Intermediate/advanced player looking for bass teacher

[Captain Tomahawk]

Hi floks.

Im currently looking for someone to help me out with a few things. I've self taught myself for around 4.5 years now and i've come pretty far. However there are few things i've rushed through over the years and only started to realise the drawbacks lately.

My main concerns are: ear training, reading, application of alot of the theory and maybe some help with my my left hand technique (keep applying too much pressure with the thumb).

If it helps i play alot of jazz,funk and prog bass and my key influences are stanley clarke, jaco pastorius,mike howlett,Jean Baudin, Justin Chancellor,Michael Manring,Steve Bailey and ermmm.. Mark king o_O

Im also hoping to start double bass too, any teachers known?

Thanks for your time

[empty-words]

What is your knowlege of throry so far?

if you dont know no theory i could prob help you with that and could help with left hand as that is prob my strongest point.

Do you think you could happily play:

Victor Wooten

Stu Hamm

Michael Manring

Take classical scores and put them on bass

Cryptopsy (some of the hardest shit i have seen and amazing for left hand)

I would say im a little above that so if your compotent with that stuff im prob no use to you but you never know.

[Captain Tomahawk]

Hey man sorry for taking so long to reply to your post.

I know quite a bit of theory like modes, Inversions of chords etc. but my improvisational skills when using this theory to solo with can be a bit repeative. I can play some of Wooten,Hamm and the likes material but i've never really spent much of my playing time learning their material. I started drilling down on Jaco's portrait of tracy and stu hamm's flow my tears and noticed the related techniques picking up alot quicker again.

I've also descovered what was wrong with my left hand technique and after realising it's importance had to share it with anyone viewing this thread. Basically i was lifting my fingers off the frets too early causing a sloppy sound and extra thumb pressure due to the amount my fingers were moving. I've spent that last week going over all the scale/arpreggios i've ever learnt using a stricter left hand technique and its allready paying off alot. Any strain i used to have reaching akward chords is pretty much gone and my playing is far more fluid.

I've been thinking lately of trying to set up a bass trio kinda thing if you are up for jamming sometime, know any fretless legends around aberdeen? I think it would be a mental idea having three bassists from completely different musical backgrounds going crazy together!

Let me know what you think

Cheers

[Monk Rocker]

A few of my "top tips"!!!

1. If you haven't got one, get hold of a metronome. Practise scales and arpeggios along with it, increasing the speed gradually being sure to maintain discipline.

2. Another metronome exercise is to clap along with it to develop your timing. The idea is that if you are going in right you shouldn't hear the metronome.

3. Try to be disciplined with one finger per fret with your left hand, and alternating fingers on your right hand during exercises.

4. As you've already discovered, use small efficient movements.

5. Turn your amp up and let it do the work. By doing this you can develop a more efficient, and faster right hand technique.

6. Left hand position - thumb on the centre of the back of the neck in between your first and second fingers. Your thumb shouldn't need to come over the top of the neck.

7. Tutor books can be helpful. Can't remeber the authors, but The Finger Funk Workout, Essential bass soloing, and Expanding Walking Bass Lines are books which I've used and found very helpful, especially with reading and ear training.

8. Learn the rules. Only once you know them, you can learn how to exploit them!!

[Captain Tomahawk]

Defiantely some top tips there Monk Rocker. Id say that starting things slowly and building up rather than jumping right in and trying to play things at full speed is probably the most important of those tips as the difference it makes can be incredible. I had this exact problem trying to learn Classical Thump and Me and My bass Guitar by Victor Wooten, trying to play them straight away at full speed was just silly. Using a metronome for these songs and taking things a beat at a time has really helped.

Thought I'd throw in some links i've found useful for any other bassists interested:

www.adamnitti.com (good lessons section)

www.lucaspickford.com (great transcriptions for plenty of Jaco, Anthony Jackson, Jeff Berlin and Marcus Miller songs)

www.garywillis.com (great section on adjusting trussrod/action and general bass setup related questions)

[empty-words]

The bass trio could be good dependant on the players, the only bass player that has impressed me is the dude who playes jazz in keff, holy shite he is good.

i have a fretless 5 string strung with 62.-20. strings (to imitate Manring).

i may be interested i jaming, when were you thinking?

[Captain Tomahawk]

Hopefully get it going relatively soon. Pretty busy at the moment with my job and my other musical activites but i'll get a couple of short recordings done for you to hear my approach to solo bass in the next week or two. You able to do the same? Yeah he is a top bass player and has great improvisational skills, i'll maybe try get in contact with him.

listening to Manring has given me a totally new prespective on Zon basses, the tone is incredible. he has his own section on www.talkbass.com if you aint discovered it yet.

Plently of threads on alternate tunings etc and he aint bad at answering pretty quickly despite being one of the busiest bass players around.