03.02.2005 || 13:28

bassthings

Ugh, now I remember the reason I'm such a dillentantish bassist: practising scales bites my bum. I'm so bored right now that I'm about ready to top it. Oh, and I can't figure out if the Main chord in 'Mull River Shuffle' is a D major, D minor, some Diminished 7th, augmented 9th, or an arpeggiated myxolidian inverted sousaphone. Hence, everything I try is coming up suctacular and I can't figure out why. I evidently need to know more theory.

Or I need to step outside ans see something other than my walls and this loner bass...

Loner, geddit? fuck, I kill me...

So yeah, I've been listening to pretty much anything with an interesting bassist in it. I'm hearing some very weird music these days because of that. Some is impressive but ugly. I don't think I'll keep the stuff by Interpol or Thursday. I have decided that King Crimson [equals] Rush -- really skilled players but essentially unlistenable. Vanilla Fudge? Serious nicotine and pot-stained pocket groove, but a little too psychedelic for me. The Mars Volta is the kind of stuff that'd normally send me bolting for the exit, but there's something there I'm kinda hooked on. I dunno, there's a certain Jane's Addiction-meets-Led-Zeppelin mystique that almost works.

Okay, And the fucking Beatles. That totally sacharine prat, Sir Paul really played something new back then. I prefer Entwistle and company, but both are a lot like Jaco Pastorius in that nowadays we've heard those styles playeds to death by endless sttreams of derivative bassmen, but you've got to sit back and remember that those guys *created* their styles of play, that Joni Mitchell was looking for a bassist who didn't exist until she happened on Jaco and his distinctive, new playing.

In other words, I'm trying to approach this instrument more the way I did ten or fifteen years ago, when I was playing a lot and trying out whatever new idea crawled through the transom, as opposed to just sitting in the pocket and spouting other people's lines. I can't believe how hard it is to think like a bassist again, as opposed to a mere bass player.

And I can't believe that I'm trying to do this on a friend's loner (with strings that are older than the guitarist's daughters) because Jasmine's in the shop and my new bass is still 5 weeks away.



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older shite

One last little note... - 09.21.2006

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Scary stuff - 05.25.2006

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