Ben’s Blog

I posted a really bad video clip of me dusting off the cobwebs of the Bouree in e minor, BWV 996, a few months back when I was in my “post whatever to YouTube” phase. I wish I hadn’t really, lol, it’s a god-awful clip. I used to play that piece much better, and hope I have some video from the live rock opera the band did in 1994 or so, when I played this one right. Until I find that, here’s the junk video on YouTube.

Anyway, I got a request for a tab for this one, so wrote this one out for a 6-string in standard tuning or a 5-string with a high C. The right hand almost always plays the upper part, the left hand the lower, but there’s a few quick exceptions that help make it playable at tempo. Anyway, take a look, I’ve included a GuitarPro file you can practice with in addition to the PDF, or use the MID file if you don’t have GuitarPro and use Windows Media Player play-speed settings (Ctrl-Shift-S) for practicing this one. I’ve left out fingerings entirely, as you bring it up to tempo most of those choices get made for you I’ve found.

BWV 996 Bouree (PDF)
BWV 996 Bouree (zipped GP5)
BWV 996 Bouree (MID)
BWV 996 Bouree (junk MP3)

Also, I’ve notated the ending correctly, but in my clips I really savaged the last few bars. It’s much harder to play as written, but it’s worth it. I’ve got to practice that again to get it right, and re-post to YouTube.

In terms of my favorite recorded versions, they include John Williams on classical guitar (the Complete Lute Suites) and Yngwie on Live ‘85.

What an amazing composition. Brilliant, brilliant stuff. Great fun to play, hope people enjoy it! Also doubles as a great independence and dexterity exercise. This one would have a been great one for my Bass Frontiers column back in the days.

bentorrey :: Mar.25.2007 :: The Quantity... :: No Comments »

I had to get a computer book and went to Amazon, and was happily surprised to see the “Suggested items for you” be very relevant. Robert Barto’s Sonatas for Lute Volume 8 came out a few months ago, and Amazon was good enough to suggest it based on my buying history! Good idea Amazon. Automatic add to cart- a no brainer.

While I wait for that to arrive, couldn’t think of a better time to kick out a draft that’s been in my WordPress drafts for a long time: Project Barto.

The idea of Project Barto is that once a month an arrangement of a Weiss tune is “due”, and I need to get a decent recording of it down on audio or video.

This month’s entry (”due”, but late, for March 15th) will have to be Sonata # 25’s Prelude in G Minor (Volume 2). I should record a video for YouTube because the sound would be better than a dry, direct clip like this. But, here’s a clip of me wrecking this amazingly beautiful piece on my 6-string. Pretty dreadful, lol. Weiss G Minor Prelude

And, a quickly done transcription that should be done in two staffs.
Weiss G Minor Prelude transcribed for bass

bentorrey :: Mar.21.2007 :: Project Barto, The Quantity... :: No Comments »

So many great things in Victor Wooten’s book the Music Lesson really resonated with me. One thing he mentioned that I’ve always done is “thanking” the musical instruments you have.

For me, one of the greatest ways to thank the instruments I have is to make sure they are played. And, since I can’t possibly play all the instruments I’ve accumulated over the years, one thing I’ve started doing is thinking about “good homes” for some of the instruments that I can’t play regularly. I’ve already done that with my koa Peavey DynaBass, which now lives at REP Studios in Ithaca, NY.

I’m also going to relocate the “Outward Bound” bass to REP Studios, but before I do, I decided that I’d like to write a brief history of this great instrument, and I think I’ll do that with all the instruments that I relocate. 

OK, so here goes. A Brief History of the ‘Outward Bound’ bass.

Looking back on this bass, I realize that it followed me right through my earliest musical influences, literally and physically. I think that’s the root of the profound fondness I have for it. So, it’s a Peavey Foundation bass that I bought in 1986, originally with a maple neck. Heavily into Jaco at the time, it’s the bass I first learned Portrait of Tracy on. I also learned Billy Sheehan’s epic NV4-3345 on this great bass, playing that at my high school talent show in 1989 (wish I had that on video, would be great for YouTube).

As I became a bigger and bigger Billy Sheehan fan though, I just had to get a Kahler bass whammy bar (lol). So, I got one of those and had it put in by the Pedulla factory, which was in Rockland, MA at that time.

By the summer of my junior year though I had become obsessed with Jaco’s playing, and absolutely needed a fretless instrument. So, I took out the Kahler bridge, filling it in myself with wood putty, put the old bridge back on, and then started working on de-fretting the neck. You could say that’s kind of a right of passage for a fretless player, you have to do that at least once to fully appreciate a good fretless neck. Go to the boat store, get the marine epoxy and give it a go. Well, my first (and last) try at that didn’t turn out so well. Although the bass remained a tone monster, the neck was in pretty bad shape. I sent it to a luthier who cleaned it up, and it served as my fretless pretty well for the next 5 years.

As to the name, in 1991 I did an Outward Bound course in Joshua Tree, CA while taking a break from school for awhile. It was fantastic. 22 days out in nature, interacting with people in such a unique way. It was tremendous. It woud be a long tangent to fully describe how great this trip was, so I’ll just mention apropos to this story that when I got back I decided to put the Outward Bound sticker right on the bass to remind me of the trip. The bass was dubbed the “Outward Bound” bass after that.

In 1993 or so, I bought a replacement fretless rosewood neck, which is uncoated. I almost always have flatwounds on it for that reason.

I’ll definitely string it up with some roundwounds to do some last recordings before I relocate this great instrument to REP Studios this summer. I’ll reply to this post with some audio in awhile.

bentorrey :: Mar.11.2007 :: Instruments :: 1 Comment »

Since I’m recording # 4 pretty soon (late March), I’ve been feeling like I should work specifically on that, but in the last few weeks I’ve been dividing my time on tons of other mini-projects, and not really focusing on # 4 as much as I might.  

I sat down today and played # 4 through, and realized that it was in better shape than I thought, and somehow my work on other projects no matter how different, have all helped to move me along musically.

I was thinking about that after the session, and it occurred to me that it shows up a bit like sailing. Now, for the record, I’m a terrible sailor. In fact, my brothers will tell you that I can actually say that I’ve sunk a sailboat, albeit it was a turnatub in 6 feet of water. But it did sink. And, my friend Ben can tell you that we turtled a sunfish at Sebago Lake and had a heck of a time getting it back upright.

But, one thing I do know about sailing is that you can’t always go in the exact direction you’d like to go. You use the wind to get you from point A to point B, then tack with the wind to go from point B to point C. You might have wanted to go from A to C directly, but that wouldn’t work quite as well.

So, I guess with what I’m practicing, I’m not going to worry too much about exactly what I’m practicing, but like a good sailor (that I’m not), I’ve got to watch the wind in my sails and make sure it’s blowing hard on whatever tack I’m on.  That way I’ll eventually get to that destination, even if it doesn’t seem like the most direct path.

bentorrey :: Mar.10.2007 :: Musical Thoughts :: No Comments »

OK, so let me play ‘intentional contrarian’ here for a minute and declare that my favorite guitar solo on R1sing Forc3 is the slow interlude part of Little Savag3, from 1:24 to 2:22. If you don’t have the R1sing Forc3 record, you can get it on iTunes, it’s an absolute classic.

Anyway, check out the solo that starts at 1:24 over that nice B minor progression.

Imagine an Yngwi3 solo that you can sing in the shower pretty effectively!

Beautiful phrasing, tone and vibrato–and most of all-space. It’s an aspect of the Great Master’s playing that I think he doesn’t get credit for often enough.

bentorrey :: Mar.10.2007 :: Musical Thoughts :: No Comments »

There’s tons of great and helpful concepts in the Artist’s Way. One of my favorite is the concept of Filling the Form. If you haven’t read the book, Filling the Form is where you take steps toward making something a reality–like you would by filling out an application form or something. Just fill the thing out, get it started. In a sense too, I think of it like a “life experience form”, and filling out what I want to experience. Putting down, in writing, what I want to be a part of my life.

To that end, I might say that outside of playing in Blase Cabaret years ago, probably my favorite experience playing music was orchestral playing. It’s so fun to play with an orchestra. Playing your part, and listening to how it all works together. I did a fair amount of orchestral playing in college. A personal highlight for me was playing Beethoven’s 7th, my favorite Beethoven symphony, in my junior year at Tufts.

My goal is to get my orchestral chops back together to the point where I could play in a nice community orchestra and get to experience the fun of orchestral playing again.

So, I’ve dusted off my French bow and my trusty book of complete Beethoven symphony bass lines, and bought a fresh bag of rosin. I’ve got a teacher lined up, made some contact with a local orchestra, and am shooting for a September audition if I can keep this thing on track.

Until then, got to keep Filling the Form every day.

bentorrey :: Mar.10.2007 :: Filling the Form :: No Comments »