Solo Bass Arrangement: "Fields of Gold"

“Fields of Gold” is a beautiful ballad written and performed by Sting. Upon hearing Eva Cassidy’s version of this tune, I was inspired to arrange it for solo bass and/or solo bass and voice. I wrote the arrangement for my friend and solo bassist Brittany Frompovich. The arrangement is for 5 string bass tuned E to C or 6 string bass. The Key is D Major and the level of difficulty, on a scale of 1 - 10 is a 7. Although a ballad, the difficulty level designation of 7 is due to the fact that much of the harmony is played as arpeggios, not chords using a classical guitar technique with the right hand (thumb of the bass notes and first and second finger for the others), bringing out the melody which is imbedded in the harmony and bringing meaning to such a beautiful song.

These Solo Bass arrangements are written specifically for the bass. Taking into account all the possibilities as well as the limitations of the instrument. Arrangements are played one octave higher than written.

Michael Dimin is the author of The Chordal Approach as well as The Art of Solo Bass and was a solo bass lesson columnist for Bass Frontiers, Bassics, Bass Player Magazine and Bass Guitar Magazines. Mike was an original Ask The Pro at Talkbass.com and a teacher at Gerald Veasly’s Bass Boot Camp, The National Summer Guitar Workshop, The Collective and more. Michael Dimin’s new video series based on his revolutionary book, The CORE Method is changing, forever, the way bass is taught.