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40 Articles

We bass players pride ourselves on being a versatile bunch of musicians, but times change in our sector of the industry just as they do everywhere else, and if you think that being a bassist in 2021 is all about getting gigs and playing live, just like it was 20 years ago, you’ve got another think coming. Today’s best-known young bass players aren’t necessarily out there playing live, even if the pandemic allowed them to do so. No, some of the biggest earners in our business are YouTubers, Instagrammers, or TikTokers, raking in millions of bucks while the rest of us complain about our low-paying local shows. It’s time we paid our respects to these visionary musicians, all of whom have harnessed the monetizing power of social media. In this…

It’s time to get voting! Bass Player magazine is running the biggest poll of our 31-year history to decide, once and for all, who the world’s greatest living (or dead) electric or upright bass player is (or was), across several relevant categories, with the results to be published in Issue 413, on sale September 7 in North America and August 20 in the UK. Will it be a rock star? Will be a jazz icon? Will it be a hot young gunslinger, or a veteran of a long-gone era? Only you can decide, with online voting opening at our social media on July 12. Visit facebook.com/bassplayermagor twitter.com/bassplayerweb before August 4 and make your choices!…

NEWASSUME NOTHING COLUMN LAUNCHES IN BP

Hi, and welcome to Assume Nothing, the place where you can have an honest conversation about challenges we all face as a musician. It’s also where you can find insights from those who have been through similar situations, allowing you to feel confident and supported. I’ve been a professional bassist and multi-instrumentalist for over a decade. I play in the indie folk band Unkle Bob, who have recently got back together after a nine-year hiatus. I’m fortunate to have experienced a lot of highs throughout my career—but I’ve also seen some awkward situations, ones that I’m not alone in experiencing. One issue that resonates with colleagues of mine, mostly women, is that we spend a large amount of time talking to people who assume we don’t know what we’re doing.…

NEWASSUME NOTHING COLUMN LAUNCHES IN BP

You will recall the unusual signature bass which Vulfpeck bassist Joe Dart developed with Ernie Ball a couple of years back. The limited-edition run sold out rapidly, but anyone who missed out will be pleased to hear that two all-new full- and short-scale models are on the way. We haven’t played them ourselves, but EB tell us that the new basses are equipped with lightweight ash bodies, maple necks, and streamlined control layouts. The smaller model will be limited to 50, so order one now if short scales are your slab of funk.…

Stevie Wonder, ‘I Wish’ (1976) Back in the Seventies, you could write simple bass parts and they sounded cool because no-one had written all the good lines yet. This applies in abundance to Stevie Wonder’s remarkable ‘I Wish’— up there with ‘Sir Duke’ in terms of sheer funkability, but somehow even more catchy. The great Nate Watts was responsible for this supremely cool line, and remains a hero in our world for this and many more iconic parts.…

SPEAKING FRANKLY

Anthrax bassist Frank Bello has announced the publication of his autobiography, Fathers, Brothers, And Sons: Surviving Anguish, Abandonment, And Anthrax, set for release by Los Angeles publisher Rare Bird in October. Bello’s co-writer is Bass PlayerEditor Joel McIver, and the book comes with a foreword by Kiss bassist Gene Simmons. “This book has been a long time coming. Bass made me who I am!” Frank Bello Bello, bassist with the New York thrash metal band Anthrax since 1984, grew up in difficult circumstances. With an absent father and no male role model, Frank found inspiration in bass players, following their example and forging a career with Anthrax from his early teens, first as a roadie, and then as the group’s bass player. International stardom came Frank’s way by the mid-to-late…

SPEAKING FRANKLY

IN THE Groove MADONNA : THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION (SIRE, 1990)

Madonna’s lengthy career has encompassed many, many different areas of activity. Movies, businesses, philanthropy... you could almost forget that under all the white noise there is a talented songwriter. We like a lot of her songs here at BP, although we think her early stuff was her best, and especially the songs gathered on 1990’s Immaculate Collection, possibly the finest ever best-of album after Queen’s Greatest Hits. From a bass player’s point of view, there’s tons of fun to be had with this album: Maddy—or her MD, more likely—roped in some serious low-frequency talent for the 17 songs here, even discounting the large number in which a tinny synth bass appears, for example on ‘Material Girl’. Let’s face it, if you invite players like Bernard Edwards and Anthony Jackson to…

IN THE Groove MADONNA : THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION (SIRE, 1990)

Tony Levin’s stellar career in progressive rock, jazz, and world music can be tracked through an estimated 500 album appearances. He has been a long-term member of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel’s band, as well as his own outfit, Stick Men, which he formed in 2010. Whether playing a traditional electric or stand-up bass, occasional keyboards, or the Chapman Stick with its blend of bass and high-register strings, Levin has always been in demand as a session player. He has worked with John Lennon, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Paul Simon, and Stevie Nicks, and has toured extensively with Herbie Mann, Peter Frampton, Judy Collins and many more. An innovator and sonic explorer, his inventive methods of manipulating his equipment with all manner of weird and wonderful household goods are legendary.…

Three decades ago, Metallica released the biggest metal album of all time... On August 12, 1991, the Californian/Danish heavy metal band Metallica released their fifth record, a self-titled effort usually known as ‘the Black Album’. Packed full of bass courtesy of Jason Newsted, the record was a first in that sense for Metallica, whose previous albums had focused more on guitars and drums. Indeed, their most recent LP, the otherwise admirable 1988 release ...And Justice For All, had included no audible bass whatsoever. As drummer Lars Ulrich accurately said at the time: “The bass guitar has always been this weird instrument in the band, it’s always been overlooked. With Jason I guess we misfired on Justice, but this time around I didn’t want to make the same mistake, so early…

RETURNING TO THE CROWDS

Welcome back, ‘itching-to-gig’ bass players! This is part three of my post-pandemic live performance column, on our continuing mission to rebuild the skills necessary for playing live. In this issue, I’ll be addressing the potential anxieties of getting back on stage again, hopefully to be faced with a great many more people than we have been used to over the last year or so. Even if you feel that the transition back will be an easy one, and you’re ‘born to play live’, I think—if we’re truly honest—there are some doubts in all of our minds about what our first few gigs back will look and feel like. Anxiety is essentially born from pressure and fear of the unknown. If we unpack these further, the real pressure that accompanies live…

RETURNING TO THE CROWDS

COMPOUND RADIUS

Ace luthier Rob Elrick brings decades of wisdom to the table. Listen up as he delivers the verdict! Last month, we discussed the basic rules of understanding fretboard radius. Today, let’s delve into the more complicated concept of compound radius. Now, while a fixed radius can easily be visualized as the cross-section of a circle, a compound radius is actually the cross section of the surface of a cone. Like a cone, a compound radius fretboard does not maintain a regular fixed radius along its length—its surface radius changes from one end to the other. A common compound radius for bass guitar is 12” to 16”, with the smaller radius at the headstock end of the fretboard: This becomes progressively larger along its length. So how is a fretboard with…

COMPOUND RADIUS

USING ALTERED SCALES OVER DOMINANT CHORDS

It’s that time again, theorists! This month’s column leads on from our previous investigation into various types of dominant scales and modes. Ready? The Altered Scale derives its name from the fact that it has the most ‘altered’ tensions of any seven-note scale in western harmony. It’s found on the seventh degree of melodic minor, the seventh mode. If we identify chord tones and extensions in the usual way for tertiary harmony, we would find ourselves with a min7 b 5 chord. While this is theoretically correct, it has a more widespread application as a scale that we can employ over dominant chords because it contains a root, major 3rd and b 7th. The ‘altered’ description gets its name from the fact that both a raised and flattened ninth are…

USING ALTERED SCALES OVER DOMINANT CHORDS

THE FUTURE IS HERE Let’s meet them!

For the first, say, 50 years of the bass guitar’s existence, the idea was that if you wanted to build a career on the instrument, first you worked privately to master it, then you recorded music onto pieces of plastic, and then you went out and played the bass in front of people. That was how you got a) known, and b) paid. Times are a-changing, though, and thanks to the rise of the internet from being merely a communications medium to an essential part of everyday life, playing bass on YouTube and social media is how a lot of musicians make their living. We at Bass Player magazine feature these new musicians from time to time, but we’ve never devoted our cover to these innovative people until now. Why…

THE
FUTURE IS

HERE Let’s meet them!

9.43M YOUTUBE SUBS 840K INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS 833K FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS 262K TIKTOK FOLLOWERS 141K TWITTER FOLLOWERS Davie, we know you were born in 1994, but no-one knows much about your early life. I grew up in a very beautiful town near the beach called Albisola Superiore, near Genoa in north-west Italy. Before bass I had other passions such as astronomy and geology: I loved to collect minerals. Italy winning the 2006 World Cup really inspired me to start playing soccer as a goalkeeper—I am very tall—and becoming one of the best goalkeepers was my goal. Unfortunately, while I was good in training, I just didn’t have the right mindset, and I would get very anxious while playing official matches, so after a few years I quit, and switched to bass. I…

1M TIKTOK FOLLOWERS 443K INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS 76.2K YOUTUBE SUBS Welcome to Bass Player magazine, Blu. Thank you. I’m a big fan, so it’s really cool to do this. You’re having a crazy year. Yeah, it’s been pretty crazy. I think it was part of the game plan, though. All the accomplishments the past year have definitely been goals of mine, but I just didn’t know or think that it would happen this fast. I hoped that all this stuff would happen eventually, but I never would have anticipated this accelerated growth. Have you got good people around you, supporting you through all this? Yeah, definitely. My family and my team. Everyone’s really good. I’m very, very careful with that. When did you start playing bass? I started when I was…

The following numbers are necessarily approximate because information varies so much between sources, but a quick consultation of a few different websites indicates that we’re in the right ballpark here. We’re just talking about income from YouTube views, not any other ancillary deals that might follow from sponsors, merchandise sales or whatever. Say you shoot a film, stick it on YouTube, and a million people watch it. Depending on where these people are, how much of your film they watch, if they watch the ads that come with your video, and depending on what those ads actually are, you might reasonably expect to end up earning between $2,000 and $10,000 after YouTube’s deductions. Davie504’s most popular clip currently stands at 32 million views, and a quick look at his video…

DARRELL FREEMAN

288K INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS 21K TIKTOK FOLLOWERS 8.7K YOUTUBE SUBS You have a large online following. Are you in personal contact with these people? Well, I do work with some of them: People that send a message, like ‘Hey, can you play bass on this?’ And sometimes there’s a few celebrities that might ask me ‘Do you want to work on this?’ I try to interact where I can. I love your synth bass versus real bass videos. Was the idea to open people’s minds to the fact that bass can come from another source? Oh, thank you. Yeah, definitely. I’m always trying to stick in more synth bass when I can. I have a piano keyboard background so it’s very easy for me. How much of your session work is…

DARRELL FREEMAN

CHARLES BERTHOUD

28K TIKTOK FOLLOWERS 652K YOUTUBE SUBS 94K INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS What does your daily routine look like, Charles? YouTube takes up about 80 percent of my time, whether that’s recording, editing, uploading, or promoting on social media. I do record on the side, as a traditional session bassist, for websites like Fiverr. I do it all except the YouTube thumbnails, which my fiancée does for me. I might try and outsource some of the video editing at some point, but at the moment, it’s pretty much all me. You have 650,000 or so subscribers on YouTube. Are those numbers important to you? Well, it’s all relative. Three years ago, that number of subscribers would have seemed crazy to me, because I only had 3000 or something at that time. I’m really…

CHARLES BERTHOUD

258K INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS 93K TIKTOK FOLLOWERS How are you, April? I am fuckin’ thrilled! Bass Player magazine is talking to me now. It feels incredible. Well, if you go on social media playing bass to thousands of people, these things happen. Apparently. It’s wild. How much time do you spend playing bass, as opposed to all the other stuff that you do? Well, three years ago, my band IMANIGOLD—which is fronted by my sister Nikki and me—put out a single, and we did a big fundraiser to raise money to build a home studio. When we did that, I neglected to realize that it meant that I would have to learn to produce. That’s been a three-year process, where I’ve been basically teaching myself to produce. Throughout that, I’ve gotten…

Nilanjana Ghosh Dastidar Phenomenal, high-speed bassist in the metal realm Daric Bennett Founder of his own Bass Academy Aldana Ace Solo bass player Chris ‘9Goma’ Goma Multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Julia Hofer Austrian slap and tap specialist Ana Karina Sebastião Supremely funky chops Yuki Atori Fusion prodigy from Japan Vincen Garcia A slapper supreme Fernando Rosa The funk runs deep in this one Giane Rangel Thumb-friendly lines from Brazil…

Few bass players have as impressive a pedigree as Hull-born Trevor Bolder, who began his musical career playing cornet and trumpet in brass bands. After switching to guitar and then bass, he hooked up with his guitarist friend Mick Ronson, with whom he played gigs in the Hull area. Recruiting drummer Woody Woodmansey in 1970, Bolder renamed his band Ronno, only for the entire group to be adopted the following year by none other than David Bowie, who rechristened them the Spiders From Mars. They appeared on three seminal albums, including Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane and Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, before their association with Bowie ended in 1973. Bolder then toured with Ronson’s band before joining the venerable progressive rockers Uriah Heep in 1976, as a replacement…

As part of one of the most legendarily eardrum-obliterating bands of all time, Dinosaur Jr. co-founder Lou Barlow naturally courses plenty of powerful-yet-poppy, gain-cranked bass-lines throughout Sweep It Into Space, the Massachusetts-based trio’s 12th album overall, and fifth since reforming their classic line-up in 2005. Live, he’s happily decimating crowds with multiple stacks. It’s trickier in the studio, however, with the bassist admitting he’s still seeking an idyllic boom to best complement—or perhaps compete with—the screaming leads of guitarist J Mascis. “To be perfectly honest, it’s hard to get a recorded sound with Dinosaur Jr. that I feel is there,” he reveals. “Because of the nature of the way the records are mixed, the bass really gets pushed back in the mix. I have a fighting chance live—I’ve got my…

Do yourself a favor and pick up Mo Foster & Friends In Concert, which its creator hails as “some of the very best musicianship that I’ve ever captured on one of my own recordings”. On the eve of release of the album, Mo takes time out to reflect with BPon his diverse portfolio, kicking off with a snapshot of life in Swinging London. “In the mid-Sixties, you have to understand that there was jazz and then there was rock. They were two separate genres of music that had nothing to do with one another—at that time, there was no crossover. It wasn’t until a couple of albums by Miles Davis and Blood, Sweat & Tears that the artistic lines began to blur. Davis bought in electric piano and electric bass,…

STUART HAMM MEETS ARIANE CAP

STUART HAMM Ari, you’re my closest musical neighbor in Los Angeles. I’ve really valued your friendship over the years. We go hiking, we go for coffee, I take Logic lessons with your lovely husband. It’s great. ARIANE CAP Remember how we first met? My husband and I were at a branch of Whole Foods in Los Angeles, and all of a sudden, my husband says, ‘You know that bass player you were talking about? I think that’s him over there’. SH Later, we met at a Warwick Bass Camp in Germany, and you told me that you’d seen me at Whole Foods, and we figured out that we lived five miles apart in LA. AC Right! After that you sent me a text saying you were going on a solo…

STUART HAMM
MEETS
ARIANE CAP

“Pino Palladino strikes me as someone whose heart is in the right place. I think that matters in music” What was your way into bass, Angeline? I started playing bass in our high school jazz band when I was 15 years old. We were lucky enough to have one of those special teachers who goes the extra mile. He booked our band on a handful of cruise ships where Joe Henderson, Les McCann, and Roy Hargrove were playing. I remember being 16 years old and watching them perform, totally transfixed. It was a magical time in my life and also the root of my love affair with the bass, jazz, and all things music. What was your first bass guitar? A 1979 Musicman Sabre. I still have it. Which other…

CHARVEL Pro-Mod San Dimas PJ IV and JJ V

$899 $999 Without diving completely into a nostalgic Stranger Things and Ready Player One rabbit-hole, let’s just say that these vivid, almost day-glo basses from the most Eighties bass brand of them all, Charvel, take us instantly back four decades. That is, let’s be honest, a huge part of their attraction, just as it was for all those lime-green BC Rich and Jackson basses that infested MTV back then. Presumably Fender—Charvel’s owners since 2002—are aware that nostalgia doesn’t necessarily equate to quality, which is why their designers have loaded these relatively affordable basses with player-friendly features. Still, the very name ‘San Dimas’ is utterly Bill and Ted, right? And the ‘Pro-Mod’ designation—which apparently means ‘hot-rodded’—is pure skateboard half-pipe. Let’s plug and play, dudes... I mean, readers. Build Quality For a…

CHARVEL Pro-Mod San Dimas PJ IV and JJ V

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Charvel Pro-Mod San Dimas PJ IV (JJ V) Price| RRP $899.99 ($999.99) MSRP Made In| Mexico Body| Alder Neck| Caramelized maple, reinforced with graphite rods, 34” scale (35” scale) Neck join| Bolt-on Fretboard| Caramelized maple, 20 frets, GraphTech nut Pickups| DiMarzio Model P DP122 (middle), Model J DP123 (bridge) (Area J DP550 [middle], Area J DP551 [bridge]) Controls| Volume, pickup blend, three-band active EQ Hardware| Charvel chrome (gold) tuners and hi-mass bridge Weight| 8 lbs (8.5 lbs) Left-hand option available| No Case/gig bag included| No WHAT WE THINK Plus| Comfortable body, great EQ, insanely playable neck Minus| Pickups don’t sound very different Overall| Not just an exercise in nostalgia BP RATING BUILD QUALITY SOUND QUALITY VALUE…

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

SPECTOR NS Ethos 4SFB

Spector’s years of experience in making some of the best basses available really shines through $1799.99 SPECTOR www.spectorbass.com Since the Eighties, Spector have moved much of their production to outside of the US, either to the Czech Republic where their Euro-branded basses are made, or to one of several factories in Asia, where their new NS Dimension and Ethos ranges are manufactured—in Korea, to be precise. Several of New York’s bass-making elite have followed a similar business model—so what’s the outcome in the case of the venerable Spector brand? Build Quality The good news is that after some quality time with this new Ethos, I can report that the standards of build and finish from Spector’s Asian division seem to be as good as ever. This new Ethos is available…

SPECTOR NS Ethos 4SFB

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Price| $1799.99 Made In| Korea Body| Maple with burl poplar top Neck| Maple, 34” scale Neck Joint| Through neck Nut width| 40mm Fingerboard| Rosewood Frets| 24 Pickups| Aguilar AG-P (neck) Aguilar AG-J-HC (bridge) Electronics| Aguilar OBP-2 active preamp Controls| 2 x pickup volumes, Bass and Treble cut/boost Hardware| Gloss black Weight| 8.4 lbs Case/gig bag included?| Yes Left-hand option available?| No WHAT WE THINK Plus| Film-star good looks and some of the best electronics available Minus| The two available colors might not be for everyone Overall| A desirable Spector at a price that is achievable for more players BP RATING BUILD QUALITY SOUND QUALITY VALUE…

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

NEURAL DSP Quad Cortex

$1849 NEURAL DSP https://neuraldsp.com/quad-cortex Howdy, folks. You may know me as the Editor of Bass Gear Magazine, and you may ask, “What is Tom doing in the pages of Bass Player?” Well, being a bass player means embracing the role of collaborator and supporting those around you. This extends to the larger bass community, and I am honored to contribute an article to a fellow publication. Of course, when the product your buddy Joel McIver asks you to review is this freaking cool, it makes the decision even easier! The Quad Cortex from Neural DSP is a modeling pedal which can replicate the functions otherwise provided by your favourite pedals, heads, and even cabs. You can use it without an amp or cab—in the studio, for example, or live with…

NEURAL DSP Quad Cortex

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Price| $1849 Made In| Finland Controls| 7” multi-touch colour display, 11 dual-function rotary footswitches, volume knob, power switch Presets| 10 setlists, 256 presets per setlist Number of effects| 70+ Amp Modelling| 50+ amps, Neural Capture technology Impulse Response| 1,000+ IRs, third-party IR support Inputs| 2 x XLR-1/4” combo (instrument/ mic), 2 x 1/4” (return 1/2) Outputs| 2 x XLR, 2 x 1/4” TRS, 2 x 1/4” (send 1/2) MIDI I/O| In, Out/Thru, USB USB| 1 x Type B Other I/O| 2 x 1/4” (expression 1/2), 1 x 1/4” (capture signal out) Features| Wi-Fi (preset sharing, firmware updates), 2GHz Quad-Core SHARC Processors, 7” multi-touch display Software| Neural CNS mobile app Weigh| 4.2 lbs Dimensions| 11.4” x 7”x 2” Power| 12V DC, power supply included WHAT WE THINK Plus| Ridiculously powerful, easy…

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

LANEY Laney Digbeth DB500H Amp, DBV212-4 Cabinet

Both $749 EMD MUSIC www.emdmusic.com Lyndon Laney started producing bass amplification back in 1967, and some 54 years later, this new Digbeth-branded range celebrates the company’s beginnings and heritage. With two amplifiers, three cabinets, and several FX pedals on offer, there’s something to suit most budgets and playing requirements. We’ve matched the more powerful of the two amps with the new 2x12 cabinet for a portable partnership that should suit more or less any working bassist. Build Quality The cab is covered with a rugged black vinyl and white piping, finished off with a tough cloth grille to protect the speakers: The same material has been used on the amp for a uniform visual. The amp is well-proportioned, making it easy to carry and transport without being overly heavy, weighing…

LANEY Laney Digbeth DB500H Amp, DBV212-4 Cabinet

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

LANEY DIGBETH DB500H AMP Price | $749 Made in | China Power | 500 watts @ 4 ohms (minimum load 4 Ohms) Features | Input, FET volume, FET/Tube selector switch, Tube Drive, Tube Volume (push/pull for FET Mix), Bass, four pre-shape Mid selector, Mid, Treble, Tilt, Run/ Mute selector switch, Speakon/jack combi output socket, Tuner output, Remote input, Send/Return sockets, FX loop level switch, 3.5mm Aux In and level control, Headphone output and level control, Line Out level, Emulated output/DI output selector, Balanced XLR DI output socket, Ground/Lift switch, pre/source/post EQ output switch Dimensions | 8” (H) x 16.5” (W) x 8.7” (D) Weight | 15.7 lbs LANEY DIGBETH DBV212-4CABINET Price| $749 Made in| China Power| 500 watts @ 4 ohms Impedance 4 ohms Speakers| 2 x 12-inch HH Black…

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

I SPY... 62 RYAN MADORA Dig into your favorite bass parts... and discover treasure! Ryan Madora is one of Nashville’s most sought-after touring and session bassists. Recent touring and session credits include Robben Ford, Kyshona Armstrong, and her instrumental trio, The Interludes. For the past five years, she has served as musical director for Bobby Bones and has played with Garth Brooks, Darius Rucker, and Carrie Underwood. In addition to instructing at Nashville’s campus of Musician’s Institute, Ryan has taught at Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp, Rock’n’Roll Fantasy Camp, and at universities across the USA. She has contributed columns to No Treble for over a decade and in 2019, published her first book, Bass Players To Know: Learning From The Greats. Ryan offers online education at TrueFire and her website.…

BP Notation Legend

The Stave: Most music written for the bass guitar uses the bass clef. The example to the right shows the placement of the notes on the stave. Tablature: This is a graphical representation of the music. Each horizontal line corresponds with a string on the bass guitar, with the lowest line representing the lowest pitched string (E). The numbers represent the frets to be played. Numbers stacked vertically indicate notes that are played together. Where basses with five or six strings are required, the tablature stave will have five or six lines as necessary. PLAYING TECHNIQUES SLAP AND POP TECHNIQUE Notes slapped with the thumb are marked with a ‘t’, notes popped with the fingers marked with a ‘p’. ADVANCED SLAP TECHNIQUE Fretting hand slaps are marked ‘lh’ and double…

BP Notation Legend

SEVENTH CHORDS: MIXING AND MATCHING

Hey there, bass players! Since we’ve spent the past few columns learning about seventh chords, I’m sure you’ve been waiting with bated breath to see how they can be mixed and matched. Lucky for you, the wait is over! Let’s combine our major seventh, dominant, and minor seventh chords. So far, you may have recognized a theme in this series. We learn about chords or scales with major tonalities, apply them to a I-IV-V progression, and then adapt them to minor. That’s a great way to practice concepts while dealing with consistent chord qualities. Now that we’re mixing and matching, it’s time to familiarize ourselves with a new chord progression—the notorious ii-V-I. Chances are, you know that this chord progression has a jazzy reputation, similar to how I-IV-V is associated…

SEVENTH CHORDS: MIXING AND MATCHING

LEARN THE NOTES ON THE NECK

Welcome to another lesson, everyone! Consider this... When it comes to playing any piece of music, there are three ways we can understand what’s going on—and these ways form a triangle. At the most basic, the three ways are what the music sounds like (ear training), what the notes are called (theory), and how the music maps out on the bass (technique). Each of these can be developed in a number of ways. Ear training can develop beyond just being able to recognize musical notes by ear, to us hearing intricate harmonies and imagining all kinds of possible sounds in our heads for altering and developing the music. Our theory knowledge obviously extends way beyond note names to understanding of keys, chords, unusual scales, and the ways that chords build…

LEARN THE NOTES ON THE NECK

THE MELODIC MINOR EXPLORED

Hello again! Being able to understand and utilize harmonization is a critical component of every musician’s ongoing development. Harmonization is the process of producing a different chord on each diatonic step of a parent scale. These structures are then placed in a sequential order to produce a progression. Once this is familiar to you, you’ll be able to analyze chord progressions and assign suitable melodic vocabulary to them. Whether this process is used to produce an impromptu bass fill, or the development of a virtuoso solo, the method is the same; if you know how the harmonies work, then you know the right notes! Let’s look at minor tonality, not to be confused with the minor scales found in major harmony—Dorian, Phrygian, and so on. Although there is a crossover,…

THE MELODIC MINOR EXPLORED

LEARN TO PLAY LIKE MARK KING

Hello, and welcome back to my long-running Advanced Techniques series. Over the past few instalments, we’ve been taking a detailed look at the playing techniques of some of the world’s best-known slap bassists. So far, we’ve looked at icons such as Larry Graham, Stanley Clarke, and Marcus Miller, and in this month’s instalment we’ll be analyzing the work of Mark King, one of the UK’s most popular bass players. King has fronted the pop/funk group Level 42 for over 40 years, with the group racking up sales of over 30 million albums along the way. Although they’re best-known for their Top 40 hits during the Eighties, the band began as an instrumental jazz-funk outfit which slotted in perfectly with the popular Britfunk movement of the late Seventies. Originally a drummer,…

LEARN TO PLAY LIKE MARK KING

A BRIDGE TOO FAR?

Hello again, and welcome to the end of the magazine! We’ve spent a lot of time discussing the electronics on board our bass guitars and in our amps, so let’s take a look at another important area of tech—our bass hardware. Although much of this hasn’t radically changed in its function since the electric bass first appeared back in the Fifties, advances in technology have led to better quality and a smoother operation, giving us a more precise performance platform. First, let’s take a look at bridges. What does a bridge actually do? In simple terms, it anchors the strings at the opposite end of the bass to the tuners. In the case of a headless bass, the bridge is also home to the tuning gear. Like anyone plays a…

A BRIDGE TOO FAR?

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