Search Results for: style
102 results for “style”
Bass Transcription: Danny McCulloch’s Bass Line on The Animals’ “Monterey”
Continuing the theme of British bassists from 1968, this time I’m looking at Danny McCulloch’s bass line on “Monterey” by The Animals. This band formed in the gritty northern English city of Newcastle in 1960, and were one of the edgier sounding bands associated with the “British Invasion” of the U.S. pop charts by the middle of the decade. Their...
Advanced Bass: How to Use Melodic Quotes in Your Solos
The use of melodic quotation is prolific within the genre of jazz and its related modern styles. In this lesson, we’ll cover how to use melodic quotes in your solos and breakdown some of the commonalities used by many great jazz masters. Applying this to two choruses of a B? blues progression, we’ll take a step-by-step analysis which includes taking...
Bass Transcription: Jaco Pastorius’s Bass Line on Weather Report’s “Night Passage”
Today we will be tackling Jaco Pastorius’s bass line on the title track from Weather Report’s 1980 album, Night Passage. This is one of the best Weather Report albums. To me, it always sounds fresh and modern, like a timeless record. The group also includes drummer Peter Erskine and percussionist Robert Thomas Jr, who sound very tight together. In this...
Bass Transcription: John Paul Jones’ Bass Line on Dusty Springfield’s “Take Another Little Piece of My Heart”
Dusty Springfield was a British singer whose early chart success in the UK and USA was with straightforward pop tunes such as 1963’s “I Only Want to be With You,” and more sophisticated ballads like 1966’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me”. The 1968 Dusty… Definitely album began her change towards a more R&B/Soul sound, with inclusion of...
Talking Technique: Right Hand Thumbs Up!
When you’re playing fingerstyle, where do you put your right thumb? You can anchor it on the pickup, but that can limit your tonal range. You could anchor on the lower strings, but then where do you put it when you need to play those strings? That’s precisely the question we got from a reader, so today we’re examining the...
Bass Transcription: Bob West’s Bass Line on Odetta’s “Hit or Miss”
Something I notice when listening to inexperienced bassists is that they often tend to line up all of their technical ideas, one after another, when creating a bass line. It’s similar to a chef using all their spices to make just one dish. Most of us will learn with experience that less is not only more but you can reinvent...
Talking Technique: Pedalling
There are only so many hours in the day, so it’s always great to figure out ways to make the best use of your practice time. One way to get the biggest use of your practice is to combine different topics to bolster your understanding: music theory with song learning, rhythmic accuracy with slapping, phrasing with fretboard knowledge, and so...
Talking Technique: Fast Fingers
Today we’re talking technique with the right hand and getting those fast fingers. I’ll be going over the two finger alternating plucking style, which will get you through most playing situations. Oftentimes, players get wrapped up in coupling their right hand and left hand processes when playing patterns. I recommend making alternating your fingers an automated process so you don’t...
Bass Transcription: Bobby Vega’s “Gosh”
This month’s transcription is a piece I’ve been meaning to get to for a long time: Bobby Vega’s “Gosh”. This piece was originally featured on Bass The World’s YouTube channel last year. Grab the transcription, read the notes below and follow along: Although a master of all techniques, Bobby Vega is probably best known for his plectrum work. Combining impeccable...
Bass Transcription: L?rincz Viktor’s “Rock and Roll Bass Solo”
There’s been no shortage of great pieces to choose from for my monthly transcription recently: Cody Wright’s groove with drummer Chaisarary Schenk was a serious contender, as was Simon Fitzpatrick’s cracking solo bass rendition of “Rosanna”. I intend to cover both pieces in future transcription columns, but this month I couldn’t resist scoring out L?rincz Viktor’s “Rock and Roll Bass...
Bass Transcription: Wojtek Pilichowski’s “Cowboy from Prague”
This month’s transcription is “Cowboy from Prague,” a short piece by Polish slap bass wizard Wojtek Pilichowski, recorded at the Aguilar Artist Loft earlier in 2014. Wojtek has made a name for himself in recent years with his hard-hitting and energetic slap technique. True to form, he packs a lot of ideas into this short piece. Wojtek takes influences from...
Fretboard Exercise: C Major Triad Reggae Groove
As bassists, it is important that we know our chords and arpeggios. Coupled with that is the importance of knowing the entire fretboard. In this exercise, we’ll play only three notes – the C Major triad. To make it fun, I’ve set it up as a reggae-style groove. As you’ll see in the video below, I cover the entire fretboard...