Archive for 2012 - Page 57

Bassist John Koko has passed away at the age of 51, due to complications from a lifelong heart condition. He was a member of The Makaha Sons and had been a fixture of performing and promoting Hawaiian music. Koko started his musical career at just 12 years old when he joined Na Leo O Nanakuli. Later, the Hawaiian native started...

Late last year, G&L upgraded their flagship bass line with the M-2000 and M-2500 basses. Now the company has announced Tribute Series versions of the instruments, which offer the models at lower price points. Both the 4- and 5-string basses come in two different configurations of either a honeyburst over swamp ash body with a rosewood fingerboard or gloss black...

Q: I’m just now three weeks in to my bass lessons so I apologize for the “newb” question. Where can I go to find songs in a specific chord progression that I can play along with? For instance, I’ve learned 12 bar blues in G Major. Now I’m doing web searches to find tunes I can apply what I’ve learned....

There’s tap, there’s solo bass arrangements, and then there’s this. Bassist Wes Sperry arranged Otis Redding’s classic “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” for bass and vocals fitting to the original. He even has the whistling part in there! It isn’t how many notes you can play. It is just finding the right ones.

Hot on the heels of the release of Clockwork Angels, Rush’s 20th studio album, comes the first glimpse at the album’s companion novel, Clockwork Angels: The Novel. Author Kevin J. Anderson, who is collaborating with Rush drummer Neil Peart, posted news on his blog that a sneak peek booklet for the book has been released as a free download. The...

Meet Robert Asencio, a bassist from NJ who has overcome a lot through his music. We love his description of his day gig: “playing bass 24/7”. Nice. Robert is our player in the spotlight for the week of June 26, 2012. Bio: “All is possible through faith in the Lord & hard work.” These words have come to symbolize my...

Seeing as I’ve always had a somewhat “snobbish” aversion to Tab, I had avoided most every app in the store that provided it. So I’m happy to report I overcame that for a minute to try out Tab Toolkit, and I’m glad I did. Tab Toolkit is a pretty wonderful app, beautifully executed and immensely useful. The app comes pre-loaded...

I’ve always enjoyed Evan Marien’s “Hiii”, a track from his Here We Are EP, though I wondered how it could be pulled off live. I can now cross that off the list. Here’s Evan with drummer Dana Hawkins (who is awesome, btw), performing the tune live at Matt Garrison’s Shapeshifter Lab in New York.

Bassist/vocalist Casey Abrams has released his self-titled debut on Concord Records. Abrams caught national attention on the tenth season of American Idol after performing some rousing renditions of pop tunes while accompanying himself on bass. Through that experience, he hooked up with fellow bassist and Idol judge Randy Jackson, who produced the album. The album is laden with upright bass...

Eastwood Guitars has had a busy summer. Rounding out their new retro releases is a 34? scale version of their Airline Map bass. A tribute to the 1962 National Newport Guitar, the new full-scale bass comes in Seafoam Green and is equipped with D’Addario Chrome flats. Similar to their 30? scale version, the bass features a tone chambered mahogany body,...

My most recent lessons have focused on the use of the pentatonic scales as it relates to improvising and learning the fretboard (see my lessons on improvising over a minor key progression and breaking down the pentatonic scale for more background). Today we’ll continue this topic with the exploration of improvising over a D minor 7 chord using the pentatonic...

Our Facebook friend Leon Wilson shared this alternate track with us, featuring the isolated bass work of Bakithi Kumalo on Paul Simon’s hit, “Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes”. Yep, this is all that’s needed. Bakithi holds down so much at once, yet without sounding like he’s doing too much. Genius at work.