Bass players, coffee drinkers, ladies and gentlemen, the podcast is back!

Full disclosure: I used chat gpt to generate the description of the podcast below based on a transcript of the episode. I’m still not sure how I feel about the whole AI thing in general, but I realized it saved me a ton of legwork today with something I’m not particularly good at (writing descriptions of things), and provides some information that might help you better understand what the episode is about and bring a little more value to you without accusing me of selling my soul to Sam Altman.

I want to make it very clear that I have never used AI in the creation of music or of any of my books, and never will. That, to me, is a very clear line that should never be crossed.

I would like your honest feedback on this, and to know whether youtube descriptions are a tolerable use-case for the technology since it allows me way more time to focus on practicing, playing and recording real music and video lessons to share with you all.

Here goes…

In this episode I catch you up on everything that's been happening, from touring with Steve Smith's Vital Information, to moving house here in Southern California, finishing my brand-new book How to Transcribe, and preparing for the release of my new live trio album Quiet Places.I also spend a good portion of the episode exploring one of the most inspiring harmonic concepts I've encountered in years: Neo-Riemannian triadic transformations. It's a simple idea built around major and minor triads, but it's completely changed the way I'm thinking about harmony, improvisation, voice leading, and creating melodic movement in my bass lines.We also talk about:• Why transcription is really about ear training• How immersion and repetition accelerate musical growth• Touring with a minimalist pedalboard setup• The Walrus Audio Mantle in real-world situations• Preparing mentally for performances with musical heroes• Building freedom through harmony instead of memorized licksIf you're interested in becoming a more musical improviser (not just learning more scales) this episode is for you.If you'd like to see a full rundown of my current touring pedalboard, leave a comment below. If enough people ask, I'll make a dedicated video.

Thoughts?

More soon,

Janek

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