Has playing double bass changed your out look on electric?

[lloccmttocs]

I recently made the discovery that when I go back to electric after not playing it for a year or so, I tend to use my same practice habits and simandl positioning (plus one finger since now I can use all four fingers) but sometimes I catch myself playing on 1 2 and 4 just out of habit. Does this happen to anyone else. I actually like it, my approach to electric bass before was kind of just hit and miss, now it's like my fingers have some theory behind them, like oh yeah that's a major sixth just do that.

[shadygrove]

I have an acoustic/electric bass, but since I started playing upright in January it mostly sits in the closet except when i'm using it to work out lines for the UB. The few times I've played it with others I notice I play with more space now. Before I played it more like a guitar. For example, where i would try to cram in an arpeggio into every measure in 3/4 on ABG i now just play the one and maybe a leading note on the and of 3.

When I play ABG or guitar now I've noticed my 4th finger strength and dexterity has improved markedly since playing UB. Where I used to shift on guitar to use fingers 1,2, & 3, I find myself using 4 and spreading out over 4 frets instead of 3. That's a big help when picking fiddle tunes. The other thing I've noticed is my hand opens up more readily and from where finger 1 is I can reach up 6 frets on guitar with my 4th finger (kind of like a "rabbath pivot") where I used to have to make a big shift when my 4th finger was just along for the ride.

So yeah, playing UB has been doing good things for me on other instruments. Always listening to intonation has also gotten me past "fear of fretless instruments" enough to do a little fiddling. That's really good for the ears as there is even less margin for error with my big fingers than on UB.

[Ike Harris]

Same thing happened to me, I didn't quit playing the electric though, just gradually adapted to the fingering. Didn't really have an organized fingering system until I started using the Rufus Reid book on both basses. I did learn Simandl but the RR book kind of smoothed it over for both axes I think. I encourage students to use the same system for both basses but those that are pretty dyed-in-the-wool 4 finger players tend to stick with that approach on electric. Not familiar enough with Rabbath to know if that's a compatible system with "jaco".

Ike

[moles]

Originally Posted by Ike Harris

Not familiar enough with Rabbath to know if that's a compatible system with "jaco".

I've only just noticed a big difference recently. I had been playing some electric here and there, but I guess I took long enough off (6 months maybe?) that when I came back it was very strange. I was looking at scales and chord layout in a completely different (and better) way, and was quite aware of where my *hand* was rather than what note I was holding.
Seriously, it was like a light went on somewhere without me noticing..

[bassist1962]

I started on upright thirty years ago, because my dad wouldn't let me get a bass guitar until I learned the basics on the upright. I played through high school, and then quit to concentrate on Electric. A couple years ago, I picked the upright up again, and discovered a few things that I had forgotten. The reason I use a pick on bass guitar is because I had a tendency to hit it as hard as the URB. I put more space between my notes again. my fingering, and positioning of my hand is slightly different than what I have gotten into the habit of doing. I think of songs, and the arrangement of them more than I ever have as well. And, yes, I think it has vastly improved my electric playing, and general musicianship overall.

[Eli_Upright12]

I barely play electric anymore, I've gotten to the point where I can do pretty much anything I would on electric on upright. I don't slap or do any of that kind of noodling so electric doesn't really offer me anything that upright doesnt, other than a good crutch for intonation.

[Evan_S._Brown]

i didn't notice i did it but when i was at a guitar store trying out a bass the sales guy said "you play double bass dont you?" and he explained he could tell by my technique.

however i do like how my hand has a vice like grip on the neck.

[fish slapper]

Originally Posted by Evan_S._Brown

i didn't notice i did it but when i was at a guitar store trying out a bass the sales guy said "you play double bass dont you?" and he explained he could tell by my technique.

I had the exact same experience recently.

Back to the OP, yes, it has changed my BG hand positioning and for a while when I played BG, I would slip back into 1245 but I had a DB teacher that gave me some great 1-3 exercises that have managed over time rewire my brain to go to the 3 in a walk.

[Marcus Johnson]

Originally Posted by Evan_S._Brown

however i do like how my hand has a vice like grip on the neck.

That's strange... I'm a lot more relaxed when I play DB (and transfer some of the technique to electric bass). It's not "vicelike" at all, actually the opposite.

I have a bunch of students, but only one on BG, and I have to say it's humbling for me to pick up my Fender and try to execute something as an example and play it cleanly. It comes back pretty quickly, because I've been playing Fenders for almost forty years now. It's just so... little. I guess I should just set aside an hour or two a week to keep the slab chops up, but I can't remember the last time I had a call to play it.

Hmmm... wonder why? Perhaps I suck on slab?

[Bruce Lindfield]

I tend to find that as you say - BGs feel very small - especially the neck. For a while now though I have felt that only wide-necked 5strings feel right - if I pick up a narrow-necked 4-string, like a Jazz, then it feels like a toothpick...

[Eric Swanson]

Originally Posted by Marcus Johnson

Hmmm... wonder why? Perhaps I suck on slab?

Worse things could happen.


Now when I play electric, I tend to use the 1,2,4 and the 1,2,3,4 "extended" fingering interchangeably, depending on what I am playing. If I am reading, I tend to use 1, 2, 4 fingering up to about the "D" on the G string, then I use the extensions, just like on DB, because the shifts are familiar.

All that said, I do play pretty badly on electric, these days. I could certainly wave my fingers around faster when I was a kid. But then again, what I play makes a little more musical sense these days; it tends to be less fueled by ego, fear, and testosterone.

[Spikeh]

I intend to get a double bass at some point - for now, my electrics are fine for me.

I imagine it'll improve my overall playing regardless... but it's obviously a different animal alltogether.

[bankerwithabass]

Well I started on BG and my teacher asked me if I was ever going to pick up the DB. I said didn't think so at the time but said "perhaps at some point" So I was basically tought the 124 fingering that I would eventually use on DB. So I play the BG the same basic way I play the upright. I don't seem to have any problems going back and forth but I have to say that I have to force myself to play the electric. So I take it to a monthly blues jam to just keep myself up on it. Works well.

[Sahm]

I've definitely noticed a transfer of skills since I started upright about a year ago. One example, I'll play country songs, like a Cash tune, on electric with the treble and mids dialed down, and use two fingers on the right hand. I can get a super-fat tone that way!

[nathanmcnathan]

The way I play is affexcted by how I play every other instrument I play. I also play electric bass and classical guitar, so that's been a big influence in how I play double bass, but playing double bass has also changed how I play guitar and electric bass. I find myself doing the same fingerings on electric that I do on acoustic, using 1,3,4 in the loer positions and 4-fingers in the higher ones. I play pretty much 4-finger on classical guitar, but I throw in thumb position when playing above the octave to avoid awkward angles for my wrists.

[Gearhead43]

The influence the double bass has had on me is that I sold my electric bass, and never looked back.

I played bass guitar for 17 years, but when I finally took the leap and found my upright, I lost the desire to play bass guitar completely.

The double bass is so much more expressive, so many different timbres, tones, dynamics, percussive elements, organic sounds, techniques, playing styles, and warmth that could never be achieved playing bass guitar, IMO. I have never felt so attached to a musical instrument, as I do with my double bass.

[toman]

If anything, I think my playing guitar and bass guitar (I played DB first) change the way I see the DB. There's no doubt (to me) the DB is overall an instrument with more potential for expression, but the technical advantages of guitar inspire me to look at my DB technique and figure out what I can do to get farther. Using a four finger technique (that I'm lucky to physically be able to) is one example; the three finger routine is probably the best system overall, but I figure if I can add another finger effectively, why not? But then, some of the traditional techniques also translate back to guitar well too. Now I'm rambling; I think I have to be somewhere.

[Mike Goodbar]

I have to admit that while playing upright, I adhere strictly to proper fingering, stance, technique, etc., as if Uncle Franz (Simandl) were standing beside me, I have absolutely no method or system when playing electric. I switch back and forth between 3- and 4-finger technique, wrap my thumb around the neck, play 1-1-1-1 4-4-4-4 - whatever makes it work. Even though I'm considered a decent electric player, I never accept electric bass students because of my lousy technique and lack of concept.

[jrlynch]

to be honest, i really view them as two different instruments. have some proficiency on both influences the playing, but it's two different beasts. i tend to keep lines much more simple and fundamental on db, whilst on bg it's playing with droning and chords. it's just what i happen to be hearing when i'm playing each beast. keep in mind, i'm working in a fretless environment, regardless.

jeff.

[Gearhead43]

I agree that they are two totally different instruments, not even from the same instrument family.

Electric bass is a Bass GUITAR.

Double Bass is a Bass Violin. (or gamba )

Just because they share the same tuning, people tend to lump them in together. As a novice double bassist, I have consciously approached it as an entirely new instrument.

I was sort of a minimalist as a bass guitarist, choosing to carefully place my notes where I felt they would have the most impact or re-enforce the rhythm most, instead of being flashy. Playing the double bass almost forces you to play like this a bit more, at least in the beginning, and I think it may teach us how to be better bass instrument players overall.