Janek & Bob Reynolds Live Tonight on the Internets

Bob Reynolds, a piasian de Basso as our regular readers may know, is in Charlotte, N.C. tonight doing a gig which includes Janek Gwizdala on bass, a bassist that some bloggers up in here have a man-crush on, er, musically speaking, of course. Anyway,  the show is going to be live streamed so check it out:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bob-reynolds-live

The show goes live at 10:30 PM EST, that is 3:30 PM GMT. You can convert the time to wherever you are here - http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/eastern-time/convert/.

Listen to Bob and Janek throw down in your jammies. I mean, listen to them play while you are wearing your pajamas.

Scott LaFaro on Witchcraft

I dig me some Bill Evans as we all know, and here he is along with one of his baddest trio's ever in the history of ever. Evans, Lafaro and Motian. Here is the transcription of Lafaro's line on "Witchcraft". Talk about ahead of his time.

Random Notes For Reading Practice.

Today on Bass Story Time, we read a very sad story.

See Joe.

See Joe's bass!

See Joe play his bass.

See Joe playing all alone.

Joe can't get a gig because Joe can't read.

Don't be a Joe. Prevent this tragedy. And get your reading on!

Yea, I know you keep meaning to get around to it, but those Xbox achievement points don't earn themselves do they? Maybe you are a great ear player, maybe you "used to" read a lot but...it has been a while, or maybe you just never sat down and did it.

It is just like regular reading. We all had to start slow and repeatedly practice regular old word reading when we attended St. Ignatius Reform School or the nuns came with their rulers and the screaming and the...I mean, we didn't just have the words pop into our heads and suddenly we were able to read words like "Stearoyl Lactylate" or any of the other ingredients on the back of our Twinkie bag.

We had to start with the little words like "ow" and "stop" and "yes, Sister Agnes" before we were able to read the more difficult, longer, and complex words like "arraignment" and "supervised probation".

So, to help get your reading kickstarted, and to make sure there are no big scary long words to worry about, I give you the following PDF. It just has quarter notes (4 to a measure) of random pitches on the good ol' bass clef for about, ohhh, 750 measures or so. This is so you can finally sit down and get at least the pitch part of your reading more fluid. You don't have to worry about rhythms on this, it is just to get the note names and to be able to recognize their friendly smiling blobbyness on the staff.

Remember the notes fore each line, starting from the lowest one are:

Generally (lowest line on the staff)

Black

Dudes

Frighten

Anglos

And the notes for the spaces are: (also from the bottom up)

Atheists

Can't

Enjoy

God

Take that Sister Agnes.

If you have to, print it out, and write the note names in on say, just first page. Then try the second page on your own.

This PDF is not full of musical phrases, it is just to get the notes recognized as second nature by looking at a bunch of them. Having them not be in some of the usual patterns we play will help.

Remember there is no secret to this, it just takes repetition, it just takes doing it.

Until next time, Ciao.