Solo Bass Arrangement: "Blue in Green"

“Blue in Green” written Bill Evans but often times credited to Miles Davis was originally recorded on Miles’ “Kind of Blue” in 1959. It is absolutely one of my favorite arrangements to play. I play it as both a ballad and a swing tune. I will often play the first chorus as a ballad and swing subsequent choruses. Additionally, I will, at times,

“Blue in Green” written Bill Evans but often times credited to Miles Davis was originally recorded on Miles’ “Kind of Blue” in 1959. It is absolutely one of my favorite arrangements to play. I play it as both a ballad and a swing tune. I will often play the first chorus as a ballad and swing subsequent choruses. Additionally, I will, at times, loop, the harmony to solo over. Although rather short in form, it can be difficult to play as many of the melody notes are upper tensions of the harmony or blue notes. Deciding just where to compromise to be true to the tune was the primary challenge. The arrangement is for 5 string bass tuned E to C or 6 string bass. The Key is Bb Major and the level of difficulty, on a scale of 1 - 10 is a 6. The difficulty level designation of 6 is due to some wide stretches and fingerings that don’t sit nicely under the fingers. Trying to play it in a swing feel adds to the difficulty. A live video performance with Brian Melick on Cajon (with looping) can be found here: https://youtu.be/HJELKSaUjC4

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.