Weekly Basslines #147: Cold As Ice (Foreigner)

The view from my window this morning:

Ice and snow...
This inspired me to do another transcription of a bassline from a bassplayer, who passed away in 2014.

Ed Gagliardi died at the age of only 62 on May 11th after losing his eight year battle against cancer.
He only played on two albums with Foreigner: the 1977 debut "Foreigner" and the second album "Double Vision" (1978).
"Cold As Ice" from the debut album became one of the group's best know songs and was in fact also the first song I ever heard from Foreigner. 

I already transcribed "Feels Like The First Time" last year as part of a basslesson about slash chords and chord inversions. Take a look!

Weekly Basslines #146: I feel free (Cream)

Looking back at 2014 sadly reveals that the list of musicians who died in the past 12 month contains a notably number of my personal heroes. I grew up with the music of Jack Bruce and Cream, Johnny Winter or Joe Cocker and now they're gone forever. I had the privilege to open up for Johnny Winter in 1999 and for Joe Cocker in 2003. I unfortunately never met Jack Bruce, but as a young musician I always felt a kind of "connection" because my birthday (May 14th) was the same as his. And so he became a role model for me when I started playing bass. When Jack Bruce died on October 25th I was to busy too pay hommage to him here on my blog, but now during the X-mas holidays I sat down and transcribed the bassline to the first Cream song I heard in my youth. And here it is:

R.I.P. Jack Bruce

Most popular posts of 2014

At the end of the year it's time to look back.
Here's the Top Ten of the most viewed posts of the year 2014:

1. (1228 views) Lesson To Go #1 - Sightreading für E-Bass (Teil 1) (german version)

Im April habe ich die "Lessons To Go"-Reihe gestartet und gleich die erste Lektion beschäftigt sich mit Notenlesen, weil ich der Überzeugung bin, dass Notenlesen für jeden Musiker eine ganz wichtige Fähigkeit ist. Es fördert das allgemeines Verständnis für Musik und macht einen "bässeren" Musiker aus dir. Wie sich gezeigt hat, habt ihr dieses Angebot sehr gut angenommen, was mich riesig freut. Platz 1 für diesen Post hätte ich nie erwartet. Es ist eines meiner großen Ziele für 2015 hier noch viel mehr Material zum Notenlesen lernen anzubieten, um noch mehr Bassisten zu zeigen, dass Notenlesen gar nicht so schwer ist, aber sich dadurch eine ganze neue Welt in der Musik eröffnet.


2. ( 833 views) Jazz bass for beginners: When Sunny Gets Blue (german + english)

Diese Lektion ist ganz spontan, während einer Unterrichtsstunde mit einem meiner Schüler entstanden. Ich wollte ihm zeigen, wie er ganz schnell eine Basslinie zu einem Jazzstandard erfinden kann und habe zu diesem Zweck einmal zu "When Sunny Gets Blue" improvisiert. Damit wir mein Spiel anschließend gemeinsam analysieren konnten, habe ich diese Improvisation auf Video aufgenommen.

This lesson was created very spontaneous during one of my regular basslessons. One of my students wanted to know how to improvise a bassline over the chords of a jazz standard tune. For this purpose I played a line over "When Sunny Gets Blue" and recorded myself on video to analyse it with him afterwards.

3. (805 views) Weekly Basslines #133: Free Me (Joss Stone)

A cool funky ostinato riff, requested by one of my followers from Switzerland!


4. (753 views) Weekly Basslines #137: Easy Songs for Sightreading (No Tabs!)

Ich wurde gefragt, ob ich nicht als Ergänzung zum Sightreading-Kurs ein paar einfache Songs ohne Tabulaturen posten könnte. Natürlich konnte ich! Und nächstes Jahr - versprochen - gibt es noch viel mehr!

I was asked, if I could post a few easy basslines without tabs in addition to the Sightreading lessons. Of course I did! And - promise - next year I'm going to post a lot more.
 

5. (734 views) Lesson To Go #2 - Blues Bass (Teil 1) (german version)

Das ich mal einen speziellen Workshop über Blues machen würde, war mir immer schon klar. Im Mai 2014 habe ich schließlich den Anfang gemacht, im August 2014 gab's Teil 2 und auch da dürft ihr Euch nächstes Jahr auf mehr freuen.

6. (700 views) Lesson To Go #1 - Sightreading for electric bass (part 1) (english version)

I started the "Lessons To Go" series in April 2014 and I started off with a lesson about reading music, because I think that it's a very important skill for any musician to develop. Being able to read will enhance your understanding of music and make you a better musician. It's one of my goals in 2015 to give you a lot more material to improve your reading skills.

7. (641 views) Weekly Basslines # 136: Season's Trees (Danger Mouse & Daniel Luppi) 

Another request from one of my students.

8. (637 views)  Lesson To Go #3 - Basslines mit Dur-Arpeggien (Teil 1) (german)

9. (604 views) Weekly Basslines #134: My Oh My (Slade)

10. (546 views) Lesson To Go #5 - Groovekonzepte für E-Bass (Teil 1) (only german)

Weekly Basslines #145: With A Little Help From My Friends (Joe Cocker)

R.I.P. Joe Cocker