So....it’s been a long time since my last blog post, and I guess that’s because I’ve been really busy. I’m currently writing this from Aberystwyth, where I’m in the middle of a 6 1/2 week run playing bass on Legally Blonde: The Musical. It’s great to be back in a...
Broken Heart - Booker T Feat. Jay James I haven’t posted a blog in a while, so I thought I’d put up a transcription I was working on a few months back. I hadn’t heard this track before, but it turns out the vocalist (Jay James Picton) is from near...
The Pro's and Con's of Licks So, over the time I've been playing, I've been instructed at various points to "learn licks" and "don't bother learning licks". In this post I'd like to discuss what I've found in terms of the pro's and con's. What is a lick? A lick,...
The Major Scale - What It Is And Why It's Important The major scale is one of the primary tonalities in western music……as such, it's a really important musical tool which everyone should understand, and it's components should be part of every musicians vocabulary. In essence the major scale is...
Recording: New Place, New Friends So, from the 27th to 31st of March, I had the pleasure of recording three tracks for Jodie Marie's next album at Urchin Studios in Hackney, London. The whole week was a really cool experience with some really nice musicians I had never met before....
Reading Notes/Notation - A Dying Art? Many, many musicians who play modern music, especially on fretted instruments such as guitar and bass, have a real weak spot when it comes to reading notation or "dots". The thing that really confuses me is the unwillingness of many musicians to even consider...
Intervals - The Distance Between Notes Intervals are one of the most important constituent parts of music, in my opinion, and yet many students do not understand what I am talking about when I mention intervals during lessons. This is why I have written this post, to provide an online...
A Busy Few Weeks So, I've been a little quiet on here recently, due to a couple of gigs which haven't given me much free time. I thought I'd write a little post with some gig updates to fill you in on what's going on, and some new musicians I've...
Source: baixobrasil.blogspot.com Dave Holland on Old Folks Dave Holland's solo begins at 4 minutes 6 seconds. This transcription is the first to go up on this website, and is a bit of work I did years ago while studying at university. We were very lucky in that Dave Holland came...
The Importance of Correct Practice & Good Teachers Over the last year during my studies with Joe Hubbard I learned a lot about how to practice, and the benefits of having a good teacher. Up until that point, even though I had got through a 4 year degree in jazz,...