Month: May 2018

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Afternoon In Paris | Jazz standard played on Electric bass

Many of the bass players I like all have a background in jazz music; James Jameson, Jerry Scheff, Carol Kaye, the list can go on. It made me consider learning jazz. 5 years ago, I started. I would say my general playing has improved. Anyway, on to this post. I was trying to record directly into my phone using an iRig attached to my interface. It works, but I still needed to increase the volume in iMovie for upload. Any suggestions to increase the recording level and do it all in the phone would be appreciated. Here’s the track I recorded.

1st time through I played the tune, 2nd a bass solo, final time, I just played a bass line. Like a jazz jam, but on my own.

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Joss Stone’s L-O-V-E / Bass line by Raphael Saadiq

When I first heard Joss Stone’s version of L-O-V-E, I was instantly drawn to the bass line. Not surprising being a bass player. This one stood out to me. I was going to transcribe it myself, then found it online, with a few mistakes. I decided to record it. Not easy!

I’m quite sure the original version features Raphael Saadiq on bass, playing a Fender Precision bass with flatwound strings. However, when I tried to record the bass with the Bass-less backing track, it just didn’t sit right in the mix. I then tried with round wound strings and the tone rolled off. Eventually I settled   with the tone full up. Almost the complete opposite to the original recording I’m comparing to.

My next hurdle was a few techniques that I hadn’t used before. Trills, between frets, I’ve still not got them a well as I’d like. The final hurdle, was that I’ve always played slightly ahead of the beat. Not a problem with the music I had been doing. On this track, it needed a relaxed, approach.

Overall a good study for me.