Solo Arrangements?

[thedarxide]

I don't know if this is the most appropriate forum, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any solo arrangements for 6/7 string basses of stuff like Fur Elise, Toccata and Fugue, etc? I've seen some cool videos on Youtube.

[Bilbo]

I think this area of practice is pretty innovative, thedarxide. I suspect you will have to get piano transcriptions and prepare them for six/seven strings.

Remember, if you do it properly, you may be writing your first (?) book!

[thedarxide]

I actually started on Fur Elise last night, just the right hand melody. When my seven string arrives I want to try and incorporate the left hand in as tapping if I can.

[Bilbo]

That's the way to break new ground, mate. Keep it real. Find your own new arrangements. Learning someone else's won't get you anywhere like as far as preparing your own.

Make it happen.

[GonzoBass]

This is one of my favorite Beethoven pieces.

Here's one the author refers to as "straight forward",
which will work with standard tuning,
but he's not catching nearly all the chordal possibilities.

[url="http://www.accentonmusic.com/tabs/FurElise.pdf"]http://www.accentonmusic.com/tabs/FurElise.pdf[/url]

You'll get further by using the standard notation
and eliminating some of the octaves.

Here's a few sources for that:
[url="http://www.mfiles.co.uk/scores/Fur-Elise.pdf"]http://www.mfiles.co.uk/scores/Fur-Elise.pdf[/url]
[url="http://www.harmonytalk.com/download/FurElise.pdf"]http://www.harmonytalk.com/download/FurElise.pdf[/url]
[url="http://icking-music-archive.org/scores/beethoven/FurElise-WoO59.pdf"]http://icking-music-archive.org/scores/bee...Elise-WoO59.pdf[/url]


Can you catch the 4th octave of the A minor arpeggio movement on your 7?
It can't be done on a 4...
(I've been faking it for years)



If you look around on the web,
you can find tabs for Stu Hamm's version of "Moonlight Sonata".

Edited March 6, 2008 by GonzoBass

[thedarxide]

Ah, perfect!!

My 7 string is being shipped next week, so this will be fun. I've just had a very brief run through on the 4 i've got at work, the first link doesn't sound quite right but I'll play it some more later.

[GonzoBass]

Another thought on this one:

You might want to do a search at [url="http://www.activebass.com"]ActiveBass.com[/url] by clicking on "lessons" and entering "Fur Elise".
There are a few versions posted there with the cool option of hearing the midi track played back with various speeds and tones.
(You can search for your other classical pieces there too!)

Keep in mind that these are user posts.
So the level of accuracy miiiiight vary.



I hope this helps!

[funkle]

I've been doing this on 4 string recently.

I picked up a book called 'The Classical Fake Book'. It's out there as a pdf file..... I haven't done a lot with it, but I have transposed Bach's 'Jesu, joy of man's desiring' into bass clef and played with the arrangement a little. Not much tapping, just playing it straight. Great sight-reading practice. I may take other pieces and re-arrange them/transpose.

There's book of Bach bass transciptions which I bought also - I'm playing the Prelude in G major, again very straight, no tapping. Can't remember who it's written by at the moment...type 'j.s. bach for bass' into googl;e and you'll get it. Essentially I think the author took the cello suites and changed a couple of notes here and there.

Hope that helps.

Pete