I don’t know how he got in there, but there is a tiny bug living inside of my iPod. I would take a picture but he’s too small for my worthless camera to even acknowledge. He can’t seem to make it off of the LCD screen, and I kind of feel bad for him.
Monthly Archive for April, 2007
Being both a musician and a Linux nerd pretty much means I am always on the internet looking through a forum or thread for answers. What sucks is that I always have more luck with finding answers to Linux problems than I with musician-related topics. So here is a “message in a bottle post” concerning fretless bass strings:
I have been playing bass for 16 years and have grown to prefer the deep bass sounds of the 60’s and 70’s (James Jamerson, Duck Dunn, and some other guys with alliteration in their names) but rather than use flatwound strings, I have discovered that I like the sound of nickel roundwound strings that are a little bit dead. I have a P-Bass that I use almost exclusively for old-school funk and reggae that hasn’t had a new set of strings in almost a year– I love it and it sounds perfect for what I am going for. My Sadowsky five string gets new strings far more frequently, but I still try to get rid of that bright edge as soon as I can (I literally rub my sweaty hands all over them when they are brand new). What’s funny about all of this is that I still prefer a high-fidelity brand like DR and have found it impossible to switch back to the much less expensive D’Addarios.
Anyway, I received a Fretless American Deluxe Jazz Bass for Christmas last year and I didn’t really care for the flatwound sound. I wanted a little of the “Jaco Buzz” but not so much. I threw on a set of my trusty Nickel Low-riders and I was very pleased. Now, those strings have started to dull to the point of being annoying and have worn the, quite expected, string marks into my fretboard. I don’t know if I should replace them with the same set or switch to another flatwound brand. I have read many conflicting points of view on whether or not using roundwound strings on a fretless bass is taboo. Jaco used big ol’ nasty stainless steel Rotosounds, but he also had marine epoxy all over his fretboard. Les Claypool beats the dog shit out of his fretless basses and has to be causing more damage to his fretboard than I am, yet almost everyone seems to think roundwounds will cause irreparable neck-replacing damage. I have occasionally read that I can have the fretboard sanded down every couple of years to correct any grooves caused by strings– which makes sense because I had the fretboard re-trued when I bought it to make sure the intonation was correct down the neck.
So, what gives? Am I wreaking havoc on my bass by using roundwound strings? Any pros out there want to give me a definitive answer. I am sick of picking through forums, most of them are seriously confusing and I have seen enough indication, in threads not related to this topic, that the people who post to musician forums are seriously misinformed a lot of the time about a lot of things.
My mom and I were just talking about the study of music and art therapy. When I was at Berklee, I thought the music therapy majors were kind of a New Age cult. I have since learned how Music Therapists use art and music as methods of helping those who are in a morbid state to use the creative process as a way of crossing over and those who are grieving to use art as a method of working through their loss. I still think it’s hokey. Somehow in our conversation I got on a rant about how I don’t think some aspects of music therapy are valid and really require the patient to have an interest in music before becoming effective. If I was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I was in constant pain, I doubt Bill Evans is going to help me through it if I never liked Jazz before I got sick. I think there is a placebo element in play as well. Anyway, we diverted to the use of Music therapy to aid the mentally and physically handicapped and how it can cause them to express themselves in ways that they are otherwise unable.
It’s funny to say, but I think most musicians fall into this category. Deep down I think all great musicians are socially awkward “special children” who use art as a form of expression. Kenny Werner wrote a whole book about the dysfunctions that can arise from this nature (also, kind of hokey, but good). Pete Townshend’s first composition was called “I Can’t Explain” and he claims to have spent the rest of his career trying to explain himself. I think all of us that gravitate towards art early in life do so in an effort to say the things we cannot annunciate with our lips. When I put this in perspective I wonder if part of the reason I feel so shitty lately is because I haven’t been using music as an outlet. I am tense and irritable because I am filled with things to say and no medium to express them. It’s hokey– just as hokey as music therapy– but I wonder if Music Therapy really isn’t just a bottled, over-the-counter version of music education that can walk someone through the creative process and allow them to see how it benefits them.
I guess music therapy is like music education, but more specialized. I have physically seen the result of teaching 12 year old awkward, goofy, pasty, nerdy kids who don’t think they are good at anything. Once they get that bass in their hands and they start learning their favorite songs, there is a transformation that takes place. Not only does it conflict with their cultivated belief that they aren’t good at anything, but it also makes them wonder what else they could possibly be good at, occasionally sparking an interest in other class subjects (by no means does this phenomenon retard the funding cuts that art and music programs receive every year..). I can only imagine what the results of coaching a terminally ill or handicapped person through this process would be like. I don’t have the background or skill set to ever take on a project like that, but I would be interested in it if an opportunity ever presented itself.
At any rate this conversation with my mom somehow turned into me introducing her to the musical stylings of Wesley Willis (a mentally ill person who used his ridiculous music to self-medicate his illness) and now I think she’s a big fan.
You say rock.
You say roll.