It’s common knowledge that I love Motown. It never fails to brighten my mood, the musicianship is inspired and still remains accessible to anyone on the first listen. It’s a testament to the talents of the songwriters. This week I decided to transcribe the classic bass part from the Jackson 5 hit ‘ABC’.
Before we dive into the performance notes go to sheetmusic plus and download your copy of the transcription complete with tab here. The sheetmusic is a princely $2.99 and you get the full notation and TAB.
As 2017 draws to a close I’d like to take a moment to reflect on some of the triumphs and challenges of the year, not to mention the excellent people I shared them with.
Big Changes, New Challenges
The biggest personal change this year was leaving the guitar tuition service I built from scratch behind to join the Barton Peveril College team as a Performing Arts Technician. It was really hard leaving behind the students I had watch grow and improve over the years but I am sure I will see many of the them in the industry for years to come. Working at Barton Peveril has presented me with a great number of new challenges and constantly pushes me to grow my skills set. I’ve had the pleasure of joining a wonderfully talented team with people I’m proud to count amongst my friends.
I also moved out of the tiny studio apartment I had lived in since I first arrived in Southampton as a student. Whilst I have fond memories of the place I’m so glad me and Lucy moved out to sunny Woolston. I’m looking forward to creating new and exciting memories in our new home.
The Last Years Noise
Keeping up the trend from the previous year, 2017 saw a lot of new musical releases. I have also put considerable investment in my studio which has seen the quality increase ten fold. To kick off the year I mixed and mastered the debut EP from Jae Sinfield ‘Flawed By Design’. This release was a four track EP that showcased Jae’s excellent songwriting and vocal talents. It also gave me a chance bring so many of our friends musical skills back together which was a real treat.
I also had the chance to stretch my musical theatre arranging skills on a track by composer Grace Marie Hancock. ‘The Dark Side is the Bright Side’ is Disney inspired villain song that still makes me smile on every listen. If you like fun quirky music I highly recommend checking out her other music as well.
To follow up last years EP, ‘Digital Sleep’, I released a new trance/house hybrid track ‘Promise’. After the spacious production of the EP I wanted to release something harder hitting and this track was the end result of a couple of months work. I’m still really proud of the final mix and loved the hours I spent fine tweaking the sounds.
Other honourable mentions include the short-lived release of two single by Ollie Woods, ‘Out Of Place’ and ’Song For The Sufferer’. I’m sure these songs will be available as soon as a new artist name is found. I also mixed a track by punk-band Warning’ who have since disbanded and evolved into Trophy Case. I’m sure we’ll hear more from them in the future.
Things To Look Forward To!
So what does 2018 hold? I currently writing and demoing songs for the new Jae Sinfield EP which will get recorded this coming spring. All I can say so far is that the songs sound gorgeous and the lyrics are hooky whilst retaining Jae’s emotional authenticity. I’m currently exploring some new sounds for next years personal releases. I’m not going to commit to anything yet but I’m going to need to buy some new gear to get there!
Christmas is upon us once again which means much of my guitar teaching shifts over to arranging classic carols. To help get your guitar playing into the festive spirit I have arranged a solo guitar arrangement of the traditional english carol ‘I Saw Three Ships (Come Sailing In)’.
This arrangement is aimed at intermediate level guitarists with a good control of classical finger-style and natural harmonics. The whole piece has the harmonic structure written in the chords above, which can be strummed by another player to easily turn the piece into a duet. Alternatively you can use these chords to accompany a singer and add the solo guitar arrangement as a introduction. Think of this arrangement as a starting point for your own performance.
Before we dive into the performance notes, head over to sheet music plus and download your copy of the sheet music. Click here to open Sheet Music Plus.
It’s time again for another bass transcription! This week I wrote out the bass part for the Ben E. King soul classic Stand By Me. Stand By Me is a real must for modern bass players and a popular choice in function band repertoire. Whether you perform in a function/soul band or just love a good hooky bass line, this song is worth learning.
Before we dive into performance tips and a bit of music theory you can get a copy of the sheet music with TAB from sheetmusicplus for a princely sum of $2.99.
I have been off the grid for a month, whilst I settled into a brand new job! I am now working as a Performing Arts Technician for local Eastleigh institution, Barton Peveril College.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed my previous employment as a private guitar and music tutor, I was ready for a new challenge, a steady pay check and more time to pursue my work as a producer and composer. The new job sees me working with a team of people to realise the technical demands of the department. This includes; sound and lighting for performances, maintaining the recording studios, dance rooms and drama studios, amongst a whole range of other tasks for the day to day running of the department. This job feels like a perfect for me and I am really excited for the first major performances of the academic year.
Productions and New Music
As I mentioned above I am still working on my production business during the evenings, weekends and holidays. I’m currently working on a cover of Pearl Jam’s ‘Jeremy’ for my brother James Cull. I tracked his vocals and acoustic guitar live a couple of weeks back and I’m gradually building up the layers with some bass, piano and percussion. It’s almost ready I just need to track some extra guitars and master the final mix and it’s ready to do.
I’m also mid way through a cover of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Video Games’ with Lucy Atkinson that has been reimagined into an 80’s sequel pop track. I started this one to test out the new electric piano I brought in to the studio, the Casio Privia PX-110. I’m going to track the final piano and vocal parts next week and I’ll load it onto Soundcloud in a month or so. Love that song.
I have planned a number of upgrades for the studio over the next few months that will hopefully improve the quality of live tracking and workflow so I can turn tracks around faster and really get some great analog tones. If you’d like to hire me for your projects check out the page here.
I am still working on the follow-up to last years EDM EP ‘Digital Sleep’ and the trance single ‘Promise’ (link here) with a new mini album called ‘Phosphenes’. The next album will focus on more minimalistic, electronic and ambient sounds, something spacious and enticing. I’ll keep everyone posted on this project as it develops over the next few months.
Thanks as always for reading, I’m looking forward to sharing some new music with you soon!
This weeks transcription is the bass line for Queen’s ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ taken the album, ‘The Game’ (1980). The bass line, like the the rest of the composition, is built round a 50’s rock ‘n’ roll sound although there is some influence from soul and jazz in there for good measure. The rhythmic feel throughout is swung eight notes throughout with the occasional triplet fills and pushed chord changes. It is reasonably fast 125BPM so watch out for any fretboard jumps as there is the little time to change positions.
Before we dive into the performance notes you download a copy of the full score from Sheet Music Plus here.
I’m continuing with my series of transcriptions this week with a full electric bass score for the Pink Floyd classic ‘Money’ as performed on the album ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ (1973). The sheet music includes both standard notation and tablature (TAB) for standard 4 string electric bass in standard tuning.
Before we dive into the performance notes, download a copy of the sheet music from Sheet Music Plus here!
