Ralph Towner – Composer

For many many years now, I have loved interesting melodies that challenge the ear. I was feeling a bit jaded after the last Anthony Jackson transcription and was thinking about what to do next when this one came up on my mp3 player. It is a Ralph Towner composition that was the title track on the 1987 Oregon album, ‘Ecotopia’. It is just an interesting melody that is worth internalising as it will give you an interesting rhythmic idea on which to base solos or even lines when you are trying to create tension. I have written it in bass clef (the original melody is played on a horn (soprano? oboe?) and doubled with a synth (Towner is known as a guitar player primarily but he is a nifty piano/synth player as piano was actually his first instrument and he didn’t come the guitar until he was in his twenties).

A nice and challenging melody to play on a bass (it fits on a 4 string)