Donna Lee theme on my fretless Bongo

Hi again. Joe "Bassist4Life", one of my good friends at TalkBass asked me for this video in this thread: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?p=3225934#post3225934

As promised, here it is. The idea is to show my suggested fingerings in my version of the tune (maybe some of you will disagree with my note choices at certain points). No frets in this video, but positions can be found in the transcription. I also omitted legato phrasings since I think that although less musical, picking every note is a better exercise for speed. You'll see it played at "Jaco" speed (If I only were that clean and my intonation were that perfect...), half speed and 1/4 speed. Far from perfect, of course, but anyway I hope it will be useful.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bass
• MusicMan
• EBMM
• Bongo
• Fretless
• Jaco
• Pastorius
• Alvabass
• Charlie
• Parker
• Donna
• Lee

[chapanese96]

sexy bass man. where did you get that and how much did it cost

[Alvabass]

@chapanese96: Thank you for your comment! I bought that bass brand-new in early 2006 through a store called Consolidated Music in Miami. I paid 1450 USD plus shipping to my country.

[ChildofDust6969]

how much would roundwounds hurt a fretless? bcuz i dont really like the sound of flatwounds. I could be wrong but i think jaco used roundwounds on his fretless

[Alvabass]

You are right. Jaco always played Rotosound roundwounds (probably the roughest rounds, IMO), but he applied several layers of epoxy coating on his fretless fingerboard. More info at fretlessbass(.)com(/)spotlight­(.)html (without parentheses). Thank you for your comment!

[Bass4Life1984]

Fantastic job on the intro especially. Do you use flatwounds or roundwounds on that? I think it's time I try learning at least some of Donna Lee on my fretless now after seeing this.

[Alvabass]

Thank you so much for your comment! Those are Ernie Ball flatwound strings. :)

[bioarsonist]

you have officially made me want a fretless :D

[71HiFlyer]

Don't beat your self up bro- i think it took Jaco like 7 years to perfect so that there was no excess vibrations in the solo. In my opinion you did a great job

[carthagepropaganda]

you should play with the mars volta :)

[stonedparyah]

Whoever thinks this is sped up is probably jealous. I can play faster than this on my fretted bass, and i'm not the best player out there. keep it up good sir!

[FunkySkunk90]

This is a hell of a sound you have OO

[DivineWindOfTheSnow]

@taiotishi

And by the way, what comments are you referring too?

[DivineWindOfTheSnow]

@taiotishi

I've only read the comment that I've replied to. You are clueless. I wasn't whining, I've made a point. And I don't really care if I'm a true musician or not. I respect criticism and I take it well with valid reasons. LOL.

[taiotishi]

@DivineWindOfTheSnow Like I sad you're deaf. Neither can you read & comprehend what I've written a few weeks ago.I pointed out all the valid reasons to the man that played the music on the tape. He listened and understood the constructive criticism.On the other hand you've been whining like a girlie man. Don't kid yourself your not a musician & will not be anything, with mind set like yours. Me hypocrisy ? No! You clueless..? ... Yep!

[DivineWindOfTheSnow]

@taiotishi I love your hypocrisy. And I hear no butchering. I thought he did well. No one is Jaco. Now stop complaining. I actually take criticism very well, if you give specific reasons to help the musician. That way, you can make them even better.

[taiotishi]

@DivineWindOfTheSnow First of all it is not a song, but an instrumental composition. Second of all many ways to play, but butchering it does not do Justis.Third of all you seems to be pretty thin skinned. Fourth of all calling people names for being critical, only shows your juvenile and limited mind. Go to see an ear-specialist an have your ears cleaned! It might help. But I seriously doubt it!

[vokes420]

Nice playing. I think you may have the only fretless bongo on youtube, I'd love to see more of it.

[DivineWindOfTheSnow]

@taiotishi

Are you serious? If you think this is awful, put up a damn video of yourself and play this song. Stop being a troll. There are many ways to play a song. These damn critics. Have no balls whatsoever and yet they will bark at anything they see is incorrect.