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Bright Size Life on Fretless Bass and Guitar – Bass Practice Diary – 14th January 2020

One of my favourite albums is Bright Size Life by Pat Metheny. It was not only Metheny’s debut album as a band leader but it was also one of the earliest recordings of Jaco Pastorius. Pastorius went on to become arguably the most influential electric bass player of the 20th century, and Bright Size Life features some of his best jazz work. Metheny and Pastorius together on this album are two young jazz genius’ working together in the very stripped down context of a trio with drummer Bob Moses.

The album features some of the best guitar and bass arrangements ever heard in the history of jazz and the title track is one of my personal favourites. This week I was reading through transcriptions of both Metheny’s and Jaco’s parts and I’ve tried to put them together. Admittedly, my playing in this video doesn’t live up to the genius of these two legends, but I was having fun so I put the camera on anyway. I hope you enjoy it.

Sire Marcus Miller V7 Vintage Fretless

The bass I’m using is a fretless Sire Marcus Miller V7 Vintage. I’ve done a video about the Sire V7’s before, and I think they’re brilliant. But I haven’t yet done a video about this fretless Vintage version. The thing with this Vintage version is that it’s clearly based on a 70’s fretless Fender Jazz Bass. So, even though it has Marcus Miller’s name on it, it makes me think of Jaco Pastorius.

Bright Size Life on Fretless Bass and Guitar – Bass Practice Diary 91
January 14, 2020 jccoxjazzbass
Happy New Year – New Year’s Eve Bass Practice Diary – 31st December 2019

Happy New Year! It’s New Year’s Eve and I want to thank everyone who has followed Johnny Cox Music in 2019. I have big plans moving forward into 2020, including a lot more free original bass content, so stay tuned! My second book is almost ready for publication and I’m planning to launch a dedicated teaching website for bass players in 2020.

Here’s a video that I shot last year to help you usher in the new year with a bit of solo 6-string bass. I would have shot a new video this year, but unfortunately I don’t know any other New Year’s Eve song apart from Auld Lang Syne. So this is one of the very rare occasions where I’m recycling an old video. I hope you enjoy it!

Auld Lang Syne

There are a number of ways you can approach harmonising this tune, and I didn’t spend very long coming up with this arrangement. I didn’t write the arrangement down, I just worked out a few things by ear before I hit record.

The loose structure of the arrangement is as follows. I played the first half of the song solo, using simple I, IV, V harmony. I intentionally set it in a key where I could utilise the open strings as bass notes. Then I added some jazz chords and alterations in the second half and immediately overdubbed the melody for the second half of the tune.

This was actually one of the quickest videos I’ve done. The shooting of it didn’t take more than five minutes. But I’m happy with the results. Sometimes playing something “off the cuff” is the best way rather than overthinking it.

I hope you enjoy this bit of bassy mellowness, whether your New Year’s Eve is mellow like mine or a bit more exciting. And I hope that the coming year gives you many opportunities to play the bass!

Happy New Year – New Year’s Eve Bass Practice Diary 89
December 31, 2019 jccoxjazzbass
Carol of the Bells – Christmas Bass Practice Diary – 24th December 2019

Happy Christmas and thanks to everyone that’s been following my Bass Practice Diary videos this year. Here is my new Christmas bass video for 2019. I wanted to find something that I could arrange with a loop pedal and my 6-string bass. I immediately thought of Carol of the Bells. The arrangement of the song immediately lends itself to looping.

The way that I’ve arranged it makes it possible to perform live with two loop pedals, one going into the other. However, I shot this video in two parts with one loop pedal. It’s much easier doing it that way rather than as one continuous take.

I hope you enjoy the video, please check out my previous Christmas bass videos if you haven’t already. This one is from last Christmas and it’s Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow. And this on is The Christmas Song aka Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. Stay tuned to Johnny Cox Music in 2020 for loads of new bass videos. I’ve completed 52 brand new and original bass videos in 2019 and I’ve got lots more planned for the future.

Carol of the Bells – Christmas Bass Practice Diary 88
December 24, 2019 jccoxjazzbass
TC Electronic Vibraclone Rotary with 6-String Bass Guitar – Bass Practice Diary – 10th December 2019

This week I discovered the Vibraclone Rotary pedal from TC Electronic. They call it a Rotary Speaker Emulator, which to me means it sounds like playing through a Leslie speaker. I’ve never been particularly interested in effects pedals. I very rarely take any with me on gigs. But I do use them occasionally. And if I come across a pedal that sounds good for an affordable price, then I’ll definitely snap it up. The Vibraclone ticks all the boxes of being cheap, interesting and sounding good.

How I use the Vibraclone

The Vibraclone definitely has a retro sound. The Leslie speaker was invented in the 1940’s as an addition to the hammond organ. But it was used as an effect by guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix in the 1960s. The terms Chorale and Tremolo are used on a switch on the Vibraclone to differentiate the slow and fast speed settings. These terms came from the Leslie speaker, which used the same terms for it’s slow and fast settings.

I prefer playing with the slower mode for most situations. I find it a bit more subtle. Although I feel like maybe the faster setting sounds more authentically like a Leslie.

Using effects pedals with bass

Generally I don’t use effects when I’m playing the bass and I’m certainly not an expert on pedals. But the times when I find them useful are when I’m playing a lot of solos. If I’m doing a duo gig for example, I know I’ll be called on to play lots of solos. Having something that can change and add variety to my tonal palette can really add something. If you’re playing your third or fourth solo of the night then you usually need something to help you change it a bit.

Effects loops

When I’m using effects pedals, I prefer to put them through an effects loop rather than directly into the front of an amplifier. I want my pure bass tone to be as undiluted as possible, so I don’t want anything in my signal chain between my bass and the amp.

How the effects loop works does depend on the individual amplifier. On my Ampeg GVT guitar amp I can activate and deactivate the effects loop with a foot switch. That is by far my favourite method of using an effects loop, because it means that when the effects loop is disabled I’m getting no potential discolouring of my sound from playing through a long chain of inactive pedals and patch cables. It’s a great system and I wish that I had a bass amp that worked like that.

Volume pedals

The effects loop on the back of the Markbass Little Mark III works slightly differently. It mixes the sound of the effects loop with the clean sound of your bass going into the front of the amp. So the impact of the effects is slightly more subtle as it isn’t impacting on all of the sound coming out the amp. I used a volume pedal on the effects loop to gradually bring in and fade out the effect.

You could use the foot switch on the pedal to turn the effect on and off, but that would still leave the sound of your bass going through the pedal chain in the mix. Anything in your chain will colour your bass tone. Even a true bypass pedal must have some effect on your tone and all the extra cables will as well. Which is why I think it’s very important to use an effects loop, so you can only play through the pedals when you want to. One other major advantage of using the volume pedal is if you’re using multiple pedals that you want to turn on simultaneously.

Vibraclone Rotary Pedal with Bass – Bass Practice Diary 86
December 10, 2019 jccoxjazzbass

Gallery

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Johnny Cox – Bass Photo Gallery
February 7, 2014 jccoxjazzbass

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Creative Bass Playing Blog

Homepage
Learn How to Play Bass Grooves in Odd Meters
A Complete Guide to Harmonics on Bass – Part 1: Natural Harmonics
A Guide to Harmonics on Bass – Part 2: Artificial Harmonics
Everything You Need to Know About Harmony on Bass Guitar
How to Use Outside Notes In Your Basslines
Learn to Play Jazz Chord Extensions on Bass Guitar
Right-Hand Tapping Chord Extensions
A Guide to Playing Offbeat Bass Grooves
Use This Cool Metronome Trick to Develop Superb Timing
Hammer Ons and Pull Offs – Left Hand Technique Lesson
Play Bass Grooves in 6/8 Time Signature
Play Bass Grooves in 9/8 Time Signature
Learn to Play Triplet Rhythms on Straight 16th Note Bass Grooves
Learn to Play Giant Steps Jazz Lines
Use Intervals of a 4th To Create a Modern Jazz Sound
Learn to Play Quartal Chord Voicings on Bass Guitar
How to Use the Diminished Scale in Jazz
8th and 16th Note Bass Lines – Part 1 – Eighth Note Bass Grooves
8th and 16th Note Bass Lines – Part 2 – Sixteenth Note Bass Grooves
Learn Right-hand Techniques
Learn Left-hand Techniques
Learn to Play Intervals
Playing Chords – Part 1
Playing Chords – Part 2
Playing Chords – Part 3
Playing Chords – Part 4

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