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Jazz Improvisation With Andrea Fascetti: Ear Training
HI MY FRIENDS!!!!
IT’S REALLY COOL TO BE HERE AGAIN. I’M AMAZED TO BE AMONG THIS AWESOME STAFF; BASS MUSICIAN MAGAZINE IS REALLY GROWING FAST!
I HOPE YOU’VE PRACTICED YOUR HOMEWORK FROM THE LAST ISSUE. I KNOW THAT THIS WORKÂ IS MAINLY USED BY HORN PLAYERS AND JAZZ MUSICIANS IN GENERAL, HOWEVER,WE ARE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE AND IT’S NECESSARY TO KNOW THE INVENTORS OF THIS LANGUAGE.
IN THE LAST LESSON, I STARTED TO TALK ABOUT BEBOP. IF YOU WANT, I PUT THIS LINK WHERE YOU CAN FIND A DESCRIPTION OF THIS STYLE Â http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebop
AS A BASS PLAYER, I STILL REMEMBER WHEN I LISTENED FOR THE FIRST TIME TO JACO’S DONNA LEE. THIS TUNE WAS FANTASTIC, AND LATER JACO’S VERSION BECOME A ‘MUST’ FOR ALL BASS PLAYERS…
IN MY EARLY DAYS AS A MUSICIAN I DID NOT UNDERSTAND HIS PHRASING, BUT LATER I OPENEDÂ MY EARS AND IT BECAME OBVIOUS THAT JACO HAD STUDIED OLD JAZZ MASTERS.
THERE ARE COUNTLESS MUSICIANS ALL OVER THE WORLD WHO PLAY USING THIS STYLE AND THERE ARE COUNTLESS MUSICIANS WHO DON’T PLAY BEBOP… BUT THEY PRACTICED IT! FOR EXAMPLE I SUPPOSE THAT STEVE VAI STUDIED BEBOP….BUT I’M SURE THAT STEVE ACTUALLY PLAYEDÂ OTHER STYLES OF MUSIC AS WELL.
ANYWAY, BEFORE GOING FURTHER I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO FOCUS ON EAR TRAINING. IN FACT I RECEIVE MANY EMAILS ABOUT THIS VERY ISSUE, AND I NOTICED THAT MANY STUDENTS DO NOT HAVE A METHOD FOR LEARNING IT, SO I HAVE DECIDED TO GIVE YOU SOME EASY EAR TRAINING EXERCISES… AFTER WORKING OVER THIS STUFF YOU’LL BE READY TO GO!
OK, AS USUAL IT’S TIME FOR HOMEWORK:
MUSIC IS INSIDE US, SO TRY TO THINK OF A COUPLE OF NOTES INSIDE YOUR HEAD,THEN TRY TO PLAY IT. START WITH TWO OR THREE NOTES THEN TRY WITH SOME SIMPLE MELODIES. YOU DON’ T HAVE TO PLAY A MASTERPIECE, JUST TRY TO USE YOUR INNER EAR.
HAVE A GOOD PRACTICE!
CIAO
ANDREA
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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 â90s Rock Memoir âEven The Good Girls Will Cryâ on 17 March 2026.Â
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
Iâve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a childrenâs 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 Montrealâs underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders â all had female bass players. Thatâs 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, Holeâs 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 âno thank youâ due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the âLive Through Thisâ 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 â the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??Iâve 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?
âMountain Songâ â Janeâs Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line â feels like the ocean waves)
âBlack Top â Helmetâ (was the first bass line I taught myself)
âGold Dust Womanâ â Hole from âThe Crow 2â Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
âGet Readyâ â The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
âLucretia My Reflectionâ â Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
âBe My Druidessâ â Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
âRomantic Rightsâ â Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot â 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 â90s Rock Memoir âEVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRYâ. 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 â90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness â may the past shed a light on our future. Thatâs my hope for this book release and tour.
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