Weekly Top 10: Remembering Jaco, New Victor Wooten Interview, and the Week’s Top Bass Gear, Lessons and Videos

Here are the top 10 most read stories and features on No Treble for the week of September 16-22, 2012.

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25 Years Later: The Continued Influence of Jaco Pastorius

1. 25 Years Later: The Continued Influence of Jaco Pastorius

Usually when we mark an anniversary, it is cause for celebration. Today isn’t one of those anniversaries. Twenty-five years ago today, the world lost a man many say was the greatest bass player ever. Jaco Pastorius, at the age of 35, died days after a violent altercation at a Florida bar. e reached out to several bassists to get their take on Jaco’s continued influence as well as their own “Jaco moment”. We invite you to share your stories here as well…

Bass Line Construction: Legato Minor Pentatonic Scale Bass Run

2. Bass Line Construction: Legato Minor Pentatonic Scale Bass Run

Last time, we kicked off a bass line construction series of lessons with a study in improvising on some funk in the key of C. This time around, we’re focusing on some new phrasing ideas for the trusty old minor pentatonic scale. In this case, we’re using the A minor pentatonic scale…

Bass of the Week: Shuker Singlecut Elite

3. Bass of the Week: Shuker Singlecut Elite

The Shuker Singlecut Elite is one beautiful instrument. Built by luthier Jon Shuker in the UK, the bass is highly customizable with options running from number of strings to top wood to construction type…

Life as a Bassist: Balancing Art and Income

4. Life as a Bassist: Balancing Art and Income

Damian answers this reader question: I do regular cover gigs, but I also play with a few original artists and I’m worried about them conflicting. I was wondering how you balance your “work” gigs with your “fun” gigs?

Peter Kastner: Nardis

5. Peter Kastner: Nardis

Alistair Lasken sent in this video of Peter Kastner playing a funky version of the jazz standard “Nardis.” Peter has a simple drum track to accompany him and his Rob Allen MB-2 fretless bass…

Playing with Words and Music: An Interview with Victor Wooten (Part 1)

6. Playing with Words and Music: An Interview with Victor Wooten (Part 1)

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” might be a familiar phrase to most of us, but Victor Wooten has evidently never heard of it. Or, if he has, he’s never heeded its advice. In this first part of a three-part interview with Victor, he tells us about his two CD release of Sword and Stone and Words and Tones

iHarmony: A Look at the Music Theory App for iOS

7. iHarmony: A Look at the Music Theory App for iOS

iHarmony is an app described by its creator as “a fully complete collection of scales, chords & harmonizations…” While I wouldn’t call iHarmony a fully complete app, it is a great reference for all things in the Major, minor, melodic minor and harmonic minor world of tonality. It also includes pentatonic, BeBop, common altered scales and a few “folkloristic” scales like Neopolitan Major, and others…

Fodera Introduces Monarch 4 Standard Bass Guitar

8. Fodera Introduces Monarch 4 Standard Bass Guitar

Fodera is finishing out their Standard series of basses with the Monarch 4 Standard. Similar to the Matt Garrison, Emperor 5, and Yin Yang Standard basses, the new model is built in batch and offered in a single configuration with no options in order to keep the price and wait time down…

Player Spotlight: Josh “Bass Mountain” Townsend

9. Player Spotlight: Josh “Bass Mountain” Townsend

Josh Townsend is a bassist with one very cool nickname (“Bass Mountain”). Josh, like many others in the spotlight here, has awesome parents who helped him get his start in music at an early age…

Aquarium Rescue Unit with Oteil Burbridge: Search Yourself

10. Aquarium Rescue Unit with Oteil Burbridge: Search Yourself

We’ve been really stoked about interviewing Oteil Burbridge, so I’ve been watching tons of videos of him. Check out this one of him playing “Search Yourself” with the Aquarium Rescue Unit, live at the Jacksonville Jazzfest. Burbridge really brings the band together and gets some time to shine by vocalizing his solo spots…

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