vesterberg.se

Some seven years ago I discovered bass playing. I was inspired by my family and chose the low end because none of them played that instrument. It turned out that the voice of the bass and the role of the bass player suited me perfectly.

Highlights in my bass history was when I became a student of Glenn Letsch, a bass player in San Francisco. His teaching and mentoring is based on email and video clips, since we live in different parts of the world. He has been a tremendeous help in my growth. Another highlight was 2002, when I joined the band I am now playing with, Soundrise. We play cover rock, blues and funk. You will find us playing at parties, weddings and clubs in our town regularely.

Equipment

I have three basses, a Warwick Streamer LX 5-string, a Fender Precision American Series 4-string and a fretless Warwick Corvette 4-string. I string my Warwick’s with DR. The Fender is strung with Fender flatwounds. Warwick has great support and the US representative, Dale Titus has answered every mail promptly. My main head is a EBS HD350 with an Ampeg 410HLF cab. At home and at smaller places I play through a Gallien Krueger MBS-III and two EBS NEO112 cabs.

Software

Since I am a software developer at daytime, I am constantly looking for useful music programs to assist me. The ones I have found most useful and that I use regularely are Sonar and CoolEdit (has disappeared from the market) for recording and sound processing, EarMaster Pro for ear training, Guitar Pro for notation and Transcribe. Transcribe is so useful because you can work directly with mp3 and attach section and beat markers with text to the song while you are transcribing it.

Resources

How To Play Jazz And Improvize (book) and Anyone can improvize (DVD)
by Jamey Aebersold (2007-09-11)
This book teaches how to learn to improvise for all instruments. Jamey’s message is that it is easy to improvise. He introduces a way of practicing that starts simple and adds complexity step by step. There is much wisdom here, though sometimes a bit scattered and not that organized. The book is more practical than analytical, with short chapters on different topics and many musical examples and licks. I think the main strength with this book lies in the inspirational tone and the play-a-longs on the companion cd. I really like to play along with the songs. Even though the pianist, the drummer and the bass player play “simple” chord progressions and 12-bar blues songs they swing and they groove!

You should buy the DVD also, because in the DVD Jamey sits at his piano and explains many of the concepts presented in the book and shows how to play along. I find his way of talking about and demonstrating jazz to be very inspiring. He makes it simple. I have watched the DVD many times by now, just to get me in the right mood.

The Principles of Correct Practice for Guitar by Jamie Andrea
Even though this is a book primarely for guitarists, every player of stringed instruments can learn from the principles set forth here. I have read through the book many times. She focuses on areas not often mentioned in other literature in a practical way together with exercises. This book has given me tools to analyze and improve my own playing and given me a deeper understanding of how muscles work. The book and the forum continues to inspire me to pursue excellence.

Building Walking Bass Lines by Ed Friedland
Expanding Walking Bass Lines by Ed Friedland
Ed Friedland explains step by step how to create walking bass lines in a very clear and pedagogical way, with examples and exercises. To me these books have demystified how to play jazz. Someone has to point to the small steps to be taken in order to reach a goal and Ed Friedland does that very well. The first book has been top priority in my study time for a long time now.

Bass Grooves by Ed Friedland
Ed Friedland has written a column in Bass Player Magazine for many years about different music styles and their distinct bass parts. This and more is collected in the book Bass Grooves. There is drum notation and explanations of the interplay between drums and bass for every style. He introduces a way to sing the groove with a kind of gibberish language. So ingenious. As someone said: “If you can sing it, you can play it”. Singing, moving whatever it takes to integrate the groove into your being is good. This way of singing the groove has helped me to establish my groove quite a bit. In short, this book gives a practical overview of many musical styles and how to express them in the best way.

Improve Your Groove by Patrick Pfeiffer
This book is all about how to develop your groove. Patrick Pfeiffer dissects key ingredients in typical grooves and how the ingredients are connected. He formulates concepts like Groove Skeleton, Groove Apex, Groove Accents and more. Very interesting! The book does not contain long explanations, but much room is given to examples and many, many short exercises. There is a large section at the end with sample signature grooves of many recognized bass players. In short, this book contains Groove Theory with exercises. The book sounded attractive when I read about it on Amazon and the book is as good in reality.

The Inner Game of Music by Barry Green
This book builds on a classic “The Inner Game of Tennis” by Timothy Gallwey. The inner game is what takes place in you mind and Barry Green discusses how to overcome the inner obstacles and quiet our inner opponent He talks about how to enjoy your playing, how to strengthen your will and increase your trust in yourself. He also has interesting thoughts on ‘natural learning’, that is how we can be aware of our own performance, evalute and adjust as a continuous process. This is a book which you must read through several times and slowly digest the thoughts.

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