Yesterday I had a gig with my Kala UBass (and a few other basses…) at the Blå Måndag (Blue Monday) concert series hosted by Länsteatern (the County Theatre Company). The concept is: Meet the musicians and rehearse for a couple of hours (From 1pm-5 pm) Then make some music at the 8 o’clock! This time I played with great musician!
Christer Christensson (host for the concert), keyboards
Clas Olofsson, guitar and pedal steel
Micke Dahlén, drums
Niclas Ekholm, percussion, vocals, harmonica and guitar
Eva Stenström, lead vocals
Big thanks to all musicians and the wonderful audience!
Stay tuned for a new ”Jammin’ with my Kala UBass” video from yesterday’s performance…
Just got the news that I’ve got one of my ”Jammin’ with my Kala UBass” videos on the ”Today’s Featured Video” on the great bass community notreble.com. I found out about this because my great friends at the Ubass Appreciation Society did a blog post about this. Thanks for that!
I really love playing funk inspired music so here’s some more for ya (with some jazz thrown in) 🙂
Featured this time is my old friend Daniel Björnmo. (He has been in a couple of my previous Jammin’ clips – no. 5 and 6) and a Hammond B3 ”wizard”, Johan Edin. We did this jam after a recording session. Johan did some B3 overdubs on a upcoming CD of ”swinging” music for kids. (This band is featured in video no. 3)
We used the same drum groove as in video no. 9 and decided to do a couple of takes. You can read more about this groove here.
Jam 1 is based on this chord progression: Gmin > Bbmin > Dbmin > Emin
Jam 2 is only G minor
Jam 3 G minor blues.
As a bonus we also jammed over a jazzy drum improv by Morgan Agren from the Jazz expansion to EZDrummer/Superior Drummer. This jam is based on a jazz blues in B flat minor.
Big thanks to Johan and Daniel for your wonderful playing! Hopefully this is just the first of many more jams…Making music with these guys is truly a blessing :-))
I will probably transcribe some of the bass parts and post them here! Please let me know if you’re interested!
Well as you probably already know I really dig my Kala UBass. It’s so very good…at alot of things. As you can see above I’m even using it when I transcribe music (well I might use one of my other basses too depending on the song and style). It’s really handy with a small bass when I need to navigate the bass, keybord and computer at once!
Stay tuned for a new ”style” lesson…
”As” you (might) see on the pic it’s a song with a short title… 😉
Let’s try out some ”New Orleans”-inspired funk on the UBass! You can read more about what inspired this groove lesson here.
I’ve listened to a lot of funk with roots in New Orleans. I think that the ”rubbery” groove, that’s all over this style, makes me feel so good when I listen and play this music. It’s that really ”feel-good-wibe” that’s so cool! One of the most famous bands in this style is The Funky Meters (or Just The Meters as their name was when the started in the late 60’s. I’ve also listened to groups like Soulive, Lettuce and Dumpstaphunk…to name a few!
OK. The song is based on a groove played by one of my favourite drummers Adam Deitch (read more about him and why I choose this groove here). Download PDF here!
I jammed quite a bit on the groove and decided to record one of the jams. After that I transcribed the bass part and started to add some guitar parts. Then I added a organ and a clavinet part. Finally I through in some vocals too! Hope you like it.
Stay tuned for more grooves (with other basses and other musicians on my other blog) based on the ”Deitch-groove”! Listen to this clip [@ 5:20] for more of Adam Deitch’s drumming on a Tama Starclassic Bubinga Drum Set!
Let me know if you want me to ”break down” some part of the bass parts to clarify how I play. I can make some new ”in-depth” movies if someone is interested!
Hopefully I’ll be able to go to New Orleans (for the first time) the next time I go to the US!
OK here’s part 2 of my first UBass song lesson. It’s about learning to play the Sting classic ”Moon Over Bourbon Street” on a UBass (or any bass really). Please check out part 1 here (if you haven’t already) before you continue…
In the video below I do a version based on the original studio form. I recorded my own vocals ”on-top-of” a midi-file imported i Apple Logic. Then I played the transcription I did for a gig with Andreas Gustafsson and friends this summer.
Some thoughts about the UBass that may help you decide what version to try/buy!
I’m doing this post as a response to a couple of emails I got!
Thanks Stefan and Aron!
About the difference between the fretted and fretless UBass:
I haven’t played the fretted version more than once in a music store. So my experience with that bass is very limited. Since I’m used to play the fretless bass I opted for the fretless because I wanted to come as close as possible to the sound and feel of the upright bass. The construction of the UBass and the string material (solid polyurethane) is the biggest part of it’s sound and the ”tone-sculpturing” is very limited. It’s a fast attack and not that much of a ”mwah” (that’s more easily achieved on a regular electric fretless and an upright bass) so having frets is more of a” feel thing”. Of cause doing long ”glissandos” (slides) will benefit from a fretless board. Using a fretted will obviously render more fret noise.
In conclusion I would say that choosing version is more about what you’re used to play (fretless, fretted or upright) and the feeling you’re after sound vise. BUT as I said I haven’t played the fretted version much at all…yet 🙂
I have (as you’ve probably seen!?) the spruce version. The fretted UBass I tried was with the mahogany top. And if I remembered right the all mahogany version sounds a little bit darker and woodier…But deciding what the sound color is of the different models is really up to everyone to explore and make up by themselves!
One final thing and it’s quite important as well. Since the scale is 20 inch compared to 34-35 on a electric bass and about 42 on a upright you RELLY have to adept to the substantially shorter scale. At first it feels strange and really, really tiny. But after awhile it’s quite comfortably and the benefits (the biggest of them size – not having to lug a heavy bass or a big space consuming upright) is rewarding!
…And watching people go from…haha that’s not gonna work to…that tiny thing really sounds huge…You know you play a great instrument and not some toy store junk!
Hope this will help you a bit on deciding what version to buy!
I have thought about making some UBass lessons for a while.
So let’s kick it off with a pop song divided in a two part lesson.
The song that I will cover here is ”Moon Over Bourbon Street” by Sting.
Part One
First up is the sheet music/TAB and some links to get you started!
In part two I will do a short video explaining how I play it on my fretless UBass.
If you don’t have the fretless model or not a UBass at all…buy one NOW 🙂
…please do they are serious business and really fun to play…but before you get one why not practice the pass part on a standard bass or your upright…that way it’ll be easier to play it once you pick up your UBass :-)))
Suggested working order!
1. Download the PDF (to open/print you need a password – send an email to:
ubasslessons@gmail.com and I’ll send you one!)
As you probably hear I wander away from the chart from time to time.
My intention was to play it ”as is” (This info is actually written out in some charts to make sure you play exactly as written) but in the spirit of the moment I improvised a bit around the chart to make it a bit more ”my own” AND I think it is a lot easier to make the music swing/groove if you put a little bit of YOU in the parts!
Play UBass! 