Search Results for: willie dixon

Name any genre of music and certain bass players immediately come to mind. Rock and roll? Paul McCartney. Blues? Willie Dixon. Funk? Larry Graham. They are the ones who stick out as paving the way, defining the roll of the instrument in that particular music, and creating those classic lines that we can’t help but listen to, learn, and hope...

A new series of bass tutorial books from Hal Leonard aims to provide players of all styles with 100 essential lessons. The books in the Bass Lesson Goldmine Series — , , , and — offer detailed information in print and via streaming/downloadable audio. Audio CDs of performance demos are also available with the books. Duos author each book, with...

Each week, as I scroll through the list of bass players hoping to settle on a new subject, there are a few things I tend to look for: superior technical skill, boundless imagination, and reverence for traditional and modern styles. This time, I jumped to the end of the alphabet. There was Victor Wooten, Willie Dixon, and Chris Wood. A...

At the age of 15, I dreaded the thought of being caught at a movie theater on a Friday night with my parents. So. Lame. If spotted by my fellow classmates, I would immediately be identified as weird, uncool, and antisocial. Who am I kidding… I definitely was (and am) weird, uncool, and antisocial. It wasn’t my fault that my...

Meet Ryan Weber, a bassist who started bass at the young age of 11 – over half his life ago – playing in a successful band with his brother, guitarist Sam Weber. Ryan’s response to the “superhero” question is awesome, as is his story. So he was an easy choice for this week’s No Treble reader in the spotlight. Bio...

Trampled Under Foot is making a big splash with their first major label release, Badlands, a thirteen track collection of soulful and gritty blues tunes that groove like no other. The sibling power trio is fronted by singer/bassist Danielle Schnebelen, who pours her soul out in heartfelt lyrics and low notes. “All I really want to do is inspire goodness...

Meet Chris “Topher” Clark, a bassist studying at Berklee who got his start in music after hearing Led Zeppelin at the age of 5. Chris is our player in the spotlight for the week of April 10, 2012. Bio: I started playing the drums after hearing Led Zeppelin around five years old. After playing in bands, I wanted to explore...

After reading the previous column in this two-part series, I’m hoping you’ve had a chance to check out some music featuring the playing of Willie Dixon and Duck Dunn. Their old school approaches to playing blues compliments the players they accompanied and reflects how novel full-band blues recordings were in the 1950’s and ’60’s. Early on, blues recordings typically only...

One of the common bonds between a lot of us bass players is that we learned how to play by ear. Unlike other instruments, such as the clarinet or piano, we didn’t start out by taking private lessons, nor did we play in the fourth grade orchestra at school. Instead, we heard songs on the radio with cool bass lines...

Meet Ethan Sobotta, an extraordinarily diverse bassist living in Seattle who makes his living the way it should be: playing bass. Among the musical genres he lists are “Punk rock sea shanties and Appalachian death polka,” somehow performed by a single band. Ethan is our player in the spotlight for November 15, 2011.   Bio: I studied bass at the...

This week, we’re celebrating the upright bass with a look back at the top 10 most viewed upright bass videos on No Treble. 1. Miles Mosley: Voodoo Child It is fitting Miles Mosley chose to cover Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”, since he’s doing a Hendrix-like re-invention of his instrument of choice: the upright bass. 2. Esperanza Spalding: “Mela”...

Meet Ryan Madora, a bassist from Philadelphia, PA and our player in the spotlight for August 31, 2010. Bio: Redefining the look of traditional bass players, Ryan Madora is currently lighting up the Philadelphia music scene with old school soul and blues inspired grooves. At the age of 16, Ryan began attending blues jams in the Philadelphia area and quickly...