Buzz

Faith No More bassist Billy Gould has confirmed, via Twitter, that there are U.S. dates being planned for the band’s current reunion tour: “Tweet THIS: In response to all of our concerned US brethren…YES…we yare now actively planning US dates.” Faith No More kicked off their reunion tour in June with shows in Europe, continuing to South America with Australia/New...

The Zen of Ear Training – Part 1

An important part of every musician’s evolution is ear training. It’s a strange concept, but becoming an active and educated listener pays off in a huge way. First lets cover a few points about what ear training is and isn’t and then we’ll get to the exercises. Ear training is a broad term used to cover two aural developmental practices...

Michael Manring: My Three Moons

Michael Manring held a bass workshop in Sligo, Ireland on October 2, 2009, and performed his first-ever concert in Ireland that night. Event organizer Eddie Lee shares this video with us, saying “Hi guys, thought of you when I managed to capture this gem from last week’s workshop with Michael Manring. What a wonderful musician, a great teacher, and true...

Bassist Gustaf Fjelstrom released his new album Metamesmeric which is now available for free download. Metamesmeric lives up to its name, bringing very atmospheric looping bass music to the stage. Fjelstrom uses an NS Design Bass Cello, some simple processing, and a Looperlative LP-1. Fjelstrom was previously playing with the band Maximum Indifference, who released two albums: The Transmutations of...

This year is the 75th anniversary of Epiphone, making them the oldest amplifier company in the world currently in production. To celebrate, Epiphone has been running “75 years of Great Tone” series every three weeks. The series is now up to four installments: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Epiphone currently produces multiple bass guitar series including: Allen...

Q: How can I work on getting more comfortable playing in odd time signatures? A: Great question! The first thing I’d say is, there really are NO odd time signatures. Who made 4/4 the king of all time signatures? A time signature is only “odd” because you aren’t used to hearing it. More accurately, you aren’t used to FEELING it....

Today, we start something a little new… spotlighting videos posted by our friends on No Treble’s Facebook page. The first one is from bassist Bruno Migliari and his Trio, performing the Jaco Pastorius composition, Three Views of a Secret. The performance took place live at Rio Carioca jazz club in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nice stuff, Bruno. If you’re interested...

eMedia Music Corp, the group who brought us Band-In-A-Box, are delivering a cool new software package to improve your practicing: TimeStretch. TimeStretch lets you play back any piece of music at any speed without changing the pitch (sorry Mac users, this is Windows only). Additionally, the software can transpose a piece of music, so you can practice in all the...

Reader Spotlight: Dywane Thomas Jr.

Meet bassist Dywane Thomas Jr., our player in the spotlight for October 20th, 2009. Bio: I started playing bass at 4 years old, playing a right-handed bass upside down (lefty). I grew up listening to down home blues and funk, playing along with songs on the radio and different albums was how I practiced. I taught myself how to play...

Wow! This CD certainly defied my expectations. A young musician not long out of music college releases a debut record and you might expect something designed to impress with a few standards, a touch of flash, derivative playing, maybe a guest star appearance and a disparate set of styles and moods. This record is nothing like that at all! Linda...

Today’s video features bassist Dan Berglund taking a solo during a performance with the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (E.S.T.) E.S.T. was a Swedish jazz trio consisting of Esbjörn Svensson on piano, Berglund on bass, and Magnus Öström on drums. This is the bass solo and intro to tune “Behind The Yashmak”, performed live at Jazz à Juan Les Pins festival in...

Ernie Ball is going to be at Bass Player Live on October 24th and 25th, with different clinics running from players that swear by their instruments. They’re providing an all-star line up, so if you’ll be at the event in Hollywood, these clinics will definitely be worth checking out. The performance schedule includes: Saturday October 24th 10:15-10:45 Mark Bass Alain...