'll have a look and see if I can be of any help to you.

-S-
Click to expand...
I think that most people would struggle to understand why I've approached music with no interest in theory or in reading notation. It's because music was able to impact directly on my wellbeing in a therapeutic way. I didn't know that I was having seizures when I was a kid (they're called absence seizures), I just experienced some missing time. I didn't know that they were being triggered or exacerbated by POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), I just knew that I sometimes went blind and deaf when I stood up too quickly. I was clueless that certain spells were actually migraines and that my insomnia was worsened by an undiagnosed form of heavy metal poisoning. I didn't know that I was autistic or that my desire to feel well and to understand my own emotions wasn't common.

Music always felt magical to me. It was imbued with almost limitless potential. I was just as baffled by the music theory as I was by my feelings and the continued existence of war, poverty and homelessness. I put the last 3 down to people not trying to help other people or not believing that it was their responsibility to try.

I still love music and I still don't understand it. But would I love it as much if I did understand it? Apparently, that was a risk I wasn't willing to take. Even without it, I home recorded 4 original albums and I'm working on #5 now. I'm not surprised that I approach problem solving in an unconventional way (could be the autism or the Tourette's Syndrome or even related to dyslexia). I am surprised that I'm still alive, though. I'm grateful for that.

I would never discourage people to learn theory or notation. I understand that they have immense value and usefulness. My objectives were just different, I guess.
 
#209
Rowan Galagher said:
I still love music and I still don't understand it. But would I love it as much if I did understand it? Apparently, that was a risk I wasn't willing to take.
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I find no logic in what you're saying - the idea that one could possibly love something you don't understand _less_ if you understood it makes no sense to me. For me, a better understanding of something I like/love/appreciate only deepens my like/love/appreciation for it. Music is certainly no less magical for me because of my understanding of music theory nor because of my ability to read and write it.

As to the rest, congratulations on persevering and finding your own way.

-S-
 
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