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41 Articles

Movie stars love playing bass too. We know, because we asked one.

When I first found out that Jason Momoa was a bass player as well as a star of cinema and TV, I assumed that for him, perhaps bass was merely a hobby: a way to pass the time on set. Believe me, I couldn’t have been more wrong. As I found out when I sat down with Jason at opposite ends of a recent Zoom call, the man is obsessed with our instrument to the point where it has become a cornerstone of his personal philosophy, just as it is for you and me. This was his first ever interview about his love of playing music, he told us, and it reveals a completely different side of his character. Despite his fearsome exterior (he didn’t play Conan, Aquaman, and Khal Drogo…

Movie stars love playing bass too. We know, because we asked one.

Yamaha has announced the extremely limited-edition Peter Hook Signature BB bass. Hooky, best known as the bassist and founding member of Joy Division and New Order, has played BB basses for decades, starting with the 600 model and graduating to the 1200S. The new signature bass combines elements of the latter model, of which he owns seven, with aspects of the BB734A which he currently plays on tour with Peter Hook & The Light “It’s such a compliment to be recognized for what you’ve done,” says the great man, a frequent cover star in this magazine over the years. “To have it come full circle and culminate with my own signature bass, made to my specs and to satisfy my playing, is such an honor, and I’m very happy with it.…

No. 2: Rush, ‘Digital Man’ (released 1982) When Geddy Lee’s Rush hit what was arguably their creative peak in the late 70s and early 80s, they simply could not be stopped. Okay, ‘Digital Man’ may have a theme which has aged a little in the modern era, but Lee’s twisty, rock-solid bass-line gave the song an edge which the years have not diminished. Lee alternated between a J-Bass and his trusty Rickenbacker 4001 on the Signalsalbum, and his mastery of the instrument is at its finest during these unparalleled six minutes.…

Vintage have added a four-string electro-acoustic bass to its Statesboro’ series of guitars, designed like the other models in the series by guitarist and blues historian Paul Brett. Promoting a ‘bluesman on a budget’ theme, the bass comes with a satin matt Whisky Sour finish, an all-mahogany construction and gold-plated die-cast machine heads. The neck is also mahogany and has 20 frets, while Vintage’s three-band preamp, phase switch, tuner display, and low battery indicator make the bass a user-friendly item. Ernie Ball has recently announced a new range of Ball Family Reserve models, among them two basses—a Stingray 5 Special in Kinetic Blue, and the equivalent four-string in Natural Okoume. For the recent birthday of the late Jaco Pastorius, bassist Alex Lofoco has released an instructional book of lessons called Contemporary Bass…

NEW TRACE ELLIOT COMBOS

The three-band rotary equalizer is said to emulate the response of classic Trace Elliot multi-band graphic EQ filters Like many of our colleagues in the bass community, we were very taken with Trace Elliot’s highly portable ELF head when it appeared a couple of years back, so we’re keen to get our hands on the longstanding amp-makers’ new combos from the same range. Again designed to be lower back-friendly—the press release specifically states “an ultralight, ultra-portable package that players can carry in one hand,” which your chiropractor will appreciate—the range currently runs to two models. We’re told that the ELF 1x8 combo measures 12” by 10.2” by 13.3” and weighs only 17 pounds, while the 1x10 combo measures 13.3” by 12” by 14”, and comes in at 18 pounds. Bassists can use…

NEW TRACE ELLIOT COMBOS

MATTHEW SCHUMACHER THE CURSE WITHIN WHAT WAS YOUR WAY INTO BASS? Growing up, I had played the piano, so I was already familiar with musical theory. The way I got into playing bass was my friend and bandmate Eric. At our school we had talent shows, and I noticed some of the older guys would form a band and jam to some songs in front of the school. Eric came up to me one day and said that it would be cool to do this, but that his band didn’t have a bass player. It piqued my interest, as I’d always thought being in a band was cool. Fast forward to my 14th birthday, and my parents bought me a bass. We played our first song in front of the school. It…

Chicago jazz bassist Israel Crosby was born in 1919, and a mere 16 years later he was laying down the first ever recorded bass solo. ‘Blues Of Israel’, alongside Gene Krupa on drums, was one heck of a way to introduce himself as an upright bassist, and the following year he went on to feature on Teddy Wilson’s ‘Blues In C Sharp Minor’. That achievement was all the more remarkable given that Crosby had started on trumpet at the age of five, and then learned both trombone and tuba prior to taking up the double bass. Crosby went on to work with a host of names including George Shearing, Gene Ammons, Vernel Founier, and more. His work as part of the Ahmad Jamal Trio is probably his best known, with…

AHMAD JAMAL At the Pershing (1958)

The acclaimed trio of Jamal, Crosby and drummer Vernell Fournier hit big with this live LP. Although only eight tracks eventually made the final tracklisting, in total there had been 43 songs recorded from sessions at Chicago’s Pershing Hotel on January 16, 1958. Accessible and groove-filled, this highly-respected album has gone on to sell over a million copies, and enabled Jamal to open the Alhambra Club, which became the band’s established base thereafter. Crosby and Fournier are absolutely locked in together on the songs included here, giving the pop standards a serious funkiness that allowed Jamal’s jazz piano to explore and develop on top of the production, as he improvises around and against the rhythm. The trio’s calling card was and remains the sprawling, soaring, eight-minute-long cut of ‘Poinciana’, which is propelled…

AHMAD JAMAL At the Pershing (1958)

AHMAD JAMAL Ahmad’s Blues (1958)

One remarkable fact about Israel Crosby is that for a player of a notoriously huge instrument, he was on the diminutive side himself—the end pin of the bass would only extend enough to keep the body of his three-quarter-size Kay off the stage floor. But what a sound he could get from his instrument, dancing across the fingerboard with complete control from bottom to top, and a punchiness that was testament to his energetic technique. Ahmad’s Blues is indeed a bluesy album, but the trio’s slick interplay allows for some forays into swing and even mambo rhythm. Crosby’s sweetly subtle counterpoint on the title track, for example, takes the concept of walking bass and uses it to weave interest around Jamal’s tastefully busy piano. Crosby steps confidently into the spotlight for the…

AHMAD JAMAL Ahmad’s Blues (1958)

LOREZ ALEXANDRIA Deep Roots (1962)

Here, Crosby and Fournier joined trumpeter Howard McGhee, pianist and arranger John Young, and guitarist George Eskridge, to back the vocalist Lorez Alexandria, whose range and naturally smooth phrasing benefited hugely from their solid backbeat. On this LP, Crosby takes more of a backseat than he had done with Jamal, such as on the jazz-blues of ‘Nature Boy’, and the wistful ‘I Was A Fool’, with the latter featuring some easy-rider fifth and octave work. However, he cuts loose a lot more on ‘No Moon At All’, which is full of descending chromatic walking and occasional double stops. The late-night smokiness of ‘Trav’lin’ Light’ has the bassist generally working on the root, and letting the sound ring for the fullness of the beat—a lovely contrast to his sparse, staccato syncopation…

LOREZ ALEXANDRIA Deep Roots (1962)

SAM JONES & CO. Down Home (1962)

Israel Crosby was in serious demand at this point in the final years of his career, and appears here on three of the eight tracks from his fellow double bassist Jones. The bandleader also contributes cello to several songs, such as the seven-minute ‘Falling In Love With Love’, on which Crosby’s walking bass forms an ever-shifting anchor to the guitar-like solo contributed by the leader. Crosby is relentless from the first beat, holding down the rhythm while adding textural touches and syncopated elements where needed. It’s the sound of a musician at the top of his craft, and the unison passages of ‘O.P’ are testament to a technique refined over the years. It is a loss to all of us that his career was truncated so unexpectedly. The bassist’s other…

SAM JONES & CO. Down Home (1962)

GEORGE SHEARING Jazz Moments (1963)

Shearing brought Crosby and Fournier together one last time for Jazz Moments, an album of promise and quality. It was also Crosby’s final recording before his untimely death, which makes it poignant, and even painful, to listen to—hence its position here, rather than because of its quality, which is high. He is on exceptional form; by now he and the drummer were so tight they could practically brush each other’s teeth. The extent of what was lost when Crosby joined the great jazz combo in the sky is evident on his ultra-cool, even nonchalant-sounding, always technically brilliant solo work on songs such as ‘Making Whoopie’, or the smoothly-delivered fullness of the plaintive ‘What’s New?’ which is part blues regret and part silent movie soundtrack. The overwhelming vibe of the album, and indeed…

GEORGE SHEARING Jazz Moments (1963)

The Beach Boys record Pet Sounds in 1966

Has any rock concept album gone further out than Pet Sounds, the troubled Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson’s finest hour? Subject in its 55-year lifetime to a sequence of reissues, box sets, and learned analyses, the sprawling collection of songs was largely recorded in 1966 by the Wrecking Crew, the elite session musicians who appeared on thousands of hits from the era. Prominent among them was the bassist Carol Kaye, essentially the godmother of the instrument to James Jamerson’s equivalent godfather, who recalled the Hollywood studio sessions in 1998. “All we heard of [a given song’s] melody was Brian sitting down at the piano, playing it and singing it once or twice to give us the feel. The rest of the time he spent in the booth... so we never quite knew…

The Beach Boys record Pet Sounds in 1966

BUILD YOUR CONFIDENCE

Welcome back, bassists! This month, let’s dive into the often-mystifying world of confidence. I’m broaching this subject because I’m currently teaching a new cohort of live performers here at BIMM Birmingham, and helping them to adjust to the demands of performing on stage. It’s a massive topic, because performing confidently is easier said than done. The feedback I give on live performance regularly ends in discussions around ‘being more confident’ or ‘projecting confidence’, for those who don't naturally possess it. It’s important, though, because gig-goers assume bands or artists will give an assured performance, otherwise they won’t buy into it. Let’s break it down into simple steps to show that confidence is something we can control. Firstly, acknowledge that confidence is both audible and visible. We can hear hesitation in someone’s playing…

BUILD YOUR CONFIDENCE

WOOD TRENDS EXPLAINED

If you’re someone that follows market trends, you’ve probably noticed that lumber descriptions have expanded to include terms like roasted, caramelized, vulcanized, heat-treated, and torrefied. The appearance of these qualifiers has increased in the descriptions of lumber used for bass, most commonly in maple necks. These terms refer to the same process employed to alter the cellular structure of lumber—high-temperature thermal modification. But what makes heat-treated lumber different from ordinary, kiln-dried lumber? Lumber is hydroscopic, which means that it reacts to changes in atmospheric humidity, readily absorbing water as liquid or vapor. Thermally modified lumber is heat-treated in a torrefaction kiln at temperatures between 374 and 482 degrees Fahrenheit. These very high temperatures cause the natural sugars in lumber to be converted into substances less susceptible to rot, insects, mold, and…

WOOD TRENDS EXPLAINED

MASTER COOL SUBSTITUTIONS IN TURNAROUNDS: PART 1

Welcome back! Let’s look at substitutions this month. We’ve touched on this subject in previous issues, but this month we’re going to look at some fairly basic substitutions used in turnarounds, specifically a I-VI-II-V. We’re probably more likely to encounter this sequence in Western music more than any other harmonic movement—other than a I-IV-V or a straight II-V-I. Turnarounds tend to take up the last two bars of a progression. They provide an element of tension and release which marks the end of the form and the beginning of a new chorus. Think of the last two bars in a 12-bar blues, or the last two bars in a jazz standard. They return to the home key at this point—and then find their way to the V chord in the final…

MASTER COOL SUBSTITUTIONS IN TURNAROUNDS: PART 1

Lights. Camera. Bass!

When the music and cinema worlds collide, the results are often questionable. We can all name a long list of musicians who act and actors who play music, and the occasional gem aside, the crossover doesn’t usually work. Keanu Reeves tried it, Steve Martin tried it, Jared Leto tried it—and while they all gave it their best shot, there’s often something about the actor/ musician interface that doesn’t feel quite right. When I interview the actor Jason Momoa, a meeting arranged by our mutual friends at Fender, there’s none of that slightly weird overlap. Momoa’s name—or at least, his face—is known to most people because he enjoyed a cinematic hit in 2018 as Aquaman, the DC Comics character, and before that as a warrior called Khal Drogo in HBO’s Game Of…

Lights. Camera. Bass!

Robert Trujillo, Metallica

Robert: “Jason, what is your earliest memory of getting excited about the sound of the bass guitar?” “The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Sailing The Seas Of Cheese still get played monthly” Jason: “Actually, it’s funny when I think back on it. My very first album that I ever bought with my own money was The Uplift Mofo Party Plan by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The second album that I ever bought was Sailing The Seas Of Cheese by Primus. For me, it was skateboarding that got me into those bands. I was a really big skateboarder back then, I was super, super into it. I’ve always been into it my whole life, and so that was my introduction to that particular kind of funk sound. When it came to listening…

Robert Trujillo, Metallica

AQUAMAN ANSWERS

Jason fields questions from his bass heroes, right here. First up: Les Claypool of Primus! Les: “When I was young I was drawn to the bass because I thought guitar sounded thin and kinda wimpy. The bass, to me, was a much more sultry instrument. I figured by playing bass, it would help me get more ladies. In your experience, has playing bass helped you get the ladies?” Jason: “Ha ha! Wow. He’s one of my idols, Les. You know, I found my lady [Momoa’s wife Lisa Bonet], and then found the bass. And now I stay with my lady—so there is no ‘ladies’. But you know what there is? There’s one woman and lots of basses.” Les: “Sound travels 4.5 times faster underwater, therefore the clarity and definition of tone is much…

AQUAMAN ANSWERS

Frank Bello, Anthrax

Frank: “Do you get the same high when you’re jamming bass to a great song as you do when you finish acting a cool scene?” Jason: “Definitely, but I really use bass as a tool to help me be calm, and to not sit in my mind too much. It’s much like a painter, probably—to get to disappear into a kind of space that isn’t like time. I love being in that state of mind. I feel like it’s ageless, and it’s fun, the more I can learn about music theory, which I’d like to spend more time with—learning that language. Bass is like a moving meditation. I love it and I love the way the bass sounds, even when it’s not plugged in.”…

Frank Bello, Anthrax

AQUAMAN ANSWERS Tom Araya, Slayer

Tom: “Would you ever take a break from acting to do a full album cycle tour with a band?” Jason: “ Oh man. A lot of my friends are musicians and I love them, and I feel like it’s fine for them to be actors, but I don’t know, when I see actors being musicians I’m like, ‘Oh my God’. It’s just like ‘Ugh...’ It never really works out. It’s all good, and I would never want to say ‘I’ll never do anything’. I enjoy playing up there with my friends if they’re raising money for a charity, of course, because it’s always good to help—but I feel very out of place up there.”…

AQUAMAN ANSWERS Tom Araya, Slayer

That’s a sweet bass that Vincent made for you, Jason. How did it come about? Jason:“Oh, bro. It’s perfect. Amazing. Vince had made three of those, I think, and I was like, ‘Are those for sale? They’re so beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like that!’ but he said, ‘No, they’re gone’. I was like ‘Damn it. Will you please make me one?’ and he did.” Vincent, talk to us about that bass. Vincent:“For NAMM 2020, I made all the bass models I ever wanted, about 10 of them, and posted about them on Instagram. I got a lot of good reactions, and Jason contacted me through Instagram and said, ‘Hey, I like what you do—we gotta make some basses’. It was very unexpected, and incredibly cool. The first bass we worked on was…

If your life’s achievements add up to a quarter of what Ron Carter has done in his career so far, you’ll have led a first-class sojourn on this planet. Recognized as a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a major cultural honor in France, and a prestigious award no matter where you happen to live, Carter has a bewildering array of data on his resumé. We can talk endlessly about the 2,200-plus recordings that he’s completed, for which he’s earned a Guinness Book Of Records award; we can discuss his classical background and education, or his immersion in New York’s never-more-swinging jazz scene in the Sixties. We would be remiss if we didn’t mention Miles Davis, in whose immortal second Quintet he played alongside Herbie Hancock and Tony Williams; his…

ENTER THE DEAD ZONE

Just about any Deadhead is familiar with the Phil Lesh bass known as ‘Mission Control’. What is hazy are many of the details, as this bass seemed to simply disappear over 40 years ago. This astounding custom Alembic bass, with serial number 74 00008, was played by Lesh on stage with the Grateful Dead from June 16, 1974 until July 1, 1979, and was hand-built at Alembic by luthier Rick Turner. Only the eighth instrument built by Alembic, Turner started it in 1972 and completed it in mid-1974. ‘Osiris’, aka ‘Mission Control’, ‘Osage Orange’ or ‘The Omega’, was built not just for, but as part of, the band’s historic Wall Of Sound. “Used by Phil Lesh at over 250 Grateful Dead shows, the Mission Control bass has become iconic” The significance of…

ENTER THE DEAD ZONE

JON LAWHON BLACK STONE CHERRY

The Kentucky-based quartet Black Stone Cherry have spent close to two decades reaping the rewards of their successful blend of rock, metal, country, and blues—with a stable line-up that shows no sign of deviating from their chosen path. Bassist Jon Lawhon, joined by frontman Chris Robertson, guitarist Ben Wells, and drummer John Fred Young, is on super-solid form on BSC’s new album, The Human Condition, recorded in his own facility, Monocle Studios. If you’re interested in finding out about the principles that have kept this band sane and loaded with epic bass parts, read on... Find the right band “It’s essential that you find like-minded people to play music with. The goal is to achieve a level of success that will allow you to travel all over the world and do what…

JON LAWHON BLACK STONE CHERRY

We’re so used to thinking of our fingers moving towards the floor when we play an ascending bass part that it comes as something of a shock to see the unique former Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip in action. Not only does he play a left-handed bass, he strings it upside-down, in other words his low B string is physically lower than his high C. Add to this his phenomenal ability when it comes to fast soloing, and your brain ends up tied in knots. Fortunately we have the great Grammy-winning bassist right here, 69 years old and full of energy, ready to talk about his unorthodox technique, some of the many albums on which it appears, and his memories of taking bass lessons 46 years ago with a certain J. Pastorius... Have…

Photography: Keith Price Mr. Bungle, the California-based five-piece, were formed in 1985, and have always inhabited slightly vague musical territory in their sporadic periods of activity since then. Their singer Mike Patton is better known for his work with Faith No More, who tip a hat to the more eclectic work of Bungle from time to time, but who generally remain much more digestible in their approach. In 2021, however, Mr Bungle are arguably enjoying a higher profile than FNM for the first time, thanks to an astounding album they recently released on Patton’s label, Ipecac. The album, The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo, is a modern reworking of the 1986 demo of the same name. Back then it was a cassette of attempts to play thrash metal; the just-released…

My dad was an awesome drummer and all-around musician, and he always had instruments lying around the house, so I was always checking things out and tinkering around. When I was about 12, he decided to build his own electronic kit and got into MIDI recording, and he asked me to learn ‘So Lonely’ by the Police on his bass so he could try capturing a live bass and drums take. I was obsessed with the way the bass combined both melody and rhythm, and basically haven’t put it down since. I learned every CD in the house, and thanks to my mom, we had a killer collection. She was the only mom I knew who listened to Alice In Chains, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana. My dad and I always…

Behold our world-beating bass gear review section, where we bring you the crop of each month’s new, interesting or otherwise relevant bass guitars, bass amplifiers, bass cabs, and bass effects. Occasionally we’ll review a guitar effect if it’s useful for bassists, but generally speaking, this zone is reserved for bass-specific gear. We take our reviews seriously. BP is the last English-language print magazine devoted solely to bass in the world, and we have readers all over the planet, so we’re responsible about our conclusions. If a product is worth your time, we’ll say so; if it’s flawed, we’ll make that clear. We’re not answerable to advertisers in any way, and our tests are independent of the views of musicians, manufacturers, and distributors. When you read about a product here, you’re getting a…

EPIPHONE Jack Casady

GIBSON www.gibson.com $799 Launched in 1997 and designed personally by sometime Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna bassist Jack Casady, this semi-hollow-bodied bass guitar has enjoyed more or less consistent acclaim since then for its tones, feel, and build. As the lack of a solid body and its resolutely old-school look has led some of our community to assume that the Epiphone JC lacks versatility, our mission today is to take a deep dive into the performance of the 2021 version, and see what it can actually do. Into the psychedelic rabbit-hole we go... Build Quality Without wishing to sound too much like a dewy-eyed nostalgist, this bass feels like an artifact from another era when you slide it out of its gigbag. The shallow, wide body occupies more of a footprint against your abdomen…

EPIPHONE Jack Casady

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Price| $799 Made In| Korea Body| Layered maple with single-ply cream binding, Sparkling Burgundy and Faded Pelham Blue finishes available Neck| Mahogany, 34” scale Fingerboard| Indian Laurel, 20 frets Pickups| JCB-1 low-impedance humbucker Controls| Volume, tone, three-way rotary selector Hardware| Die-cast tuners, adjustable bridge and tailpiece Case/gig bag included| No Left-hand option available| No WHAT WE THINK Plus| Tone-shaping is unusual but excellent Minus| Hollow body and feel are not for everyone Overall| Far from a one-trick pony, the JC serves many purposes BP RATING…

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

LAIRAT Stega Deluxe

LAIRAT lairat.com $3990 The Stega bass, built by luthier Paul Lairat, was originally released back in 2004, and continues to be one of the company’s most popular models. Pairing a futuristic aesthetic with a versatile onboard preamp, the Stega Deluxe bass promises to be both eye and ear-grabbing, a combination that certainly has our interest piqued. Lairat’s growing artist list seems to bear this out, with the likes of Dave Marotta, Pepe Hernandez, Etienne Mbappé, Marc Guillermont, and fusion phenomenon Gabriel Severn all now using the company’s instruments. Build Quality The unusual body of the Stega has five different types of lumber: The edge splints are walnut and ebony, while the main body is mahogany with a wenge veneer. Various different kinds of lumber are available from Lairat, but our review model is topped…

LAIRAT Stega Deluxe

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Price| $3990 Made In| France Body| Walnut and ebony splints, mahogany and wenge body, curly walnut top Neck| Maple, wenge, mahogany, walnut Frets| 24 Pickups| Delano Xtender Electronics| Glockenklang Controls| Stacked master volume/mids, stacked treble/bass, pickup blend, active/ passive switch, split pickup switch Hardware| PL by Gotoh, ABM bridge Weight| 9 lbs Left-hand option available|Yes Case/gig bag included| Gigbag WHAT WE THINK Plus| Great design, great tones, plays beautifully Minus| Some minor headstock dive when seated Minus| An excellent, forward-looking instrument BGM RATING…

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

BERGANTINO Forté D amp, NXT112 and 210 cabinets

BERGANTINO https://bergantino.com $999, $899, $1099 When the topic of feel or playability comes up, it’s probably fair to say that many bassists think in terms of their respective instrument, not their amp. Players don’t usually emphasize feel or playability as a chief characteristic of an amp rig, perhaps because those qualities are harder to quantify in a component that isn’t in direct contact with your hands. To most players, tone is just what comes out of the cabinet—the sound. But when you have a bass in your hands, you want it to feel good. It’s not fun when you’re fighting for every note: You start thinking too much about playing rather than performing or recording. The incredibly dynamic Bergantino Audio Systems Forté D bass amp and NXT, or Neo X-Treme Technology, speaker cabinets…

BERGANTINO Forté D amp, NXT112 and 210 cabinets

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Price | Forté D $999, NXT112 $899, NXT210 $1099 Made In | USA Power | 800W RMS output @ 2ohms, 700W RMS @ 4 ohms, 350W RMS @ 8 ohms Speaker | NXT112 12” speaker; NXT210 2 x 10” speakers Features Forté D | Four-band EQ (Bass: +/- 10dB at 65Hz; Lo-Mid: +/- 10dB at 250Hz; Hi-Mid: +/- 10dB at 1kHz; Treble: +/- 10dB at 3.5kHz), Bright switch, Adjustable BFT Drive circuit, on-board Parallel Dynamic Circuit, Aux input and headphone out, effects loop, dual Speakon outputs, studio-quality DI with selectable pre- or post-EQ and line out, tuner out NXT210 cab (NXT112 cab) | Neodymium magnet woofers, High Intelligibility Reference Series Tweeter, ported, lightweight Italian poplar with Baltic birch baffle, Black Bronco Tolex, 8 ohms, 500W (400W) RMS, phase-coherent crossover with tweeter control, 40hz-12Khz frequency response,…

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

I SPY... 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 through her website. https://ryanmadora.com Facebook ryanmadoramusic Twitter RyanMadora Instagram ryanmadora BEGINNER STEVE…

MINOR ARPEGGIOS

Hey there, bass players! In our previous column, we spied major arpeggios in their natural habitat. We learned how to use them in a ‘I-IV-V-I’ chord progression, discovered that Paul McCartney frequently put them to good use, and realized how effortlessly they provide the groove to Memphis soul classics. The next logical step is, of course, the minor arpeggio. We’ll highlight the difference between major and minor, adapt the exercises to reflect minor tonality, and discover a few aural examples of arpeggios in action. As we begin playing songs, we start to realize that it’s quite rare to have a chord progression with all major chords—even when we’re dealing with a three-chord folk, rock, or country song. A simple progression like C-Am-F includes, obviously, an A minor chord. Some players tend…

MINOR ARPEGGIOS

CHORD INVERSIONS EXPLORED

Welcome! This month we’re going to look at ways to use the notes in the chord other than the root as our bass note. The term for putting a note other than the root in the bass of a chord is a chord inversion. Ready? Let’s recap how we construct chords in a given key. Starting on any note in the key as the root of our chord, we play the next two alternate notes above it in the scale to give us the third and fifth. For example, in C Major, starting on C, we get C, E, and G to make a C Major chord. Normally, we’d start by playing the C in the bass, because the root is our first port of call for constructing a bass-line—but there…

CHORD INVERSIONS EXPLORED

UNPACK PENTATONICS

Hello again! It’s fair to say that you don’t need a degree in astrophysics to be able to play a pentatonic scale. The structures are easy to visualize, sonically accessible and also fall very conveniently under the fingertips. However, the one downside of pentatonic scales is also the very reason why we use them—their dissonant tonality is minimal due to the omittance of semitones. In other words, it’s very hard to play anything that sounds bad, as all the notes are good ones. The one downside of pentatonic scales is also the very reason why we use them—their dissonant tonality is minimal due to the omittance of semitones Still, some tension is a good thing, as it evokes resolution. The question arises: If we want to use pentatonic scales for all of…

UNPACK PENTATONICS

COMBINE MULTIPLE THUMB STROKES

Over the past few columns, we’ve been looking at the double thumbing technique and getting ourselves tangled up with some fairly complex slap lines. In the last instalment, we focused our attention on playing triplets using a down-up-pop sequence. This enabled us to play some blisteringly fast lines, as well as being a neat way to outline chords. True mastery of slap bass will mean you will be able to play lines that might otherwise be performed using the fingerstyle technique In this month’s journey into the technique, we’ll introduce an additional picking element—the second finger. This will mean that we now have four ways of playing the string with the picking hand: Thumb down and upstrokes, and pops with the first and second fingers. It seems likely that we’ll be able…

COMBINE MULTIPLE THUMB STROKES

INSIDE YOUR AMP, PART 3

Dan Veall closes this issue with a deeper dive into valve versus solid-state amps. Hey everyone! In my last two columns I looked at the workings inside a typical solid-state bass amplifier. Let’s now look at valve amps: What are they, and how do they differ from solid-state units? First of all, we tend to think of valve amplifiers as rather old technology, because the valves themselves—otherwise known as ‘tubes’, ‘vacuum tubes’, and ‘thermionic valves’—were invented as far back as the first decade of the 20th century. Valve amplifiers are still in production, of course, although in smaller numbers for us bassists compared to our guitar-playing colleagues. Let’s look at why we still love this so-called ‘old’ tech. All right then. Why should we care about valves? Well, before tiny integrated circuits such as…

INSIDE YOUR AMP, PART 3

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