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BassPlayer.com >> This Month >> Gary Willis - Actual Friction
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Gary Willis - Actual Friction| October, 2007 Gary Willis is in peak improvisational form throughout Actual Fiction, as his ever-evolving fingerboard ideas transition effortlessly between gnawing grooves and linear melodic motifs. Ex. 1 contains four bars of Willis’ solo on “PodCast,” at 4:13. Two Melodyne B-3 organ plug-ins double his bass, creating a harmonized effect. Says Willis, “I was tempted to get a horn player for the solo because I wanted long, weaving lines with chromaticism. That’s the approach I took.” Check out how he employs a three-note chromatic figure that always ends on a chord tone. He does it some eleven times in the example, most impressively in bars 2 and 3, where they’re rhythmically displaced.
Example 2 shows five bars of Willis’ singing fretless solo on “Say Never,” at 2:08. For negotiating major chords a whole-step apart, Gary offers that he played over D minor for the Bb and C chords, and D major for the D chord. He also handles the tricky rhythmic placement of the chords nicely, especially with the tasty motif in the last two measures. Lastly, Ex. 3 features Gary’s percussive, percolating groove solo at 2:42 of “Eye Candy.” Say Willis, “My goal in improvising, whether it’s a groove or a solo, is to express ideas in a conversational way. I try to create energy, and one of the best ways to do that is with intervals. This section revolves around the repeated Eb’s and C’s: the way they’re varied, displaced, and augmented with other notes and intervals.”
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