Saturday December 20th, 2025. 1-4 @ the Record Bar Right next to the T mobile Center downtown KCMO. All ages and Free to all who want to play, Listen and support their bass player! There will be an auction/Raffle to help raise awareness for the Kcbass 501(c)3. There will be many gifts for your bass player that are hard to shop for….. It’s a really nice bass party.
Directions and info about The Record Bar downtown KCMO
How it works for the bass players.
- you just coming is the most important part. You can listen to the pros play some things and join in on the large play along when it works for you.The first charts listed below are the easiest and some parts that even a very beginner can play. You must bring your bass of course. It is best if more people can play the melody and in the upper octave. Most songs are written in lower and can be moved up to 12th fret or thumb position. Either part is cool. You can also be ready to improvise a solo and or a bassline If you feel comfortable. You can bring your family members and Friends to listen as it’s a very nice and fun concert.
- Electric bass players can bring their bass and instrument cable. Bring a music stand if you need the charts.
- upright players bring your bass and music stand. We will have folders of the sheet music but, you are welcome to print some out if you need to mark your parts.
- Music is for all levels of players. You can come play by ear or read. It’s just like a sing along and mainly we can use you playing the melodies on the bass but, never a bad thing to have you play the baseline as well.
- Please note that there will be bass retailers there to help you if you need advice on anything (repairs or purchases). So it’s a good place to hangout to learn more about the bass.
Please enjoy some of these pdfs to enhance your sight reading Bassmas time. Please note these are just to be used for your own educational purposes. Please ask if you would want to perform any of these in a public setting. We encourage you to buy sheet music. Please if you have any issues or questions send a message to hamiljohnny@gmail.com
Note: the first 3 songs are all open string simple baselines that anyone that want to come play with us can join in. You do not need to know how to read the music below. You can just follow along at the concert.. Just like if you were coming to a Christmas Caroling party. These are super fun songs you can also learn to sing along while playing the bass.
the next two songs are almost open strings except for one more B. Last xmas is D B E A for the whole song.
Funky Rudolph add a C.
These songs are a bit harder. you are welcome to hangout and play with us or just watch the music go by while we play.
These are the hard tunes. So don’t feel like you have to play these or just wait til next year when you are ready to read things like this.
Greensleeves
The sugar plum fairies is like as if Les Claypool did a version of it… He did really do that but, we just hope someday he’d do something like this. It’s hard for the main part and the first part is not part of the original Tchaickovsky version. But after that it hits all the same chord voicings of the orginal. You can play this on electric bass and upright..But it’s not really a sight reading type piece. Part 4 and 5 are probably the better place to start. Also don’t forget the whole Nutcracker is a wonderful thing to sight read the bass parts and all the creative ways (duke Ellington) people have redone this masterwork.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies
There are many jazz tunes in the holiday songbook but this one is great and you can find great versions of this tune done by the jazz masters. There you will hear them improvise in a virtousitic fashion. We use this one for all those jazzers out there that would like it to be more jazzy. Bring your bebop licks and let’s play. This is from the bass quartet arranged by the Great Gerald Spaits. Let us know if you’d like the quartet version.
This is a bass quartet version of the most famous part of Handel’s Messiah. Part 4 is the easiest and then part 1 is the most important. Please know that it is fun to play along with the orchestra version as you will really start to hear all the parts (especially when you return to the bassline). You can also sight read the entire Messiah bass parts which would be what we professionals do every year.
Hallelujah part 1
These are a lot of the sheet music I have arranged for the workshop events. Please feel free to read and enjoy them. It is highly encouraged to buy sheet music for your own purposes. There are many great publishers of Bass sheet music such as Liben, Leduc, Carl-Fischer, International Society of Bassists, and many self publishers. Please if you use one of these charts make sure you go buy one from one of these publishers as that greatly helps our bass family.