Archive for 2009 - Page 27

Anthology Gear Wear is releasing a new line of individualized leather straps and gig bags. The straps and bags are made with full grain leather, which will continue to improve with use as they form to each body and each instrument. The bottom layer is made of a soft full grain leather with extra padding at the shoulder for added...

Bassist Damian Erskine (a No Treble contributor and Learn the Low End professor) is now offering private and personalized video lessons. Damian is using this as an opportunity to both help players and create an addendum to his instructional book, as well as connecting with bassists around the world (hey, we especially love that last part!) Details: Send Damian an...

As bassists we have unique musical responsibilities in an ensemble whether it’s a symphony, jazz jam or rock group. We’re the foundation – the pulse. There is a pitfall that we must be careful to avoid and it’s ingrained in us through a lot of standard music education: we are bound by meter and notation. If you had to could...

This is Lester Cole from Cancun, Mexico, playing some cool jazz on his gorgeous Ken Smith bass, improvising over backing tracks in E min7 and having fun: Check him out on Youtube and Myspace.

Flea will be teaming up with Thom Yorke on October 4th and 5th at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. “In the past couple of weeks I’ve been getting a band together for fun to play the Eraser stuff live and the new songs etc… to see if it could work!” Yorke said, via Radiohead’s Dead-Air-Space blog. “We don’t really...

Innovation is a wonderful thing, especially in music. Sometimes you come across a project that is so cool and so different you have to share it. Through Twitter (thanks to @zoecello for RT-ing the video) I came across the Experibass project by Diego Stocco. The video and process are incredible. Stocco built a new type of instrument combining the violin,...

Q: What is the best way to “get” jazz. in school, we had a ton of theory shoved at us but it really seemed disconnected. Solos still get me to this day because while theoretically sound, they sound manufactured. A: There are certain styles that one must “marry” in order to play with any authority. Maybe not for a lifetime,...

Adam Neely is a graduate in jazz composition from Berklee College of Music. He’s also the winner of the prestigious 2009 Herb Pomeroy award for excellence in jazz composition as well as the winner of the 2006 Maryland Distinguished Scholar in the Arts award. And on top of that he is also one of the latest approved professors for Learn...

Trial bassist Brian Redman was involved in a fatal car accident this weekend. Trial has been an influential hardcore band since 1994, working “desperately to communicate their infusion of activism, emotion, anger and intensity in a world where people are more comfortable remaining sedate.” A recent MySpace blog post by guitarist Timm McIntosh eulogizes the loss of Redman: “Funny thing...

Meet bassist André Bowman, our player in the spotlight for September 29th, 2009. Bio: Hailing from Buffalo, NY, I started playing bass at age 9, beginning with acoustic bass and picking up electric a couple years later. Receiving several awards throughout high school with the jazz band and orchestra, I continued my studies at Berklee College of Music, to which...

Last time we talked about some of the general concepts involved in making the switch from Electric to Upright Bass. It’s a fairly big subject, so we are going to continue down this road for the next several installments. As I mentioned last time, an accomplished Electric player can often pump out a line on an Upright after only a...

Massimiliano Atzeni seems to be specializing in short Youtube videos featuring riffs, and ideas that are often looped. At the moment, there are probably around 150 short, looped riffs like that, so it was hard to choose one. It probably illustrates his ability just as well to go with one of his latest. He calls it “Vegetariano”: Check him out...