How to Play Bass Dot Com

I have this habit of getting an itch to play a song that I've learned in the past or gotten notes for in the past. I go look for it in my pile of music stuff and it is never anywhere to be found. This happened last night. I remembered that my bass teacher last year gave me the tab for "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac and I went looking for it. Vanished.

The good news is it made me look online today for Fleetwood Mac stuff (there is kind of surprisingly little, but I guess that's an indication of the lack of tech savvy-ness of people of a certain age)...which led me to How to Play Bass Dot Com. I've stumbled across this guy before, but I was reminded today of how great his video lessons are. Then I wondered how one got pdfs of the tab. Subscribe of course. What's nice though is that he gives a fair amount away for free. He has a paid subscription too, and it might even be worth it, but frankly it is more information than I have time to absorb currently. Anyway, I'll be getting his monthly video/tab package for free now and we'll see how it goes.

His philosophy is that you learn by playing songs, which has kind of been how it has gone for me. I just can't focus on scales. He has two books that interest me..."Deliberate Practice" (which seems to be temporarily out of print) and "How to Practice in Your Dead Time" (about Visualization, Ear Training, Rhythmic Perception, Finger Exercises, Sight Reading, Bass Line Analysis, and Expanding Your Bass Guitar Map).

I've long noted that there is a difference between playing and practicing. I'd be interested how someone how focuses on playing tunes applies a deliberate practice mentality. For me it is about slowing things down and going over rough spots again and again until you get them. Sometimes you have to take a break and come back to it if you aren't cracking it. And then working transitions into and out of those tough spots is key too.

I've been avoiding doing that tough practice work for a while now, but recently started trying to do it again. I try to give myself a mix of "deliberate" practice and playing for fun. Part of my deliberate practice lately has become memorizing tunes that I thought were too complex to memorize. For the most part I'm finding that this just isn't true. If you spend enough time with something almost anything can be memorized. I also keep thinking that there must be a limit to how many songs you can keep memorized in your head at one time, but that doesn't seem to be true. If anything, the more that you memorize, the better that you get at it and the more capacity that you have to take in more. It is a strange thing.

Memorizing the tune also seems to help in playing it better, because now you only have to focus on looking at your hand...you don't have to look at the music. So shifts gets better and proper finger placement to avoid buzz, and good right hand technique all develop. It is a win-win.

Of course, memorizing things for performance is also terrifying, because without fail I WILL have a brain fart at a show no matter how well I know a song. It happens. Though I'm at least get better at recovering from these things.

Song of the Year 2014

Like last year, I'm doing this early.

Song of the Year for 2014 will be "Somewhere in the Between" by Streetlight Manifesto.

I didn't give it much thought this year. I like the song. It works. And I like taking things in the ska direction.

Here's a video of the tune:


Here's a video of the lyrics with the tune (there is annoying background noise).


And just the lyrics:
"You were gone when we found you 
You were practically surrounded, you were trapped
But the opposition stalled, their blood ran cold
When they saw the look of love in your eyes
Maybe the times we had, they weren't that bad
And everything else was part of the plan
We sang: "I don't know where we go from here"
This is the alpha, omega, beginning and the end
And we all just idolize the dead
So you were born (So you were born), and that was a good day
Someday you'll die (Someday you'll die), and that is a shame
But somewhere in the between was a life of which we all dream
And nothing and no one will ever take that away
You had a love and that love had you
And nothing mattered, you were fine
If some will complain, they're just bitter, what a shame
They know that loving and losing is better than nothing at all
Maybe the times we had, they weren't that bad
And everything else was part of our path
We sang: "I don't know where we go from here"
This is the anthem, the slogan, the summary of events
And we all just idealize the past
So you were born (So you were born), and that was a good day
Someday you'll die (Someday you'll die), and that is a shame
But somewhere in the between was a life of which we all dream
And nothing and no one will ever take that away
(Instrumental Solos)
Yeah, the times we had, they were not that bad
And everything else, it was part of the plan
And we sang, "I don't know where we go from here"
This is the Alpha (Alpha!), Omega (Omega!), beginning and the end!
And we all just idolize the dead
So you were born (So you were born), and that was a good day
Someday you'll die (Someday you'll die), and that is a shame
But somewhere in the between was a life of which we all dream
And nothing and no one will ever take that away
And someday soon my friends, this ride will come to an end
But we can't just get in line again."

Here's the usual background:
Since I was 14 years old I've had a New Year's tradition of picking a song to represent the coming year. Sometimes it is a pessimistic song...sometimes it is an optimistic song. Sometimes I am not even sure why I pick the song...but they almost always end up...one year later...to have been an excellent representation of the previous year. 

The song is supposed to be the first song that I hear in the New Year (and the previous year's song is supposed to be the last song that I hear in the previous year). Of course, logistically this is not always possible, but usually it is.

Why do I do this? Who knows! But no sense in ruining a perfectly good tradition...

1985 Kids from Fame I Still Believe in Me 
1986 Go West Don't Look Down 
1987 Outfield Taking My Chances 
1988 Police King of Pain 
1989 U2 Where the Streets Have No Name 
1990 Erasure Hideaway 
1991 Aztec Camera Stray 
1992 Erasure Home 
1993 Kirt Kempter Standing on this Bridge 
1994 John Wesley Harding End of Something 
1995 Poi Dog Pondering Postcard from a Dream 
1996 Indigo Girls Watershed 
1997 Poi Dog Pondering Complicated 
1998 Michelle Shocked The Hard Way 
1999 Ani DiFranco Fuel 
2000 The Nields Giving it Back to Susan 
2001 Barenaked Ladies Falling for the First Time 
2002 The Nields This Town is Wrong 
2003 Fleetwood Mac Landslide 
2004 Barenaked Ladies Go Home 
2005 Barenaked Ladies For You 
2006 
2007 The Motor Primitives Favorite Dream 
2008 
2009 Barenaked Ladies Testing 1, 2, 3 
2010 Barenaked Ladies Maybe You're Right 
2011 The Breeders One Divine Hammer 
2012 Anna Vogelzang Heart Beat Faster
2013 The Breeders Huffer
2014 Streetlight Manifesto Somewhere in the Between

Tone

I notoriously am not very concerned with tone...or maybe more to the point...I've never felt like I could hear the differences that other people have in tone. But it is becoming an issue in my bass playing.

I know that what I like is a deep, boomy, smooth sound. I know that what I don't like is a trebly, "tink-tink" kind of sound. But the problem with a deep, boomy, smooth sound is that it can get "muddy"...where all the notes kind of melt together and lose their separation. This isn't such a big deal when you are hanging on a root note 8th pattern (90% of Pixies bass lines) or playing slowly or playing whole notes. But it is a problem for fast moving bass lines like those that I play in ska.

My remedy for the problem has just been to turn down my bass tone and turn up my treble tone on my amp and the turn the tone knob to more "tinky" on my bass. But I kind of hate the tone and it still bleeds together a lot. Playing with a pick increases the separation, but it is really hard for me to play fast with a pick...especially if I'm doing a lot of string crossings or playing on the high strings a lot. I got unsolicited advice once that suggested that I not pluck so high up on the neck. I rest my thumb on the corner of the fingerboard and play right there when I play with my fingers. I've tried moving back to the bridge or to the pickups...but it feels really weird. And I don't think it really helps or sounds any better.

Anyway, I was listening to Fleetwood Mac this morning and realizing that John McVie's tone is exactly what I'm shooting for. It is smooth and low and booming...but there is a definition to the notes....the notes don't bleed together and get muddy. And he's playing a lot of notes.  So, aside from him being a great player, I could look into what kind of equipment he used. Just a thought.

All Gigs 2013

I thought FOR SURE I had done this summary every year, but I can't find it anywhere for previous years.

Assuming I've kept good records, I played 32 gigs in 2013.

-7 for TD
-11 for SVFD
-5 for SSW
-7 for CJ (one as INXS)
-2 for FW
(note CJ/SSW shared one of those bills)

Details below! Click to enlarge.

UPDATE: Found the other lists. They are tagged as "summary" in the blog but all posts are incomplete I think. Allow me to report again below (pre 2009 gigs not included). I have to say, I'm surprised at how sparse 2012 was...

2009: 6 gigs

2010: 22 gigs

2011: 37 gigs

2012: 13 gigs