Fundamental Affirmation

VI. Close to the Edge

Although much Yes music is sublime, I hear absolute perfection in the title track to their 1972 album Close to the Edge. Attempting to represent even a fraction of that grandeur on the solo bass guitar, as I've tried to do in the sixth and final movement of Fundamental Affirmation, is a daunting task.

As you can tell from the sheet music, there are some tricky passages during the first section "The Solid Time of Change" (where Yes bursts out of the gate playing extremely fast), some soft and lyrical passages in the third section "I Get Up I Get Down", and a part of the last section "Seasons Of Man" that I'm still trying to figure out (a huge organ solo by Rick Wakeman that I'm slowly transcribing for bass). It's a complex, dramatic piece and I will need to practice it a lot before I can record it.


Peter Saint-Andre > Music > Yes