Alvabass
Well-known member
Hey guys! Here's part of a message I've just posted to TalkBass that may be useful for those of you interested on studying this song:
Here's my story of how I learned (well, still learning) to play this beautiful piece:
It started around 1994, I think, when I was literally a slave of the instrument. I was trying to learn lots of things and "Portrait Of Tracy" was one of them. I could get the intro at the time, but then I entered the university, started my double bass lessons and archived the song. It was like two or three years ago that I wanted to complete my unfinished job. My process (from the very beginning) was:
1- Getting a real understanding of how harmonics work on the instrument. I think this is the best way to do that. Then learning at least up to the 7th harmonic in each string.
2- Watching Jaco's "Modern Electric Bass" video. Although he isn't in good shape there, he clearly explains the tune's key tricks like getting that D# and the final chord (although that's the hardest way for me), plus he also shows you that some notes are played in unison, something that a regular transcription won't tell you (I've never seen the Pickford one. After checking his "Come On, Come Over" transcription, I was frankly disappointed).
3- EARS. I remember when I was trying to learn the intro back in 1994. I had to stop and repeat the track so many times for getting the fast harmonics succession at the very beginning. Of course, I already knew how harmonics work (see # 1).
4- Using the Real Book transcription when ears weren't good enough, but just for knowing the pitches. As far as I can recall now, there are one or two mistakes there, but it works perfectly. I never tried to read the rhythms. I think that after you know all the pitches, you must appropriate the song. This is a piece of music that must flow freely after you understand it with your ears and your soul. Not trying to understand mechanical rhythms from a piece of sheet.
I always wanted to teach this song, not only because of its beauty or its technical problems, but also because I feel this piece as essential in a competent bassist' culture. But it was a real puzzle to me how to teach it. I even started a thread at TB about it. This semester I decided to experiment with my best students and, after making sure that they had a solid knowledge on harmonics (again, see # 1), I started teaching them little by little, just by pure imitation and armed with a copy of the Real Book transcription. As one of them told me: "You're teaching this by oral tradition". And it's working! I'm really happy about that. Most of them are playing the song in its entirety, or at least understand how to play it. I hope my video will be a tiny bit of help for those of you interested on playing "Portrait Of Tracy". Thank you again for your comments!
