The Strangest Bass I Have Ever Seen!

OK, I have seen some wacky custom basses in my time, but this one takes the grand prize. I guess this thing is playable, it does not appear to be a prop.

If anyone knows anything about this bass please leave a comment. I would love to know more details about it.

Check Out Bass Player Blogger "Growing Up Bass Player"

One of my favorite bloggers has always been Allen over at Bass Player Blogger. He has always had one of the most entertaining bass blogs going and he has now updated his site to be a complete website including lessons, videos and more. It's awesome go check it and make sure to drop Allen a line. Truly one of the nice guys in the online music community!

Click Here For Bass Player Blogger Website

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Stanley Clarke's School Days - Bass Playing History

The 1976 release of Stanley Clarke's "School Days" album and the title track changed the way people looked at the potential roll of bass players forever. While the main riff is not particularly difficult to play, it was ground breaking in that Stanley took the part of bass player playing bar chords and playing the part of rhythm guitarist while still holding done the bottom. This is a great tune to learn if you are into looping as you can play the complete tune with just a drummer. I have only posted the main riff here but check out a reasonably complete tab at 911 Tabs.

|--9--6--4-4-2-2-4/6\-4-4--2-2-4/6\--4-4-5-2---|
|--7--4--2-2-0-0-------2-2--0-0--------2-2-5-2---|
|------------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------------|

Here are a couple of different videos of Stanley just killing this. Note that he does put a different twist on this depending on who he plays with. Don't let him fool you standard 4 string players as he usually plays this on his tenor bass tuned A-D-G-C.

This first video is from the David Letterman Show with the Will Lee Band....I mean Paul Schaffer's Band.



Here is a version from the 2007 North Sea Jazz Festival. Check out how he does a different opening giving us a lesson in chord inversions.



And of course the most popular version with well over one million hits on You Tube is this one with Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten. This is where SMV got it's start.

Victor Wooten - Lesson On Bass Technique Part 2

Continuing with Victors series of lessons Part 2 starts with him talking about influences on his playing. Stanley, Jaco, Larry Graham....and now Victor Wooten influencing us. Make sure to pause the lesson and learn some of these licks he is playing from these masters. I have a note book with most of these tunes in them and I try to work on them from time to time just to keep them fresh. We get busy with playing and life and forget to keep the riffs in our "arsenal". The note book helps me to from forgetting these great tunes. So as always take your time and if you did not do lesson 1 scroll down the page and do it first.