D MINOR - AN ORIGINAL OF MINE

Let’s start with some slap bass melody.

D Minor is the first song off my EP - Colombia

https://kadeturner.bandcamp.com/releases

I like that this song has different rhythmic sections.

I had the ideas as seperate riffs for a long time in my head.

Sometimes I pick up the bass and noodle around without thinking about what I’m doing. It’s like a meditation for me. Slap ideas usually come from having the bass in my hands for hours at a time, trying out different variations, almost unconsciously, and that’s often when a new idea or melody will come. It’s just one of the ways I write.

Once I was satisfied with the parts, I merged them together where they made sense musically.

I often write with intent too, but I’ve always liked letting it flow, and seeing what creation comes out of my brain and hands.

When I was approached by Craig Newman to record this EP, I couldn’t wait to hear how it would all sound as a whole.

This track uses different variations of playing such as slapping, hammer-ons, pull-offs, machine gun triplets, finger style melody and bends.

I’m using my Ernie Ball Music Man 2001 Sterling 4-String, my 2008 Warwick Custom Corvette 4-String and my RJ’s Custom 5-String Macassar Bass.

We captured the bass through my Avalon U5 DI, and Craig’s Avalon 737. Both of these are killer pieces of equipment.

As always, I try to capture the sound I want to record at the time of recording, I’m a fan of that, and not so much a fan of complete digital tweaks in post.

We used a MXR Carbon Copy delay pedal for the effected melody. The Music-Man Bass sounds (in my opinion) incredible this way.

The double plucking constantly throughout the song is actually hard to maintain perfectly, and is a good exercise for anyone looking to improve timing, skills and stamina. The Machine Gun Triplet style of playing luckily comes naturally to me, and it’s great fun to play.

The outro of this track is my favourite. It has 5th chords ringing out to compliment and highlight the main samba style bass line, which lays a solid foundation to play a melody over the top. This was the fun part - I remember specifically recording that line late at night with Craig, as I was completely in free flow improvising mode, without knowing that he’d actually had the record button engaged. So we captured an organic, feel-based minute of natural playing. The rhythm of both bass lines seem to work great together.

Overall, I really like the audio quality. I love the drum sound, especially the snare, and I think the basses work well together this way. All of this, of course, is attainable through the right playing, the right recording method, mixing and mastering.

I really hope you enjoy it.

Click here to view the video.

Kade