Archive for April 2013 - Page 5

Meet Ben Hands, a bass player who splits his time laying down the low end for party, prog-metal and jazz fusion bands in the UK. While Ben avoided answering our favorite “superpower” question directly, we can’t help but admire his humble response. We also dig his gear list: simple, but effective. Ben is the No Treble player in the spotlight...

Editor’s note: No Treble readers submitted questions to us for the next series of lessons by Thomas “MarloweDK” Risell. Several readers submitted questions about learning scales, intervals and patterns, as well as asking how I approach practicing them. In this installment, I try to cover all the basics. If you have questions or something you’d like to share about these...

There was a time when the Olsen twins were those tiny and adorable sitcom stars on a show called Full House. I’m sure that those of you who remember the show also remember the theme song. Sebastiano Mereu shares his bass arrangement, noting that it was a lot of fun to play. Turns out, he made it fun to listen...

Digitech has expanded their looping pedal lineup with introduction of the JamMan Express XT, a pared down pedal built for simplicity. The pedal sports one knob for adjusting the loop level with a footswitch for controlling the looping process. Three colored LEDs display what mode you’re in – Record, Dub, or Play – which are toggled by stepping on the...

Jazz ScaleHelper is, at it’s essence, a discerning ear. The app listens to you play your scales and arpeggios and gives you feedback on what you just played, as well as a grade. It judges your note stability, intonation, time and shows you how many notes per minute you played. The app’s analysis screen presents your scale in notation. My...

Bassist Viktor Lorincz has a great duo with László Peck called B2Men. The two are best friends and grew up together, so naturally they got into music together. Here’s a cool version of Sting’s “Shape of My Heart” featuring the duo on bass and voice.

Paul McCartney has added several U.S. stops to his 2013 “Out There” tour. The trek will stop at seven cities, including McCartney’s first ever concert in Austin, Texas. Macca’s “Out There” performances will be packed with nearly three hours of songs from the bassist’s career from the Beatles to Wings to his solo work. His band consists of keyboardist Paul...

Waterstone Musical Instruments is honoring the work of Jackson Pollock with a new line of guitars and basses named after the influential abstract artist. The instruments feature an abstract finish inspired by the floors of Jackson Pollock’s studio. “Pollock’s studio was a converted barn, where he spread his canvas out flat and danced around it, using rhythmic gestures to apply...

Our top ten this week included two different stories about prolific bassists giving their basses away: Geddy Lee’s Fender Jazz to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum and Marcus Miller’s long list of basses to support UNESCO. There was another trend of things coming in pairs this week, including two videos related to Pino Palladino. The first being...

Here’s the fantastic WDR Big Band with special guests Victor Bailey on bass and Peter Erskine on drums performing the music of Jaco Pastorius. Things kick off appropriately with “Come On, Come Over”, the second track from Jaco’s debut album. Bailey does double duty on this one, playing the funky bass line while singing the vocals. Other tunes include “Liberty...

The bass community has lost another great player as former Deftones bassist Chi Cheng has passed away after a five year fight for his life. Cheng was in a car accident in 2008 in Santa Clara, California that left him in a coma. Though he had been showing signs of improvement the past two years, he succumbed to heart related...

There’s some buzz building on the web about another collaboration between Paul McCartney and Nirvana members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear, thanks to a news item from The Macca Report. The report suggests the musicians got together for one of the tracks from McCartney’s upcoming and yet-to-be-titled album. The Macca Report’s Jorie Gracen discovered a track-by-track sneak preview...