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Why Does Jeff Berlin HATE Slapping?

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#41
bassmonkeee said:
I've got news for ya--lots of musicians are a$$holes. As are lots of firemen, grocery clerks, gas station attendants, hair stylists, doctors, candy makers, horse groomers, vacuum salesmen, etc, etc....
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OMG!! If I'd only knew this earlier!! :D

Yes, I think we all are aware of this one... Unfortunately, there's allot of them on here too. :scowl:
 
#42
PhatBasstard said:
Anthony Jackson's problem with it is more how it's used than the technique itself.
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I agree with that. I've been guilty myself, while sitting in and wanting to impress everyone. It really didn't lock in until I deleted a couple sixteenth notes and went to the old fingers - (they even let me finish out the set - passed out my cards and got a couple gigs). Its more of a question of playing the right thing at the right time. :hmm:
 
#43
One time, years and years ago, One night on the Arsenio Hall show,
Jeff was sitting in with the Posse (Hall's house band). During his
opening monologue, Hall introduced Berlin and then -- of course --
asked him, "So, can you slap that thing?" Jeff kind of looked at him
for a moment, and then launched into a terrifying series of slapping
pyrotechnics before settling into a more reasonable groove. The look
on Arsenio's face was priceless.
But I'm sure you all know this story already.
 
#44
Jeff actually can slap quite well. But.. it's not his cup of tea and he's a very outspoken guy. He's not the only guy who has this opinion, either.




urb_munki said:
Exactly - screw the 'Bass Police' (of which Berlin is the Sheriff)- play what you like and the way you want to play - as long as you and your friends are having fun, I can't stand most of Berlin's playing anyway...
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You're getting a little offensive now..
 
#47
Lorenzini said:
You're getting a little offensive now..
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Sorry dude - I apologise if I caused you any offense - but I do find some of JB's views offensive and I think he causes controversy by making such defined and un-shakable statements sometimes - other times he makes some extremely valid points about music and does give some excellent advice on how to become a better musician. I have really tried my best - as both a music/bass fan and a music critic - to appreciate Jeff's music - and I don't like it. I actually feel he 'sermonises' when he plays - laying down some kind of musical law as he sees it - and I honestly feel like he lacks a huge amount of emotion in his playing - his technique is flawless and he knows music inside out - but I still find it hard to name anything by him - aside from his brilliant arrangment of Dixie - that I actually enjoy listening to.

I don't even like talking about him so I'm going to shut up now.

Mike
 
#48
urb_munki said:
Sorry dude - I apologise if I caused you any offense - but I do find some of JB's views offensive and I think he causes controversy by making such defined and un-shakable statements sometimes - other times he makes some extremely valid points about music and does give some excellent advice on how to become a better musician. I have really tried my best - as both a music/bass fan and a music critic - to appreciate Jeff's music - and I don't like it. I actually feel he 'sermonises' when he plays - laying down some kind of musical law as he sees it - and I honestly feel like he lacks a huge amount of emotion in his playing - his technique is flawless and he knows music inside out - but I still find it hard to name anything by him - aside from his brilliant arrangment of Dixie - that I actually enjoy listening to.

I don't even like talking about him so I'm going to shut up now.

Mike
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I can relate with the exception of his work with Bill Bruford's band years ago. Gradually Going Tornado, One of a Kind - that stuff. I ordered one his solo CD's and couldn't handle it.
 
#49
True - I'm overlooking a lot of collabrative stuff he's done - I'm sorry for being negative about him as I don't like being negative in respect to someone who's achived a lot and done a lot for the bass - I apologise again if anyone has been annoyed/offended by any comments I've made - they are just my lame-assed opinions - I'm not trying to prove anything.

Cheers M
 
#50
urb_munki said:
True - I'm overlooking a lot of collabrative stuff he's done - I'm sorry for being negative about him as I don't like being negative in respect to someone who's achived a lot and done a lot for the bass - I apologise again if anyone has been annoyed/offended by any comments I've made - they are just my lame-assed opinions - I'm not trying to prove anything.

Cheers M
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I didn't take it as being negative, just honest. That's your opinion and you have a right to it.
 
#53
urb_munki said:
Sorry dude - I apologise if I caused you any offense - but I do find some of JB's views offensive and I think he causes controversy by making such defined and un-shakable statements sometimes - other times he makes some extremely valid points about music and does give some excellent advice on how to become a better musician.

Mike
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You have nothing to apologize for. You're 100% correct with your assessment. Sometimes Jeff has a very good insight into things, but at other times he's a complete bully. And a jerk.

As far as his music, that's your taste... you either like it or you don't.
 
#54
I read some interviews where jeff talk's about going to therapy to deal with some issues with anger,they might even be on his website.he is a great player but i have always kind of reguarded him as a little stiff in his playing.
 
#58
Bruce Lindfield said:
I think it's a question of taste...

So to me, most slap sounds dated now - like an 80s Jazz Funk phenomenon - so over here people think of Mark King and Shakatak etc.

But also its has been increasingly associated with "Smooth Jazz" - so I can imagine the guys with ideas of playing "legit" Jazz want to dissociate themselves from that as far as possible!!

I like a bit of slap - but I see it more as nostalgia and what I really like is 70s original funk - Larry Graham, T Connection etc etc.

But I wouldn't really put it in my playing nowadays on grounds of taste and so I can't see devoting much practice time to it, when there is so much else to learn!
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Leave it to a guy from Brighton (home of that Leslie Ash shagging scene in Quadrophenia) to show me how to say this correctly. this is exactly how I feel about slapping and I've been taken to task for it many times. It's not that I'm against any way of producing sound on a bass, I love the sound of the bass. It's just that, at a certain point, after one's been doing this for 20+ years, matters of taste are going to rear their ugly head. In my experience, and I'm sure Jeff Berlin's, many players use slap in a very unmusical, party trick kind of way. Some people are just wonderful with it and use it to take music to a higher place, but in all honesty, I see more people use it to show off. It's given me a negative vibe towards it and I'm sometimes pleasantly surprised when I hear someone doing it well.

Jeff has taken some heat for clearly stating and defending musical opinions he's developed over the course of a highly succesful and impressive career. I think the common thread in a lot of his writing, clinics, etc. has been the promotion of greater musicality and recognizing short cuts for what they are. A lot of cats get by with jive in music and you have to give it for someone who calls it like he sees it.
 
#59
corinpills said:
... It's just that, at a certain point, after one's been doing this for 20+ years, matters of taste are going to rear their ugly head. In my experience, and I'm sure Jeff Berlin's, many players use slap in a very unmusical, party trick kind of way.

....but in all honesty, I see more people use it to show off. .
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Yes - that's the problem - music is not an athletics competition, where you have to do better than the next guy...:hmm:

I listen to music - not gymnastics and I'm sure as a teacher - Jeff is saying this kind of thing to over-eager students all the time !

I'd rather hear one brief, simple, melodic idea, that works well in the context of the music - than any amount of technical trickery that is saying nothing... :scowl:
 
#60
But what you guys are really saying is not that you don't like slapping, but that you don't like bad bass playing.

Nobody likes that.
 
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