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Building Improvisation: Master Your Fingerboard Part III : Jazz Improvisation With Andrea Fascetti
Meet Andrea Fascetti –
Hi my friends! First of all, thank you for the positive feedback about these lessons!
In this issue we’ll continue on from our past lessons… but instead of using Major 7th chords, we will replace them with Minor 7th chords!
Before beginning, I want to repeat the purpose of these exercises. Many of the younger players do not seem to understand this work. Like all musicians, we are the product of what we practice. If we strongly practice chord structures, not only will we increase speed and dexterity, but we will develop a great knowledge of the fingerboard, and we’ll be able to quickly transpose it in a musical context. Remember that 99% of bass playing is related to chords…check MTV if you don’t believe me.
Okay! We all enjoy our particular bass heroes, and as far as myself, I tend to play in a rather unconventional style. But I think that before we aspire to be heroes, we need to build a strong basis to work from, and strive to be able to play in any musical context. I have several young students with INCREDIBLE chops, and yet they are not able to navigate through some chord changes.
I strongly recommend that you try and learn what’s been featured in this column. I know you all enjoy working on your chops, techniques, and tricks, but make sure to put time in on the more serious aspects of playing as well.
Now it’s time for homework…
Example 1. Take a Cminor7 two-octave arpeggio up and down (C Eb G Bb C Eb G Bb G Eb C Bb G Eb C). Force yourself to play it very slowly, and without a metronome. Say the name of the notes while practicing. REMEMBER: No groove… Nothing! Only you and the notes! Now start to practice all the notes using only one string (where possible), then two strings, then three strings, and finally four strings. Practice in this way over-and-over until the fingerboard becomes your best friend. Then you can increase the speed and play it faster. This is a great way to learn the fingerboard and learn many ways to look at arpeggios and scales. This is also one of the secrets to enhancing “the art of improvisation.”
If you have a multi-string instrument like myself (5/6/ or 7 string) the same method applies for extra strings! I hope you enjoy this challenging exercise!
Thank you very much, my friends… Andrea
Master_Your_Fingerboard_Part_III-aug09
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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