yanto Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Just wondering cos I know of a few locally.Does it affect the way you play/interpret bass lines melodically? Iain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutToPlayJazz Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 (edited) I'm an electric bass playing cellist & double bass player. I do teach upper strings as well (violin & viola). I don't know if playing orchestral strings makes you more melodic. Moreso in my case, I think that playing a lot of jazz as well as the rock/funk, etc., makes you think more about what else you can put into music as a bass player. Interestingly, a couple of my young ladies who I teach violin & viola respectively have recently started a bit of electric bass as well. Is there a link? Rich. Edited October 25, 2008 by OutToPlayJazz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggy Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 [quote name='yanto' post='314474' date='Oct 25 2008, 12:56 PM']Just wondering cos I know of a few locally.Does it affect the way you play/interpret bass lines melodically? Iain[/quote] Not really, but it's probably why I was so immediately comfortable with fretless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yanto Posted October 25, 2008 Author Share Posted October 25, 2008 [quote name='OutToPlayJazz' post='314476' date='Oct 25 2008, 01:01 PM']I'm an electric bass playing cellist & double bass player. I do teach upper strings as well (violin & viola). I don't know if playing orchestral strings makes you more melodic. Moreso in my case, I think that playing a lot of jazz as well as the rock/funk, etc., makes you think more about what else you can put into music as a bass player. Interestingly, a couple of my young ladies who I teach violin & viola respectively have recently started a bit of electric bass as well. Is there a link? Rich.[/quote] I suppose reading music in some ways deprives you of the chance to be creative-definitely with you on the point about jazz,although I can't really play it well.I bought an EUB recently and didn't find the transition too hard but my positioning is all over the place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirky Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 I play violin and viola. I'm not sure how, if at all, it affects my bass playing. You either get it or you don't, I think. Piano is more helpful because it gives you direct exposure to harmony and counterpoint. However I strongly disagree with Yanto's statement that reading musing deprives you of the chance to be creative. That's like saying Grahame Greene would have been a better writer if he hand't wasted so much time reading books! Or have I missed your point? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 [quote name='Kirky' post='314506' date='Oct 25 2008, 02:07 PM']However I strongly disagree with Yanto's statement that reading musing deprives you of the chance to be creative.[/quote] +1. I can't see that there is any relationship between how creative one is and whether one can read notation. You might as well say that someone who can read words would be restricted when attempting orally to tell a story of their own composition. It just doesn't follow. Besides which, IMHO, creativity is much overrated anyway. YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerdragon Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 I think Jim Lea of Slade is a great bass player. i dont if his violin playing helped but i once read he almost joined the Mother of invention because of his talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yanto Posted October 25, 2008 Author Share Posted October 25, 2008 [quote name='Kirky' post='314506' date='Oct 25 2008, 02:07 PM']I play violin and viola. I'm not sure how, if at all, it affects my bass playing. You either get it or you don't, I think. Piano is more helpful because it gives you direct exposure to harmony and counterpoint. However I strongly disagree with Yanto's statement that reading musing deprives you of the chance to be creative. That's like saying Grahame Greene would have been a better writer if he hand't wasted so much time reading books! Or have I missed your point?[/quote] I should have said "could deprive you"-The reason I say this is because I know a few classically trained musicians who are very competent in their genre but when asked to "swing it" would fall flat on their face-is this because they don't participate in a broad enough spectrum of music and it could be learned,or is it a personal thing with them,purely because everybody is different?I didn't mean that having a technical knowledge of music would limit your creativity.As you said people can either get it or not. Incidentally can you play jazz violin and jazz bass as well(if at all)-just interested Hope this makes sense Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 IIRC, the bass player in 70s progressives Gentle Giant - I think he was called Ray Schulman - doubled on violin. And the bass player of 70s French band Magma was originally a cellist, as I think was Jack Bruce. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul h Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Actually I agree with Yanto. I have known more than a few musicians who are very well trained but are completely lost without a score. Including a pianist who could hardly play a note unless he was sight reading and a guitarist who was amazed at my ability to play in key without having a clue what that key was. Obviously that is not the always the case and being musically well educated is a very good thing. But I do think in certain cases musicians can come to rely to heavily on theory and can lose the ability to be free with their playing. Saying that, I would love to know more (indeed any) musical theory. Paul. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 [quote name='yanto' post='314522' date='Oct 25 2008, 02:39 PM']I know a few classically trained musicians who are very competent in their genre but when asked to "swing it" would fall flat on their face-is this because they don't participate in a broad enough spectrum of music and it could be learned,or is it a personal thing with them,purely because everybody is different?[/quote] I've met those people too - or even, 'oh, if it's not written down I can't play it'. But the guitarist in one of my bands was classically trained and he swings like crazy playing finger-style slide guitar. So I think it's usually that the person just doesn't get it - probably becasue they haven't learned how to by listening to your 'broad enough spectrum of music'. It's the same when some people can only play blues, or punk or whatever, and if you ask them to play some other genre they don't get how to adjust. So what you are describing in some classically trained musicians, I would say, may apply to any musician. And does classical music never swing? (Serious question, I don't really know much about classical but didn't Chuck Berry or someone say 'we ain't doing nothing Mozart didn't already do'.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirky Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Like I said earlier, you either get it or you don't. I wish I knew how to make people get it! Especially the other bass player in my band! Playing classical music from a score is one skill - the individual creativity comes from things like your choice of tempo, timbre, dynamics etc. Jamming or improvising is another skill altogether. Not everyone's blessed with both, and those of us lucky to have both struggle to understand those who don't. As many similar discussions on these forums testify! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Mrs. WoT's a classically trained violin player, who's done her time in orchestras. It wasn't a barrier to her - she's now fully versed in the ways of hairy-arsed rock and roll fiddle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzz Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Like most instruments, as you're playing a different kind of instrument, whether it bit Viola, Violin, Sax, Piano, Trumpet, Trombone, French Horn etc, it just opens you up to more music as you often play different styles or completely different genres. I often find myself playing some of the lines I learned on trumpet back in my early teens, they actually lend themselves quite well to bass (and if you want, can help brush up on your learning and reading of bass clef if you're transposing from treble clef) because there's no chords and you're only playing one note at a time. Can help with melodies and basslines, and also helps you learn the fretboard as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2wheeler Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Violin, mandolin and electric bass. Started on violin - and so I only wanted to play the tune on the bass at first Beginning to get the idea now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EssentialTension Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 [quote name='beerdragon' post='314520' date='Oct 25 2008, 02:33 PM']I think Jim Lea of Slade is a great bass player.[/quote] +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassace Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 There are some bass/violin doublers out there but it doesn't come naturally simply because they are both the same, only different sizes. (double bass, I mean). Basses are tuned in fourths and violins/cellos in fifths. Ray Brown did a great LP taking the lead on pizzicato cello. I wonder whether he retuned it in fourths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderthumbs Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 I was the lead violinist of the South Manchester Youth Orchestra when I was younger, but I gave it up due to a break down in communication between my tutor and myself. He was taking all the enjoyment out of it by being not the tiniest bit flexible (if anyone knows the story of Billy Cobham and his drum tutor, then that was me back then). Switched to bass all of my own choice, no lessons, just bought one, found out how it was tuned and taught myself to play, and still doing it nearly 30 years later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirky Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 [quote name='bassace' post='314961' date='Oct 26 2008, 11:06 AM']There are some bass/violin doublers out there but it doesn't come naturally simply because they are both the same, only different sizes. (double bass, I mean). Basses are tuned in fourths and violins/cellos in fifths. Ray Brown did a great LP taking the lead on pizzicato cello. I wonder whether he retuned it in fourths.[/quote] Good point - it always takes me a few seconds to adjust if I switch from bass or guitar to mandolin, for example, because of the tuning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassace Posted October 26, 2008 Share Posted October 26, 2008 [quote name='Kirky' post='315179' date='Oct 26 2008, 04:44 PM']Good point - it always takes me a few seconds to adjust if I switch from bass or guitar to mandolin, for example, because of the tuning.[/quote] Respect. It would take me a lot more than a few seconds - hours, more like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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