"Coz you know dance music: it's all on the black notes.."

[Twigman]

Was in the studio the other day for what i thought was going to be a mixing session.

I'd left my basses at home.

The studio is primarily used for electronic dance music.

We decided to change a bass line so i picked up a Stingray that was in the rack at the studio.

It was tuned to Eb - I asked why

 

"Coz you know dance music: it's all on the black notes"

 

was the reply....

 

Is it? really?

[subdub]

No

[CameronJ]

Oh dear...

[Dad3353]

4 hours ago, Twigman said:

...It was tuned to Eb - I asked why

"Coz you know dance music: it's all on the black notes"

was the reply....

Is it? really?

? ? ? But basses can play all of the 'black notes' (sharps and flats...) anyway with standard EADG tuning, so that's not really a valid explanation as to why that bass was tuned down.

A gentle bit of plonker-pulling, no..?

[drTStingray]

There's perhaps a slightly different explanation - other than guitar based music - which is often in E and A (although quite a lot of metal actually uses dropped tunings) lots of music is in keys like Eb and C often to suit keyboards, sometimes to suit singers and sometimes to suit brass instruments. They will often have lower notes than E, which may not work played on a 4 string unless you use an octaver - which sometimes have tracking problems.

The whole reason 5 string basses with low B strings became popular in the 1980s was to allow bassists to play parts played on keyboards which during that era were probably as popular as guitars - in fact nicked a lot of work off both bassists and guitarists. Dance music often uses notes lower than E.

So it shouldn't be a great surprise to find a Stingray tuned to Eb - they can be tuned even lower than B and still work fine. It's a standing joke amongst musicians and is referred to on this forum sometimes how guitarists seldom want to play songs like Superstition, I Wish in the proper key (Eb) or even Hard to Handle (Bb). If you have a sax player, they will give a wry smile when asked to play these songs in E or B etc ..... it generally reflects guitarists with restricted ability. 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2018 by drTStingray