As you know, around here we’re all about the sound – so it seemed sensible to let you enjoy our new series Bass Tone via your ears rather than your eyes! http://www.EasyEarTraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/1_-_Series_Introduction_and_The_Upright_Bass.m4a

Series author Nick Long has kindly lent his voice to the project and so we’re very pleased to announce the first Easy Ear Training podcast: Bass Tone, Part 1: Introduction and the Upright Bass.

You can subscribe to the Bass Tone podcast in iTunes, or your favourite podcasting program using the feeds below:

	Bass Tone Podcast (iTunes)
	Bass Tone Podcast (RSS feed for other clients)

You can also download the first episode directly:

Download Bass Tone Podcast – Part 1 (right-click and “Save as…”)

The podcast is an M4A (AAC) file, which should play back on most modern audio software and portable music players. If you have any problems downloading or playing the file please let us know.

We’d love to hear what you think of this first episode – you can leave a comment below!

It punches you in the chest, and flaps your trouser legs. It’s the thump that moves the rump.

A bass player forms the connective tissue between the drummer and the rest of the instruments, standing with one foot in the rhythmic and the other in the melodic.

The drummer may make you tap your feet, but the bass player makes you leave your seat.

In fact, a killer bass sound is essential to popular music.

The importance of bass

Now, I’m not saying this just because I’m a bass player myself! Take five minutes and think of as many songs as you can that made it into the charts that didn’t have a prominent bass line.

Could you think of one? When Doves Cry by Prince is the only one I got!

So let’s explore the diversity of tones that the bass family of instruments can produce.

From London Calling to Hysteria to Carwash there is a huge number of tracks that rely on a unique bass sound for a killer hook.

This series will be a little different to most of the bass articles you might have read in the past because I’m focusing on tone rather than technique.

Series Overview

Click to read the rest…

What if Axl and Slash had hung out with Fats Domino? Or Metallica met Miles Davis? A new music processor called The Swinger is looking to find out, by adding a swing to any song you throw at it. Get ready to hear those classics in a whole new way – and as the Duke once put it: “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!”

Music Hack Day

At the cutting edge of digital music research, young developers get together periodically for a ‘Music Hack Day‘ – an intense 24 hour hackathon to create a new, cool music technology project, and show it off to everyone. There are always some incredible and fascinating demos which emerge, and last week’s hack day in San Francisco was no exception.

This blog post over at the Yahoo! Developer Network Blog gives a great overview of several of the projects. One which stood out for me was The Swinger – simple concept, fantastic demonstration of how far music tech has come in the last 10 years, and a wonderful way to illustrate the concept of swung beats to all you ear trainers out there!

First a quick reminder of what it means to have that swing… Click to read the rest…