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[Style Study – UBass Lesson 8] Jazz: Walking Bass | Part 2

Hi!

Finally part two is done! I decided to make my bass lines based on the backing tracks made by Jamey Aebersold. Please check these out they are really good and makes a perfect practice partner…almost as good as playing live with living breathing musicians in the same room…

If you haven’t already please check out part 1 before you continue! In the first part I try to give some background theory in the art of making/playing walking bass lines.

Time for part 2!
The tune starts of with a short intro followed by a vocal melody ‘chorus’ (the whole song form through once). The bass part is played exactly as on the Aebersold practice mp3/cd or vinyl!

During my vocal scat solo I play a improvised walking bass line. (Although not at the same time as you can see…Playing walking bass and singing a scat solo at the same time I’ll save for later 🙂

I will also write/compose a bass line based on a couple of different walking bass concepts that I will show you and analyze in part 3 of this walking bass style study. You can follow along in the ‘on-screen-sheet-music’ and/or in the PDF you can get if you’re interested. Just email me at ubasslessons@gmail.com and I’ll send you a link!

The same song form is played two times as follows:
1. As i described above (Three choruses in original tempo)
2.. As 1. but without the bass part.

In part 3 I will also analyze the bass parts in this part using a special version of the sheet music with written comments.
I will also do a slowed downed version that you can download and practice to if you want!

We will take a look at more jazz tunes in the future! I already have some suggestions but feel free to email me more at ubasslessons@gmail.com

Stay tuned! Now take out that Ubass (or any bass) and get started (or continue) to play some walking bass!

Good luck!
/Magnus

Pics from Konunga-Stollen!

If you use Facebook and haven’t already checked my playubass page please do. Like it and you can see some pics from my latest outdoor gig featuring UBasses! You can also read about stuff that don’t end up being a blog post here!

Playubass on Facebook

If the link won’t work just search for playubass and you’ll find me!

Have a nice day y’all!
/Magnus

[CD Project] Composing a new song for the UBass!

Hi!

Inspired by the beautiful surroundings in my hometown and my mothers Malmsjo piano I started writing a new tune that will hopefully end up on my upcoming UBass CD!

I used GarageBand on the iPad. I recorded the piano, guitar and more using the ‘touch-screen-keyboard’ on the iPad. I overdubbed real drums and will add a couple of UBasses playing bass parts and melody. Not sure if it will end up being an instrumental or if I’ll add lyrics… I will let you hear a sample of the tune soon!

[Gig Report] Jammin’ with my Kala UBass | 23 ”Surfboard”

Hi!

On the Brazilian Night concert mentioned in an earlier post we played the Jobim classic ”Surfboard” (Jobim). Why not play along with us! You can hear the original version in a previous post. Let me know if you want a PDF with the bass part!

If you play-along please try to mimic the surdu drum by emphasizing the second quarter note of every bar and play the first quarter note ‘lightly’. (BTW the time signature is 2/4!). To get the best effect play the first quarter note really soft. In that way you don’t have to play the second quarter note that hard to make it ‘stand out’!

These blog posts also feature Brazilian music! post post post

Good Luck!

[Rehearsal Mode] Playing music with musicians from Sao Tomé and Principe!

Hi!

Next weekend (August 24-35) I will play a nice outdoor concert/show in a closed down mining park. (Konunga-Stollen)
In this special event there will be a mixture of spoken word, music and dance and a light show to showcase this beautiful place.
The music will be quite diverse with musicians from Sweden and, as you can see above, the African country Sao Tome and Principe, an island in the Atlantic Ocean outside the West African coast. The musicians, Guilherme de Carvalho and Oswaldo Santos are cultural ambassadeurs of the island and want to help spread the word about their country.

Watch a short documentary about the music and art of Guilherme and Oswaldo and Grupo Tempo) Click this link or the picture below!

I will also try to record some music with these musicians for my UBass CD project!

Playing music with musicians from different parts of the world is really great! I truly love the universal language of Music!

[Rehearsal Mode] Playing ‘Martha My Dear’…and other songs by the Beatles!

Beatles!

Just got back from a short lunch rehearsal. This Saturday I’ll play a concert featuring music by The Beatles at Orebro Concert Hall. There will be a big choir, guest artists and a band.

Today we rehearsed two of the songs; She’s Leaving Home and Martha My Dear. These will feature a small part of the ‘ensemble’; two acoustic guitars, vocals and acoustic UBass!

On She’s Leaving Home I’ll be singing in a small vocal group behind guest artist, Mats Norrefalk (guitars, vocals).

On the rest of the songs the band will also feature a keyboard player and a drummer.

Singers
Mats Norrefalk (also acoustic guitar)
Magdalena Eriksson
Krister Kallin (also choir director)
Magnus Sjöquist (on ”She’s Leaving Home”)

Band
Fredrik Kjellgren, keyboards
Daniel Björnmo, guitars
Lasse Fhager, drums, percussion
Magnus Sjöquist, Kala UBasses and other basses

If your in the neighbourhood here’s some links:
gaffa.se
ticnet.se

Great fun! Stay tuned for more!

[Question time!] Name your favorite bass licks/riffs, lines or grooves!

Hi!

I’m trying to compile a NEW ‘best-of’ list of the best ‘bass-licks/riffs-lines-or-grooves’ of all time. ‘All-time’ could of cause mean different things but I don’t think you should limit yourself to just ‘bass-guitar’rock-stuff. Please consider upright bass as well. And I do want all genres/styles. The ‘lick/riff-line-or-groove’ could be punk, pop, country, rock, jazz, funk, soul, blues, classical…

Here are some links to other ‘greatest/best of’ lists to get you going (if you need help…).
– 150 greatest rock bass lines (YouTube-links) Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
– From a 2007 blog post about the best bass riffs according to Jon Sobel
– From Stylus magazine (2005)
– From nme.com Musics Mightiest Bass Lines. (2012)
– From blogs.riverfronttimes.com The Six Best Bass Lines Of All Times (2012)
– From musicradar.com The 25 Best Bass Lines Of All Times (2011)

These are just a few lists. Let’s make a new broad one! As I said above: All styles/genres are welcome, both UBass :-), electric bass and upright/acoustic bass and maybe even keyboard bass (!?)

Please make your suggestions in the comments, send me an email to: ubasslessons@gmail.com

or go to my Facebook page and write your favourites there!

I will try to put together a list based on YOUR answers, MY favourites and other lists I find interesting. Please help me out!

[Gig Report] Playing UBasses with a worship band

Hi!

This past Sunday I played in a worship band at a local church. I have been playing a lot in churches throughout the years but nowadays it’s not that often. This was however not just your typically worship songs and hymns. There was different styles involved from soft ballad type songs (played on my acoustic Ubass and Rob Allen MB-2) to more blues/rock oriented songs in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan played on the Kala SUB and a Ares 5-string). As you can see on the pictures I brought maybe one or two basses to many 😉 Why you might wonder? Well, I tend to like the option of getting different sounds and vary the color. Of cause you can get a lot of different tones out of one bass changing your playing technique. But I really like to have more options and for me that involves bringing different ‘brushes’ to paint with! And I got use for all the basses that day!

I also wanted to try my (quite) new Aguilar rig in this format and in a big church room. Since we played through a big EV ‘foh’ (front-of-house) PA system I really didn’t get to play very loud as the sound guy wanted to keep down the stage volume. But we did rehearse earlier that week in the same room and my rig worked really well at a louder volume too! (I went direct into the amp – no effects of compressors except for the Fishman preamp when I played the acoustic UBass).

Playing with me in the band was my University professor Lasse Fhager on drums. (I have played with him now and then throughout the years (I graduated 1996) and will play another nice gig with him in a couple of weeks – stay tuned for a report…) He played his really hip – Yamaha Hipgig kit. It sounds awesome, especially in the hands of Lasse! (I also hope to record one or two tracks with him for my UBass CD!) The MD this time was Anders Wittler who sang and played guitars and on keyboard we had Daniel Israelsson. I think the band sounded really good. It was the first time the four of us played together. I hope we will play more in the future!

BTW: The SWR 4 x 10 cabinet under my Aguilar SL-112 cab is only used as a big amp stand 😉

Jammin’ with my Kala UBass | ”Organ Jazz in Trollhattan”

Hi!

I’m exited to announce some new jammin’ buddies! Recently I was back in my hometown to visit my parents and thanks to Facebook and a bit of luck I got to jam with two great musicians! I have known Mats [drums] for a long time. He was my first sound engineer teacher back in the late ’80s. Sven [organ] is a new friend that I met for the first time on the jam! I was lucky because everything was setup for recording direct to 2-track in the rehearsal room so I got our jams on ‘tape’ too! (And some of it on video…stay tuned for some ‘videosnippet’ soon…) We decided to play some more and I hope it won’t take long ‘til it’s time for some jammin’ again!

Sven has made a great ‘shell’ for his Key B Duo organ! It’s based on the exact measurements of his original Hammond B3 (that he has in his living room!). Check out these pics. It looks absolutely lovely!

You can have a listen to some of the music that came out that night right here:

Mats and Sven have played together for many years and have a project called Hammond Voyage Concept. Check out the links below!

Myspace Facebook

If you like Hammond organ music please check out my 10th Jammin’ video too!

[Tips & Trix] A new tool for learning to play new songs on the UBass

Hi!

Although my UBass specific lessons should be your first stop when it comes to learning songs on your Ubass there are other alternatives too 😉

The other day I stumbled upon a new app and application for those of you that use iOS devices macs or PCs! It is called Jammit and is made by Jammit Inc. [ jammit.com ] The app works for iOS but a Android version is on the way.

One neat thing with the Jammit concept is that the software is free and once you buy the songs you can use them on up to five different devices. Ex. iPhone, iPad and Mac.

If you look at the songs available so far it’s a big focus on pop and rock music but it will hopefully grow and feature more styles in the future. If you have a request for a song you can use this email and make a suggestion: songrequest@jammit.com

If you have a Line 6 ‘Mobile In’ you can even get the right ‘tones’ as on the original recording. (Probably you’ll get the most out of this if you’re a guitarrist…but still…). Check out this video for more info: Line 6 and Jammit

I have only tried the demo song, 30 seconds from ‘I’ll Stand By You’ by The Pretenders and I used my Peavey AmpKit interface and my trusty Fishman Preamp. (AmpKit: Is a quite simple interface that you plug into your headphone/mic output/input on my iPad). If you use a Mac or PC you use your sound card or similar. It works really good and the fact that you have the actual original recording and the possibility to isolate the bass (or guitar, keyboard, drums or vocal if you choose to buy those versions), slow down the tempo without changing key and ‘replace’ the original part with your own makes it really useful and fun to use.

Why not give it a try 🙂