The Monkey & The Fish album, A Place of Hope, has just won the North Coast Entertainment Industry Association (NCEIA) Album of the Year award for 2017. Also, the opening track, Smell of Rain, won the Production of the Year award.

These awards are more commonly called the Dolphin Music Awards. There are many beautiful dolphins on the North Coast of New South Wales, Australia.

The band members and all people associated with the recording of the album are thrilled with this result.

Details and free tracks are below this post. There you will also see several posts I added in relation to the recording process … especially the bass tracks I played.

George Urbaszek

Below are the Album Notes for the New Monkey & the Fish album, released in June 2017. In previous posts I have talked about some of the recording process.

New Monkey & the Fish album comes from ‘A Place Of Hope’
Lush vocal harmonies, excellent musicianship and magic song craft feature in Monkey & the Fish’s 2nd studio album, ‘A Place Of Hope‘.

An eclectic mix of tracks with folk, roots and reggae influences are welded into a continuum of work in this evocative production. Singer songwriting duo Chris Fisher and Marcelle Townsend–Cross create a special presence and signature sound that reflects the 20 years they have performed together.

Through 2016 Monkey & the Fish ‘regrouped’ as a 5 piece and worked on arranging and recording at Bush Rock Studios Goonellabah. The line up includes seasoned session players George Urbaszek on bass and Glenn Kellett on trumpet. Kellett’s horns feature through instrumentals and brass section arrangements on the new album. Guest musicians include Pete Wilkins and Scott Hills on drums, Sonia Henderson on trombone and Paul Agar on pedal steel.

‘A Place Of Hope’ has two songs, including the title track, whose lyrics were written by Chris Fisher’s mother, poet and artist Iris Violet Rose Fisher. Sadly Iris passed away in 2016. The album has been produced with respect to her creative and inspirational life. Iris’s art provides the basis for the album’s cover with a painting of a scene on the Myall Lakes.

The album was co-produced and arranged by Fisher and respected former Far North Coast engineer and producer Dave Highett, now based in Bangkok, Thailand, who also mixed the recording. Mastering was with Michael Worthington, Soundworthy studios, Ballina.

A bonus track on the album, ‘Hand In Hand’, was written and recorded during the hectic days of the historic Bentley blockade against coal seam gas in 2014. It is a rousing activist anthem with contributions by some of the Far North Coast’s most well-known performers including Laura Targett (violin, vocals), Luke Vassella (vocals), Holley Somerville (vocals), Mookx Hanley (banjo), Jeremy White (electric guitar, vocals), Peter Lehner (vocals) Paul Joseph (vocals) and Julian Smith (bass). This track also features Bundjalung language spoken by Roy Gordon and Lewis Walker, plus Walker’s didgeridoo.

Another special collaboration of this album is ‘Smell Of Rain’, featuring voices and Pitjantjatjara language of kids and community members from Yunarinyi and Kenmore Park Anangu School.

While it deals with some serious issues, this is an uplifting album which is aptly titled. Engaging lyrics resonate themes of love and respect for family & the natural world and reflect personal and universal stories that connect with audiences.

In case the player above does not work for you Click HERE to Listen to the CD on CD Baby

CD cover thumbnail

The is the CD cover image for Monkey & the Fish – A Place of Hope

Today one of my new online students, Dan, emailed me about an issue he had with his fingernails striking the strings. Even with trimmed nails, he was still hitting the string with the fingernail of his index finger. So Dan experimented with different hand angles and striking techniques.

After finding a suitable, slightly rotated hand angle the problem seemed to be fixed. So Dan told about this and wanted my opinion. One of the best things we can do in many situations is to experiment and find out for ourselves. And that is exactly what Dan did.

This pleased me greatly because I advocate and encourage experimentation. When we do, we usually find that not one technique suits all situations. As musicians we must be flexible (in mind and body) and willing to adapt to best suit the musical situation.

So, the fingernail catching is not at all unusual, and the option of changing the finger/hand angle is a good one.

I often use this playing angle myself. It is particularly good for playing fast passages as it gets the first two fingers to feel as though they are equally long. Also, the fingers are loose and flexible and the wrist is straight – all good stuff.

This is by no means a new technique. It is about as old as the bass guitar itself.

I took a photo (below) so you can see what we are talking about. I hope this helps you, too.

“Modified” right-hand position

Since my last blog post I have had heaps of positive comments about my bass sound as well as the quality of the “Change is Good” video.

So, after we finished recording the drum tracks* (and a few bass tracks) and we ran out of studio time, the obvious decision was made to record more bass tracks at Chris Fisher’s home studio. (Because of the huge advances in technology, many recording sessions are done at home nowadays.)

* The main reason to record the drums in a dedicated studio was to get a good drum sound using many microphones. Also, to get the feel of the basic rhythm section (drums and bass) playing together live. All other tracks, including bass, can be recorded using either line-in or microphones, or both.

As mentioned before, Chris has a ProTools setup at his house. So this, in conjunction with heaps of plug-ins, is an ideal way to record without time pressure. And that’s exactly what we did.

I am always happy to experiment, and this time it was no different. I took 5 of my basses with me. They are
1. Fender American Jazz Bass with S1 Switch with Fender NPS Super Bass Roundcore/Taperwound strings. (I love round core strings because they cause less finger fatigue when playing for long periods, especially long sets on live gigs.)
2. Fender American Hot-Rodded Precision Bass (P bass and J bass pickups) with Thomastik Jazz Flatwound strings.
3. Belman Classic custom enhanced 5-String Bass with Elixer Nano strings.
4. Fender Japanese-Made Fretless Jazz Bass with Fender Nickel-Plated Steel Roundwound strings.
5. MusicMan Classic Stingray Bass with “roasted” figured maple neck and Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings.

On a side note: After many many years of using many many string brands and types, my current choice is to usually use the string brand and type that comes with the bass from the factory.

For this particular session (it always depends on the song and the style) we loved the classic P-Bass sound with flats, but my Stingray won over. It just has that extra bit of “zing” which was especially suitable for “Change is Good”.

Here is the hardware we used:
My Eden WT500 amp head (without a loudspeaker) plus ….. here it comes ….. a TL Audio Valve Processor.
We actually recorded and used (in the final mix) two bass tracks. One was from the line-out of my Eden head and the other from the TL Audio Valve Processor. Both signals sounded great individually, but together, as they say “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

Of course there were many audio tweaks, from the bass guitar controls, to the amp controls (which were photographed for future reference), to the valve processor settings, to the software settings.

On a related note, I find it important to play certain notes on certain frets. For example, the same pitch E on the 7th fret of the A string sounds different to the E on the 2nd fret of the D string or the 12th fret of the E string. Right-hand positioning is also an important consideration. In addition there is the “studio setup” I mentioned in Episode 1 of this article series.

For the yet-to-be-released (on an album later this year) track with my fretless bass we used the same recording setup as for my Stingray. Of course the mixing and mastering of tracks will always enhance the sound to suit the track. So in the the current mix of the fretless track, the bass sounds awesome. In my opinion, this is due to two things  besides the playing, of course
They are
1. the sound that went to “tape”, and
2. the EQ (equalisation) of the mix. (As before, the mix is being done in Bangkok.)

A very promising comment/observation/description about the sound of the fretless is that it “sounds like a luxurious bath” … and that is exactly what we need on a ballad. In fact, on the fretless (where I played mostly long, legato notes) I chose to play most of the lower notes on the E string. Notes such as B, C#, D, and D# were played high on the E string as opposed to the normal positions on the A string. This worked especially well because there was a set of new strings on the bass, and that in conjunction with the fatter sound of the fatter string – a great combination producing richness with clarity.

So there you have it. The album is due for completion and release later this year, so we’ll just have to wait to hear the final product. I am looking forward to it and I hope you are, too. That will be the best way to demonstrate what I am talking about.

As usual, I hope you gained something from my experiences. Please feel free to comment and ask questions.

George Urbaszek
Bass Player and Music Educator

Here is the new video to accompany the single “Change is Good” by “Monkey and the Fish”.

Change is Good – video on You Tube

Buy “Change is Good” on iTunes

Buy “Change is Good” on CD Baby

Enjoy whatever you get out of “Change is Good”.

George Urbaszek, Bass Player and Music Educator

In the previous (first) installment of this article, I mentioned how I had new strings on my bass, that I had to get a “studio setup” for my bass, and that I would tell you how we ended up getting a much better sound out of my Music Man Classic Stingray bass … and a great sound out of my fretless bass. But before that I also wanted to tell you how I prepared for this particular recording session.

So here we go!

In my experience of well over 120 recording sessions (probably many more) each session is different. This one was no different … in that it was different

I was (and still am) very fortunate to work with an exceptionally talented AND organized musician/singer/songwriter. His name is Chris Fisher. Before the sessions Chris recorded top-quality demos of all the songs. The demos were in the correct tempo, were the final arrangements, in the right key, and even had great bass lines on them. Those bass lines were a blend of Chris’s own ideas and lines I had played at rehearsals and on live gigs.

So, as you can see, I had a lot to go on. This was not one of “those” recording sessions where you just rock up and play – which can be good, too. Instead, I had time to prepare.

The song demos were recorded on ProTools and were emailed to the session musicians. Besides learning the core bass parts off the recordings, I also charted the songs. Not only did I chart the arrangements and chords (i.e. made chord charts) I even transcribed the bass lines. “Why?” you may ask. Simple: I wanted to learn the songs with a variety of learning techniques and skills. These included “by ear” and “by note”. For me, the more “learning angles” I use, the better I learn and memorize.

So that was my preparation. As they say “It takes what it takes.”

—– Interruption of this article with some Breaking News —–

I mentioned in “Breaking news” at the end of my last article, that the upcoming single from this recording session is mixed and ready for mastering and release on iTunes soon, that I would keep you updated on the progress, and that a video to support the single was in the pipeline, too. Well, that has all happened.

The single “Change is Good” is due for immanent release (it will probably be out by the time you read this) and we have recorded a video to support the song. The video is being compiled right now.

“Change is Good” is an upbeat folk rock/pop song that celebrates the growing people’s movement calling for change to sustainable and clean energy  sources. Songwriter Chris Fisher describes this tune as “a positive affirmation countering the negative, incorrect and self-serving rhetoric of fossil-fuel companies and their political puppets”.

One of the great things about recording software and the internet is that we can collaborate almost anywhere in the world. That is definitely the case for Change is Good. The mix for the single was done in Bangkok by an expat Aussie who Chris has worked with for many years. In fact, the night before the video was recorded, the mix went to Bangkok and back to Australia twice in one night.

So the following day we spent most of our time in front of a green screen miming to the song. The video recording, although somewhat exciting, was also somewhat boring. Just miming … not actually playing.

Anyway, I have digressed from the main article … and you have probably read enough for now … so I will continue later on with a further installment.

Until then, as usual I hope you have gained from my experiences.

Bass Player and Music Educator, George Urbaszek

On 8 March 2016 I posted a video on You Tube where I demonstrated the complete process of changing strings on my Music Man Classic Stingray bass guitar. The video is also posted on this blog. In that video I mentioned the reason I was putting a set of new strings on my bass. The reason was that I wanted the best possible amount of brightness/treble in my sound for an upcoming recording session … and that the engineer/mixer could always cut treble, but not boost treble. (Boosting non-existent high frequencies only leads to undesirable hiss.)

The recording session has come and gone. So what happened in that session?

As usual for most sessions involving bass guitar (double bass is different) little time was spent in getting a bass sound. In fact, the bass sound itself was fine, but ultimately we ended up with too much fret buzz.

This happens with new strings. I made the mistake of keeping the action (the distance of the strings from the frets) the same as for live playing. Initially this sounded fine, but we ultimately decided to re-record the bass with a different setup.

This new “studio setup” involved raising the action of the strings so as to almost eliminate fret buzz. We left just enough fret buzz to give the bass sound that “live feel” without too much rattle. Of course, raising the action also puts more tension on the truss rod, making it more concave. In addition, the intonation had to be adjusted at the bridge saddles.

For many recording sessions during the past 40 years I have had to change to a “studio setup” on my basses – so this situation was not new to me.

We may need to be able to make such adjustments on the spot.

We were running out of time, however, and the session drummer, Pete Wilkins (Pete and I played together in a jazz fusion band about 10 years ago) had to leave for a gig. So we decided to do the remaining tracks with drums only in the allocated studio time and to record the remainder of the bass tracks separately at a later date.

By the way, Pete has toured with Blue King Brown and recorded with Ash Grunwald. Here is a quote from WikiPedia:

•    In late 2014, Ash headed back into the studio, this time taking with him Ian Perez keyboardist for Wolfmother and Pete Wilkins, former drummer for Blue King Brown. Under the guidance of famed American Producer Nick DiDia (Springsteen, Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam, Powderfinger) an intense focus was brought onto the structure of song composition, to record an album that has been described sonically as ‘psychedelic blues using synth rather than stringed bass’ and conceptually as ‘strongly political, rumbling from the depths of internal rage.’

In this session two typical studio experiences arose. They can be summarized as follows:
1. It takes longer than you expect.
(Getting a good drum sound took about 4 hours. Yes, there are many elements involved in getting a “natural” sound on a recording.)

2. Be prepared to adapt.
(To expect the unexpected and be willing and able to adapt is essential in most musical situations.)

Think about how this applies to you.

I hope you can gain from some of my experiences.

…To Be Continued …

In the next episodes of sharing this particular studio experience with you, I will tell you how I actually prepared the songs and what we (the producer and me) did to get an awesome fretless bass sound, plus, of course, a much much better sound out of my Stingray.

Breaking news: The upcoming single from this recording session is mixed and ready for mastering and release on iTunes soon. Of course I will keep you updated on the progress. Plus, a video to support the single is in the pipeline, too.

In mid January 2016 I had a gig with a band I now play with regularly. The band’s name is Monkey and the Fish. On that gig we played Let’s Dance as a tribute to David Bowie. We did this within just a few days of David’s passing.

The gig was recorded, and our version of Let’s Dance is now on You Tube. Many people have commented on the excellent sound quality; and in fact when I hear this mix it sounds like a record to me. See what you think.

Because this video has become so well received, I decided to post it here on my blog.

Now you can see and hear me playing live … well, virtually live.

Besides each band member learning Let’s Dance at home, the band rehearsed the song for about 20 minutes. In that time I decided to play the main bass part using the slap bass technique, and the other parts using finger-style bass technique. A bass solo was inserted. When you listen to the original version of Let’s Dance you will find out why our arrangement is what it is, i.e. for a 3-piece band plus vocals.

On the gig a trumpeter rocked up and sat in, i.e. played without any rehearsal. The trumpet and bass solo begin together … and this coincidence gives the song an unexpected lift.

So why am I telling you this? It is merely to demonstrate that with sufficient musical knowledge, technique, skills and alertness, we can make music magic.

To learn slap bass skills go to Easy Slap Bass Lessons.

To learn regular bass, go to Creative Bass Lessons.

Slap Bass, Fuzz Bass Solo, “Normal” Bass on You Tube

Bass Lessons Online You Tube Channel

Enjoy whatever you get out of this video!

(Below is a re-post of an article I wrote a few years ago. The content and results are still relevant.)

I am often asked how important the fretting-hand technique is when playing bass guitar. Usually the questions will be in relation to the one-finger-per-fret technique.

About two months ago I had a visit from a 55-year-old (novice) bass player named Rob who had bass lessons from a guitarist for almost one year. Rob developed severe carpel tunnel syndrome and had to have an operation on his fretting hand. His operation was only about a week old when he visited me, and quite frankly, it scared me to see an actual live case displaying the results of incorrect technique. Needless to say, Rob had been using the one-finger-per-fret guitar technique.

This case may be extreme, but there are many more instances of similar gravity. My opinion is “Why stretch if you don’t need to.” I can go into the finer details of anatomy, etc., but I won’t in this this instance. An important thing to consider is that on the bass we usually are required to play mostly within the octave position, i.e. three frets apart. If arpeggio shapes are to be played over four frets, then the one-finger-per fret method is employed.

Do this test:
1. Place the pad of your right-hand thumb on the underside of your left-hand wrist.
2. Stretch your left-hand fingers to simulate the spacing of the four widest frets on the bass.
3. Now relax the fingers to a three-fret spacing and, with your right-hand thumb, feel the difference in your left wrist tension.

What it comes down to is to USE THE TECHNIQUE REQUIRED FOR EACH PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCE and not a one-technique-suits-everything approach.

George Urbaszek
Serving Bass Players Worldwide since 1996

PS Rob is now taking my online bass lessons and has no problems with his fretting hand.

In this special video George Urbaszek of http://www.creativebasslessons.com points out where most bass players have timing difficulties. George shows you how to address and fix those timing issues.

Essential Timing Tips for Bass Players – You Tube Video