Electric bass players who want to join the Ray Brown Memorial Jazz Course on upright acoustic bass can stay for the remaining 3 days until July 12th.
The two courses together will last 5 days and can be taken for a tuition total of $475.
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THE MICHAEL MANRING
ELECTRIC BASS COURSE
2 Days: July 8-July 9, 2009
includes guest session with Robert Hurst.
Core Technique Concepts for Bass Guitar
This course is designed to improve primary, foundational skills involved in playing the bass guitar. The focus is on creating a deeper and more effective connection to the instrument and is open and applicable to students at all levels and playing styles.
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Abstract:
The basis of this workshop proceeds from the assumption there are certain qualities that tend to be effective in all types of complex skills involving simultaneous physical and mental activity. Understanding and mastering these primary concepts is a powerful tool in helping musicians achieve their goals. The central concepts covered here are flexibility, focus, efficiency and fluency. These goals are pursued through a series of exercises involving stretching, breath focus, posture and hand position. Complimentary exercises are based on isolating core movements used in bass playing and using permutation as a tool in developing control and understanding of musical pattern.
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Michael Manring (born June 1960 in Washington, D.C.) is an electric bassist from the San Francisco Bay Area (Northern California). In addition to a long tenure in the 1980's as house bassist for Windham Hill Records, Manring has recorded with Spastic Ink, Michael Hedges, Alex Skolnick (in the bands Skol-Patrol and Attention Deficit, also featuring Tim Alexander from Primus), Larry Kassin, Tom Darter, Steve Morse, David Cullen, Alex de Grassi, Will Ackerman and many other noted musicians.
He headlined his own band, Montreux, throughout the 1980s. He has been a member of Yo Miles!, Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith's Miles Davis tribute band, since its inception. He remains active, touring the world for performances and clinics. Manring studied and toured (early in his career) with Jaco Pastorius.
Manring is a technical virtuoso, using the bass as a solo instrument usually in alternate tunings, with additional possibilities and patterns invoked on the fly with lever-activated de-tuners and bridges, somewhat like a pedal steel guitar. Manring occasionally plays on two (or even three) basses at the same time during live performances. He is known as a humble and gracious live performer with a gift for improvisation with guest musicians. Manring is also a gifted composer of experimental music, mixing technology and fretless bass with the sounds of kitchen implements and cardboard boxes, evidenced on his "Book of Flame" solo album.
He is known for playing and endorsing Zon basses -- specifically, the Zon Hyperbass, the unusually flexible four-stringed instrument which Manring co-designed with Joseph Zon. |
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I. Preparatory activities
A. Body focus: posture, breath, concentration
B. Arm and Wrist
1. Arm extension, with wrist flexation, hand stretch
2. Wrist circles
3. Clasp hands behind back
4. Shakes
C. Hand and fingers
1. Hand on knee stretches
2. Flat, forward stretches
3. Backward stretches with extended arm
II. Left hand isolation exercises
Preparation: Placement
A. Pressure exercises
1. One-note hold with relaxed hand - check fingers, thumb
2. Single note buzz exercises
3. Resting finger exercises
a. Single note, forward , reverse
b. Two notes
c. Double buzz exercises
B. Lift exercises
1. One finger, two, three
2. Above with stretches (as above)
III. Right hand dynamics, phrasing and string crossing patterns
A. Single string dynamics, pp-mf-ff (beginner), pp-p-mf-f-ff ppp-pp-p-mp-mf-f-ff-fff , dynamic permutations
B. Note length and timbre
C. String crossing (with harmonics)
1. Twos
2. Threes
3. Fours
4. Above with clear string muting
IV. Left hand patterns, permutation theory
A. Basic permutations
1. Twos
2. Threes
3. Fours
4. Twos with open strings
5. Combined twos
6. Reverses, alternates
B. Combined permutations
1. Non-open string twos with string crossing twos
C. All interval exercises
D. Diatonic permutations, position theory
E. Five-span permutations |