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渡船的摆渡人——綠色郭宗韶

在發阿嬌老師這期之前,一直想用什麽顔色來代表阿嬌老師……後來覺得用綠色!一個溫暖,富有朝氣的顔色……

有人說:阿嬌老師應該是樂隊老師裏最年長的老師,爲什麽說他富有朝氣呢?其實很簡單,凡是接觸過阿嬌老師的人,都知道他是一個好的老師!平易近人,健談,喜歡跟健迷們開玩笑…他的樣子一點都不像他的年齡!每次看到他都是很有精神,縂是笑笑的樣子……

阿嬌老師與華健的合作已經近20年了…每當華健有困難或者疑惑的時候都會想起阿嬌老師……

大家還記得《一起吃苦的幸福》的時候,華健聼者阿嬌老師配的《好想哭》時說:我聽到阿嬌老師的BASS~鎮的很想哭哦……
大家還記得《雨人》的時候,《以後》後面阿嬌老師說的那句:音樂是玩出來的,不是做出來的…這種話,也許只能出自像阿嬌老師這樣大師之口吧……
大家還記得不久前,《水滸108》讓華健繳進腦汁……最後還是請來阿嬌老師幫忙!對於華健……阿嬌老師或許就像雪中火一樣重要!


阿嬌老師的給人的感覺永遠是那麽親切,如果有一天,你在星巴克看到一個左手握者咖啡,右手拿者煙,眼神很深邃,像是看者遠方一樣的人……沒准真的就是他哦~!因爲他會隨時出現在我們的身邊,看到他,微微的點頭一笑…阿嬌老師,就是這樣


年轻时候的阿娇老师很帅也很可爱smile.gif
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继续帅
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彩排
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与音乐融合
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演出
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带帽子的阿娇老师
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饭桌上的休闲
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很冷
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亲切和蔼
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二十年的音乐生涯,二十年的情谊
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来个大头照
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天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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台湾贝司手郭宗韶老师专访(专载自贝司网)


郭老师的父亲是省立交响乐团的成员,小学五年级的郭老师就因为父亲的教导,开始学习小提琴,当时的郭老师还不清楚自己是否喜欢音乐,学习两年的小提琴後便放弃了。

国中时期,郭老师进入学校的军乐队,虽然当时郭老师对乐队中的每一样乐器都能弹奏一些,但由於他不喜欢跟大家做相同事情的个性,便选择乐队中最冷门的乐器-铁琴。毕业後郭老师选择了就业,在当时郭老师家对面住了一位小喇叭乐师,乐师的儿子则是鼓手,当时他们常常找郭老师去乐队中玩乐器,对学习过小提琴的郭老师而言,当时弹奏 double bass 只觉得特别顺手。

当时郭老师的父亲认为既然想走音乐这条路,於是就介绍郭老师去当时的夜巴黎舞厅学习并且磨练经验,虽然他带了把萨克斯风,但在吹完一首曲子之後,便被乐队中的 bass 手找去带班,当时大家对低音乐器都不了解的情况下,很多的 bass 手都是找其他的乐师临时充数的,所以当很多老乐师看见一位生面孔在弹bass 时,感觉很讶异。郭老师对新鲜乐器似乎特别有兴趣,他常常去研究她们到底要怎麼样弹奏,由於学习过小提琴,视谱的能力强,所以每次去舞厅上班时,都被其他的乐师找去弹 bass,渐渐地郭老师才专心於 bass 的弹奏。


我觉得跟年轻乐手不同的是,我们是从整个音乐型态变迁过程中学习过来的,从 jazz、soul、funk、disco、rock、fusion….等等,所以我们这一辈的乐手对於 style 的掌握上,会比年轻的乐手好很多并且来的扎实。我有一阵子一直在研究国外乐手弹奏的风格,从 Stanley Clarke、Jaco、到後来的 Marcus miller、Mick Karn、Percy Jones…..等等,渐渐地我的弹奏也就融入了这些乐手的风格,在当时流行乐团跟传统乐队的乐手对立的情况下,有人批评过我,他们不能理解我所弹奏的音、或者弹法,我喜欢接触许多新颖的东西,我觉得把它们结合事件很好的事情,也因为我什麼样的音乐都听,所以这些东西会反应在我的弹奏之中,虽然我是一名录音室乐手,但是还是有很多学生会惊讶的问我为何会弹奏这些东西,我想这是因为我不断的去研究新的东西;或者可能是在录音室的需求使然,举例说,我在 30 岁时,花了很多时间研究 Jaco,研究他的 tone 及弹奏的手法,但有时在录音室中他们有时会要求浑厚的 tone,因此我又去研究Marcus Miller 的 tone 及弹法。



在台湾音乐市场狭隘的原因,制作音乐常常有时间性及精简化的需求,因此视谱的能力也影响了别人对你这个乐手的评价,视谱能力强的乐手,对於歌曲的了解速度会快许多,因此可以达到录音室的需求。在早期舞厅、夜总会的乐队,都是以五线谱为准,甚至他们会向国外购买谱、或者自己写谱,後来乐队与合唱团合并的时期时,为了方便合唱团唱出旋律,简谱因此而衍生,尤其在民歌时期,注重整体的传统 whole band,被以吉他为主的民歌乐风取代,而许多民歌乐手几乎是以背谱的方式弹奏,原本只有旋律线的简谱,慢慢的也用在 bass 上面了,久而久之,简谱就大为流行了,而这个演进也只有在台湾发生,在国外是根本看不见的,但是简谱也有其好处,就是它没有调的限制,而它对於乐手的坏处就在於无法辨别一个音所对应出琴格的把位。



在早期的录音都是朋友找我去,当时我抱著的态度都是新鲜好奇为主,想要知道录音是到底是怎麼一回是,起初我并没有很喜欢这样的工作,因为我还没有适应录音室的环境,而当时的弹奏是完全照著谱弹,你的弹奏完全限制於他们发的谱。 民歌时代大约也是相同,简谱、style,然後照著自己的感觉去加东西,那个时候的作品比较新,所以我比较敢尝试一些新东西,并且作业的方式我也比较能接受,那时候我就慢慢可以接受当一名录音乐手的角色,而且已经可以掌握录音室的作业方式,尤其当跟一位制作人合作久之後,你可以揣测他的歌曲到底要的是什麼,所以我会比较敢去尝试加入一些东西。


在 MIDI 流行的时代,乐手的地位完全被取代,但是渐渐地大家会感觉到,MIDI做出来的东西有点不太对,因为它们是死板的,尤其是人弹奏时具备的线条部份,这是 MIDI 做不出来的,因此制作人慢慢地加入人弹奏的部分;在这个时期,基本上是要跟著 demo 弹奏,但是他们要的就是人弹奏的那种活的生命力!所以在那个时期,录音师的自由度相对的增加,但是相对吃力的是,有很多的情况是必须当场抓歌并且弹奏的,有时甚至连谱都没有,而且你所弹奏出的东西必须比 MIDI 编得还好,早期的录音方式是必须在一个工作天完成,唱片制作的预算比较吃紧,但是在 MIDI 时代,一张专辑可以有很多的制作人来制作,相对的制作成本较高,所以花在录音的部分也是相对增加的。

而现在唱片公司处理的态度,基本上是处於观望者的角色,他们需要最低的成本来达到最高的品质,对我而言,最好是由我自己来设计 bass 的部分最具有乐趣,而这最难的部分则在於我与制作人之间的妥协,在我自己发挥的部分,我会尽我的全力来完成他,因为除了商业的利益之外,我还必须对我自己负责!



在早期台湾的音乐环境跟国外是截然不同的,由於市场的考量,国外的乐手可以只专精一种 style,就会有很多的发展,但是在台湾的录音室乐手,是必须什麼style都要会的!所以如果有心要朝向录音室乐手发展的话,必须多多去尝试每种 style,尤其台湾的音乐,融合了日据时代的演歌、国民政府时期的小调以及来自西洋的音乐,在适应力方面必须要更强才行。另外;我觉得我不会挑技巧很好的乐手进录音室,因为国内的唱片不像国外的演奏曲需要很高超的技巧,我觉得如果我要找乐手进录音室,他们必须是很 groove 的,而且我要的是合群的乐手,现在国内的音乐趋势也渐渐向国外看齐,有许多不同音乐类型的团体出现,而有些乐团也进录音室录专辑,所以现在不像以前。



我在弹奏时会先以随性的方式弹奏,再去考虑乐理,乐理的用处在於让你知道哪些东西不应该弹奏到,而弹奏出东西的好坏,取决於乐理的基础,如果你的乐理懂得很多,你会针对你的弹奏再去修饰,但是有些人却是先学乐理再去弹奏,这样会有个坏处就是:「眼高手低」,这样造成弹奏上会有却步、会怕的结果,以致於不敢尝试,很多的动作及创意都会失去,所以刚开始应该尽量去尝试,不要被乐理绑住,很多东西要先去练习,等到一两年之後再回来看这些东西後,因为你的经验、乐理都会对你当初学习的东西重新定义,乐理之於弹奏,应该是先play然後再理论,但是理论还是有其必要性,总不能不知道自己在弹什麼!



对初学者而言,我觉得应该要强调 groove,一般的音乐 solo 的机会不多,在这种情况下 bass 是一种背景的乐器,一般都是以 bass line 为主,因此必须要注意 groove 必须注意节奏,所以在听 CD 时,只要听到喜欢的部分,可以把他抓下来并且用谱记起来,这样你就有一个 pattern 了,在练习时要跟鼓一起练习,因为最重要的是要把跟鼓的感觉弹奏出来,久而久之你可以取材的东西就多了,再经过消化後,渐渐地就会有自己的想法出现。至於技巧的部分也是要练习的重点,在这些 groove 与 pattern 的空档,你可以加一些自己的技巧进去,刚开始或许听起来不好听,但是要勇於尝试,慢慢地你就会得到心得。另外,要不断的跟其他乐手合作,或者找团来玩,这样你才会累积你的经验。



我在录音室 20 多年来合作最多的乐手,就是黄瑞丰老师,由於合作时间久了,在默契上面配合的相当不错,对听众而言,大家也可以很容易的发觉节奏部分的配合度上比其他团强很多,但是由於经济上的考量,我们都会自行接些表演的case,因此找代班的机会增多了许多,渐渐地,我们各自又有了不同的配合乐手,因此现在我们合作的机会就少了,早期,不论是在录音室、夜总会、餐厅或者pub中,我们都一直保持合作的关系,但由於之前所说的原因,如果两个人都找代班,对整个乐团是会有影响的,因此我觉得现在我跟黄老师各带一个乐团的状况会比较理想。



我目前共有八把琴,分别是Acoustic double bass、NS upright bass、Fender fretless、Fender jazz bass、Alembic fretless、Martin acoustic bass、韩国制的 acoustic bass及TRB-6,我在选购琴时,不会以音色当作首要的条件,每把琴音色都会有不同,我会想我有的这样音色的琴,我能用来弹奏什麼?或者我会用来表现什麼?我是不是能控制琴上的音色让她听起来更好听?我想这是我在选琴时所考虑的,至於琴弦的部分,有琴格的琴我会用 bluesteel 的弦,无琴格的琴我则选 GHS 的 bommer,我在不弹时习惯把琴弦放掉,这样可以让琴弦的弹性及寿命维持久一些

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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一篇關於阿嬌老師的英文採訪……



Taiwan, a small island in the edge of Pacific Ocean, makes herself world famous in some strange ways: Conflicts with China, products from sport shoes to computer components, or eating rhino’s horns!

But besides these political and commercial affairs, Taiwan also has definite dominant influences in other areas. One of them is the demanding power of the Mandarin Chinese pop music market, which includes Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and nearly all around the world where Chinese-speaking people live.

Taiwan has become the production center of Chinese pop music since the mid 1980s, with a $200 to $300 million annual local market value, and the overseas market is even bigger. Taiwanese super stars are eager to gain their exposure in global scale, and critics acclaim that Chinese pop music will be the next big thing, just like Latin music has been this past few years.

Taiwan’s pop music scene has changed a lot recently; for example: with the tendency to become more globalized, most native record companies now have branches of international major labels. Although one can easily find a world famous session player’s name in a Chinese CD — like Anthony Jackson or John Pena –most elite Taiwanese session and studio players still survive after all this competitions. They face the rapidly changing music trends and high pressure of studio needs with ease and grace.

JOY KUO, the Taiwanese studio bass ace for more than two decades, gained his nearly god-like status in Taiwan, with his 1000 plus albums credits, incredible time and feel, amazing creativity, and totally humble attitude.

As a veteran studio musician, it seemed to be routine that his sound and musical approach would become more and more conservative, just to keep him in the business. But that’s not him. “If you want to categorize me, I’d say I belong to the type of players that likes to ‘mess around’. Most producers hire me for this ability, not how precisely I can play with the click track. They want my vision of music, and my uniqueness.”

Many top-notch Chinese pop stars have admired Kuo’s play so much, that they just tell Joy to do whatever he wants in the music, to “mess around” with their top-of-charts mega hits.

One of those admirers is Taiwan’s best singer/songwriter, Emil Chou. Kuo has worked as not only his world tour’s musical director and bandleader for straight 4 years since 1995, but also as the producer and main arranger of his “unplugged” album Little Heaven in 1996. Kuo played his Martin B-1 fretless acoustic bass guitar on the record (“Chou’s voice is very suitable to accompany with fretless”), but it’s not the typical softer sound that you have come to know.

On Love Follows Us in the album, Kuo draws a deeply, growling slap sound out of his Martin. He soon changes to a percussive staccato when he plays a Baroque counterpoint passage with electric violin, and back to a long legato swell by using different right hand positions.

How Are You Getting Along? is very Afro-Cuban, and on it Kuo plays a lyrical, Jimmy Johnson-ish beautiful solo, above his own over-dubbed Jaco muting slide. Kuo accompanies double tracked slide guitars with only chords on The Ferryman’s Time – tapping arpeggios, double stops, strumming noises with both hands – there’s no single bass notes in this song.

“I tap a lot, mostly arpeggios and combinations of chord tones, and I usually use them on the bottom to make different layers of sound.” His magic spread even wilder in rock star Chyi Chin’s music. Through the Cat’s Eyes is a heavy dance tune; and Kuo’s playing is just like what Marcus Miller would do to this one: carefully-placed pops and syncopations, the tone sounds deep and bright at the same time, plus an over-the-top slap solo across the whole range of his Fender Jazz.

I Have Nothing At All features his multi-tracked double thumping, “Chyi’s concert bass player even asked me how I played on that one. He just can’t figure it out.” The most significant single is Chin’s cover version of the old Taiwanese folk song Fix the Broken Fish Web. Except Chyi’s voice and drums, it’s all bass: he tapped, slapped, multi-tracked, played several fretless solos with different colors and sliding harmonics. It sounds like Jaco, Marcus, Stu Hamm and Percy Jones decided to join this project. He can do nearly everything.

Joy Kuo was recently voted the Most Popular Bass Player of Taiwan. He still looks young at his 50’s; Kuo talks about his ideas about bass playing, special needs and environment of Taiwanese musicians, and how important groove is…



Born to Play ~

My father is a professional musician; he worked in Taiwan’s Provincial Orchestra in the ‘50s. He taught me to play violin when I was 10, but I gave up pretty soon. I didn’t know if I liked music then.

I joined the marching band in junior high, tried every instrument a little bit, and I was good at vibraphones while everyone else wanted to play horns. One of my neighbors was a professional trumpet player, his drummer son asked me to jam with them, I was asked to play double bass just because it’s four strings like the violin. I didn’t like to be so normal when I played or even chose instruments, so playing double bass was quite fun to me; I was good on it pretty quickly.

I wanted to keep playing music after high school, so my dad let me worked in a famous nightclub where the bandleader was his good friend, to start my music career. There’s no any music school for non-classical musicians, so I just played there to gain my musical experience. I was the “freshman” in the big band, although I brought my dad’s sax, they asked me to play bass after I just finished my first page of music. No one wanted to play bass; so the newest member must fill the role. I could read treble clef staff already, it’s was just a matter of transition to read bass clef. I thought it’s fun to play bass. We played Dixieland and swing-era music a lot, and those basslines were usually very simple anyway. Thus I could build my double bass chops little by little.



Getting Into the Studio ~

I didn’t ask to get into the studio scene, neither did I care about fortune or fame - it just happened naturally. I started to play bass professionally with bands in nightclubs and dancehalls since 19. After military service, I got into the studio at age 25. When I played with club bands, I joined a huge event, which had several famous big bands playing one after another. I thought I was not very special among them, but obviously some guys liked what I played, so they brought me into it.

In the ‘60s to ‘70s, there were two different groups of musicians: one were ‘band players’; the other ‘group players’. Band Players played music for living, so they gigged around nightclubs, hotel salons, or restaurants that held variety shows. They played big band style music, read staff, and usually had large horn sections. They thought they were “real musicians” that were “in the business”. Group Players were usually younger, played rock music with electric instruments, thought they’d gotten the ‘rock spirit’; and played ‘real music’.

These two gangs were opposite to each other in several different aspects, even on their political beliefs and living status.

I was trained to be a “band player”, but I was too FAR-OUT to my fellows. I listened to a lot of modern jazz music and rock music, while my fellows just wanted to play swing. I’ve got the spirit of “group players”, but I was also superior to them because I could read fast and knew the rules. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I could get into the business.



On Taiwanese Music Scene ~

Taiwanese studio players are not very technically advanced, but they have to think fast and be very knowledgeable in a lot of music styles.

A government that came from Mainland China in the 40’s ruled Taiwan; however, before WWII it was Japan’s territory, and had US military corps defended in Taiwan until mid ‘70s. These political changes meant that we had to play so many different kinds of music: Chinese folk song, Taiwanese folk song, American rock music, Broadway music, Latin, Afro-Cuban, even Japanese Ro-Jun style folk music.

That’s the special needs that Taiwanese players have to face: you have to know every kind of music, much more than western players, and play them well.

You can split Taiwan’s studio works of the last quarter century in 3 parts:

Before mid ‘70s, studio bass players were a part of big bands, they had to record a whole album (10 or more songs) in a working day, so you got to read bass clef and staff very fast.

Then came a huge music movement in the late ‘70s that changed the Taiwanese music and cultural environment. We called it The New Folk Movement. I started to play electric bass a little before then, and that’s the time the Taiwanese Number Notation System got into the studio scene. Lots of classically trained composers were involved in the pop music at this era, so we had to play using electric guitar, oboes and bassoons together.

The young musicians that started the movement became the main force of Taiwanese commercial pop music in the ‘80s, and they began to use MIDI and sequencers then. There were times that all background tracks were pre-recorded using keyboards, and I was only asked to add some flavors to the music. There’s a huge difference between MIDI bass track and human playing bass track, producers soon found the later more energetic and vital. To adopt this, we developed new recording procedure: put the sequenced demo tape on the machine, write it down as the demo played – I had to finish my own notes in 2 runs, then played my ass off just to surpass the original bass part.


Taiwanese Studio Player ~

The procedure was very exhausting, you had to squeeze something fresh out in every session, and I had worked this way 15 hours a day for more than 10 years. I’ve played on more than 1,000 records through my 25 plus years in the studio, and that’s why I try not to play as much as I used to, and want to get my own life back. Now I play at Grand Hyatt Hotel Taipei in a jazz trio five nights a week, but leave sessions and live work to my students.

I don’t think I have a very personal style when I do studio work. In fact, in the whole Far East, Asian musicians are nearly the same. We basically listen to western music, study every player’s style and technique, and mix them all together. I play just like the way that producers want. Sometimes I am lucky that producers give me enough space to stretch out, and I usually put all my energy into this kind of work, I don’t care much if it will be the major hit or the last song in a record.

Don’t have too many expectations on what a studio player can be. It’s actually better to form a band, play what you really want; that will be more interesting. A lot of kids’ goal is to be a studio player, but that means nothing. In fact, I don’t think there’re too many real studio players in Taiwan now: most active session players are quite good in some special music genres, but they are not all style players.



From Joe to Jaco ~

When I started my studio career in the ‘70s, there were not so many authentic foreign records available, mostly were ‘B edition’s’, which meant you didn’t have too many choices to hear what you want. (The Taiwanese government in the ‘70s heavily limited western music; so people could only buy “B edition” records, the pirate copies of foreign albums pressed locally, the originals were brought from American soldiers or Philippine musicians.)

A friend gave me Stanley Clarke’s “School Days”, and it opened a new window to me. I learned Stanley’s style very thoroughly, but found his sound was not very suitable to studio works. Then I heard Jaco Pastorius.

Every bass player around the world admires Jacob’s works. Although I dig his sound and feel, I follow Joe Zawinul’s route more than Jaco’s. Weather Report’s “Black Market” album is my all-time favorite— Now I listen to the album only when I’m in good mood, it is the best status that can accept all things the music can bring to me.

Of course I learned a lot from Jaco, from artificial harmonics to his fretless playing. I love his touch and the ways he dealt with music, but from the viewpoint of a fan, I think Zawinul’s composition can bring his bass players’ playing to another level—no matter if it’s Victor Bailey or Gerald Veasley. That’s why Jaco’s “Word of Mouth” sounds so good to me: because the album is very Zawinul-ish, but without Joe.

When I studied Jaco, I couldn’t help but be heavily influenced by his sound, which in reality goes against my normal studio work needs. It’s just too thin for most situations. After some research, I found Marcus Miller’s tone ideal to studio needs, it had pleasant highs and deep lows. I learned slap technique mainly from Louis Johnson’s style, whacking right hands everywhere, but I also studied Marcus’ style very precisely. Now I can bring together different details when I slap.

Through my career, I’ve always spent a lot on records. I really love Percy Jones (of Brand X fame) and Mick Karn’s Japan-era fretless playing. Percy is more percussive while Jaco was more melodic, and Karn’s fretless approach is extremely unusual. Mark Egan is quite good also. They all sound different, but they are more adventurous than others, a little more edgy. That’s why I like their music.



Fretless Offers More Fun ~

I have eight basses now, and most of them are fretless. I just love the sound of fretless, which is more expressive than fretted, though my main “career bass” is a ‘70s cream white fretted Fender Jazz Bass. I replaced nearly all the hardware on it. It is now equipped with Seymour Duncan / Bassline Jazz pickups, onboard preamp of the same brand, Hipshot D-tuner, and a Schaller roller bridge. My hands don’t sweat at all, so it looks pretty new after all these years, except the former owner dirtied the maple fingerboard.

My main fretless is a sunburst Jazz from the same era. I pulled the frets out, filled the slots with thin maple stripes, smoothed the board, and coated the fingerboard with a layer of very tough floor varnish. It sustains longer than my other uncoated fretless basses because of this. When I put a Badass II bridge on the fretless; now the sound is tighter.

I also own a fretless Alembic, a Martin B-1 and a Korean-made acoustic bass, and a Yamaha older style TRB-6 6-string. The Yamaha is the only other fretted I have; I gave it to my son because of the onboard preamp’s annoying noise.

I got my NS Design electric upright in New York; and I usually use it in small jazz combo gigs. It plays and sounds very beautiful, but I have to replace the tuners every time I change strings, the ball end of the tri-pod also broke, so I replaced it with a real double bass.



Control and Being Controlled ~

I’ve tried many brands of strings through the years, but when I get enough highs, the lows sounds too stiff and not “down” low enough. As the lows begin to sound tight, the highs become too brittle. I settled down to Dean Markley’s Blue Steel on my fretted about a decade ago: They suit my playing style, and I can control the strings.

Most players like to use flatwound strings on fretless, but I think they are too one-dimensional; you just can play what flatwound can afford. But when I put GHS Boomers on my fretless, I think it’s easier to control the sound, I can do what I want with the strings.

I don’t have too much “ideal sound” in mind when I choose an instrument. When I play a bass, I just think: what can I do with it? What good stuff can I bring out from it? As long as I believe I can control it, let it do good, I don’t care if the bass sounds like Jaco or Marcus at all.

When you play someone’s bass, possibly you’ll feel that the bass controls you; you just can’t play what comes from your mind. Back to your own bass, then you control the bass, every thing’s fine. When you can make a bass sound good, it’s the one for you.

In studio, I use my Trace Elliot GP7SM solid-state preamp as DI, and that’s about it. It’s enough for most studio work, where the bass sound just needs to be as clean and simple as possible. The preamp’s EQ section was broken a long time ago, but I usually use it’s two pre-shaped curves only, bypass the EQ, and let the bass speaks, so whatever.


Four Is Enough ~

I’m not against extended range basses. Though I love the sound of a good low B, I still bring 4-string basses to the studio, just for the reason I don’t have any studio-grade 5 or 6’s now. I’ll never let the situation that I have to go out and buy a 5-string for a session happen to me. Whenever I need to reach the range of low C, I just detune a whole tone down on all 4 strings (make low E to D), and then flip the D-tuner. Of course you have to adjust your position and fingering.


Practice, Practice, Practice ~

I’ll practice everything that sounds interesting. Sometimes I’ll play Donna Lee with my son together, using thumb and index finger snapping the strings, or sing the same line when I play the song, like Victor Bailey. You also have to concentrate on your playing. A lot of players sound muddy not because they don’t practice, just because they are not concentrating.

Their coordination between left and right hand is not precise enough. You have to feel every note when you play, just use enough force to press and pluck the string with the velocity the note asks, instill your feeling into every note even when you’re just practicing scales.

Theory is important, though it only makes senses to you after you can really play some stuff. To study theory before you can play, you’ll be afraid of it. Is the note right? Is it the correct chord progression? You can’t make good music this way. Theory can help you understand what you play, and enlarge your imagination, so you’re not going to anywhere. You should just play before you study.



Groove is Everything ~

It’s much easier to get music everywhere these days, but most aspiring players and amateurs only listen to some extremely hard stuff, even right at the beginning. However, when you consider all the aspects that form good music, groove is in fact the hardest. You can practice techniques and solo all the time, but bass is the instrument that supports others; groove is what a good bass player is all about. If you can’t put your highly technical chops into your groove, it’s useless.

How to train your sense of groove? You have to learn every different kind of rhythm pattern and music form, as many as possible. When you listen to music and find a pattern that inspires you, just transcribe it and write it down immediately. Write one, and you have one style and pattern done in your arsenal.

Practice the pattern with a drummer or a drum machine, feel the connection between the pattern and the drum parts, then you can have the groove to some degree.

You’ll catch more details or get different feelings and after a while you listen back to the same pattern and suddenly you have progressed to the next level. Make the other people’s pattern your own style, this way you will be able to express yourself freely. Collect patterns, eat them in, digest them and use them to jam with drummers.

Nowadays we can record ourselves very easily with hard-disk recording or digital decks. Record what you play, and listen to the relationships between the mechanical click and the real rhythm. Then you can play around the click.

Back to techniques, I don’t think if you’re groove playing, then you can’t put your chops into the music. As the music flows, a bass player doesn’t play the same patterns all through the song. There’s always some space left for you to fill in, make the music more exciting. You just “verify” the original pattern, but you cannot change the established feeling of it. It needs a lot of experience and practice to have the taste that can make these variations musical and meaningful, that’s for sure.


Suggestion to a beginner ~

Get out of your corner right away. Play and jam at every possible chance. Thus you can acquire the experience and taste of music little by little.

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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不管是哪裏~阿嬌老師都喜歡一個人逛~~

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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阿嬌老師非常有氣質~哈哈!

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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嘿嘿,看來阿嬌老師的人緣是非常的好哦!

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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引用:
原帖由 小南 于 2008-9-22 20:53 发表
哇,月饼,你这样,阿娇老师一定会来我们这儿的 :)
老大,這帖子都發了N年了...您才後知后覺的?

已經有老師過來看過了哦,阿嬌老師我就不知道來沒來啦...反正,某位大師已經在咱們論壇注冊過了~~

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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引用:
原帖由 小南 于 2008-9-22 21:12 发表



我这不是才回来没多久嘛,嘿嘿
呃,這次去,沒跟老大合影...可惜了...咱倆那合影貌似還是N年前的呢....

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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引用:
原帖由 小南 于 2008-9-22 21:54 发表



嘿,找不到你人影啊,和小旭一样的
您在某吉他手周圍貌似會找到偶...年底找您合影去..然後用個好看的框框掛起來~哈哈

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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圖圖看不到哦!

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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你可以把你照片的地址发上来!

天堂最棒滴吉他手~

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