Solo Bass Arrangement: "Misty"

Errol Garner’s “Misty” is the very first arrangement for solo bass that I wrote way back in 1979. As a student at the Berklee College of Music, I had heard of a bass player from Buffalo, NY who could play a chord/melody solo of “Misty”. At that moment, I decided to see what I could come up with. The rest, as they say, is history. In retrospect, I

Errol Garner’s “Misty” is the very first arrangement for solo bass that I wrote way back in 1979. As a student at the Berklee College of Music, I had heard of a bass player from Buffalo, NY who could play a chord/melody solo of “Misty”. At that moment, I decided to see what I could come up with. The rest, as they say, is history. In retrospect, I could have chosen a much easier tune to arrange for my first go at it. “Misty” is arranged for 4, 5 or 6 string bass in standard tuning. The key is Eb and the level of difficulty is a 6. The difficulty level 6 designation it due to some awkward fingering and position changes. One really nice thing about this arrangement is that it works at a variety of feels and tempos.

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.