Bass Transcription: Marcus Miller’s “Cee-Tee-Eye”

Marcus Miller: Renaissance“Cee-Tee-Eye” is from Marcus Miller’s 2012 album Renaissance, recorded to feature the new band Marcus assembled for the Tutu Revisited tour, which was a celebration of the Miles Davis album from the mid-80’s Miller contributed heavily to.

The title for “Cee-Tee-Eye” is a nod to the various albums released on the CTI Records label, which were influential not only to Marcus, but to jazz/funk musicians everywhere.

This track is a real treat for bass players. In addition to a cracking bass solo, it has all the typical Miller trademarks: palm-muted grooves, nimble fingerstyle lines and tight, punchy slap grooves underpinning the other musician’s solos.

All of the above makes it a challenging study piece for any bass player, and the perfect piece with with to relaunch our transcription column.

Download the transcription (PDF) and grab the track from iTunes or Amazon MP3 to play along.

Be sure to let me know which pieces you’d like to see featured in this column, and we’ll do our best to accommodate them! Share what you’d like to see in the comments.

Stuart Clayton writes for and runs Bassline Publishing, a small company who specialize in bass guitar tuition and transcription books. Check out basslinepublishing.com for more.

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Leave a Reply to shawnlyles Cancel reply

  1. Stuart, you´re a transcription monster. Great job. You captured all the nuances at MM´s playing. Hat down and thank you for this amazing work.

  2. Fantastic! Thanks for sharing this!

  3. Gregg

    Freewill, by Rush.

  4. Derek Hale

    This is a wonderful transcription. Deadly accurate. Kudos!

    Three songs I would love to see transcribed:

    “Foolish Heart” – Steve Perry (Bob Glaub on bass)
    “Peg” – Steely Dan (Chuck Rainey on bass)

    And if you every do another Marcus transcription…

    “More Than Friends” – Bob James & David Sanborn from the “Double Vision” album. Marcus is amazing on this track.

    • Hey Derek,

      Thanks for the kind words, glad you are enjoying the transcription! I spent a long time on it, and take a great deal of pride in getting things as accurate as possible.

      I’ll keep your suggestions in mind, but you might be interested to know there was a cracking transcription of ‘Peg’ in the November 2007 issue of Bass Player mag.

      Best wishes
      Stuart

      • Derek Hale

        Thanks for the heads up on the transcription of “Peg.” I’ll be sure to look into that.

  5. Derek Hale

    Oh, and if I can suggest one more. “Early A.M. Attitude” from the “Harlequin” album by Dave Grusin & Lee Ritenour. Jimmy Johnson’s 5-string work on that track is stellar.

  6. Dan

    Please transcribe more songs from this album! It’s a masterpiece

  7. Stuart, First time coming to your column (I was practicing the song & said ‘wait, lets see if there is transcription’). Thanks so much for this. This tune and ‘Detroit’ are my favorites on the album, never too much Marcus!

  8. Alexander

    Great transcription! Thanks! Will take me a while before I got this down.
    I would love to see Boomerang från the M2 album. Such a great song!

  9. Stefan

    Awesome transcription. Thanks a lot Stuart !
    Take a look on Brian Bromberg for your next transcription job.

  10. Andy

    Thanks for another great transcription Stuart!

    do you have a link to an explanation on the palm muting technique in part ‘C Melody’?
    it seems like slapping with muting of the right hand. but it kind of troubles my right hand
    to mute with the palm and slap at the same time, but its the way its meant to be??

    a song i would like to see transcribed:
    ‘BC’ from tal wilkenfelds debut ‘Transformation’

    Thanks again for your time and effort!!

  11. elevator music..