Michael Manring plays 'Selene' live in Toronto

[Sabiano]

This dude knows how to make beautiful music..

[yellowbass]

What did he do @ 1:33????????????????

[airraidsiren82]

oh my god! manring is always a monster...this is the first time i hear this song...very impressive

[mrsohmygosh]

My names Selene (:

[Pinstripedtie]

Good Bassist, though I think he has too many gadgets on that bass and should just play it naturally. If he needs more sound, why doesn't he just get himself a Six or seven string bass?? I don't like the sounds of him switching to other notes and actually think ir sounds RIDICULOUS!!

[scribblesxo]

Fail for copying half a video in bad quality.

[HoggTV]

Absolutely beautiful... This is a true musician completely at one with his instrument... An inspiration to us all...

[Zombbg4]

I'm not exactly a religious man, but it sounds like Angels are flying out of his amp.

[JIOREO]

Michael Manring is a beautiful musician. He plays bass. His bass is a special instrument developed specifically for him by Zon allowing him to speak the beauty of his music through this instrument while tapping into his deep understanding of his own inner voice backed by a lifetime of dedication to his craft. Not an innovator? His sophisticated technical innovations translate to pure fluid expression of his inner voice which is massively musical. What more could one want as an artist.

[theIconoclast1]

deep, i think i just shed a tear .

[JIOREO]

yes, rereading it has me choked up as well, and I wrote it! Frankly, it comes down to this; if one can't hear/appreciate what MM brings to the table, talk is very very cheap.

[drwinkle101]

Who is this Zon you speak of?

[JIOREO]

Joe Zon of Zon Guitars, founded in 1981. He designed and built what he called the Hyperbass for MM in 1990. This is the bass Michael plays in this video. It has a 3 octave fingerboard, a graphite neck on an alder body, quadraphonic electronics, 4 articulated de-tuning tuners and an adjustable pitch bridge which together offer thousands of possible tunings, some of which he employs in this composition on the fly.

[drwinkle101]

Thanks for the info jioreo. Fantastic instrument and player.

[Jack458111]

crank the tube drive manring, stop being a pussy....

[spoombung]

Cor!

[BigBroMike]

that has to be one of those amazing things ive ever seen

[SahteSolak]

I do not understand people who says "this instrument should be used in this way or another". that is totally up to the musician! there is millions of ways to make music and every musician has an own imagination and playing style... I do not understand people likes to compare one musician to other...

this is what mr. manring does.you may choose to not to listen.I belive that mr. manring has a great imagination on his intrument.

[saynotodrug999]

not only that but people didn't influence rock and roll or music by playing the way there s'oppose to

[LuckyBernado]

@SahteSolak i totally agree with you that if you want to make music and want to be creative you can do whatever you like - it's all up to you what kind of approach you going to pursue.

But at some point you will come to the question where do you want to go? what are your goals?

if you want to make money with your business you will face the question what do your customers want?

i'm a big fan of michael manring and his music but somehow i feel that i'm part of a minority in here.

[Selumiana]

man really dont want to blame him

but this guys inspired zanderzon?

he sucks in comparison if you ask me

Before you give ma a bad comment watch a video from zanderzon just search for him

[Dometooplz]

I don't care if zanderzon is a gazilion times better then manring (how do you even measure that?)

yours was still a stupid and out-of-place comment.

[aestheticpikachu]

you should look up more manring. this is only one of his songs he has alot of other songs that are great out there.

[xenotoxette]

Dude, Zander Zon isn't this good. Some things are opinion and some things are fact; this, being one of those things. I'm sure eve he'll admit it. He sites Manring as one of his biggest influences.

[moyles1]

zander zon is the owner of zon basses. he is not an actual bassist himself. he is only a bass maker. the guy you are talking about plays a zon bass and prides himself on it, that is why the name 'zander zon' is in the title.

there is no way to say one bassist of this calibre is better than another. michael manring developed his own style and furthered bass-playing as we know it today ten-fold. the guy that plays 'epic love' is just a......

[moyles1]

really talented bassist, not an innovator (excuse spelling) or pioneer in anything. you may prefer someone else but u cant say that one is better that the other because they have different styles all together.

[anahowana]

of course hes an innovator& a pioneer!!

[xenotoxette]

He's not bad, he's better than I am, jsust not nearly as good as Manring.

[KurtSandford]

LOL if only zander could see this argument. I rekon he would be laughing.

[KurtSandford]

:43.

=)

[rpm3345]

Yes, =)

[iLoVeDOUGIE4evr]

when ur THAT good at playing u deserve to show off ur talents!....the song is major smooth and soulful, idk how it could be better

[KDMAnderson]

Damn. I didn't know he came back for another stab at the G-Gould! I saw him with Don Ross and Andy McKee in November of '06.

I've always wanted to hear this song again. Thanks so much.

[xenotoxette]

As much as I love Manring, his jeans are fuckugly.

[teoballesi]

(?)

[KurtSandford]

They are just a regular pair of jeans. What is your problem.

[xenotoxette]

I can't put my finger on it. There's just something innately revolting about them...

[xenotoxette]

the jeans, I mean

[chrispy2shoes]

Selene is the greek lunar goddess. Zon has patent rights on the bridge and will not sell it without the bass. You must fork over $5000 for the bass to have this wonderful capability.I'm jealous.He sets his tunings up on the hipshot tuners so he can drop or raise the pitch anywhere from a half step to almost 2 whole steps. The bridge is almost the same. Light gauge strings help too. I have 1(one, just one)on my fretless and it's lots of fun. Phenomenal! I tip my hat to you Mr.Manring.

[shaamjuice]

this is so beautiful, but why does he keep on reaching for his tuning machines and bridge?

[ZOMGItsRobot]

he has 4 hipshots on his headstock, and similar devices on the bridge also. so by flipping a switch he can completely change the tuning on all of his strings.

watch it again, and listen to how the chords move when he reaches for the tuners.

[shaamjuice]

amazing. he actually changes the tuning of his bass every few chords! its pure genius. thanks by the way!

[ZOMGItsRobot]

yeah no problem

haha it blows my mind, this guys is just so amazing

[foowah7]

What an amazing song!!!

[strongeagle89]

my name is selene...lmao

[teoballesi]

i guess it's a song for a girl

maybe an ex girfriend

or something like that

[jazzpsalti]

BTW I'd put that in the title for whoever put this up. It'll get you more views and this is by far one of the best tracks on Soliloquy

[jazzpsalti]

HELL YES! There's a video of Selene now!!!

[sgasi1]

The song is called Selene from last album Soliloquy

[jcbass]

very crazy

[ghilao]

what's the name of this song?

[cegb44o]

he always wanted to sound like jaco, but in searching for it he found him self. GREAT MANRING!!!!!

[funkbassboy]

this is so good.

I love it. Someday I wish I could pop out something so beautiful.

[1o0iii0oo07]

this is man from school of bass,i think??

[21vision]

well, does this make any sense. i mean f-ing with tuners? Sean Malone \m/

[8ulls3y3]

Just 'f-ing with tuners'? Man, are you serious?

Manring is 'the' bass God, a virtuoso and an innovator (with a man-size ego).

[Yontar]

dude, um a huge malone fan as well, but compared to manring he is nothing dude, watch some of his other videos.

[KurtSandford]

This man has surely mastered the bass.

[lesclaypool85]

fuck this guy is boring

[saynotodrug999]

u kidding dude i know its slow but doesn't make it boring u just gotta have a certain level of understanding i guess

[lesclaypool85]

he's good, no doubting it.. but it just sounds boring to me...

[saynotodrug999]

ya i know but its cuz this stuff is wierd cuz its a mixture of phase 1 and phase 3 type of playing

phase 1 :showing off

phase 2 :serving the song

phase 3 :expressing urself

[earus1]

Thats a funny interpretation, but here, 2=3=2 don't u think? So HE's the song (Not that there's anything wrong with it...)

[saynotodrug999]

no "2=3=2" because u can make parts of the songs that just sound good but doesn't exactly express urself nor shows off ur abilities like Iron Maiden for example they do for alot of there songs where they just write and think what can I do to make the song better rather then how can i expresse myself or how can i use this song to show off

[petersonp715]

im sorry did u just try to compare iron maiden to this? are u retarted or something. iron maiden is awsome but this is just beautiful and nothing wrong with showin off ur skills i bet u steve harris couldnt do this

[saynotodrug999]

i didn't compare the 2 well if i did it was in the how they compare to each other but where they stand

[superchan1903]

Clearly this guy has talent....BUT.... Its just showing off for the sake of showing off. As for what i'd rather listen to? Flea anyone? Marcus Miller? Stanley Clarke? Bernard Edwards? Victor Wooten? Larry Graham? Bootsy Collins? For me bass playing has to have a groove, thats the point of the instrument,isn't it?

[petersonp715]

not always does bass music have to groove....this sound is more about the composition aspects and overall sound and feeling you get when listening to this song i feel.

[melyrn]

manring is one of the quietest, most humble guys you could ever meet; he's not showing off - for whom? his music pulls small crowds; watch him, he's intense and into this; he composes music on the bass to stretch what can be done, make new sounds; i first heard this on CD before seeing it - it was mesmerizing; seeing it almost distracts form the nearly zen state of the piece; also, he's got some serous grooving songs too, but he's showing here that the bass can SING

[superchan1903]

It sounds very nice but for me it totally defeats the point of the bass guitar.I mean whats with all the "touching the bass at the headstock and near the bridge" all about? Drop down tuners or similar i presume. But REALLY necessary? It is only my opinion ofcourse but if i want to listen to delicate musical compositions bass guitar would not be my instrument of choice.

[kylethetoybox]

superchan,

for michael manring's standards, this really isn't showing off a whole lot, this is just an all around beautiful piece of music.

and who's to say what the bass should be used for? or any instrument for that matter? when the electric guitar was first invented, it was mainly used as a rythmic instrument while saxaphones took the lead in rock bands. now look at how it's used today. the bass is just like any instrument out there, it's to be used however the songwriter wants it to sound.

[kylethetoybox]

it's a musical instrument, so it doesn't matter how it's used, i love the sound of a good bass groove, but i also love it when people find other ways to write music with it. there is no actual point to any instrument other than to write music that the musician playing it likes.

besides, i'd rather not watch a SOLO bass player play a groove by himself for five minutes...

[superchan1903]

We will just have to agree to disagree.

[Excitare]

Lissen to his his playing at 00:41, just beatiful.

[saynotodrug999]

is it just me or he just always playing with the tuning knobs? is it for sound of he feels like he's out of tune

[katanamanatee]

He retunes his bass while he is playing to create chords and to shift harmonics around in ways you could not otherwise.

[saynotodrug999]

ah thats cool ya thats makes since then i wouldn't feel like doing that during a song though

[katanamanatee]

Yeah, it is a bit crazy! Fine for solo music but would be tricky to do with a band. He actually has switches he can flick though to change the tuning in an instant with accuracy. He used to turn the tuning knobs themeselves but it got too tricky, so now he just has to flick a switch and bingo!

Guy is a genius...

[saynotodrug999]

well to get almost any harmonic sound u can go all the way pass ur frett board and u can get any harmonic note u want but to go all the way there and back to the frett board maybe be hard but i would see it easier the tuning all the time

[katanamanatee]

That may be true but it won't necessarily be in the octave you want it to be in and then the chord voicing would be all to hell. Also you're fingers would have to be like stretch armstrong's!

[saynotodrug999]

haha ya thats what i said but u do get the exact sound u want though compare to on the frett board wheres its seem all mix up

[bazement]

Just amazing! Beautiful and innovative as hell!

One superman with those tuning machines.... :D

[prasiddha]

Finally, we have a video version of Selene. I remember him playing this song here in Virginia. So serene and beautiful.

Do you have any others? Helios perhaps?