Decisions, Decisions, Decisions 
I’m sure whatever you decide you will be happy with József. It’s good to hear that your stepping back into a regular studying schedule. That sounds like a great idea to work on recording your own 12BB and soloing over it. Good luck with G2/M13. Enjoy.
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Congrats on all the progress made, József, no doubting the power and benefits in developing the ability to transcribe. Some woulkd say it is the best (only) way to learn.
Have fun considering another electric, part of the fun is all that research and thinking, then the try-outs, before finally adding another guitar to the collection. Mick was right 
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So today was another David Bowie Day for me. After I got home from the dentist and finished working, I tried out the new Rotosound string I put on my Epi LP on Sunday, and the tryout turned into a bit of Bowie jamming.
For a few days, I’ve been toying with the idea of playing along to Fame, so I got down to it and managed to suss out the notes of the main “riff”; not the chords, though, as those funky extensions are still out of my reach. It was great fun; I needed one or two attempts to get the rhythm right, but when I got in sync with the recording (with a touch of wah wah), it felt great. Then I tried Fascination, at least parts of it. The chord progression seems to be mostly E-D-C, but I’ll take a closer look at that later on. And when I found out that the little lick played after the choruses is a pair of E notes an octave apart, it gave me an extra boost of confidence.
Then I moved on to The Width of a Circle and figured out the two main “themes”, i.e. the opening riff and the theme from the second half (played by Ronson and also sung by Bowie). I gave a go to the power chords as well, but I’ll need to work on the rhythm, I think. Also, the bass and drums on this song are wicked.
Thanks David. I’ve never thought I’d be able to make out melodies and reproduce them on any instrument, so I’m always stoked when it happens. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult, at other times it’s pretty easy, but I almost always feel lucky that I can improve at this skill. I wouldn’t say it’s the only way to learn, but it certainly helps with memorizing the melodies.
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After the usual new year mayhem at work and a bit of a rocky start to my relationship with my new Strat, things seem to be looking up again, at last.
2 weeks ago I took the Strat back to the shop for a little adjustment, and now the tuning stability is indeed better. One less thing to worry about. 
So where to begin?
Since the end of 2022 I haven’t had much free time until this week, so when I had the opportunity to play, I stuck to my usual practice routines, see above. However, some ideas have been slowly taking shape.
I registered for a Home Studio course at a local university. It’s not a university course as such as it can be taken by anyone interested, but I figured it could serve as a starting point for my adventures in studioland. The course will be 50 x 45 minutes spread over 5 Saturdays in April and May so it won’t interfere with my work (or vice versa). A funny thing: I’m a regular at a biweekly film club and an elderly couple is among the usual guests. The husband has been an audio engineer at the Hungarian radio and works with electroacoustic composers, and he knows the engineer who will host the course. It’s a small world. I hope it will be interesting and that I’ll be able to make some connections for the future…
As a sort of preparation, I watched the videos in this course, although I’m not sure what DAW I’ll use eventually: Production Basics With Adam G
I started to read The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn. When I was 11 or 12 I bought the Hungarian translation of Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald from a used book store with my mum, and that’s pretty much when my interest in sound recordings started, so I have kind of come full circle this time.
I want to continue with music theory as well, so while doing Justin’s PMT, I ordered two books as well (they are still on their way):
Berklee Music Theory Book 1 – Basic Principles of Rhythm, Scales, and Intervals
Berklee Music Theory Book 2 – Fundamentals of Harmony
Although not guitar-centric, they seem to be valuable sources of information. Now I’ll just need some more time as well to use them along with the Leavitt book.
As for actual playing, I added Astronomy Domine 
to my playalong-list, although there are some weird (in a good way) guitar overdubs in that song that I still haven’t figured out. But I was very pleased with myself when I managed to figure out exactly how to mute the low E string to get the same sort of chug as in the intro.
Yesterday I started to “transcribe” the string parts in Walk On By by Isaac Hayes. I think the lead guitar part here will take more time than in his other songs I tackled, but I’m not in a hurry.
I’ve also been thinking about trying to play some Fela Kuti, so I added 3 songs to my worklist:
Je’nwi Temi (Don’t Gag Me) - it has a pretty cool guitar riff and a nice horn lick as well
Sorrow Tears & Blood - here I found the horn lines a bit easier, probably because the guitar is not that prominent in the mix
Colonial Mentality - this has a funky bassline and more horns
Interestingly enough, I managed to play along to these 3 songs around frets 7-10 on strings 3-5. I haven’t written the riffs down yet, but there must be something Fela liked about those notes…
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I transcribed the guitar/horn riffs from the first one and they are in Bb major (G minor pentatonic), so I guess Fela was accommodating the horn section and the sax solos.
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What a great update Jozsef and so pleasing to read you getting so stuck in. The studio course sounds like it’ll be really interesting, I’m sure we will all take the pleasure of your time and learning on that in future recordings!!
And some really interesting songs added to your worklist, Astronomy Domine is an amaaaaazing track, I can’t wait to hear you share that with us!
Have alot of fun 
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I guess it’s time for a little update.
The home recording course ended about 2 weeks ago. I think it was pretty interesting, I’ll probably write a bit more about it later on.
Not much happened guitarwise. I haven’t played very much the past month, and today I noticed some string buzz on 2 of my electric guitars. Maybe the climate has changed a little, but I’m planning to take the Strat to a luthier to check it as there are always some weird things going on with it (I guess I’ll never be a real Strat guy). I mean, it’s a fine guitar, but nothing mindblowing. If it comes to sell any of my guitars, it’s very likely to go first. Lesson learned: don’t judge a guitar (only) by its looks.
About 2 weeks ago I registered to a driving school. Frankly, some time ago this seemed as unlikely as picking up an instrument. I’m still only at the theoretical stage (rules of the road, some basic technical stuff), so far it seems interesting. I wonder how easy or difficult the actual driving will be.
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Joszef, driving is way easier than guitar!! 
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At least I’ll be less likely to harm others while playing music 
Strangely enough, I still don’t feel worried about how the actual driving will be, but maybe right before the first practice session…
Actually, I sort of had a “Justin moment”, so to say, in that the manager of the driving school I signed up to has a YouTube channel with a rich library of videos on rules of the road as well as some actual practice sessions recorded with beginner students, so I already have some ideas on what to expect.
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Time for a little update again.
Yesterday I passed the theoretical exam for driving at 100% 
I was actually the first one to finish in the group, and it felt a bit too easy… but I studied and practiced quite a bit for it. Now I’m waiting for a driving instructor to be assigned to me and to start the practical lessons… I think that will be much more of a challenge but I’m not worried about it (yet). If I managed to learn some guitar, I’ll manage this, too.
Guitar-wise I seem to be in a sort-of no man’s land. Fortunately, the Strat became a lot more comfortable to play after the setup so I pick it up more often. I’m also starting to get used to the tonal options of the 5-way switch, so it seems it wasn’t a wasted purchase.
However, I feel like I’ve been walking in circles regarding practicing. There are some songs on my practice playlist that became a bit too familiar, so I try to rest them for a while. I started to jam along to some pieces by Miles Davis from his fusion era which was something I’ve never expected to be able to do. I won’t be the next John McLaughlin, of course, but at times my playing complements the recordings pretty well. This is a simpler song from that period but I’m still only scratching the surface of that warped wah-wah trumpet tone (though I’ve had the riff down pat):
I managed to get portions of the solos in Bitches Brew, Miles Runs the Voodoo Down and Lonely Fire right and they’re so much fun to play. Actually, the latter piece is built on a short trumpet phrase repeated in octaves by the sax so it was probably the easiest of the three. (Labelling anything by Miles as “easy” somehow doesn’t feel right… maybe I’ve developed a bit in the past 4 years, after all.) The bassline is Voodoo has also been cracked, so sometimes I play along to the trumpet and alternate it with the bass.
Something which I still have to work on is the rhythm in his song Maiysha which has a bossa-nova vibe in the first half. I got the chords, but the rhythm sometimes gets the better of me. And let’s not even talk about the second half where I’m not even sure what sort of effect is used. Sounds like wah-wah mixed with a nervous system meltdown.
I guess what I want to say is that I’m trying to apply some of the trumpet techniques to my playing, but there are some nuances that will require a lot of time, like the slurs and the sort of microsecond “hiccups” that introduce a particular note. Also, it might be only my ears deceiving me, but brass instruments seem to be able to change the pitch of the notes ever so slightly that is very difficult to replicate on the guitar.
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Congratulations mate . That is fantastic news that you passed your driving theory test. Nothing to worry about learning the practical side of things. You’ll be absolutely fine, i think learning to play guitar is much harder.
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Thanks 
It seems I’ll be able to start driving in August and the meeting place will be across the street from where I work. I’m getting excited about it and how it will go. That area has everything including heavy traffic (intersection of 2 big roads), cyclists, trams and it also seems to be a standard route used by ambulances.
I started watching Herbie Hancock’s Harvard Lectures, and an interesting point he made was that we should never stop be students and should always take the opportunity to learn something new. So I try to be as open to this challenge as I can and I hope it will help me.
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So another year passed…
The second half of last year was spent mainly with learning to drive, so that took some time away from music. I had the 1st attempt at the practical exam on 14 December but I didn’t stop at a red light in time so that meant a fail. Other than that, I think I got used to driving as much as I could and if I can concentrate better, the 2nd attempt will be successful. I passed the first aid exam yesterday so it’s really the practical exam is all that is left. And then lots of practice in real life. A year ago I didn’t expect to get so near to have a driving licence.
There have been quite a lot of changes at my workplace as well in the past few months, so I’ll try to take things as easy as I can, no extra courses or anything like that, at least not in the 1st half of the year.
Guitar-wise I don’t have too many plans. Strangely enough, I seem to have no GAS anymore. I think my 5 guitars cover pretty much all areas that I’m interested in, and I don’t have enough room for more instruments anyway. This year I think I’ll focus on transcribing and continuing with music theory.
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I’m trying to get to grips with the fact that driving has been so far the biggest challenge of my life learning-wise… and I don’t mean the theory of it but the actual physical act of driving a car. I just can’t get a consistently good performance out of myself. If I don’t practice for 2 weeks, I act as if I were an absolute beginner running around in circles. On my 2nd attempt at the traffic exam I blundered at parking, something that I’d been reasonably good at during the lessons. I guess I had some sort of stage fright or something. It’s weird because I don’t find actual traffic itself stressful. I’ll have the 3rd attempt in a week or so and I wonder what else can go wrong. (Anything, obviously.) But I’ll try my best and not to get unnecessarily anxious about it, however difficult that may be.
Another burden on me was a recent decision by the majority of the tenants in the house I live that certain bigger (10-12 square meter) storage rooms like mine had to be emptied in order to divide them into smaller cells so that all tenants can have one for themselves. It’s a nice idea but they could have devised a plan of sorts with exact dates as well instead of putting out a notice to have the big rooms emptied by end of January - 3 weeks before the deadline. So my evenings after work in January were spent mostly with rummaging through boxes and boxes of stuff… mostly books but a lot of other things as well, some more important than others. I managed to save the things that mean the most to me but had to throw out a lot of others (including things that should have been gone years ago, but still…) It was exhausting physically and mentally/emotionally as well. In some respects, I feel somewhat untethered from my past, even though it is because I scrapped a lot of stuff from primary/secondary school and university (mostly notebooks). But I also found (again) a lot of old things that reminded me of my parents and made me realize how much attention they gave to me. Maybe it is better to have fewer but stronger links to the past instead of a lot of more superficial ones…
I got a smaller cell where I could put the things I wanted to keep, but the wiring in the door was torn, so I had to repair it with my cousin the day before the 2nd traffic exam… We were not amused, but at least it can serve its purpose now. This week I called some professional waste removers to finish vacating the big storage room which also cost me some money, but at least it’s all off my mind now. In any case, the ones who had this great idea to have to do all this in 3 weeks can go and get stuffed.
And January at work is always a madhouse anyway.
But tonight at least I had plenty of time to play the guitar again and fortunately, I’ve got much more routine at this than at driving It seems that by now my method settled on trying to “decipher” (or transcribe, if you will, although I’m a bit too lazy to write them down so I try to memorize them) melodies / chord progressions by ear only. I succeed at it most of the time, though the time it takes varies from song to song.
Tonight’s piece was a song by a Hungarian band called Locomotiv GT. They were one of the top 3 pop/rock groups of the 1970s and early 1980s here, quite popular in the Eastern bloc and had a (brief) taste of fame in the UK and the USA, too. Here’s the song:
It has been a staple on Hungarian FM radio for decades so I’ve known it pretty much all my life, but only recently have I started to convince myself that I might be able to actually play the guitar solos. They sounded pretty minor pentatonic to me and this assumption proved to be right so it did not take very long to figure the notes out. I still have to work on the phrasing but it’s coming along nicely. The little piano/synth bit at 2:21 was also no too difficult to play.
The rhythm guitar groove that is present for the majority of the song is a bit of a riddle though. At first I thought it was a chord, like a Hendrix chord, or an octave pair, but the closest approximation seems to be a single Bb note. However, I still have to work a lot on getting the rhythm and the string muting right at the original tempo. I wonder if a full chord grip is used for the muting and only that one Bb note is fretted… We’ll see sooner or later. Nevertheless, I had a pleasant 2-3 hours of playing along to this song.
In the past week I’ve been listening to Stevie Wonder’s albums from Talking Book to Original Musiquarium I, and I found several songs with themes/riffs that I’ll try to transcribe. The first one that I attempted was quite easy (3 notes) but very very funky:
It sounds like a synthesizer, but whatever. It was a good choice to have some fun after the “real” work/practice.
Then I revisited the solo of Can’t You Hear Me Knocking. Only a few short phrases left there to get right.
All in all, this practice/play session boosted my mood and confidence a lot. All does not seem to be lost. 
The past 3 months have been a bit busy for me. On 14 March I passed my driving exam (on the 4th attempt) so I had an “excuse” to buy some more vinyl records as a way to reward myself for my hard work 
Some of the new additions are records by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix and Brian Eno.
Guitar-wise, I continued my attempts at transcriptions, and I can feel a steady improvement at it. Currently I’m working on various melodies and riffs from this album but there are so much stuff I’d like to tackle that sometimes I’m a little confused by the number of options.
I’ve been afflicted with a serious case of GAS, or should I say BAS, for a week or so. I listened again a bunch of songs by Hungarian band Skorpió and the fat bass rumble made me start to have plans on buying a bass guitar (and a bass amp, of course). Yesterday I went to a local music store who deal in second-hand instruments as well, and I tried a few basses just to get a taste as it’s something brand new to me. I was pleasantly surprised that the basses felt quite comfortable to play and apart from my lacking technique, it does not seem impossible to get the hang of it. I tried these basses:
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Ibanez BTB676 NTF from 2009: a 6-string bass tuned from B to C that at first looked quite intimidating but it was very easy on the fingers and the it looks more graceful than on pictures. It has 24 frets which is more than what either of my guitars have, but I can definitely see a use for them. The only odd thing (apart from the 6 strings) was how the volume and tone controls worked. I was a little surprised that most basses with multiple pick-ups still have fewer volume/tone setting options than most guitars.
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Squier Contemporary Active Jazz Bass HH V: my original idea was along the lines of a Squier/Fender Precision Bass or a Jazz Bass, I gave this one a try. This was also quite comfy to play and had a nice warm tone. I don’t fully understand the added value of the active preamp, but it’s not a decisive factor for me.
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Lakland HB-30: this was on the expensive side for me. It turned out to be a semi-hollow body bass (the f-hole is not very apparent on the black finish) so the whole instrument is quite light. It’s a short-scale bass so there’s less tension on the strings (i.e. easier to bend); however, given that the full-scale ones did not feel difficult to play, I wouldn’t sweat over seeking a specifically short-scale bass. But this one was a real beauty, too.
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Epiphone EB-3: the cheapest one of the 4 basses I tried but it’s probably no. 1 on my list. As an admirer of Jack Bruce’s work and more vintage sounds, I’d be happy playing it. As opposed to the original Gibson EB-3, this bass is a full-scale one. The volume/tone controls are pretty much the same as on my Epiphone guitars, so I could rock out immediately. I’m really tempted to choose this one but the 6-string is also pretty tempting…
I’m sitting on the fence a little regarding the EB-3 and the Ibanez 6-string. On the one hand, I can already see myself playing some fuzzed out basslines not unlike the ones on Wheels of Fire, but I’ve also become interested in modern classical pieces that utilize a bass guitar so the 6-string might be more suitable for that. And more strings mean more options. I think I will have to go back to try them out a little more before making my mind up. I also have to research bass (combo) amps.
Until then, back to my guitars.
Recently I have felt the need to go back to a more structured way of learning, so I set myself a few goals:
- Improve my timekeeping. Not that it’s bad, but there’s always room for improvement.
- Continue with the Practical Music Theory course (currently in grade 5)
- I started to read Modes Parts 1 - 9 so in order to be able to actually use modes, I’ll tackle most things related to the major scale, especially the practice routines in Major Scale Maestro 1 and Major Scale Maestro 2
- Back when I started PMT I printed the workbooks, so I’ll finish them, too
As a learning aid (and a tool for creativity, hopefully), I bought a Ditto+ looper pedal. This is my first ever looper pedal (well, any pedal besides my Vox wah-wah) so I will need some time to get familiar with how it works. I saw a video on various looper pedals recommended to first-time users by Andertons where they spoke favourably of it. The possibility of importing existing backing tracks was particularly interesting. Check out a demo here.
So my plan is to use this looper pedal to work on timekeeping as well as for jamming/improvising over backing tracks as part of the various lessons. I’m quite excited about how it will go.
Update time again…
The summer in a nutshell
During the summer heat most things need extra effort. This applies to playing the guitar as well; I just don’t like holding anything against my body for a long time when it’s so hot. It’s really uncomfortable and I feel it hinders my concentration. So the summer was mostly a downtime with only occasional playing. Instead, I devoted most of my time to reading and improving my French. In September I visited Paris for the 5th time and I had some time to think about my goals in general and music-wise.
The bass
Since then, I played mostly the bass I bought mid-June (see the topic here). It was partly the novelty factor and partly the ease with which I got used to it. I like it very much, so I’m glad I bought it. I started to take the beginner course of TalkingBass; I think it suits my style as I like being left to my own devices to some extent and working out things for myself based on guidance / curriculum. The course notes are easy to follow and my guitar experience also helps. Earlier, sometimes I found myself attracted to the bassline more than the main melody or riff of a song, so I tried to pick it out on the guitar which is fine but does not sound bassy enough.
Since then, I’ve managed to “transcribe” (I put that in quotation marks because I didn’t write them down) the bassline of 10 songs and can play them along with the original recordings. Some of them are quite easy but you gotta start somewhere. They are:
- Santana - Jingo - only 2 notes but feeling is the key
- The Police - Walking on the Moon
- The Police - Roxanne
- The Police - Demolition Man
- Tom Waits - Step Right Up (double bass in the original) - this one felt crazy fast at first
- Michael Nyman - Queen of the Night
- Locomotiv GT - Ülök a járdán
- Miles Davis - Duran (take 4)
- Miles Davis - Duran (take 6)
- James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good) - the most complex bassline I managed so far
There are about 20 other songs at various stages of “perfection”; some of those are:
- Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath - I could have added it to the list above, but I still need to work on the flow
- Locomotic GT - Mindig magasabbra - almost got it down completely but the short slow section needs a little work (I suspect a key change there)
- Miles Davis - Miles Runs the Voodoo Down - got it mostly but the intro needs some polishing
- Skorpió - Ünnepnap - tricky flick-offs and hammer-ons galore
- Procol Harum - Cerdes (Outside the Gates Of) - still need to work on the bassline played during the key changes
- Sly & the Family Stone - Thank You for Talkin’ to Me, Africa - got the notes but I will need to work on slapping a little later, preferably in a way not to bust the frets too quickly
- The Police - Invisible Sun - need to work on the chorus
Also, I found by chance that the first 5 songs on Santana’s Abraxas album (Singing Winds, Crying Beasts, Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen, Oye Cómo Va, Incident at Neshabur, Se a Cabó) are a very good practice material. I play them through once or twice every week and tweak my playing here and there. Se a Cabó is definitely the toughest of the lot.
Guitar matters
Having fallen down the bass rabbit hole, I started to worry that my guitar skills would suffer from lack of playing, so a few days ago I picked up the guitar again. Did it feel strange! My chords got a bit rusty but I’m sure that with some practice this can be solved. As a sort of self-encouragement, I got the riff of this song down and practiced improvisation over this one.
Future plans
Reflecting on how my previous plans turned out, I’m starting to realize that it’s futile to make them too detailed and time-specific. It’s easier for me to list a few general areas and deciding on the particulars based on circumstance. As I have a day job and other interests, e.g. improving my French, reading, movies, going to the gym, I try to use my time wisely (this is probably the most difficult of all things).
With that in mind, my plans are the following, in no particular order of importance:
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Work through A Modern Method for Guitar Vols. 1-3 by William Leavitt. This will be a long journey, probably a year at least. The books focus on teaching to read music notation and improving dexterity of both hands, but also feature music theory (though that is not the main point). This is something I’ve wanted to do for quite some time, so I better start while I can. Also, I find Leavitt’s style hitting the right balance between inspirational and matter-of-fact. He doesn’t sugarcoat the fact that the acquisition of these skills needs work and dedication. There are practice pieces in the book for 2 guitars which I expect will give me the opportunity to use my looper pedal eventually.
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Although playing the blues is not something I’m particularly interested in, I’ll try to tackle’s Justin’s blues-related lessons in the beginner course to get at least a basic familiarity with blues progressions and a bit of shuffle rhythm.
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Continue the bass course mentioned above. So far, the results are encouraging. Having started to learn music around the age of 30, I did not expect to get the hang of it so quickly.
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Continue Justin’s PMT course. One of the best investments I’ve ever made.
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Continue with transcriptions. I’m thinking about doing the actual interval ear training lessons; when I started out, I did them for a few weeks but there was not much improvement. I blame it on the intervals being in isolation, my lack of patience and my sort of aversion to emit sounds through my oral cavity (I will not call that singing). I hope now that I can pick out melodies more easily it will make more sense and be more effective.
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Eventually, continue Berklee Music Theory Book 1 – Basic Principles of Rhythm, Scales, and Intervals and then tackle Berklee Music Theory Book 2 – Fundamentals of Harmony.
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New instruments (this is the daydreaming part) - I’m thinking about what my next instrument should be whenever I feel ready and opportunity knocks. On the one hand, some sort of keyboard instrument would facilitate learning and I would prefer hearing the chords played on a piano or organ rather than strummed on a guitar. On the other hand, for the sake of the challenge, I’d love to try a woodwind instrument like a flute, an alto flute or a bass clarinet, although the latter two are super expensive if bought new. (I guess used ones are not much cheaper either, and I don’t have connections with active musicians.) I thought about buying a recorder at first but I just can’t bear that shrill sound. I’d prefer something warmer and more mellow. Given that I live in a block of flats with neighbours all around me, the saxophone is not an option due to the volume. The same goes for the trumpet, not to mention the drums. A double bass would be fun, but I’m a bit concerned about the size and I don’t have sufficient knowledge of brands and what to look out for when buying stringed instruments.
Other things
I bought a very interesting book at the bookstore of Centre Pompidou in Paris. It’s called Les fous du son - D’Edison à nos jours (“Sound Crazies” or “Crazy About Sound” would be a good translation - From Edison to Our Times) and it’s about the story of inventors and their inventions that contributed to the creation and development of electronic music. It starts with Edison and his various experiments, but has chapters on Theremin, Hammond (the organ guy), Martenot, Rhodes (the piano guy), Moog (the synth guy) and a lot of other people. The book is on the longer side and it’s full of fascinating details about the instruments and the things these people had to deal with. It’s written in a style aimed at those who are not very familiar with the intricacies of electronics and electricity, and the whole thing unfolds like a novel.
In the past few months, the music I listened to was pretty diverse. I got more deeply into Brian Eno’s ambient works, particularly Music for Airports and Thursday Afternoon, which led me on to Peter Gabriel (albums 1-4), Philip Glass (Partitas for Solo Cello) and Steve Reich (The Desert Music). In late September I attended 2 film screenings with live music by the Philip Glass Ensemble, and saw a staging of Nixon in China by John Adams. They were really good, I’m happy I was there. I attended an AC/DC concert in July so I listened to their Bon Scott era albums, my favourite being High Voltage. While surfing on YouTube, I found out about classical pianist Alice Sara Ott who plays really great versions of pieces by Erik Satie (her timing on the Gnossiennes and Gymnopédies is very close to my preference) and other composers, and she’s very easy on the eyes to boot. She’ll have a concert in Vienna next year that I’m planning to go to. A few years ago she disclosed being afflicted with a form of multiple sclerosis, but so far she managed to control it and it does not seem to affect her playing.
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I sort of fell down the bass rabbit hole and have been playing it pretty much exclusively for a few weeks.
A little more than a week ago I changed the bass strings for the first time and gave the instrument a thorough cleaning. I replaced the old strings with a set of Rotosound RS66LF Swing Bass 45-105 ones and adjusted the intonation. I know that a fresh set of strings sounds much brighter, but the first time I played these after stretching them… it was something different (in a good sense). I’m pretty satisfied with them.
Today I finally made up my mind and ordered a Boss Katana-110 Bass combo amp along with a matching amp cover and a bluetooth audio adaptor. I can’t wait to lay my hands on them. I’m planning to buy the GA-FC footswitch at a later date.
As for my bass journey, I’ve been playing through my practice playlist (see above) and adding new items to it, too. Some of the new and more realistic (at my stage) additions are the following:
- Traffic - The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys: it started out as a “Hmm, this bassline sounds manageable, let’s try it” choice instead of a well-planned attempt. The bassline is a 3-note ostinato for the most part with a bit of a change during the choruses. I really like this sort of hypnotic jazzy-groovy sound, it puts me in a special mood.
- Quincy Jones - Walking in Space: I’ve known this song for years but only listened to it again after I read the news about Quincy’s passing. The bass course I’m taking includes a lesson on octave shapes and riffs using them, and that was the key to work this one out. It opens with a bass riff in C minor, repeated at various degrees of the scale. It is not very difficult, but some ghost notes or hammer-ons make it just a bit more challenging. I can play along with the opening bass riff for the first 1:20 of the song - afterwards it’s mostly some walking basslines, but as much as I could discern, the various sections cycle through the “keys” outlined in the intro. I’ll try to dig deeper into it in the future.
- Yesterday I jumped into the sea of David Bowie basslines and managed to work some of them out. I chose his 1975-80 period (soul/funk/Berlin trilogy) and got the furthest with the bassline of Stay which is a seriously funky song. The parts I find the most challenging are the sudden octave “hiccups” and ascending lines, those are something I will have to keep on practicing. Other than that, I can play along to the original recording and it is so much fun, it’s as if I were also at the session playing with the band. V-2 Schneider is another one I got mostly down, the octave shapes helped again. Fame is interesting in the sense that the bass plays only 1 note almost through the entire song and it’s still so groovy. Again, the slides down to the low F and the octave hiccups are bit tricky so I will have to practice them. So far, the last one I can manage to play along to the original is Station to Station. The bassline in the first half of the song feels as if I was treading a snowy landscape in heavy boots, while the second half is like being able to take a deep breath again after a long illness. Though I don’t know if cocaine, as mentioned in the lyrics, has a side-effect like that. I also tried Yassassin and D.J. but those are just too difficult for me at this point. Yassassin is the more manageable one, I found most of the notes, but it’s still a “mouthful” to play it along with the original recording, so I’ll save it for later. I like to think of D.J. as sort of my theme song as it spells out my initials, so of course I tried it. However, it has some serious disco bassline for which I will have to improve my technique quite a bit, so this is also saved for later. I think George Murray, Bowie’s bassist from 1975 until 1981, is one of the unsung heroes of the instrument.