It’s time to leave snowy Sweden and fly across the Atlantic for a visit to California.
More about the trip soon!
In the mean time have a look at these soon to be released Kala Ubasses! More info at instagram.com/kalabrandmusic/
Annonser
playubass
A tribute to one of my musical heroes: Steve Swallow
There are videos on youtube with bass players playing solos performed by Swallow but not many (if any) playing one of his chord-bass parts. This one is transcribed from a John Scofield Trio version of the evergreen ”Someone to watch over me” (George and Ira Gershwin) from the musical ”Oh, Kay!”.
I heard this performance last year and decided to transcribe the part when he comps behind John Scofield during the the melody. I wanted to explore the voicings he used with his 5-sting bass tuned EADGC.
In the video I’m using my Kala California Custom Flame Maple solid body ubass. One of the first made using the ”exotic tops” back in 2012-2013. Please check out the new updated ones!
I decided to add the melody singing the Frank Sinatra version of the lyrics. I got some nice help with a great brushes and cymbals part too.
Magnus Sjöquist, kala solid body ubass (EADGC-tuning) and vocals
Mats Nyström, brushes and cymbals
I’m working on more ebooks in my Learn to play the ubass series and one of these will focus on playing chords on a ubass/bass.
Recording info
The ubass was recorded through my RMI Basswitch IQ/DI and then re-amped using a Radial X-amp. Se pic below. I used a combination of mics to capture the sound of the Phil Jones Double Four combo amp. Read more about the amp in my review.
D minor 7 chord
Please check out my review of the PJB Double Four!
Mats Nyström, brushes and cymbals
Carla Bley, Daniel Björnmo, Steve Swallow and me Sweden, 2009
Still from video
Re-amping my Phil Jones Bass Double Four
Steve Swallow and Billy Drummond live in Sweden 2009
What’s in the first ebook-ePub ”Learn to play the ubass – Basic Techniques”? First up: Lesson 1
In a series of four short blog posts I will write about the different lessons in my first Lesson Pack: ”Learn to play the Ubass – basic techniques” (One lesson at the time every Sunday for four weeks!)
First up…
Lesson 1 – How to hold the Ubass
The first lesson gives you suggestions about different ways to hold the Ubass.
Since the body and over all length is so much shorter than a regular electric or acoustic bass guitar you really need to find a way to accommodate this.
In the lesson I go through different ways I hold the ubass. I have found out a couple of alternatives that can be nice to switch between or at least use as a starting point when you develop your own ”holding style”. I will let you know what has worked best for me and why.
Even though you have been playing regular bass for a long time I think this lesson will help you to get a good ”grip” on your ubass playing regarding how you can hold it to get the most out of your ubass music making!
Direct links
Find out more here!
Stay tuned: Next Sunday [September 3rd] it’s time for ”Lesson 2 – basic plucking/picking hand technique”
– – –
My parents bought my first ubass at a music store in Honolulu, Hawaii while visiting the islands back in 2010. I had not been able to try one beforehand. It only took me a few moments to get acquainted with the short scale length and rubbery strings. After that I got more and more in love with the feel and sound of the ubass. Hope you have or will get the same feeling for these amazing instruments! Read more about my first encounter here!
New Single Out Today!
We play an arrangement by Tommy Nilsson of the song ”Cada Um Torce Como Pode” made famous by Sivuca.
Both Tommy Nilsson and Magnus Sjöqust have been playing in different groups and projects for many years.
The duo format is nice because it gives us a lot of space to express ourselves through our instruments, the accordion and the bass.
Side note: In the recording I used my trusty fretless Kala spruce acoustic/electric ubass. However in the accompanying video you’ll see my new fretless Kala California acoustic-electric ubass!
Quick links to some of the places you can find the song:
Tommy is also featured in the latest single release ”Jag vet att vi ses snart igen (Manha de Carnaval)” Link to info about that release!
Playubass at the 2017 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA
Long overdue here’s finally a short travel log about my trip to the 2017 Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA
I have been to a couple of music trade shows in Europe as a visitor but this was my first trip to the Winter NAMM show in Los Angeles. It was also the first time working closely with Kala. My main focus was to release and letting people know about my first Ebook/ePub in my Learn to play the Ubass series.
I started working on the ebook back in 2013 and it has slowly taken its form. The basic idea and the text was ready after about a year but working on how to present it, all the movies and the graphics and navigation took quite a while to finalize. You can read more about the Ebook/ePub and where to find it here.
After a +10 hour flight from Stockholm ARN I landed at LAX and took a bus to Anaheim where I met staff from Kala. I settled in and started to plan the next coming days.
I arrived on Monday, January 17 with the show starting on Thursday that week. I helped out a bit loading in some stuff and setting up the booth. The booth was fantastic with a really well throughout design that got a lot of compliments from many visitors and booth neighbors.
Load in and set up of the Kala Booth
Once the show started I met a lot of great people, both visitors, other companies and press. Besides talking to some online magazines myself I was also fortunate to get help to set up some meetings and interviews both from Kala and other friends in the music business. It was, for example, crazy to see Nathan East being interviewed in the exact same spot a day before I got an interview from the same online community! 🙂
You can find the news coverage and interviews here.
I got a lot of new friends at the show and also managed to do quite a few nice jams with amazing musicians. Bakithi Kumalo, Miki Santamaria, Corey Fujimoto, Ariane Cap, was some of the musicians I got to play with. Great fun!
Booth and NAMM show pictures
The Ubass got a lot of attention at this Winter NAMM show. 8 years after the first Kala Ubass was released its still a ”show stopper”! Many musicians, including lots of bass players of course, came by and was floored by the small footprint bass with the huge sound. It’s so great to see the happy smiles on the faces of the first time players
The California solid body Ubasses was revamped with slightly bigger and rounder bodies as one of the main differences. Check them out here.
I also got to try out the prototype Paddle Bass by Kala. A great one string bass for a quick and refreshing way into the wourld of bass playing! Link to Bass Musician Magazine article.
All in all my first NAMM show was a very nice experience. And although it’s quite exhausting being on the show floor with the intense sound and constant stream of people I hope to return and continue my ”IRL” networking across the pond as soon as possible!
A big thank you to all the staff at Kala and the wonderful Kala and Ubass artist I got to hang and work with!!!
– – –
I read a Kala Ubass review in Bass player magazine back in 2010. At the same time my parents happened to be on vacation and they helped me to buy my first ubass at a music store in Honolulu while visiting the islands of Hawaii. l had not been able to try one beforehand but it only took me a few minutes getting acquainted with the short scale length and rubbery strings. After that I have gotten more and more in love with the feel and sound of the ubass. Hope you have or will get the same feeling for these amazing instruments! Read more about my first encounter here!
How to read my ebook (ePub) on a PC (or MAC)!
Hi,
My first ebook was released on the iBooks Store in January and for PC/Android in April.
There is a great way to read the ebook if you have the ePub version (PC). Here’s a quick how to.
Read ePub with Google Chrome on a PC with support for videos and word list
- Open Google Chrome (or download if you haven’t got it on your computer yet).
- Go http://www.google.com/chrome/webstore
- Search for Readiator
- Install
- Add ePub (drag to window or click + and navigate to Learn to play the Ubass – Basic Techniques) It will take a while to load!
- Click the icon to start reading. Videos should play and the word list will work.
- Your done, happy learning!
The Lesson links are not clickable in this version. I will remove these false links or try to make them work in the next update!
Although this method will work on a MAC (OSX) i do recommend using iBooks if you are a MAC or iPad/iPhone user!
The Chrome extension will even keep tabs on where you were last time you used Readiator.
You can find the different versions here:
ePub (interactive) (for Win/PC, Android)
eBook (interactive) (for OSX/iOS)
/Magnus
It is here: Learn to play the Ubass – Basic techniques. Get your copy now at the iBook store
Hi,
After three years in the making, I’m proud to announce that my first interactive ebook is live at the iBook store!
The ebook is packed with amazing features that make learning about the Ubass a new and exciting experience! I will go through these features in detail in a future blog post but for now, let’s have a quick look:
- Picture gallery’s that enhances the reading experience
- Multi-angle videos that show you how to get the best out of your Ubass playing
- Highlighted words are clickable and explained in pop-ups or in the extensive word list. (I bet you can spend hours just navigating the word list alone!)
- End of lesson quizzes – check and see if you have understood the lesson you just worked with
- Marking text and make notes – find something especially interesting? Mark the text/or make a note – these are collected and can be browsed and/or searched
Preview videos
Link to the iBook Store
Learn to Play the Ubass
by Magnus Sjöquist
Ubassists of the World – Abraham Laboriel
Hi,
One day in July I got the news that one of my bass heroes would come to Sweden for one gig. We are both Kala Ubass Endorsees (which is pretty amazing to start with) so I managed to hook up with him through the company.
The meeting/concert was in the southern parts of Sweden and I traveled there with two of my Kala solid body ubasses.
Who is Abraham Laboriel?
Some of you may know about him and some don’t so I’ll give you a brief background here.
Let’s start with some of the artists he has worked with as a session musician in Los Angeles:
Al Jarreau, George Benson, Alan Silvestri, Alvaro Lopez and Res-Q Band, Alvin Slaughter, Don Felder, Andraé Crouch, Andy Pratt, Andy Summers, Barbra Streisand, Billy Cobham, Carlos Skinfill, Chris Isaak, Christopher Cross, Crystal Lewis, Dave Grusin, Djavan, Dolly Parton, Don Moen, Donald Fagen, Elton John, Engelbert Humperdinck, Freddie Hubbard, Hanson, Herb Alpert, Herbie Hancock, Johnny Hallyday, Keith Green, Kelly Willard, Lalo Schifrin, Larry Carlton, Lee Ritenour, Leo Sayer, Lisa Loeb, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Nathan Davis, Paul Jackson Jr., Paul Simon, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Ron Kenoly, Russ Taff, Stevie Wonder, and Umberto Tozzi.
Abraham Laboriel Sr. (born July 17, 1947) is a Mexican bassist who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks.[1] Guitar Player Magazine described him as ”the most widely used session bassist of our time”.[2][3] Laboriel is the father of drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. and of producer, songwriter, and film composer Mateo Laboriel.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Laboriel
Meeting Abraham was such a joy. He’s a wonderful, warm human being with such a big heart. Hearing/seeing him play live has knocked me every time. He is an ”all in” performer that really speaks to you from heart to heart. He has been in my musical life for quite some time. I told him about hearing/seeing him at concert in the mid 80’s and even in the town where I work now on a gig probably more then 10 years ago.
We started talking and I showed him what I have done on my blog, video lessons and recordings. What was supposed to be an interview became a nice chat about music and life, almost as we had known each other since the mid 80’s…
I really hope we can meet again soon and continue of talk and I might even get around to ask him my prepared questions! 🙂
As I wrote earlier my two solid body’s were on the trip with me and I wanted to show Abraham these. You might have picked up that I have experimented with ”new” strings on these two 5-strings. (I will do a proper blog post about these tests soon!) Anyway, Abraham started playing on the fretted one, unamplified, and after a while I grabbed the fretless one and join in on the quiet jam. It sure was nice to get to play with one of my bass heroes!
Here’s a little snippet of that jam…
All the best to all ubassists out there,
Magnus
Some youtube videos featuring Abraham:
