Joe Dart, the bassist of Vulfpeck, is known for his precise, groovy, and melodic bass lines. A fine example of this is his bass solo from the track ‘Beastly’ on the Live at Madison Square Garden album, released at the end of 2019. His approach to soloing on this particular track offers valuable insights that can be applied to teaching improvisation in the classroom, especially in how to develop musical intuition, creativity, and ensemble collaboration. This is a fantastic live performance, and I recommend watching the full track with your class before considering the following.
Joe Dart’s solo is totally locked into the groove, emphasising the importance of rhythm and feel over complexity. He starts his solo by locking into a semiquaver pattern with accents on the beat, inviting the crowd to clap along and feel the groove. As the section develops, he introduces short chromatic fills at the end of the phrases to develop confidence as he moves away from root notes.
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