11.11.11

All The Minor Pentatonic Scales

Here they are, all 12 of 'em. Well, it is actually the minors and the majors because the second note of any minor pentatonic is a major pentatonic scale. So A minor pentatonic is the same thing as C Major.

These things have a thousand and one uses, so get them all under your fingers. Here they are over two octaves, and starting from each note in the scale. My earlier posting about pentatonic scales will show you why some of the starting notes sound better than others and when you might want to use one over the other.

Having these together means you can solo over anything, maybe it won't be the snazziest solo ever, but you will have some note choices that will never fail and can be used in any style of music.

All 12 Minor Pentatonic Scales




10.11.11

Another Sale at Lulu 20% off everything


You can save 20% off any book in stock at lulu again using the code, "VETERANS".

20% off the Book of Triads ebooks is a great deal since there is no shipping anyway so you can get both books for less than the price of a large pepperoni pizza.

Oh yea, there are other books up there too and the sale is good for anything on the site.

I don't judge, people.

9.11.11

Mr. Big's Billy Sheehan's Rig

Once again the crew at Premier Guitar take us through the set up of people on tour.

This time, it is Mr. Billy Sheehan, and usually Premier Guitar talks to the guitar tech, but in this one it is hosted by Mr. Sheehan himself. Sheehan uses Hartke gear now after using Ampeg for 20+ years.


8.11.11

Joe Frazier - R.I.P

It seems an appropriate tribute to link to Stuart Clayton's excellent transcription of Jeff Berlin's homage to Mr. Frazier.



Stuart has a vast collection of transcriptions and very high quality bass books as well on his sites. Vast. High Quality.

Transcriptions | Stuart Clayton: Download

7.11.11

Name Your Price Music From Janek

To celebrate the 1 year anniversary of his album "The Space Between" Janek Gwizdala is letting you name your price on the entire album as a digital download.

While you could be a terrible person that should probably have something bad happen to them (like developing testicular cancer on just one side) by naming your price as being nothing, zero, as in no dollars, and download the entire album for free, don't do that dick move.

Try and actually cough up some amount, even if it is just a little, to help support a musician that is taking risks and making some really powerful and unique bass music available to us all.

Janek gives a lot to the bass community in the form of videos, clinics, lessons, podcasts and the like, and no matter what level you play on, I am pretty sure you can learn something from him, so check it out.

Farko Plays A Tango

Seattle bad ass bassist Farko Dosumov plays a very cool tango (I know...just watch it) with one his projects. He plays some very cool unison lines and chords to accompany the group and throws down with a great solo.

Farko is also the bass player in Micheal Shreve's group in addition to his own group, The Farko Collective, and many other projects.

6.11.11

Chuck Rainey Had A Stroke

according to a thread on Talkbass, Chuck Rainey suffered a stroke in Texas yesterday and is hospitalized in ICU. I was not able to find any confirming news reports of this however. So, take unconfirmed reports from the internet with a grain of salt, and lets hope it is not true, or as bad as it sounds.

The number of recordings Mr. Rainey has played on is staggering, "Peg" and " Rock Steady" to name just two landmark bass recordings. He has played with Aretha, Steely Dan and too many others to list.

Let's hope this is not serious and he will recover and get back to bass playing soon.

Give your favorite Chuck Rainey tune a spin and send out some good vibes his way.