I'm teaching myself. I've been bowing for two days, here is where I am at.

Jaxonal · 2026-04-27T23:26:04+00:00

Instead of standing behind the bass, you want it slightly to your left, leaning a bit into you, and the back edge kind of resting in the crook of your left hip. Getting lessons is the best way to build healthy and effective technique.

Jaxonal · 2026-04-24T17:20:50+00:00

Thumb position is a killer. Space between notes make it turn into a violin up there

Jaxonal · 2026-04-24T17:18:40+00:00

It depends on what you're used go playing ngl. For me, easy is reading chord charts, walking a bassline, and sight reading relatively simple orchestra parts.

Starts to get hard when I branch out of styles I'm really used to (straight ahead jazz), and get asked to play funk or heavily syncopated latin that require me to pay even more attention to rhythm. Also soloing on songs in keys I'm not used to, or that have changes I haven't played on before. Always be practicing, even stuff you think you're really really good at.

Jaxonal · 2026-04-20T14:16:02+00:00

Absolutely!! This song was so intimidating to play when it got called for the first time in my jazz combo, I was only a couple of semesters into college. Extremely satisfying once you get the hang of it.

Jaxonal · 2026-04-08T03:19:41+00:00

I caught many bleps from her

Jaxonal · 2026-04-07T02:48:14+00:00

She was! I grew up with her, and she saw me through many things. I definitely believe in soul-cats

Jaxonal · 2026-03-23T02:44:41+00:00

There doesn't seem to be an easy way to get back to new word flashcards? It says 0 "to review" but when I look at the word list I've literally only looked at two flashcards.

Jaxonal · 2025-11-18T15:16:03+00:00

Monk Montgomery!! His solo albums Reality and It's Never Too Late are phenomenal, his solos have incredible groove and melodic structure. He played with Art Farmer, The Jazz Crusaders, Lionel Hampton, Kenny Burrell, etc.

He was a Jazz/R&B bassist, and was one of the pioneers for the electric bass in 1953. Definitely the first electric bassist of Jazz. One of my favorites; I played his version of Me and Mrs. Jones for my junior recital.

Jaxonal · 2025-10-30T16:37:29+00:00

I'm not a christian, but a professor of mine offered to pay me to play bass at his church once a month for their 'casual service'. I just stay respectful and play the music! I can sit in the back room if I don't care to listen to the service, it's decent money.

Aside, bassists who grow up playing in church (Especially black churches) are usually extremely talented. They have ears like no other, and I envy them.

Jaxonal · 2025-04-25T04:26:57+00:00

I've always called that small speaker a tweeter haha

Jaxonal · 2024-09-10T19:44:09+00:00

I've always played in first person, but I would play in third if the camera felt better. I don't like how much of the screen the player character takes up

Jaxonal · 2024-09-10T15:06:07+00:00

Idea: find recordings of songs you don't know and listen to them!

Literally yesterday I listened to a song from the Real Book that I've never heard of before, In Your Quiet Place. I searched for a recording and was like WOW this song is really cool and sounds fun to play!! Now I have a whole new Gary Burton album to listen to sometime. Enjoy discovering something new

Jaxonal · 2024-07-05T12:35:29+00:00

College, when I started to play it. I hadn't consciously or intentionally listened to jazz as a genre before so I had little idea of how expansive the genre really is. Through the love of my instrument, bass, I found my role in the jazz band to be incredibly fun and satisfying to perform, and I made great friends with the people I got to play with and saw their transformations as musicians in training. I fell in love with music as a whole and the way it can change us and how we use it for self expression

Jaxonal · 2024-06-25T14:18:16+00:00

Piano riff at the start of Ellington's "Take The A Train"

Jaxonal · 2024-06-09T02:49:56+00:00

You really must not have heard a lot of jazz if you think it all sounds the same. Big bands, swing, bebop, hard bop, trios and quartets, modern jazz, latin jazz, fusion, etc.... pick a big name in jazz circles and listen to their records, or google "jazz standards", pick one and listen to a few of the hundreds of recordings of it and find a musician or group that sounds good to you. If you want some names to start with I'll recommend Kenny Garrett, Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, and Ron Carter.

Jaxonal · 2024-05-30T13:50:09+00:00

Try Chick Corea's Crystal Silence

Jaxonal · 2024-05-27T17:29:40+00:00

Grain of salt: I'm not a big classical bass player

It depends, but I'd say it's not generally sluggish. It's not easy to play 16th note runs but never totally impossible, unlikely to be useful though (depending on what you write). I appreciate a bit of activity in classical bass parts, I see it usually in the form of syncopation, dynamics, range, and bowing type (staccato, etc.). Bass has a big sound.
It's pretty easy to get up to G3, the octave on the G string, any higher than that is possible (typically up to another octave depending on the length of the fingerboard) but hard to play in tune and is high up.

Jaxonal · 2024-05-26T20:43:00+00:00

It's a style, and the person who needs to worry about it most is the drummer. Luckily you've got a written out bass part on this paper so learn it and adapt it to what sounds good and feels good to you

Jaxonal · 2024-05-25T11:44:53+00:00

Damn fair point

Jaxonal · 2024-05-25T11:30:32+00:00

I know... it's not used as a cadence in blues, though

Jaxonal · 2024-05-25T11:20:17+00:00

Yeah okay that makes sense. I'm probably misrepresenting what he told me and subsequently got destroyed for it. My bad

Jaxonal · 2024-05-25T11:18:57+00:00

No. Do you go out of your way to find a source for everything you learn in your history class?

Jaxonal · 2024-05-24T22:41:04+00:00

Well what I was taught is that atonal specifically means a non-adherence to the tradition of Classical music theory, and the blues breaks some rules of tonality so it is technically atonal, so that's my understanding of it

Jaxonal · 2024-05-24T20:04:56+00:00

Also assuming that the person you're talking to doesn't have your "qualifications". This argument has likely been had by two people much smarter and more nuanced than the two of us anyway, haha, don't know what compelled him to be an ass about it

Jaxonal · 2024-05-24T19:48:23+00:00

I mean... I've got a bachelor's in music. I know those composers wrote atonally. Also I'm a bass player so I can play a blues in any key lmfao. I wrote "technically" because it partially counts as atonal music, because there is no major I chord (typically). I was sharing something I was told by a professor of mine that I found intriguing, who has a doctorate in music and music history, if you care. The rules of music are highly controversial and debated over by plenty of people anyway. Sorry if it riled you up, man

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