Bass Player

When our team here at Bass PlayerHQ put our heads together a while back and decided which bassists should receive BP’s coveted Lifetime Achievement Award this year, we came up with a long, long list of names. Even though we’ve been giving these award

Last time we sat down to talk with Geddy Lee, which feels like an entire geological epoch ago in the light of what has happened to the world since then, it was November 19, 2018. On that occasion we asked Lee if he ever planned to write an autobiogra

The venerable Spector brand has launched a new Euro RST Series of bass guitars in multiple configurations, with updated tonewoods, enhanced electronics from Aguilar, and new stain options. Four- and five-strings are available in three colors—Sienna S

To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, 1991 was a very good year: Good for guitar music anyway. Alternative rock took a giant leap forward with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and their magnum opus, Blood Sugar Sex Magik; heavy metal was redefined by Metallica’s pla

Cincinnati-born Chris Sherman was once dubbed ‘The New Spiritual Warrior For The Funk’ by none other than the legendary Bootsy Collins, who was instrumental in Sherman finding his own bass sound and path, now under the name Freekbass. His first music

“When I was with Utopia, I had some ideas for bass—but my bass player Kasim Sulton was certainly competent and creative enough to come up with his own lines. It wasn’t until I was out on my own that I had to truly focus on the bass,” says the singer-

Bassist extraordinaire, saxophonist, producer, composer, session musician, and one-man phenomenon Marcus Miller will require little introduction for most readers of this magazine. He first came to prominence as a member of Miles Davis’s band in 1981,

A British-born bass player who crossed the Atlantic to take up residence on the east coast of the USA, Charles Berthoud has enjoyed a rapid ascent to YouTube stardom thanks to the wit and skill he displays in his videos, over 200 of them so far. His

As the pandemic finally seems to be coming under control, there’s a lot to celebrate in bass world, not least because there’s been some great gear to drool over. Sure, with no in-person gear shows, manufacturers of basses, amps and effects haven’t fo

Tal Wilkenfeld first caught the global bass community’s attention back in 2007, when her famous bass solo with Jeff Beck went viral. Her jazz sensibilities, combined with impeccable groove, time, and phrasing, caught the imaginations of aspiring and

Let’s get this out of the way: Even 30 years after the death of their unique frontman Freddie Mercury, Queen are still huge, one of the biggest-selling bands in the world, despite falling in and out of fashion along the way. A quarter of the band’s s

It may have escaped your attention unless you’re an avid user of social media, but Queen’s bassist extraordinaire John Deacon celebrated his 70th birthday on August 19 this year. Congratulations, John, from all of us at BP—but if such a celebration w

“I’m never in any bass magazines!” snickers Krist Novoselic, legend for an entire generation of grunge fans. Why should this be, we ask ourselves? Perhaps it’s because his old band Nirvana have been defunct since 1994, when the singer Kurt Cobain end

“Oh, that was mega! Yeah! What happened was, there was all this weirdness going on, like bad energy. We started playing this song and my amp just didn’t work. It basically took a crap on me. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna do this bass toss and walk off’. W

“Wow, which would I pick? I like ‘Lithium’, I like ‘Heart Shaped Box’, I like some of the work I did on that. ‘Lounge Act’ is good. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. ‘In Bloom’... that was my Mike Mills bass part. Those little fills I do there were swiped o

The Stave: Most music written for the bass guitar uses the bass clef. The example to the right shows the placement of the notes on the stave. Tablature: This is a graphical representation of the music. Each horizontal line corresponds with a string

Dig into your favorite bass parts... and discover treasure! Ryan Madora is one of Nashville’s most sought-after touring and session bassists. Recent touring and session credits include Robben Ford, Kyshona Armstrong, and her instrumental trio, The I

Hey there, bass players! Just when you thought you knew everything about eighth notes, surprise—we’re not done yet. We’ve smoothed and staccato’d, accented and emphasized. Now, there’s one thing left to do: Make ’em swing! Swung eighth notes take on

Hello again! Last month we looked at some of the rhythmic considerations when thinking about funk and introducing a funk feel to our music. This month we’re going to have a look at one of the most common patterns for coming up with funk bass-lines, a

It’s easy to think of Dom7th (alt) chords as overwhelmingly complex structures—but this shouldn’t be the case, as Dom7th (alt) chords are nothing more than regular Dom7th chords that have undergone a little harmonic development. If you only have time

ello! During recent instalments of this Intermediate techniques lesson, we’ve been attempting to accumulate a significant level of understanding and familiarization with Melodic Minor. One of the more noteworthy lessons has celebrated the scale as a

Welcome! One of the essential qualities that makes great bass players so great is their ability to recognize their options. This approach is what we’ll be covering in today’s lesson, and we’ll examine this concept by taking triads through a II-V-I ch

Welcome to the end of this issue! Now, this month, we’re talking about wood. Good wood? Bad wood? Tonewood! Okay then, Veall. What’s a tonewood, exactly? A wood chosen for its tonal characteristics in instrument manufacture. It’s one of those phras