Thumbing a lift

Teaching tapes for instruments are one of those useful but only recently introduced things that come into the 'why didn't they think of it before?' category. At their best, like many of the American Hotlicks tapes, they can bridge the gap between printed word and sounded note superbly. And even a reasonable one is much better than confusing book — the possibility of making major cock-ups between the instructions and the execution is much reduced when you can actually hear what you're trying to play.

Henry Thomas has recently joined the burgeoning market with four tapes plus accompanying booklets on the subject of bass playing. Henry, (better known, perhaps, as 'King Thumb') you may remember as the jolly Westone-equipped genton TV's Rockschool. He's a good player himself, with stints in Morrissey Mullen and other bands to his credit before he got the TV job, but can he make you into one?

The first tape is entitled 'Beginners' and it does, indeed, cover most of what you need to know when you're starting in the bass biz. Clear charts of the instrument and diagrams of how to fret cleanly and how to pick with your fingers are in the booklet, and the tape starts with notes to tune up to, long enough even for the complete novice, and simple exercises to build up your dexterity on the instrument.

But only a few pages into the book, and a corresponding number of minutes into the tape, comes the theory bit — a crash course in how to read those dots and lines that the educated amongst us know as notes. It's quite a good solid introduction to the theory of music, as such things go, but I'm not entirely convinced it's as necessary at th is early stage as our 'Enery obviously thinks. How many bassists in the charts, for instance, can read music? And if you remember back to the time you were first instilled with the urge to pick up an instrument and produce horrible noises, what inspired you? Was it A) somebody on Top Of The Pops, B) the idea of attracting lots of money, members of the opposite sex and fame, or C) the thought of being able to read music very, very fast indeed? Answers on a stamped, addressed, Em7th/dim 13, please.

I would have imagined that a tape would have been useful — particularly to the young, TV-attracted audience King thumb has previously pandered to — to develop your ear for music and to keep your interest up by helping you play tunes quickly. Instead, this tape puts the awesome school homework-like spectre of learning to read music right smack in the way of the eager Popite. Shame. All the rest of the exercises in the book are based around the dots and lines. If there was more in the way of easy-to-play exercises that you could pick up from the tape, I think it would serve its purpose of filling learners with enthusiasm and keeping them satisfied with their own progress to much greater effect.

As for the other three tapes, they all founder on the rock of theory to greater or lesser degree — the '60 great bass lines'tape is basically the dots again and with precious few examples you'd recognise. The'Speed Licks' one is quite good as a reference work on scales and chords for bass, but is somewhat misnamed. It will build your speed up if you practice the scales there enough, but really it's better used as a help for constructing correct lines, chords and riffs. And it's actually very good for that.

The fourth one, the 'Slap'n'Pull' cassette, features Henry playing his favourite and most-used style, and is therefore slightly more authoritative than the others. It gives more useful pointers towards the mastery of the twang but is again bogged down in places by the over-reliance on music theory skills.

So unfortunately, while Henry'stapes should be a great idea in theory — that's exactly where they fall down. If they were aimed at the younger, more practical player I'd think they would be more useful. Not that I'm putting down the usefulness of reading as an aid to good playing, but Henry's house style really doesn't make the most of the difference between tape and book. It brings the cassette format back to the level of the printed tutor to a large extent, which is a shame. I can still, however, heartily recommend the 'Speed Licks' and 'Slap'n'Pull' tapes. As for the others, it's a question of whether you want to read music or not.

There's definitely a gap in the market for a few good, up-to-date, lively tutors which teach you how to play in the styles people are using now, with real-life examples and a practical emphasis. These aren't quite there, but watch this space...

Tapes available for £9.95 from music shops.

'Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky

First off, Uli Jon Roth dispels a myth. Jimi Hendrix didn't use cello and banjo strings, he didn't interchange B strings and 0 strings nor did he tune his guitars to pentatonic, catatonic or chromatic melodic configurations.

No, the Strat Uli Roth inherited from Monika Dannemann, Hendrix's girlfriend at the time of his death, is a straightforward left-handed, well used, black Strat.

"Actually the guitar is still Monika's, "states Uli, solo guitarist since leaving German HM bandThe Scorpions in 1978, "But we live together so I always have the guitar there although I never play it as it would destroy the vibe. I have never played it through an amp because I think it would lose something. Similarly I've got this fear of breaking a string."

Understandable. Nothing worse than a destroyed vibe. But the guitar Uli is taking out on the next tour with his Electric Sun band is no less strange.

"That's the Sky guitar (pictured). I designed it myself and had it built by a guitar builder, Andy Demetrou from Brighton. I was getting very frustrated by the length of necks on standard guitars so I made it with 30 frets — a two-and-half octave neck with a huge cutaway so I can get right up to the top frets.

"It has the third pickup actually under the neck, which again allows the neck to be longer and amazingly it doesn't pick up any extra noises at all.

"I'm working on a Sky II and III guitar at the moment. The III will be tuned in D so I can have two extra frets on top of the 30 I've got already!"

Nice. But what's with the weird shape, Uli?

"It's a very cosmic shape don't you think?"

Uh huh.

"A very spacey shape — a spiral. A spiral is the symbol of the galaxy and is one of the universe's major driving forces. It's a very important shape. It's a very special, significant guitar."

There should be more guitarists like Uli Jon Roth.

Another Pu-kcoc

Mirror-visioned readers may have noticed the rather tasteful Rednef and Dliug guitars cradled lovingly in the arms of Strawberry Switchblade last month. Art director Leonardo da Kerins burnt nicely.

Mind your Manors

It appears that our James 
B had been led up the garden 
path while getting his facts 
together on a recent PA 
Column. February's Al 
Jarreau column mentioned 
that the evening was being 
recorded by the Manor
 mobile for a video soundtrack and radio
 broadcast. Not so. Mick 
McKenna quickly pointed 
out that it was he in the 
Rolling Stones mobile 
involved in said recording.

Tut tut. You just can't trust
 anyone...