Bass Day (Dansk BasTræf) 2020

Bass Day (Dansk BasTræf) 2020

Bass Day (Dansk BasTræf) 2020

This year Danish Bass Society organised the event Bass Day(Dansk BasTræf on March 8th. I was invited to talk about live-looping, and the Yamaha Silent Bass. The whole thing took place at Metronomen in Frederiksberg.

Now you might be thinking: March 8th, wasn´t that just a few days before Denmark was shut down completely, due to the COVID 19 outbreak? If you are then you are absoutely right. 3 days later primeminister Mette Frederiksen decided to shut DK down, with effect almost immediately.

This meant that there were no handshakes and hugs going around. There was also this feeling of beginning social distancing, but we managed to have a great afternoon in good company. Bass players are nice and friendly people, just ask around!

The stage

Setting up

I arrived an hour before kick-off. First a few technical issues had to be resolved. It was not hard at all thanks to a great team of organisers with Peter Kevin Kofod helping me with the sound and projector set-up. As with all events, even though we plan and talk beforehand, unforeseen issues might arise. When we found out that we were missing a cable to connect the audio output from my laptop, then Peter just pulled it out of his bag. Magical!

The clock was almost 12 and I was all set-up and ready to go. My presentation was on the schedule for 13h, so I had an hour before it was my turn to talk and play

Introduction
From left to right: Mikkel Riber, Peter Kofod, Jesper Kastrup & Berit Engblad

Off we go!

The chairman Mikkel Riber and organiser Jesper Kastrup first held a short introduction and then we listened to Peter play a few pieces with a pianist and singer Berit Engblad. Nice jazzy stuff. I also had time to look around at the exhibition of instruments.

Great people, great mood!

The Danish Bass Society and Bass Day is not only for upright bass players. Mikkel Riber, the chairman is an electrical bassist and it has been a goal for many years to have a Bass society rather than a double bass society.

Electric basses on display
Surprise performance by Kasper Vadsholt & Lars Danielsson

Surprise!

Some of the best things are spontaneous. It was the case here as well. Kasper Vadsholt and Lars Danielson had been jamming backstage trying out some basses and asked if they could jam on stage as well. No need to disagree with that! I didn´t film their performance, but I found a video from their backstage jam.

Backstage til Bastræf med Kaspar Vadsholt og Lars Danielson

Slået op af Linne Lauesen i Søndag den 8. marts 2020
Kasper Vadsholt & Lars Danielsson jamming backstage

My presentation

After that great show of musicianship it was my turn to talk about live-looping and the Yamaha Bass. I had prepared a powerpoint in danish, similar to my presentation in Lucca 2018, but with a lot of updates.

It went really well. It lasted about and hour. First I talked a bit and then I played my tracks Wamps Dance, Cumbassia and New Friends, from my 2 solo albums Flowing in Circles and Disciples.

Me in action with the Yamaha Bass
More bass action

What is live-looping?

Live-looping means recording and playing back musical phrases with your instrument or voice in real-time. It can also be caracterized as a One-Man-Band setup. I have been doing it for years and now I often combine it with playing on top of pre-recorded backtracks.

Live-looping is great for solo performances and has the kind of magic feeling about it. When you loop yourself the audience becomes curious and drawn into what you can do with the instrument.

Do you want to try live-looping?

Wamps Dance is a pure live-looping composition that everyone can play. I have transcribed the loops and the solo so if you want to try out the technique, but don´t have anything to play you can always start with Wamps Dance. You can buy the sheet music directly from my webstore Arbolis Music

Download Wamps Dance

Jon Pold – slap bass

Jon Pold

After me then Jon Pold took the stage and presented slap bass techniques on electric bass. Interesting and great sounding. He broke a string on stage so he had to switch basses, but he still rocked it!

The day comes to an end

A fine day came to an end. I want to thank all of the involved and the people that organised the event. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun.

THANK YOU

The Team! From left to right
Mikkel Riber(chairman), Peter Kevin Kofod, Me, Jesper Kastrup and Mads Hermansen

Dansk BasTræf 2020

Dansk BasTræf 2020

Jeg glæder mig meget til søndag den 8.marts 2020. Her vil jeg fortælle lidt om teknikken Live-Looping og spille nogle numre på min Yamaha Silent Bass ved BasTræf 2020 i Metronomen på Frederiksberg.

BasTræf er et årligt møde organiseret af Dansk Basselskab, hvor bassister mødes og giver den en god gang nørderi på bassen. Det er altid et fantastisk inspirerende forum at mødes i.

I samarbejde med Yamaha Instruments vil jeg demonstrere hvorfor SLB200 er en af de førende elektriske kontrabasser på markedet i dag.

Jeg vil selvfølgelig spille noget af min egen musik og bagefter vil det være muligt at prøve instrumentet selv. Det vil være sat op til min loop-pedal, så der er også mulighed for at prøve at loope lidt. hvis man har lyst til det.

Her kan du læse mere om min undervisning i Live-Looping

BasTræf 2020 arrangeres af Jesper Kastrup og Mads Hermansen.

Her er hvad De skriver om dagens arrangement

Kom til det årlige bastræf i Metronomen, stedet at dyrke sit basnetværk.

I vil finde et interessant program igen i år med musikalske indslag, udstillere og en masse basnørderi.


Arrangementet er gratis, men kun for medlemmer af Dansk BasSelskab.
Medlemskab kan købes v indgangen og koster 50 kr

PRÆLIMINÆRT PROGRAM

Kl 12 velkomst v formanden og præsentation af programmet.
Kl 13 Præsentation af Yamaha Silent Bass. Med live musik og ord beretter Andreas Bennetzen lidt om hvordan teknikken live-looping og en Yamaha Silent Bass kan bruges.
Kl 14 Slagbas teknikker på Elbas v Jon Pold

UDSTILLERE
I pauserne er der rigelig tid til at besøge udstillerne:
A Little Bass, Peder Linneberg præsenterer en række kontrabasser.
Peter Rahbek, tager et udvalg af sine basser med.
Spens Guitarer, Bjarne Spens præsenterer et udvalg af elbasser.
Www.StringAmp.com med et magnet system til kontrabas. Der er demonstration af en akustisk kontrabas og en EUB med systemet, og mulighed for at prøve systemet

CAFÉ
Det er muligt at købe forfriskninger i caféen.

BAS MARKEDSPLADSEN
Igen i år vil der være mulighed for at tage sit overskydende gear med til brugtbørsen: Køb/salg/bytte husk at sætte info på dine ting.

Vi ser frem til en god dag i F nøglens tegn.

BASS 2018 in LUCCA

This summer saw the great city of Lucca host the BASS 2018 Double bass convention. 

I was fortunate enough to recieve an invitation to play at BASS 2018 and with the generous support of D´Addario Orchestral and Yamaha Instruments I had the funds to travel there, play a concert and also give a lecture on Live-Looping.

Silent bass showroom

It was a great event and despite only being there for a few days I saw many interesting and very inspiring performances  and met many good friends. I can highly recommend participating in the bi-annual double bass convention of BASS EUROPE

Meeting friends at BASS 2018
Danielle Roccato at BASS 2018

As is normal for me I played a full program of my own compositions from my 2 Andy Benz albums. Music created for and with the electric upright bass. If you have not heard my music yet I invite you to check it out on my BANDCAMP PAGE

Henrica Fagerlund at BASS 2018 trying my Yamaha Silent bass and Line 6 POD

There were many bassplayers there. A great mix of professionals, students and amateurs. You also have all the bass makers-bow makers-string makers. Yes, basically all you need to have a fantastic time with only bass, bass and more bass. Nobody looks at you in a wrong way if you find yourself talking about double bass for the entire day. Well maybe it is even expected from you.

The article below is a review by professor in psychology, Mads Hermansen of some of the performances that took place incuding my solo-performance. He is an amateur bass player with a lot of insight into modern bassplaying. If you want to read the part about my performance then scroll down to page 6. It is in danish.

I want to use this oppotunity to give a big thank you to Jimmi Roger Pedersen  for organizing this with the rest of the BASSEUROPE team!

BASS2018LUCCA_Resume_MadsH