Danny Ziemann Launches New Book on Soloing with Free 10-Day Retreat
Danny Ziemann has just released a new instructional book for bassists called Topics in Jazz Bass Vol. 2: Soloing, and he’s launching it with a bang. The renowned bass educator will be hosting a free 10-day online retreat all about soloing.
Topics in Jazz Bass Vol. 2: Soloing is an extremely well-written book that’s laid out in a bit of a “choose your own adventure” style. It’s broken down into seven chapters: Guide Tone Lines, Building Jazz Vocabulary, Listening & Transcribing, The Blues, Melodic Soloing & Development, Sound & Phrasing, and Your Concept & Musical Identity. Each features concise lessons that get to the core of each element to build your fundamentals as you grow. Ziemann offers several “pathways” through the chapters depending on what you need to work on.
“Most bassists I work with remain stuck behind the intellectual barrier — thinking about theory, patterns, etc. — but don’t have the tools to tie their efforts together,” he writes. “This resource consolidates my experience performing, teaching, and researching about improvisation to provide bassists a resource that actually works.”
The book is packed with exercises, examples, and etudes for building your soloing chops. Ziemann offers complete audio examples for the book through his website.
As previously mentioned, Ziemann is celebrating the release of Topics in Jazz Bass Vol. 2: Soloing with a free 10-day Expert Inner Circle & Bass Retreat called “Stepping Into Your Soloing Voice.” The event is scheduled from February 8th through the 17th and will be broken into two segments.
“From February 8-12, I’ll be hosting two daily interviews with 10 expert performers, educators, and thought leaders (including Rufus Reid, Katie Thiroux, and Marco Panascia) to learn their best strategies for becoming top-shelf bass soloists,” Ziemann writes. “Then, from February 15-17, we’ll tie it all together in a 3-day workshop, leaving you with my best tools for creating melodic, bass solos that will transform you into a more complete bassist.”
The course is open to both double bassists and electric bassists. All ten days will include Q&A sessions, bonus training, prize giveaways, and more opportunities to sharpen your skills. In short, you’d be crazy not to sign up for this.
Topics in Jazz Bass Vol. 2: Soloing is available now in paperback. You can sign up for the “Stepping Into Your Solo Voice” bass summit via Ziemann’s website.
