10 things I’ve learned in my first 6 months learning DB

[itu]

On 30/05/2022 at 18:29, Richard Jinman said:

When you play something in tune it’s like winning the lottery. 

Come on: you slide, you find.

 

By the way, I put markers to the side of the fretboard. Far easier to be in the neighbourhood of the note while playing in a bigger band.

[Happy Jack]

21 minutes ago, itu said:

By the way, I put markers to the side of the fretboard.

 

Absolutely this ^.

 

I can't be doing with any nonsense about 'real players' who 'just know' where to place their fingers. Just because such people may exist doesn't mean that I must copy them. If I thought like that then (God help us all, will no one think of the children?) I'd have to learn to slap, tap and sweep and my bass would become just another novelty act.

 

Incidentally, I suspect there are far fewer of these people than most believe. Visiting one of the country's top DB luthiers to get some work done on a bass, I noticed the orchestral DBs arrayed in a row waiting for set-ups and other maintenance. Most had delicate pencil marks where I use Tippex, but the idea was the same ... if your initial note is close enough to what you wanted then you can get away with it. Most of the time.

 

[itu]

I should source some phosphorescent powder and mix it with clear nail lacquer. Dark stages are frightening...

[Oomo]

12 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

More lefty DB GAS from Thomann! 😱 😂

Good to know there are affordable options out there!

 

It's still a pretty big investment for me (more in terms of space in the house, and figuring out a place to play without driving the neighbours crazy with poor intonation...).

 

If I was a righty, I'd probably try and find a local teacher whose instrument I could try out a bit, then rent one for a while to see how that went.

[TheRev]

12 hours ago, Happy Jack said:

 

Incidentally, I suspect there are far fewer of these people than most believe.

 

Luckily, most of them are on Talkbass where they're easily avoided.

[Silvia Bluejay]

2 hours ago, Oomo said:

Good to know there are affordable options out there!

 

It's still a pretty big investment for me (more in terms of space in the house, and figuring out a place to play without driving the neighbours crazy with poor intonation...).

 

If I was a righty, I'd probably try and find a local teacher whose instrument I could try out a bit, then rent one for a while to see how that went.

There are lefty uprights in our Marketplace occasionally, which you could use to try how you feel about vertical long scale before thinking about a DB if appropriate. I first of all bought a cheapo, righty, Harley Benton electric upright and turned it lefty (it has a solid body, so no need to mess around with soundpost and bass bar, I just had to file the nut and the bridge, which I was OK with doing myself). I played that for a bit, to get the feel, went  "Oh Yes!", then bought a more upmarket electric upright (an NS Design NXT 5 string), then an Eminence (it's fully acoustic like a DB but smaller) and never looked back!

[Oomo]

3 hours ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

There are lefty uprights in our Marketplace occasionally, which you could use to try how you feel about vertical long scale before thinking about a DB if appropriate. I first of all bought a cheapo, righty, Harley Benton electric upright and turned it lefty (it has a solid body, so no need to mess around with soundpost and bass bar, I just had to file the nut and the bridge, which I was OK with doing myself). I played that for a bit, to get the feel, went  "Oh Yes!", then bought a more upmarket electric upright (an NS Design NXT 5 string), then an Eminence (it's fully acoustic like a DB but smaller) and never looked back!

That's true, I've seen some lefty electric uprights around the place.

 

It's the never looking back I'd be scared of, it's hard enough improving on electric bass guitar without another distraction

[Silvia Bluejay]

I find that the skills needed for each and both types of basses complement and improve each other rather than being in conflict. Neither is a distraction to the other. Try it, you won't regret it.

[Owen]

On 30/05/2022 at 11:43, Richard Jinman said:

11. Thumb position. Wait, I'm supposed to fret the string with the edge of my thumb? Then fret the string in front of it? Blister-callus-blister etc...

Thumb position.

 

We play the best of instruments. We have the best notes. And yet, people want to go and imitate 'cellos being played badly by playing really high up. I just do not get it.

[Silvia Bluejay]

I've only ever seen thumb position being used in solo double bass! (Lovely stuff that is, when the player is good.)

What am I missing? Why would an ordinary DB player in a band need thumb position otherwise?

[Staggering on]

1 hour ago, Owen said:

Thumb position.

 

We play the best of instruments. We have the best notes. And yet, people want to go and imitate 'cellos being played badly by playing really high up. I just do not get it.

 

Yeah, I've often wondered about that too. Nobody else can play the stuff we can so let's do that and be really good at it...the heartbeat of the band and all that.

 

Edit: I have tried a bit of thumb position and it sounded horrible when I did and it is very awkward to play so I will stay where the BASS notes are.😊

Edited June 3, 2022 by Staggering on

[bassace]

Thumb for show, nut for dough.

[Grahambythesea]

The NS Design adapts really easily to left handed playing. Otherwise like me, be left-handed but play right- handed. That way your most dexterous hand is playing notes!

[Silvia Bluejay]

51 minutes ago, Grahambythesea said:

The NS Design adapts really easily to left handed playing. Otherwise like me, be left-handed but play right- handed. That way your most dexterous hand is playing notes!

Don't get me started on that. With all respect, if that were true, all right-handed players would choose to fret with their right hand, i.e use left-handed instruments. Doesn't happen, does it? That's because your most dextrous hand is in fact the one with which you pluck/pick, not the one with which you fret.

[Owen]

I think I am naturally left handed but have always used my right as my dominant hand. I most certainly do not have the right hand dexterity I see many, many others operate with ease. 

[Silvia Bluejay]

All of us are on a scale, as opposed to being 100% either right- or left-handed. And some people are right-handed but left-footed, etc. Most of us use one hand predominantly, but it's rare for someone to be completely unable to use 'the wrong hand' for a certain task, unless is things learned as a child, such as handwriting.

 

So, as @Grahambythesea suggests, you can be left-handed and play righty, in which case your most dextrous hand is definitely the one on the fretboard. However, playing stringed instruments proficiently traditionally meant having a strong picking or plucking hand, because that's where the virtuoso styles appeared, before the last few decades in which fretting fast and furiously and flamboyantly acquired more importance.

 

FWIW, I tried both flavours of bass playing when I started out, as an adult, and was OK-ish on lefty instruments and an absolute f**king disaster on righties. No-brainer then...

 

[NickA]

On 03/06/2022 at 14:10, Owen said:

cellos being played badly

Yes, indeed, I can do that on my cello!  

 

Some things do sound better ( or at least are more fun ) on a bass ... Bach 2 sarabande, Rachmaninov's Vocalise.....

 

There is something about playing really low notes but still hitting the occasional high that's good.  

 

But people playing entire cello suites, at pitch, in thumb position.  Why bother.

[NancyJohnson]

I got my EUB start of December 2021.  With the exception of a three week period when we had the builders in, I tend to play daily.

 

I think for me the one thing I realised early on was that there was no way I was going to be as proficient or as fast on the upright as I would be on a regular bass.  I simply don't have the speed in my fingers to be playing punky stuff on that baby.  I just enjoy playing along with solo piano stuff, the slower the better.  

[Happy Jack]

42 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

... there was no way I was going to be as proficient or as fast on the upright as I would be on a regular bass. 

 

Erm ... what? Seriously Paul, these are two completely different instruments and the last thing you should be doing is trying to play the same lines in the same way on both - not gonna happen.

 

I'm a thoroughly average electric bass player (no ... stop it ... really ... oh you are kind ...) with no great technique and no party tricks. I'm good enough to make decent pocket money from playing in covers bands in pubs and that's about it.

 

[That information supplied for context.]

 

On DB I either play fewer than half the number of notes that I'd play on electric bass, or when I'm playing in my rock'n'roll band I play fast walking basslines.

 

Plucking straight eights will get you about as far as playing with a pick when you're talking DB and give you dreadful cramp eventually, while stuff like hammer-ons just doesn't work a lot of the time. Twiddly bits are not only harder to pull off but also don't sound anything like the same on DB.

 

When I was starting out on DB, my mantra was play fewer notes, but make them more important and perhaps more imaginative.

 

[NancyJohnson]

47 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

 

Erm ... what? Seriously Paul, these are two completely different instruments and the last thing you should be doing is trying to play the same lines in the same way on both - not gonna happen.

 

I'm a thoroughly average electric bass player (no ... stop it ... really ... oh you are kind ...) with no great technique and no party tricks. I'm good enough to make decent pocket money from playing in covers bands in pubs and that's about it.

 

[That information supplied for context.]

 

On DB I either play fewer than half the number of notes that I'd play on electric bass, or when I'm playing in my rock'n'roll band I play fast walking basslines.

 

Plucking straight eights will get you about as far as playing with a pick when you're talking DB and give you dreadful cramp eventually, while stuff like hammer-ons just doesn't work a lot of the time. Twiddly bits are not only harder to pull off but also don't sound anything like the same on DB.

 

When I was starting out on DB, my mantra was play fewer notes, but make them more important and perhaps more imaginative.

 

 

I honestly thought it could be a possibility to integrate a EUB into what I'd classify as my regular gig (sixteens!).

 

Things are distinctly busier on the EUB, but it's never going to happen.  I need to find a trio playing ja-hazz, but fuzzy ja-hazzz.

[Happy Jack]

2 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

I honestly thought it could be a possibility to integrate a EUB into what I'd classify as my regular gig (sixteens!).

 

Things are distinctly busier on the EUB, but it's never going to happen.  I need to find a trio playing ja-hazz, but fuzzy ja-hazzz.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

[jazzyvee]

On 06/06/2022 at 21:44, Happy Jack said:

 

Enjoy!

 

 

SUPERB!!!!!!

[tinyd]

On 03/06/2022 at 14:19, Silvia Bluejay said:

I've only ever seen thumb position being used in solo double bass! (Lovely stuff that is, when the player is good.)

What am I missing? Why would an ordinary DB player in a band need thumb position otherwise?

Sorry, delayed reply here. I mostly agree but it's really nice to be able to walk and to keep going sometimes up into TP (NOTE: I can't do this very well, but it's fun and sounds good when other people do it)

[Happy Jack]

22 hours ago, tinyd said:

I mostly agree but it's really nice to be able to walk and to keep going sometimes up into TP 

 

Pah! Might as well buy a cello!

 

😉

 

 

[NickA]

Find I sometimes stray above the heel of the neck when playing jazz, just for some variety.  Whilst never actually holding the string down with my thumb, the thumb always follows into place as a position anchor ..so thumb position ... Yes why not.

 

I have a cello too, but it's not good for jazz and doesn't go nearly low enough.