The IIB Monthly Newsletter
Volume 9, Number 1
Happy new year fellow bassists and friends!
Welcome to the latest issue of the International Institute of Bassists newsletter!
Welcome to the latest issue of the International Institute of Bassists newsletter!
Bass Abroad - Peter Muller
More than four years removed from the release of his acclaimed debut on M-Vibez in 2003, Peter Muller has produced his second solo session, The Flow. With his classic 1979 Fender Jazz bass, Muller blends funk, contemporary jazz, r&b, and soul sounds with oriental and latin elements over the course of 10 remarkable tracks that he compiled in his own Wave Island studio in Germany and released under his own label, Mullenium Records. As a sideman and leader of his own group, Muller has become a well known bass figure throughout Europe over the past two decades and is widely acknowledged for his ability to improvise heavy grooves and his profound passion for funk music. Between his own solo projects, Muller works as a recording engineer and maintains a busy schedule mixing and mastering numerous side productions for artists who are seeking to capture the Muller sound. ... Read More & Listen To "Cairo" From The Flow!
Bass Shops - Bass Northwest
Opened on March 1, 1994 by co-owners Evan Sheeley and Chad Beeler in Seattle, Washington, Bass Northwest was founded by bassists who have established a solid international reputation for providing their customers with the highest quality equipment and unparalleled customer service before and after the sale. With a huge inventory of standard 4-string bass guitars, exotic extended range instruments, electric upright basses, combo amps, and complete bass rigs to choose from, Bass Northwest is the ultimate store for bass players. Besides maintaining one of the world's largest collections of new and used bass gear, Bass Northwest offers a wide assortment of accessories including strings, straps, cables, tuners, effects, cases, gig bags, and instructional methods. Not only do they guarantee to beat any legitimate price that is quoted from another dealer, but they also offer a 72-hour trial period on major purchases. Whether you are wishing to have a one-of-a-kind bass built, check out a new amp, choose between the best accessories available, or just want to chat about bass-related equipment, Bass Northwest is the place to go for the best bass gear in the Pacific Northwest. ... Read More!
Reviews - Chris Tarry: Almost Certainly Dreaming
Firmly established as both an award-winning leader and a sideman on an international scale, Chris Tarry has released eight solo projects and is a two-time Juno Award recipient as a member of the celebrated Canadian jazz quartet Metalwood. Since relocating to New York City in 2003, Tarry's exposure has increased significantly by playing alongside some of New York's finest jazz musicians. Through sold out concert tours and festival appearances around the United States and Europe, The Chris Tarry Group has become one of the most successful bass-fronted ensembles in contemporary jazz. Featuring a cohesive core consisting of Dan Weiss on drums, pianist Henry Hey, Pete McCann on guitar, and saxophonist Kelly Jefferson, Tarry expands his dynamic repertoire with eight brand new compositions on Almost Certainly Dreaming. With his 5-string Fodera, Tarry and his group push the envelope of jazz as they navigate in and out of odd time signatures, pulsating swing feels, intricate unison lines, and intense rhythmic figures with astounding fluidity. Unlike many of the other bass-led endeavors released by his colleagues, Tarry doesn't permit his own technical prowess on bass to dominate the content of these compositions, and everyone is given ample opportunity to contribute. With each new solo session he releases, Tarry's inventive composition style and arranging skills continue to mature. After listening to this production for just a few moments, it becomes completely apparent that Almost Certainly Dreaming is contemporary jazz performance at its highest level. ... Read More!
Bass Tips Of The Week
Walking Bass Lines - The Blues
Now that we have studied the three fundamental components of walking bass line construction in jazz music including chord tones, scales tones, and chromatic approach notes, we need to work on the utilization of those techniques in a live performance application. Previously in our walking bass lines series, we used just a few choruses of the 12-bar blues as a template in an effort to demonstrate the basic building blocks of walking bass lines. In this lesson, to help replicate a live performance situation where you might be required to play a song for 10-15 minutes in duration, you will be presented with 26 choruses of the 12-bar blues in F. The primary goal of this lesson is to play through all 26 choruses without stopping and without deviating from the solid quarter note pulse. Initially, the concept of playing a steady stream of quarter notes might not seem to be all that difficult, but it can prove to be very challenging to play for an extended period of time without allowing yourself to become distracted along the way and subsequently straying from the pulse.
In addition to playing these walking bass lines, I would recommend that you commit as many of them to memory as possible. They have been written in the styles of Ron Carter, Ray Brown, and Paul Chambers, three of the greatest bassists in the history of jazz music. If you can improvise lines similar to these during a live performance, you will have absolutely no problems acquiring jazz gigs. Plus, with just a small collection of memorized lines, you can employ them over practically any other chord type just through simple note modification. For example, if you have a walking bass line that was originally played over an F7 chord change, you can use a variation of that line on an FMaj7 chord type very easily. First, make the necessary chord tone adjustments. In comparing F7 to FMaj7, the only difference in terms of chord tones is the seventh so the minor seventh of F7 will now become a major seventh when played over an FMaj7 chord change. Then, you will choose the proper scale tones as determined by chord/scale theory. In other words, if that FMaj7 chord is functioning as a major I chord in the chord progression, then you could use the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Ionian. If the FMaj7 chord is functioning as a major IV chord in the progression, then you could apply the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Lydian. To further demonstrate this concept, if you have memorized a walking bass line that was originally utilized on an F7 chord, you could use a slightly modified version of that line on Fm7. Again, you would first make the required chord tone adjustments, and if you compare the structure of F7 to Fm7, the only difference is the third. Following the chord tone modification, you would use the appropriate scale tones as suggested by chord/scale theory. If the Fm7 chord is functioning as a minor ii chord in the chord progression, then you could use the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Dorian. If the Fm7 chord is functioning as a minor iii chord in the progression, then you could apply the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Phrygian. Or, if the Fm7 chord is functioning as a minor vi in the chord progression, then you could use the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Aeolian.
First, play the lines as notated many times. Check out the mp3 play-along that I have provided, and utilize it to help replicate a live performance context. Next, transpose my lines to all of the other keys such as a 12-bar blues in Bb, Eb, and so forth. Then, use the quarter note-based lines as a basic template, and experiment with the most utilized rhythmic embellishments including skips, ghost skips, pull-off skips, hammer-on skips, slurred skips, syncopated rhythms, and triplets. Once you feel comfortable improvising your own walking lines with rhythmic embellishments on this 12-bar blues over an expanded period of time, take this concept and improvise lines on classic jazz standards using the fundamental building blocks of walking bass line construction including the triad, chordal, scalar, and chromatic approach techniques. Finally, listen to the walking bass lines of the great jazz bassists such as Ron Carter, Ray Brown, and Paul Chambers. Analyze how they use chord tones, scale tones, and chromatic approach notes along with the various rhythmic embellishments and then assimilate what you like about their lines into your own style. ... Read More!
Jazz Improvisation: Connecting The Changes With Chord Tones - Part 2
One of my favorite techniques for analyzing new tunes involves connecting the chord changes with chord tones. To demonstrate this concept, we will use the well-known, classic jazz standard "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane. Although "Giant Steps" is an advanced composition, this exercise will illustrate how you can take a formidable composition that is comprised of a challenging set of chord changes and expand your fretboard familiarity by establishing a map of the fingerboard which will in turn help generate ideas when improvising bass lines and solo phrases. ... Read More!
Now that we have studied the three fundamental components of walking bass line construction in jazz music including chord tones, scales tones, and chromatic approach notes, we need to work on the utilization of those techniques in a live performance application. Previously in our walking bass lines series, we used just a few choruses of the 12-bar blues as a template in an effort to demonstrate the basic building blocks of walking bass lines. In this lesson, to help replicate a live performance situation where you might be required to play a song for 10-15 minutes in duration, you will be presented with 26 choruses of the 12-bar blues in F. The primary goal of this lesson is to play through all 26 choruses without stopping and without deviating from the solid quarter note pulse. Initially, the concept of playing a steady stream of quarter notes might not seem to be all that difficult, but it can prove to be very challenging to play for an extended period of time without allowing yourself to become distracted along the way and subsequently straying from the pulse.
In addition to playing these walking bass lines, I would recommend that you commit as many of them to memory as possible. They have been written in the styles of Ron Carter, Ray Brown, and Paul Chambers, three of the greatest bassists in the history of jazz music. If you can improvise lines similar to these during a live performance, you will have absolutely no problems acquiring jazz gigs. Plus, with just a small collection of memorized lines, you can employ them over practically any other chord type just through simple note modification. For example, if you have a walking bass line that was originally played over an F7 chord change, you can use a variation of that line on an FMaj7 chord type very easily. First, make the necessary chord tone adjustments. In comparing F7 to FMaj7, the only difference in terms of chord tones is the seventh so the minor seventh of F7 will now become a major seventh when played over an FMaj7 chord change. Then, you will choose the proper scale tones as determined by chord/scale theory. In other words, if that FMaj7 chord is functioning as a major I chord in the chord progression, then you could use the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Ionian. If the FMaj7 chord is functioning as a major IV chord in the progression, then you could apply the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Lydian. To further demonstrate this concept, if you have memorized a walking bass line that was originally utilized on an F7 chord, you could use a slightly modified version of that line on Fm7. Again, you would first make the required chord tone adjustments, and if you compare the structure of F7 to Fm7, the only difference is the third. Following the chord tone modification, you would use the appropriate scale tones as suggested by chord/scale theory. If the Fm7 chord is functioning as a minor ii chord in the chord progression, then you could use the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Dorian. If the Fm7 chord is functioning as a minor iii chord in the progression, then you could apply the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Phrygian. Or, if the Fm7 chord is functioning as a minor vi in the chord progression, then you could use the second, fourth, and sixth scale degrees of Aeolian.
First, play the lines as notated many times. Check out the mp3 play-along that I have provided, and utilize it to help replicate a live performance context. Next, transpose my lines to all of the other keys such as a 12-bar blues in Bb, Eb, and so forth. Then, use the quarter note-based lines as a basic template, and experiment with the most utilized rhythmic embellishments including skips, ghost skips, pull-off skips, hammer-on skips, slurred skips, syncopated rhythms, and triplets. Once you feel comfortable improvising your own walking lines with rhythmic embellishments on this 12-bar blues over an expanded period of time, take this concept and improvise lines on classic jazz standards using the fundamental building blocks of walking bass line construction including the triad, chordal, scalar, and chromatic approach techniques. Finally, listen to the walking bass lines of the great jazz bassists such as Ron Carter, Ray Brown, and Paul Chambers. Analyze how they use chord tones, scale tones, and chromatic approach notes along with the various rhythmic embellishments and then assimilate what you like about their lines into your own style. ... Read More!
Jazz Improvisation: Connecting The Changes With Chord Tones - Part 2
One of my favorite techniques for analyzing new tunes involves connecting the chord changes with chord tones. To demonstrate this concept, we will use the well-known, classic jazz standard "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane. Although "Giant Steps" is an advanced composition, this exercise will illustrate how you can take a formidable composition that is comprised of a challenging set of chord changes and expand your fretboard familiarity by establishing a map of the fingerboard which will in turn help generate ideas when improvising bass lines and solo phrases. ... Read More!
News
Be sure to check out the latest books, DVD's, CD's, and gear. ... Read More!
Steve Bailey - So Low ... Solo
Peter Muller - The Flow
The New Hampshire Bass Fest
AccuGroove Synergy Bass Amplifier
Steve Bailey - So Low ... Solo
Peter Muller - The Flow
The New Hampshire Bass Fest
AccuGroove Synergy Bass Amplifier
Advertising Special On The IIB!
If you purchase a 6-month advertising package, you'll receive 2 months of advertising on the IIB for FREE! The International Institute of Bassists is a bass-centric web site aimed specifically toward the art of contemporary bass playing and the study of the bass tradition. Since its founding in 1997, the IIB has established a long-time presence on the internet and grown into one of the largest and most popular interactive bass-related web sites found online. As a viewer of the IIB, you can read exclusive interviews with bass virtuosos including Michael Manring, Stuart Hamm, Jeff Berlin, Gary Willis, Matt Garrison, Keith Horne, and Brian Bromberg to name just a few. Viewers of the IIB also have access to free, downloadable lessons which are published by a staff of highly-respected instructors such as Michael Manring, Ray Riendeau, and Berklee College of Music associate professor Jim Stinnett. In addition, viewers have access to interviews with the founders of manufacturing companies, bass shops, and bass events along with the latest bass-related news, reviews, and streaming media. ... Read More!
The IIB Giveaways
Each month, the IIB gives its viewers the opportunity to participate in various monthly giveaways. Sponsored by: D'Addario, Planet Waves, Thunderfunk, AccuGroove, Line 6, Ibanez, SWR Sound, Fender, Evidence Audio, Norstrand Pickups, Zon Guitars, Bass Specialties, and BassBooks.com. To become eligible to win products including basses, amplifiers, speaker cabinets, combo amps, effects, strings, instrument cables, pickups, gig bags, straps, gift certificates, DVD's, CD's, books, lessons, t-shirts, and more!
ENTER TO WIN TODAY! ... Read More!
ENTER TO WIN TODAY! ... Read More!
The IIB MP3 Bass Samplers - Volumes 1 & 2
The IIB MP3 Bass Samplers are comprised of selected tracks that have been recorded by many of today's premier bass artists including Marcus Miller, Michael Manring, Stuart Hamm, Gary Willis, Adam Nitti, Norm Stockton, Ray Riendeau, Tom Kennedy, Yves Carbonne, Gerald Veasley, and many more.
2 HOURS OF MUSIC! ... Read More!
2 HOURS OF MUSIC! ... Read More!
As a subscriber, you will receive the following benefits:
The IIB Monthly Giveaways - Each month, your name will be entered in all of our various giveaways providing you with the opportunity to win basses, amplifiers, speaker cabinets, combo amps, effects, strings, instrument cables, pickups, gig bags, straps, gift certificates, DVD's, CD's, books, lessons, t-shirts, and more! ... Read More!
The IIB MP3 Bass Samplers - Volumes 1 & 2 - You'll receive access to the IIB MP3 Bass Samplers which feature selected tracks that have been recorded by many of today's premier bass artists including Marcus Miller, Michael Manring, Stuart Hamm, Gary Willis, Adam Nitti, Norm Stockton, Ray Riendeau, Tom Kennedy, Yves Carbonne, Gerald Veasley, and many more. 2 HOURS OF MUSIC! ... Read More!
Bass Tips Of The Week - You will have access to a huge database of lesson material that has been written on subjects such as Classical & Jazz Music Theory, Sight Reading, Ear Training, Bass Line Construction, Right & Left Hand Technique, Soloing, Jazz Improvisation, Slapping, Tapping, Chordal Techniques, Harmonics, Fingerstyle Funk, Altered Tunings, and Concepts For Solo Bass Playing. All of the lessons are available as downloadable PDF files.
There are over 70 individual lessons and over 100 MP3 play-alongs currently available for download within the IIB Subscriber's Area.
By becoming a subscriber, you will help keep this resource online for you and others to enjoy in the future.
The IIB MP3 Bass Samplers - Volumes 1 & 2 - You'll receive access to the IIB MP3 Bass Samplers which feature selected tracks that have been recorded by many of today's premier bass artists including Marcus Miller, Michael Manring, Stuart Hamm, Gary Willis, Adam Nitti, Norm Stockton, Ray Riendeau, Tom Kennedy, Yves Carbonne, Gerald Veasley, and many more. 2 HOURS OF MUSIC! ... Read More!
Bass Tips Of The Week - You will have access to a huge database of lesson material that has been written on subjects such as Classical & Jazz Music Theory, Sight Reading, Ear Training, Bass Line Construction, Right & Left Hand Technique, Soloing, Jazz Improvisation, Slapping, Tapping, Chordal Techniques, Harmonics, Fingerstyle Funk, Altered Tunings, and Concepts For Solo Bass Playing. All of the lessons are available as downloadable PDF files.
There are over 70 individual lessons and over 100 MP3 play-alongs currently available for download within the IIB Subscriber's Area.
By becoming a subscriber, you will help keep this resource online for you and others to enjoy in the future.
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Editor: The IIB
January 2008
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Thanks so much for your continued support, and I look forward to hearing from you soon!
Editor: The IIB
January 2008
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