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Post by windmill on Jun 13, 2021 3:31:09 GMT -5
Ron Carter , the most recorded jazz bassist in history, told me to get a teacher and learn my instrument, to learn the jazz library, be at the gig half an hour early and be a nice person.
He has also told the 214,218 other people who have watched the youtube video of a masterclass he gave but I am taking it personally.
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matryx81
Wholenote
I think I know the reason but I can't spell it.
Posts: 763
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Post by matryx81 on Jun 13, 2021 8:38:37 GMT -5
If everyone took it personally, we would have an even larger crop of excellent bassists!
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Post by hushnel on Jun 13, 2021 10:26:13 GMT -5
I love listening to these pros. I’m aware of what I’m doing, playing, driving, merging, telegraphing, tweaking the tempo, balancing/counter balancing, being the trampoline for the guitar on the occasions when they crash out of the lead break, changing up the lines, recovering, all stuff that bassist do almost intuitively. When the great players speak they put words to these actions causing me to consider what it is I’m doing, giving me new tools to work with, transporting me from the feral to the educated.
I’m listening to these guys, saying to myself, I do that, and that. Them saying it makes it a thing like a word you know then learn how to spell. If that makes any sense.
Even though it was a few years ago that I spent a week with Chuck Rainey, Victor Wooten, Anthony Wellington, Dave Welch and Steve Bailey. I’m still assimilating what they had to say. The note I want is there for me, mistakes are a thing of the past. I’m still running the four finger permutations up and down the neck, this is primarily a dexterity exercise but the side effect is ear training. I’m reaching, nailing notes that I used to have to look for. Ron just told me that daily practice is a good thing, that knowing the notes/pattern in the framework of chords creates new options to keep the base lines fresh.
In my first year of music, 1961, 8 years old, I went from violin to cello to concert Bass. The first draw of the bow across that E string changed my world.
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Post by windmill on Jun 13, 2021 19:48:04 GMT -5
Thanks for the response Hushnel. Ron Carter mentioned about finding the notes, practice being when you learn where they are. One of the things I learned was the truth of the old saying "The more you learn, the more you learn how much you don't know." I have a few drops of knowledge compared to Ron Carter's ocean of knowledge, ability and experience. In regard to your 8 year old self, in another video Ron Carter said the instrument has power that none of the others have.
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tmc
Wholenote
Posts: 893
Formerly Known As: tmc
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Post by tmc on Jun 14, 2021 10:11:46 GMT -5
One of the things I learned was the truth of the old saying "The more you learn, the more you learn how much you don't know." That's the truth! I sometimes have trouble staying focused on the nitty gritty details of daily practice when I know that there's so much yet to learn.
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Post by hushnel on Jun 14, 2021 10:19:31 GMT -5
In regard to your 8 year old self, in another video Ron Carter said the instrument has power that none of the others have. No kidding, in that moment, as I felt the note hit the wall and come back to me, I thought, so this is how God created the Universe. Let there be light came a moment after. ”Astronomers say they have heard the sound of a black hole singing. And what it is singing, and perhaps has been singing for more than two billion years, they say, is B flat -- a B flat 57 octaves lower than middle C.” That, my brothers is “Bass” I’ve meet a lot of guitar players that will play the bass on occasion, mostly they do a good job of holding down the bottom, few nail all the other aspects of the instrument. I can drive a tractor trailer rig, even back it up to the loading dock, but let it get away from me, it’s going to get ugly.
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