Embedded Files
Group Skills
Group Skills
Here is a document which includes a table where students from our class have listed their own strengths and weaknesses. The reason having this available to me is useful because I can align my weaknesses with other peoples strengths. For example I'm not very knowledgable with mixing so I can have a look at this chart and find a student who is and ask them for help/guidance.
This is a fret map, this showcases the notes on guitar and the positions of the notes on the fret. This is useful for me to have because I'm still learning the notes, so having an image available showing where, benefits me.
Working with Piotr Burclaf would benefit me because in terms of songwriting and ideas, he is extremely creative and can come up with solid ideas and song structure. Another reason why I want to work with him is because he is very fluent and comfortable with his instrument and knowledgeable and sure of his own ideas.
One of my strengths when playing my instrument is I can hold a tempo and don't normally drop out of time, I'm good at adding ideas to other peoples to help get a developed idea. Another one of my strengths would be I'm not afraid to tell people the truth about bits of work for example, if an idea someone has is too similar to something else I'll let them know or If It's not the best work I know someone can do I'll tell them. A weakness of mine is I get fed up and unmotivated when doing any work but especially with music, if I don't get it straight away I won't want to do it. Another weakness of mine is that I don't know chord names, no matter how many times I revise them it just doesn't stick, not knowing these will hinder progress as it might take longer to get ideas across.
Collaborating with people who excel in where I struggle would be really beneficial because they can help keep me accountable to improve and get better as a musician. Having someone show me and to help me would benefit me more then going away and trying to learn on my own.
I can work to my strengths by maintaining my own standards when playing, like being able to hold tempo etc. I will have to create a plan or guide for myself to act as support and make me responsible for working with my strengths and carrying on throughout the entire project.
FMP IDEAS.docxFMP Ideas
FMP Ideas
Here are three ideas that I could choose from for my FMP.
SWOT Analysis
SWOT Analysis
This is a bullet point analysis of my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The reason for me having this helps visualise the positives of my work ethic and the negatives meaning I've identified potential problems as well as my own strengths.
Musical Inspiration Examples
One of our inspirations for our EP is an album by Title Fight called Hyperview. The album was released on the 3rd February. The album was the start of the bands change of style from hardcore punk to a more layered shoegazey sound. We are drawing inspiration from this by listening to the tone and effects of guitars. To create the sound and tone used for this album, its down to pedals, chorus, reverb, phaser and delay with a Marshal Amp.
Another musical inspiration that we are using for our EP is American Football LP1. This is a Midwest Emo Album if not thee Midwest Emo Album, It was released in 1999 and is considered one of the most important math rock and midwest emo records of the 1990s.
We drew inspiration from the album Stratosphere by Duster. The reason for this is because of the melancholic emotion it produces and the minimal guitar and drum instrumentals. The album was released in 1998. They use minor chords and have a slow simple and minimal structure. We want to take away the slow simple riffs and structures and implement it into our playing and work.
These two songs are examples of music created that we want to imitate. From Mayonaise we wanna take the lead lines and incorporate our own ones into songs. With Monterey we like the drum pattern and would wish to mimic them into our own work.
Case Study: Bass Research
I have gone through my playlist and identified my top 5 bass lines within songs, it isn't in a specific order. I have based my ranking off how it sounds, tones and how difficult it sounds to play/cover. The list includes:
Carousel - Blink 182 ( Mark Hoppus)
Long View - Green Day (Mike Dirnt)
Psycho - System Of A Down (Shavo Odadjian)
Would? - Alice In Chains (Mike Starr)
Got The Life, Live At CGCB - Korn (Reginald Arvizu aka 'Fieldy')
The reason I am doing this case study is because I want to develop my skills as a bass player (I'm learning how to play) and try to understand some of the theory behind it for example, notation, octaves etc. I also think it would be great to study the bands that influence me because it would be interesting to see what gear and equipment these bass players have.
Mark Hoppus
Mark 'Allan' Hoppus was born on the 15th of march 1972 in Ridgecrest, California. He is a bass player who is mostly known and most popular for being bassist and co-lead vocalist of the band Blink 182. Blink is a pop punk band that formed in 1992 with the members, Tom Delonge ( lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist), Mark Hoppus ( bassist and co-lead vocalist), Scott Raynor (drummer 1992-1998), Travis Barker (drummer). The reason Barker replaced Raynor was due to Raynor's Alcoholism. "His heavy use of alcohol caused tension in the trio, leading to a fight that in turn led to his firing from the band midway through a 1998 tour and subsequent replacement by Travis Barker." quote from Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Raynor#References
Gear
Mark has his own signature bass the 'Fender's Mark Hoppus Jazz Bass, with a split single coil pickup. But before this, during first gigs and demos, he used a 'Fender Precision Bass'. On the albums 'Cheshire Cat' and 'Dude Ranch' Hoppus used a 'Music Man Stingray'. Hoppus's amp of choice is the Ampeg SVT-CL
https://mixdownmag.com.au/features/gear-rundown-mark-hoppus-of-blink-182/
Here is a link to a website that shows a rig rundown of Mark Hoppus's gear.
Blink 182 Dammit bass isolated tracks.mp3This is the isolated bass track for the song Dammit by Blink 182, You can hear how Hoppus plays the strings in the recording.
Mike Dirnt
Michael Ryan Prichard was born on the 4th of May 1972 in Oakland, California. He is better known as Dirnt, he got the nickname from continuously pretending to play bass/guitar growing up making a "Dirnt Dirnt" sound. Dirnt is a musician who co founded, bass player and backing vocalist of the band Green Day. Green Day are a pop punk/rock band that formed in 1987 . The current and most popular lineup of the band consisted of Billie Joe Armstrong (Lead vocalist and guitarist), Tre Cool (drummer), Mike Dirnt (backing vocalist and bassist). When playing bass, Dirnt is known for fills, high neck runs and pull offs.
Gear
Dirnt has his own signature bass made by Fender, The Fender Road Worn bass with a custom '59 Split-coil pickup. The album 'Dookie' was recorded with a Precision bass because a brighter tone was wanted for that album. Dirnt's go to bass is the Gibson Grabber G3. For the album 'American Idiot' Dirnt used the Ampeg SVT Head with an SVT amp, I found this on this website.
https://equipboard.com/pros/mike-dirnt?gear=amplifiers
Shavo Odadjian
Shavarsh "Shavo" Odadjian is an Armenian-American musician born on the 22nd of April 1974 in Yerevan, Armenian SSR, Soviet Union. Him and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 5. During his youth Odadjian spent most of his time skateboarding and listening to punk music like The Dead Kennedys. He is most well known for and most popular for being the bassist of the band System of a Down, The founding members of the band are Serj Tankian (lead vocalist) Daron Malakian (lead guitar) Shavo Odadjian (bassist) and Ontronik Khachaturian (drummer) Khachaturian played until 1997 when he broke every bone in his hand and was replaced by John Dolmayan (drummer).
Gear
For the album Toxicty, Odajian used a Epiphone Thunderbird, its an upright humbucker with two bar magnets as pole pieces. A personal favorite of Odajian is the Ibanez BTB-1000. He has a signature called the '22 Head' made by Ashdown. In the music video for 'Chop Suey!' at the time stamp 1:28, behind Shavo you can see you can see an Ampeg Bass Cabinet and an SVT - VR
https://ashdownmusic.com/products/22-head
https://equipboard.com/pros/shavo-odadjian?gear=amplifiers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSvFpBOe8eY
Mike Starr
Michael Christopher Starr was an American Musician born on the 4th of April 1966 and was the original bassist for the band Alice In Chains, he played with the band from 1987 until 1993 when he was kicked out of the band for his escalating drug use. Starr had a long history with substance abuse and ultimately passed away in 2011 from a prescription drug overdose. He is most well known for playing in bass in the band Alice in chains the original lineup was, Jerry Cantwell (guitarist and vocalist) Sean Kinney (drummer) Mike Starr (bassist) Layne Staley (lead vocalist)
Gear
Starrs signature bass was the Spector Performer 4 a versatile and solid bass. It has passive pickups and a three piece bolt on neck tapered for comfort and access to all 24 frets. Starrs amp of choice was the Mesa Boogie Rig and it can be seen in the music video for the song 'Them Bones'
https://equipboard.com/pros/mike-starr?gear=amplifiers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTuD8k3JvxQ
Fieldy
Reginald Quincy Arvizu is an American musician born in Los Angeles, California on the 2nd of November 1969. Fieldy is most well known for being the bassist of the band Korn. The name "Fieldy" is said to have come about as an inside joke. Originally, his bandmates called him "Gopher", due to his large cheeks. Gopher quickly became "Gar", Gar became "Garfield" (based on the comic strip character of the same name), and eventually "Gar" was dropped and a "y" was added to "Field", which became Fieldy. Sourced this about the nickname from Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Arvizu
The lineup of the band Korn is, Johnathan Davis (vocalist) Brian Welch (Lead guitar) James Shaffer (rhythm guitar) Ray Luzier (drums) Reginald Quincy Arvizu 'Fieldy' (bass)
Gear
Fieldy's signature bass is an Ibanez named K-5, it has two active pickups, 24 frets and a rosewood fretboard.
In the music video 'Blind' at the time stamp 0:17, you can see behind Fieldy a Peavy Mark VI Bass Head with a 4x10 Peavy Bass Cabinet
https://equipboard.com/pros/reginald-arvizu?gear=amplifiers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGK00Q7xx-s&t=16s
Covers
For the next part of my research I will be recording me playing 4 covers out of the 5 composed by the bassists. The reason I am not doing all 5 is because the last bassist I looked at Fieldy, plays with a slap bass technique and I have no knowledge of that playing method whatsoever. But, that is a skill that i want to develop in the near future to further my playing.
adams oong.mp3Adam's Song bass instrumental - Blink 182
longview.mp3Longview - Greenday
Rotten Apple bass riff .mp3Rotten Apple - Alice In Chains
system .mp3Psycho - System Of A Down
Comparison
The last section of this case study I need to have a look at the Similarities and differences in their playing and see what I can take away from it.
Mark Hoppus:
Uses power chords (root and 5th) Major chords (root and major 3rd) Minor chords (root and minor 3rd) Inverted power chords (root and 5th one octave lower)
Strums chords during chorus
Major and Minor arpeggios
Mike Dirt :
Highlights major 3rd
Use quick octave jumps
Use partial chords and arpeggios
Pick over the pickup
Eq boost of 2 killahertz
Uses slide changes on chords
Shavo Odadjian:
Follows the drums bass drum for his basslines
Follow guitar melodies on verses and chorous
He plays bass like you would a guitar
Mike Starr:
Makes the open E flat the signature sound
Double tracks with acoustic bass
Maintains the bass riff over guitar solos
12th fret descending slides to signal changes in songs
bending strings
Fieldy:
Scoop mids, turn up low ends, treble goes to 10
Low action
slapping/ percussive bass
Flat 9 intervals (evil sounds)
After researching these bass players and looking at their playing techniques, there is a lot of information to take away from this and I think making/listing what I want to gain from this research playing styles, chords etc will be beneficial to me. This would be useful to me because identifying the parts I want rather than all of it would be means I can progress easier without putting too much work on myself and setting unrealistic expectations. I want to take using bass chords and using major and minor arpeggios (arpeggios are playing all the notes in a chord rather than strumming them) from Mark Hoppus. From Mike Dirnt I want to take, Using quick octave jumps, pull offs and hammer ons. From Shavo Odadjian I'd say I also play bass like I would a guitar as it feels more natural to me. The technique/playing style I would want to take away from Mike Starr is continuing bass riffs over guitar lead lines and solos, and also using slides to signal changes in songs adding more depth to my playing. With Fieldy I just want to learn how to play slap bass like him and use his playing techniques. With everything that I have learned from this research I'm hoping it will prove useful and with these skills and techniques I have identified, I hope that I will improve as a musician and a bass player.
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