Hi,

I really enjoyed your bowed stuff on Puttin' on the Ritz. Do you have any advice for how to incorporate this stuff into a bass player's arsenal?

Do you practice patterns and stuff with the bow, or where do you start?

Thanks, love your sound on this album.

Thanks for the kind words about the CD Alex. I recorded it with the Shure Beta 56 mike. There is another thread on this forum that has a picture of the setup. For bowing, I worked out a few bebop heads and standards. I tried several different variations of bow strokes, slurring, accents and focused on what that did to articulation. I would sing a passage and decide what was short, long, slurred, detached, etc. Then I would play it on the bass trying to get the same articulation that I heard. The tendency to avoid when playing jazz with the bow is to play non-stop full bow strokes. That does not make for good phrasing most of the time. I did not practice patterns, but many people find them useful. I did take a few "licks" from different soloists and learn them in a few other keys which is almost the same thing. Play through some pre-transcribed horn solos with the bow and listen to the recording and try to match the articulation.

Thanks a bunch, your Moanin' track really has me wanting to put in some work with the bow.

Hope to see you at the convention.

Alex

I noticed in my own arco/jazz studies that starting with the up bow on the strong part of the beat helps to articulate the swing of 8th's. It took a little getting used to, since this is contradictory to the classical approach, but it seemed to sound much better.

Is this what you recommend? I was simply going on intuition and sound....

Thanks for the inspiration!

A swinging soloist has a great variety of syncopated accents, phrase beginnings and endings. Starting with an up bow on the strong beats all the time will make the 1/8 notes have too much accent on every up beat. This will make your swing feel too much like a "horse gallop". A variety of bowings including starting on the upbow, downbow, detached, slurred, multiple up and down bows in different combinations will give the best results. Try learning a Charlie Parker bebop head and experiment with different bowings to come close to the way he phrased it. I did this and it really taught me a lot about how the different strokes affect the phrasing and syncopation. Notice what is accented in his lines and recreate that.

Great advice.
Am I right to guess though that you are suggesting this with an assumption of some proficiency?

I would love to try some bop stuff arco but something doesn't sit well about working out 'Ornithology' arco when I spend all my time trying to get good tone coming from scales and arpeggios.

Or is it never to soon to be getting more musical?

It is never too soon to be geting musical!!!!! As important as scales and arpeggios are, they are only a part of the process. Practice the scales and Arps of Ornithology and work on the head, walk a lot and solo on it too. Write an etude on the changes. Transcribe a solo from any instrument and some walking basslines that someone else played on it.