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Archive for June 2011 - Page 8

The 2nd Annual Bass Coalition Summer Workshop
Events

The 2nd Annual Bass Coalition Summer Workshop

The Bass Coalition will be holding its second annual Summer Workshop at Shenandoah University-Conservatory in Winchester, Virginia on July 9th and 10th, 2011. Faculty will include Oberlin bass professor Peter Dominguez, renowned bass educator Inez Wyrick, and Shenandoah Professor and No Treble columnist Dr. Donovan Stokes. The two-day event includes clinics covering classical, jazz and alternative styles, including use of...

GoGo Tuners Releases TT-1 Clip-On Tuner
Bass Gear

GoGo Tuners Releases TT-1 Clip-On Tuner

GoGo Tuners has released the TT-1, a clip-on tuner that features both piezo and microphone tuning methods. The main concept for the tuner is that the backlit LED screen has two colors, displaying red when you are out of tune and green once you are in tune. The side of the tuner also glows red when you’re off pitch, so...

Gear, Tone and Reality
Ask Damian Erskine

Gear, Tone and Reality

Q: I know a lot of guys who spend quite a bit of time and money on their gear. In your opinion, how much of a bassist’s sound is contained in the rig that they are using versus the hands and so on? A: I’m glad you asked! I just had this conversation the other night, at different times and...

Andy Saxton: Turrican
Bass Videos

Andy Saxton: Turrican

Andy Saxton sent us this video of his tune “Turrican” from his solo album, Evolution of the Thumb. The tune has a cool blend of styles mixed together to keep things interesting. “This song is dedicated to my youth,” Andy said, “and to one of my favorite computer games when I was growing up – on the good old Atari...

Hiromi Releases “Voice”, Featuring Anthony Jackson
New Albums

Hiromi Releases “Voice”, Featuring Anthony Jackson

Pianist/composer Hiromi Uehara has just released Voice, her latest solo album. Bassist Anthony Jackson, who performed on a couple of tunes on Hiromi’s first two albums, performs on the entire album (excluding “Haze”, the one solo piano track), along with drummer Simon Phillips. “I’ve always been a huge fan of [Anthony Jackson’s] bass playing,” Hiromi said. “I’ve always liked playing...

Reader Spotlight: Chuck Kingston
Reader Spotlight

Reader Spotlight: Chuck Kingston

Meet bassist Chuck “KingStunned” Kingston, a bassist from Denison, Texas and our player in the spotlight for June 7, 2011. Bio: Some people never get the chance to live out their dreams in life. I can call myself one of the few lucky ones. Life itself has a rhythm it flows by. The bass guitar has always been my highway....

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 2: Posture, Posture, Posture
Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist

Health & Fitness for The Working Bassist – Part 2: Posture, Posture, Posture

The Importance of Posture, in Life and Music In this installment, our focus is on posture, and how it – and lack of it – can affect bass playing in particular, and everything else you do in general. Bad habits started when we were young have a way of sticking with us as we get older. In part, that’s because...

Anthony Jackson: Live Bass Solo (1980)
Bass Videos

Anthony Jackson: Live Bass Solo (1980)

I sometimes forget how long Anthony Jackson has been performing and showcasing his unique approach to the bass. This is a great reminder. In July 1980, Jackson took the stage with Sadao Watanabe at Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. This clip features an excellent solo by Jackson (around the 5:45 mark, if you’re in a hurry).

Corea, Clarke & White Release “Forever”
New Albums

Corea, Clarke & White Release “Forever”

Pianist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White are back at it. The trio, who formed the core for Return to Forever decades ago, have decided to revisit the group’s origins with the release of Forever, out today. The two-disc set includes 18 tracks. Disc one features live recordings from Return to Forever’s 2009 “RFT Unplugged” tour, with...

Flea Confirms New Red Hot Chili Peppers Album Details
News

Flea Confirms New Red Hot Chili Peppers Album Details

After years of anticipation, we now have a confirmed release date for the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album after Flea broke the news via his Twitter account. “It gives me profound pleasure deep in the fiber of my being to announce the August 30 release date of the new red hot chili peppers’s record,” the bassist announced, later tweeting...

Technique Series: Fast Fingers
The Lowdown with Dr. D

Technique Series: Fast Fingers

Although there are musical situations when we want our left hand fingers to strike the fingerboard forcefully, we most often want to use the minimum amount of pressure, and no more. To do otherwise is generally inefficient, clumsy, noisy and speeds up muscle fatigue, among other things. When it comes to left hand technique, the speed of the finger movement...

NOFX: Stickin’ In My Eye
Bass Videos

NOFX: Stickin’ In My Eye

Here’s a clip of NOFX rocking out their tune “Stickin’ In My Eye” filmed live in 2009. The song starts with some chill bass riffing by 4-stringer and founding member Fat Mike before the band kicks into tempo.