Columns - Page 90

Brandon Seabrook’s Seabrook Power Plant is a brutal, take-no-prisoners record. The music sits between free jazz and Black Sabbath-influenced sounds but places the banjo firmly at the center of the music. It is quite engaging despite a forbidding exterior. For sure you will hear things in this record you have never heard before. Seabrook is the leader, a Brooklyn-based guitarist...

I am doing a Mingus project in May with the WDR Big Band, so I have been checking out Mingus’s music recently. He has left such a legacy on several levels: his bass playing, his rhythm section playing, his band leading and his composing. All of those aspects of Mingus’s music are interconnected, and he really made strong contributions in...

Q: So as I walked around the house, my wife asked me, “What are you doing, space cadet?” I guess I had a fairly blank look on my face and was walking around the house in circles. I replied, “Playing Bass… in my head.” She then said, “huh… you should write about that for the No Treble guys!” And I...

Note: This is part 3 of 3 of Dr. D’s current series. See part 1 and part 2. The Student The most important ingredient needed to acquire a skill is not a good Method or a good Teacher, but rather a good Student. Even with the highest quality Method and Teacher, a poor quality Student will not achieve the objectives...

Hi, nice to meet all of you. I’m here to discuss melodies in the bass: bass lines as part of tunes and great melodies written by bass players, and maybe a few surprises thrown in. In this column I’ll be discussing one of the all time great bass players in history who also penned more than a few tunes that...

Q: out of curiosity, what do you use when transcribing? Software or pencil & paper? I’m delving into this area more and grew up with the pencil & paper way, but am becoming more intrigued by all of the software “gadgets” out there. A: A little bit of all of those things, really. Here are my tips and practices for...

Clang & Chime, the latest release by American bassist/singer Seth Horan is a beautiful record, focused around finely crafted songs. Seth writes thoughtful and thought-provoking lyrics; sings like he means it and uses his bass to accompany himself with chordal parts, basslines, countermelodies and percussive lines. On this record he is accompanied by Petteri Sariola on guitar and vocals on...

Editor’s note: this is the first of a new series we’re running called “What’s Spinning”. Each week, we’ll check in with bassists to see what they’re listening to and what they’re up to. We hope you enjoy! This week, Rufus Reid shares the CDs currently spinning in his player, and his take on the recordings. Initiation by Sumi Tonooka &...

Q: How do you discern whether you’re playing “appropriately” or over-playing? A: This is completely subjective and depends on: style of music you’re playing bandleaders interpretation of appropriate taste other things too, but that’s a good start! For the purposes of this article, I’ll assume we’re not talking fusion or jazz here. One simple thing to keep in mind is...

Q: How do you go about promoting your CD? A: I’ve been giving this a lot of thought lately as I’m preparing to release my 2nd release (coming out mid-late January 2010!). With my first CD, I definitely went about it from the ground up. I: Contacted the editors of bass magazines and asked to whom I could send one...

The Teacher The second requirement for the attainment of any skill is a teacher. A good teacher can enhance learning efficiency, streamline progress and illuminate method. You can certainly learn without a teacher and there is a vast amount of information available to us: DVDs, video demonstrations, books, columns, articles, etc. While these can be valuable resources, without one-to-one instruction...

Q: My question is about how to stay healthy. I find when I practice too much or play a particular song that has a lot of notes, my hands and wrists get sore. I know that singers warm up their voice, I usually run through some scales when I am tuning and setting up just to limber my fingers. I...