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Lick Of The Month #11

Almost a full year of licks! LOTM#11 is another ii V I walking bass line, this time taken from 'Bag's Groove' taken from the Miles Davis album of the same name. The bassist on the record is Percy Heath, if you like what you hear check out the other posts I've written on him here!

New Song From Janek Gwidala

If you don't know who Janek Gwizdala is then you're missing out! One of the most influential and inspirational musicians around at the minute, in my opinion of course! Janek has just posted a track from his forth coming new album, 'Theatre By The Sea', and it's definitely worth checking out, you can stream it direct from Janek's blog here!

If you like what you hear, you can download ALL of his back catalogue for FREE from BandCamp, and I suggest that you do.

What do you think of the tune? Leave your comments below! 

Lick Of The Month #10

Here we are again for LOTM#10 and we've got another gem from Miles Davis. This one is taken from my transcription of 'Blues By Five' and is played over a ii V I progression.

Are You Looking For Awesome Tone??

I've been a SansAmp user for about two years now, I initially got hold of the SansAmp Bass Driver DI to use as an overdrive that wouldn't be too harsh, however I soon found that my bass sounded so good with it on that I never turned it off!

That's why I upgraded to this bad boy!

Lick Of The Month #9

February's LOTM is a super versatile walking bass ii V I. I've taken it from the 'Solar' bass transcription I posted last week. It's really simple which makes it easy to apply to a lot of tunes.

Solar Bass Transcription

'Solar' from the album "Walkin'" by Miles Davis, is a full on ii V work out! This transcription looks at how Percy Heath approaches the first four choruses. The tune is 12 bars long and can be split into 4 ii V's of all shapes and sizes.

White Lights - Jon Lawton

The first song from my bro's upcoming album has been released, with yours truly on bass of course!

Go check it out on Soundcloud, it's super catchy too so make sure to send it around! 

Bass was recorded on a '93 Wenge/Maple Fretless Warwick Fortress One, DI'd at Crosstown Studios. I played the bass on most tracks from this album too so keep your eyes peeled for more soon!

Lick Of The Month #8

To kick off 2013, the first LOTM is a nice chilled out ii V I from valve trombonist, Bob Brookmeyer that appears on Stan Getz's version of Misty. This version of the song is down a whole step from the way it is usually performed, which I must admit did cause me a lot of confusion trying to figure out the theory behind this lick. Moral of the tale is 'Always Check The Chords!'

Merry Christmas!!

Hey everyone! Just a quick post to say a massive thank you for all the support I've had in my first year (6 months!) of running this blog! In this short time you bass lovers have managed to give me 8500 YouTube views, 6500 blog views, 1400 SoundCloud plays and almost 600 downloads of my transcriptions which I find pretty unbelievable really!

So thanks again, keep checking out my posts and videos and I'll keep putting them up! Don't be scared to leave me a comment and let me know what you want to see too!

A very merry Bassmas to you all, see you in the new year!

Lick Of The Month #7

Our last lick of 2012 is here, and it's a whopper!! It's a 3 bar long triplet assault played by Joe Henderson on Horace Silver's 'Song For My Father'.

The lick can be heard on this version of the song at about 4:20 over 3 bars of F-7.

Take The A Train Transcription

This week I've been looking at 'Take The A Train' and more importantly how bass legend, Anthony Jackson, played a chorus from it! Out of all the great versions out there I picked this one to see how an electric bassist tackles it rather than an upright player like all the other transcriptions I have done so far.

Dirk Lance with Willie's Nerve Clinic - New Tune!

Yo! I've just found out that Dirk Lance (Incubus founding member and all round bass legend) has formed a new group call Willie's Nerve Clinic. This self described "jazz/funk/prog" band have made a couple of songs from their upcoming album, Vampire Kiss, available for free download!

Here's my video I've just uploaded of me jamming over this awesome slap bass line, transcription of the main riffs from the tune are available to download from my transcriptions page.

Lick Of The Month #6

LOTM#6 is actually a bit of a mashup between a lick that of my own that I've been working on this month with an ending of Cannonball Adderley's.

Practising Melodies

An essential weapon in your arsenal as a bassist is the ability to play a melody as well as any trumpeter or pianist can. To play it with feeling and emotion, in the most beautiful way that you can. As a bassist this opportunity probably won't come along very often but when it does you need to be ready for it. The other benefit of this is that it will positively affect the way that you solo by bringing a more melodic and passionate version of what you could have played out of your instrument.

Claypool's bass sells for $50,599.99!!

Primus front man and all round legend has just auctioned his Pachyderm Prototype bass with a winning bid of a whopping $50,599.99 (or around £31,500). This was all for a very good cause as Les was raising money for his nephew who has been diagnosed with a rare form of leukaemia. 

"Watching my younger brother and his wife go through one of the most heart aching situations that any parent can endure has been gut-wrenching," Claypool said. "On top of that there is the unbelievable expense of the treatments ($80,000 for one particular shot alone and Matthew needed two of them). I do what I can financially, and the fellows in Primus have been very generous to do performances as well as create special merchandise items for Matthew's cause, but unfortunately we are just pushing against a tide of debt that my brother will be dealing with for many years." 

The bass itself was built by Dan Maloney and (according to the eBay advert) designed by Les Claypool to be the most comfortable and easy to play four string bass to his standards.  This particular bass has a walnut top with a maple back and exotic wood pick guard.  It is 32” scale with LED lights in the side of the fingerboard and has a Kahler brand tremolo bar.  Keeping the electronics simple, Les equips his basses with one single custom split EMG pickup with a single control knob.  It has a bronze Pachyderm medallion set into the headstock. This combination of woods and electronics gives this particular bass a warm but punchy attack with a medium finish.  These basses are light and extremely comfortable in the lap as well as on strap.

It's good to see so much money going to such a good cause, as well as such an amazing bass going to a good home!!

Parker's Mood Bass Line

Sticking with my jazz blues studies this month I've transcribed the bass line under Bird's solo on the great tune, 'Parker's Mood'. There's a lot that I've learnt from looking at this bass line, most importantly the simplicity of a good bass line!

The first thing that I noticed about this line is that out of the 24 bars (2 full choruses of 12 bars) 22 of these bars start on the root note

Lick Of The Month #5

Hey everyone! This month's lick is another walking bass lick and is one I've pulled out of my transcription for the bass line on Charlie Parker's 'Now's The Time' available here!

Below is the video for the full transcription but you can hear this month's lick at 10 seconds and again at 32 seconds.

First Stadium Gig!

A bit of a departure from jazz theory for today's post... Just to let everyone know I've just played my first stadium yippeee!!!!

The Dave Liebman Approach

I recently found Dave Liebman's website which has got a great article on how to get the most from the transcription process. It goes into great detail on how to really get into a solo once you've transcribed it. 

I've applied this approach to a Hank Jones lick, rather than a whole solo. The sheet music for these examples are below although I highly recommend doing this whole process yourself and just use anything from this post or from Dave's site as a starting point as the real benefit comes from when you've put the hours in yourself.