MARK DRESSER

Bassist Mark Dresser presents his vocabulary of extended techniques for the double bass — a personal musical language developed through improvisation, transcription, and composition. This lecture-demonstration was streamed live and recorded at the ISB 2009 Convention in State College, PA. What's covered The overtone series as the foundation of extended technique: partials, nodes, and how subdividing the string maps where to place your bow and hands How the relative volume of partials creates timbre and tone color Just intonation vs. equal temperament — expressing intervals as ratios and hearing where the two systems intersect Mapping harmonics against equal-tempered half steps on the fingerboard Dresser's catalog of techniques: two-handed tapping, bitones, harmonic-specific flautando, artificial harmonics, multi-nodal harmonics, subharmonics, and multiphonics His custom-made pickup system, which amplifies and expands these sonic possibilities For bassists curious about what lies beyond conventional technique, Dresser shows how the combination of intuition and understanding opens new melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and sonic territory.