Scales scales scales

[DrayMiles]

I guess by your definition I'm "accomplished". I like the term "robotic ease" - the goal is never to actually be robotic - playing without emotion is something you don't ever want to do. The point of the thousands of hours of practice is to have certain things - chord structures, technique, etc. all baked in to where the program running in your head is not "where am I in the arrangement" of "I hope I get through the part that coming up that's tough". Music is a communication between the band and the audience - when you have certain things baked in, you can concentrate on observing the audience and your fellow players, noticing what they are reacting to, and how they are reacting, so you can tailor what you are doing for maximum effectiveness in both playing as a team, and getting the thing across to the audience.

Long story short - getting to the point of "robotic ease" is something you do so you can actually play less robotically - the fundamentals are covered so it can be more art, less worrying about making mistakes.

You are being nitpicky about word choices. You know the point of the statement. Emotions easily transferring to your instrument.

 

[Drop1]

TB has lasted a long time. It's older than a lot of forums and it's suffered the fate of many. You can't have an ongoing forum about something soecifc like this without it going stale. Besides the occasional new gear release , EVERYTHING is recycled, reposted, rehashed, regurgitated. New info could be years away.
It is what it is and this place will never be what it was. Sorry but that's the truth. I only know because I've seem it happen too many times.
I've been on some forums since AOL and eventually, they all end up the same. The only ones that stay relevant and fresh are groups dealing with ever changing technologies and current events.
The bass world has stuck itself in the past.
When the flagship instrument was born in the 50s and the double bass how long before? It's hard to keep "new" info flowing becuase their just isn't any.
Basses are still making music the way they always have and I don't see that changing any time in the foreseeable future.
It can be hard to walk away from groups you've been a part of for a long time, but sometimes that's exactly what's needed. It's not like it's gone forever and you'd be surprised how little you are missed...

 

[SteveCS]

...
It's hard to keep "new" info flowing becuase their just isn't any.
Basses are still making music the way they always have and I don't see that changing any time in the foreseeable future.
...

I really don't see that. Every generation in every walk of life stands on the shoulders of giants - music is no different. It is true that for many, electric bass peaked with James Jamerson, Carole Kaye or Paul McCartney. For others, it all ended with Jaco, Stanley, Rocco, Berlin or Bootsy. Or perhaps Squire or Lee represent the pinnacle in some eyes. Maybe Claypool, Willis, Palladino, King or Wolstenholme hold your top spot? In every generation there have been players that pushed the State of the Art and set the pace for the next. This generation is no different. Their developments are permeating back to the grass roots and becoming part of the ever-expanding language of the electric bass ready for the next generation. And they are doing so at ever-increasing pace and with ever-extending reach. My opinion is that electric bass has finally broken free of the traditional roles, concepts and constraints. Nothing is off-limits to anyone willing to give it a try.

YMMV

 

[Phaidrus]

I really don't see that. Every generation in every walk of life stands on the shoulders of giants - music is no different. It is true that for many, electric bass peaked with James Jamerson, Carole Kaye or Paul McCartney. For others, it all ended with Jaco, Stanley, Rocco, Berlin or Bootsy. Or perhaps Squire or Lee represent the pinnacle in some eyes. Maybe Claypool, Willis, Palladino, King or Wolstenholme hold your top spot? In every generation there have been players that pushed the State of the Art and set the pace for the next. This generation is no different. Their developments are permeating back to the grass roots and becoming part of the ever-expanding language of the electric bass ready for the next generation. And they are doing so at ever-increasing pace and with ever-extending reach. My opinion is that electric bass has finally broken free of the traditional roles, concepts and constraints. Nothing is off-limits to anyone willing to give it a try.

YMMV

As an art historian (and hobby bass player) may I add that the discussion about the death (or end) of art was the thing in the 1980s and 1990s, as discussed in the writings of Hans Belting and of other prominent art historians. The question was never answered but it somehow subsided, I suppose in some sort of acceptance that art, namely contemporary art, is a kind of zombie, in a state between death and life. Some are willing to accept that, some not. Art generates quite a lot of money, so lots of people in the business obviously don't want to shoot their own feet. Others just can't grasp the impasse, which could be understood as a formalist as well as conceptual meltdown.

Since the mid 1960s art has entered the so-called postmodern or contemporary period where, as Arthur Danto puts it, "anything goes". This means total freedom but potentially also total meaninglessness.

After many years of playing either funk or reggae, I'm currently into post punk / dark wave, where basslines (think of The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Siouxsie & the Banshees) are unthinkable from the perspective of most if not all genres that preceded that. They were conceived amidst this condition of "anything goes" and I'm glad they did.

 

[Groove Master]

For me there are about three scales that cover pretty much everything for the harmony: Major, minor melodic and minor harmonic. Harmonically everything is in those 3 scales. Make sure you practice their modes and arpeggios. Then add the Major and minor Blues scales and the 2 pentatonics for fills and patterns.

 

[SteveCS]

As an art historian (and hobby bass player) may I add that the discussion about the death (or end) of art was the thing in the 1980s and 1990s, as discussed in the writings of Hans Belting and of other prominent art historians. The question was never answered but it somehow subsided, I suppose in some sort of acceptance that art, namely contemporary art, is a kind of zombie, in a state between death and life. Some are willing to accept that, some not. Art generates quite a lot of money, so lots of people in the business obviously don't want to shoot their own feet. Others just can't grasp the impasse, which could be understood as a formalist as well as conceptual meltdown.
...

Isn't it a perpetual death stalled at a perpetual impasse when seen from the perspective of those whose contemporary epoch, whichever one that happened to be, is now over and making way for the next? Art moves with the times - it's only the artists that don't move with it that see it as dead.

 

[Phaidrus]

Isn't it a perpetual death stalled at a perpetual impasse when seen from the perspective of those whose contemporary epoch, whichever one that happened to be, is now over and making way for the next? Art moves with the times - it's only the artists that don't move with it that see it as dead.

Well, I suppose one could formulate it this way. However, it would be almost certainly historically incorrect to relativise the issue (namely the alleged or real impasse of contemporary art) completely for we know that, for example, the artists of the Renaissance or of the Baroque, perhaps even the Mannerists, felt that they were moving forward, that they were part of an epoch subject to some sort of progress (though by no means of the more recent modernist type, which was of the magnitude of collective ideology). My impression is that today, even the most successful contemporary artists don't really claim to be part of a movement nor do they create art in some positive spirit of faith in anything in particular. Art is mostly done in accordance with some notion of rightism or other. Or just because. The Turner awards of the last couple of decades are indicative of that.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

The thread has been cleaned of rule breaking posts and arguments about same. Let's please try to keep it clean and in bounds moving forward.