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Austrian Ariane Cap is a multi-instrumentalist, educator, bestselling author, blogger, and composer.
An eclectic and versatile bassist, she has covered many styles, from Rock (Keith Olsen/Fleetwood Mac), Jazz (Mimi Fox) to Folk and Flamenco (Muriel Anderson), to classical music (The Mozart Band), and Top 40, Latin Disco (Generation Esmeralda) to Punk Rock (“kindie band” The Sippy Cups) and Cirque du Soleil. As a leader, Ariane has teamed up with star Jazz bassoonist Paul Hanson to create the critically acclaimed duo ‘OoN’. A new collaboration with Stu Hamm (Bass Beyond Borders) recently toured Brazil.
Ariane is an online teaching personality with a thriving blog, bass courses and webinars that draw a loyal following. She contributes regularly to notreble.com with her series “Talking Technique” and does courses and live seminars for scottsbasslessons.com; her book, “Music Theory for the Bass Player” s available worldwide.
Ariane has been written about in several leading bass magazines and was featured on the July 2019 cover of Bass Player Magazine as one of four winners of the “Hottest Bass Players on the scene” poll. She presented at the 2019 London Bass Guitar Show with a clinic and a performance.
A self-publisher and entrepreneur, Ariane is a frequent guest on business and motivational podcasts. A certified TinyHabits™ coach and NLP Practitioner, she has a deep interest in the learning process and in optimizing practicing habits and learning for herself and her students.
Ariane is highly active endorsing her companies (Marleaux Basses, Kala basses and others), co-runs solobassnight.com, a series celebrating the art of solo bass and is a second term elected Governor of the San Francisco Chapter Board of the Recording Academy. During the COVID epidemic Ariane has supported teachers in their journey to taking their teaching online.
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EXPERIENCE & BANDS
Ariane has played in countless bands and projects in Europe and the US. Enjoying eclectic styles she particularly loved playing with bands such as the Mozartband (a fusion of funk, rock and Mozart featuring members of the Viennese Philharmonic), and the Celtic Rock Band Tempest, who she toured with for three years.
Ariane recorded and toured with kindie-rock sensation The Sippy Cups, a psychedelic rock circus appealing to kids and their parents alike featuring jugglers and aerialists and a rocking show, as well as The Palmwine Boys, who fuse acoustic African Palmwine Music with Americana. Ariane was part of the creation of Cirque du Soleil’s adaptation of The Tempest, Amaluna, in Montreal.
She is an experienced sideman – most recently supporting guitar virtuoso Muriel Anderson and the German Flamenco Stars Tierra Negra on fretted and fretless basses, or Cabo Jazz pianist Diego Rodriguez and vocalist extraordinaire Daline Jones. Ariane Played fusion with the David Haskell Group and The Music of Carla Bley with Erika Oba and Latin Rock with violin virtuoso Carlos Reyes.
She recently recorded with multi grammy award winning producer Keith Olsen for his projects Rocha – Unum (also featuring Jimmy Hsalip, Dave Weckl, , Vinnie Colaiuta, Jeff Lorber) and Stephanie Murat. She also recorded with Carlos Sanders, the Montclair Women’s Big Band, Grammy-winning producer James Jae-E Earley and many others. Further projects include Lara Price’s Girls Got the Blues, an all-star female cast of Bay Area musicians including Janice Maxie-Reid, Pam Hawkins and Annie Sampson, as well as the platinum winning band Generation Esmeralda with Jimmy Goings, who she recently toured Brazil with. She plays 80’s Rock and adaptations of game music with Raj and the Zenmasters.
Ariane also performs a solo set featuring a genre bending (fromBach via Jazz to African World Music) selection of originals and covers performed on her effects and looping setup. She co-leads a project with Bassoonist Paul Hanson – OoN – The Bass-bassoon duo of Ariane Cap and Paul Hanson. A new collaboration with bassist extraordinaire Stu Hamm is underway.
‘I have been enjoying hearing Ariane play for a few years now. Her monstrous groove grabbed my attention the first time I heard her.’
– Victor L. Wooten, 2010
VIDEO SAMPLER
“I met Ariane a few years back and since our meeting I’ve only used her for all my bass tracks. Her inventive style, expertise, and time are exceptional. I suggest that everyone look at her book and listen to her playing. She underscores the true meaning of ‘foundation with style and groove’.”
Keith Olsen, Multi Grammy award-winning Producer (Journey, Foreigner)
Photo Credit: Jane Higgins
Photo Credit: Marjorie Ammons
EDUCATION
Born and raised in the beautiful alps of Innsbruck, Austria, Ariane has been musically active since the age of five, playing classical piano and the recorder. She entered the Conservatory of Innsbruck at age 6, where she studied the piano and the flute until the age of 18.
After a detour into science (Masters of Science in Biology/Marine Biology from the University of Innsbruck), she started playing in local rock, pop and dance bands and picked up the electric bass and soon added the upright. She entered the Academy of Music Vienna in 1996 studying Jazz Bass and Bass Education. In 1998 she received a scholarship from the Academy of Music of Vienna in Austria to the University of Miami, where she spent a year in the graduate program on Austrian and US scholarships. She then received a Teaching Assistantship at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where she received her Graduate Certificate of Music. Ariane received her Master’s of Music from the University of West London (AMS) in 2021.
Besides this in-depth classical and jazz education, Ariane has studied with greats such as Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, Michael Manring, Chuck Rainey, Gerald Veasley, Kai Eckhardt, Kenny Werner and others. She attended and assisted in various of Victor Wooten’s and Steve Bailey’s Bass Nature Camps and was deeply inspired by the encouraging and consciousness-expanding teachings of these camps.
Ariane is also a certified NLP Master Practitioner, a certified Tiny Habits™ Coach and deeply interested in the psychology of learning and performing.
Ariane Cap is the REAL DEAL. A real player, a real teacher, and a real person. For many years she has been an integral part of our camps (as well as other camps) and offers a unique perspective on many things. Oh, did I mention that she can PLAY???!!!
– Steve Bailey (Berkeley SOM, Head Bass Department)
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Ariane is a second term elected Board member (Governor) of the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy (Grammys) and past co-chair of the education committee.
Academy members, please connect at the Grammy Pro site; interested music professionals should visit grammypro.com to learn more about the Recording Academy.
The founder of “Step Up Music Vallejo“, Ariane is a highly sought after educator. She has co- conducted bass seminars, musical assemblies and rock camps all over the US, teaching along side Steve Bailey, Rufus Reid, Leo Nocentelli, DJ Logic, Dave LaRue, Carl Verheyen, Walfredo Reyes and others. She presented at the London Bass Guitar Show 2019 and at the Marleaux Camp Tiefgang and the Golden Gate Bass Camp amongst others.
Her in-depth and improvisation based online courses and blog have brought a loyal following. Her course “Music Theory for the Bass Player” and “Ear Confidence – Six Paths to Fearless Ears” have found an enthusiastic audience. More books and courses are underway.
She is a high-in-demand bass teacher sought out for her systematic and step-by-step approaches, and her revolutionary fretboard harmony method (“The Pattern System“), her emphasis of improvisation for learning music theory and her ways of approaching technique, musical expression and groove creation.
Ariane has her own column “Talking Technique” on the online popular bass magazine notreble.com. She is a frequent contributor to the awesome scottsbasslessons.com and she is proud to be a truefire educator.
Ariane is an advocate for women and girl musicians and has taught countless women’s and girl’s camps at the Berkeley Jazz School. Read her article on the experience of campers at the women’s camp in 2015.
Ariane regularly blogs and contributes to Quora.
In 2014 she was awarded an “Artistry in Residence” in Ucross, Wymoning, by the prestigious Ucross Foundation.
As a freelancing composer and sound designer Ariane has turned out music and sound for hand held and online games for Wolf Track Audio, Karney Music and Sound and Somatone.
Ariane has been featured in several leading Bass Magazines (Bass Player Magazine, bassquarterly.de, bass musician magazine, Der Bass Professor and others). Please click articles to read more.
Ariane featured on the July 2019 cover of Bass Player Magazine as one of four winners of the “Hottest Bass Players on the scene” poll.
A self-publisher and entrepreneur, Ariane is a frequent guest on business and motivational podcasts. A certified TinyHabits™ coach and NLP Practitioner, she has a deep interest in the learning process and in optimizing practicing habits and learning for herself and her students.
Ariane is highly active endorsing her companies (Marleaux Basses, Kala basses and others), co-runs solobassnight.com, a series celebrating the art of solo bass.
