Interesting article about DB

[lloccmttocs]

The title caught my attention and I had to read on. I found it pretty interesting, the website is at the bottom. I agree and disagree with somethings.


Double Bass: Keep A Dying Instrument From Extinction


by Joshua Prentice


After looking long and hard, I have found a shockingly limited number of resources for double bassists and their instrument. There are plenty of resources for electric bass guitars, from periodicals to web sites, that may print articles for the upright bass enthusiasts, but that's about all. This site is a case in point. There is a subject called Double Bass in the lessons index, with a mere eight lesson entries. The author of one of those (lesson #4098) even admits that he doesn't know what a double bass is. I point this out not as a criticism of the author but to make my point that the double bassist is involved in a dying art. I believe the reason for this is that in the day of electronic music, the music culture has forgotten about the significance of the upright bass, and therefore does not take it seriously. In America, if I wanted to go out and listen to a bassist at a local club, more than likely the club must be one that celebrates jazz or bluegrass traditions, in other words, old-time music. In fact, of the contemporary rock and roll bands that I know, only one plays the upright bass instead of the bass guitar, and even that one band uses the electric upright bass. Indeed, the double bassist seems to be involved in a dying art, and I feel this is an unacceptable state of circumstances; something must be done about it.
That said, I see two paths that the upright bass is heading to in the future:

1. If nothing is done, then jazz and bluegrass will surely suffer for two reasons. They are art forms that are unique to American culture and are thus largely localized here, and they are art forms where electric bass guitars can easily replace upright basses in a post-modern America. Classical music will surely follow. In the Baroque Period there was no pianoforte instrument, but now that in modern times the piano has been so popularized that the instrument takes over as the traditional instrument to use. The same can be said for the bass. Although the bass is still stronger in classical music than popular music (since it requires a bow and has been in our history for longer), there only needs to be an instrument in future development that will produce a sound similar to a bowed bass. Take the keyboard as an example.

2. If we do something about this, then the bass will thrive as an important instrument in modern times, to be taken seriously, and to be used in many different musical styles around the world. I would prefer the second scenario.

In bluegrass circles, double bassists are hard to come by. I've been told the reason for this is because no one wants to destroy their fingers by plucking on tough, thick strings, and practicing takes too much effort because it's tiring holding your hands up for so long. I can see the logic in these arguments; I've been playing since May and I have received at least three blisters on my index playing finger. Lord only knows how many I would have if I played on a regular basis. But the blisters are also a product of a) playing incorrectly, and b) not playing enough. The double bassist who has been playing regularly and for a long time has developed toughened fingers; time can take care of both issues.

Do we really want the double bass to die a natural death? What are we bassists committed to here? I urge each and every bass guitarist to pick up a double bass and use it. It is an amazing instrument, one that I feel very close to while playing. I haven't fooled around with the bass guitar, as tempted as I am, but I have fooled around with acoustic guitars. The bass guitar must feel closer to the acoustic guitar than the acoustic bass, and I have to admit I didn't feel as "one with the instrument" as I do playing an instrument I literally feel like I'm dancing with. As for businesses that promote bass playing, on-line or otherwise, I urge you to take a stand for the double bass. Don't treat the instrument and its players as afterthoughts. Treat the original as royalty and provide the community of bass players with an incentive to pick one up. If the leaders lead, the followers will surely follow.


I found it at
http://www.activebass.com/default.as...m.asp%3Fi%3D57

[M Ramsey]

Yeah, this article came to light back in the summer I think. If you go here you can see how much experience Mr. Prentice has. He bought his first upright in 2002 and has since then become a leading authority on the double bass.

Print his article on some soft paper and take it to the bathroom. It will become more useful there.

[Silversorcerer]

Silver photography is a dying art. You can't digitize a dude jamming out on a fiddle as big as he is. That is something that will always be a fascination. It's in the experience as much as the sound. Of course I took up the DB to get that mojo experience, not to be part of a dying art. I could do that as a film photographer (a what???) Film, you know, Kodak, Ilford, and Agfa, and Fuji. OK, make that Kodak, Ilford and Fuji. Or is it just Kodak and Fuji now. Or maybe just Fuji. Orwo, that's it;- Orwo. May as well get a digital camera. I guess they still have lenses at least. But let me make some points about the DB and it's undying roll in human culture.

1) Never have there been more double basses per capita than there are now. Mass production and cheap plywood instruments have made the instrument accessible to the masses.

2) The trend is for players of electric bass to "cross over" to DB now. It used to be the other way.

3) Jazz and Bluegrass are American variants of African and Celtic folk music. Folk music is timeless. Both are now embraced together in what is being called "World" music. It's not as localized as this myopic would be prognosticator thinks.

4) This guy hasn't looked hard for anything. I've found a wealth of information, services, suppliers, for anything to do with double basses that can be imagined. All you have to do is google. Start with Gollihur's page with more than 700 links related to DB.

5) There will not be a significant use ever for a bass guitar in performances of "Classical" music. You cannot bow a bass guitar. If this fellow is talking about the music of the "Classical" period, it will always be best performed with instruments of that period, not bass guitars.

6) Baroque music is still performed by genuine Baroque orchestras with Baroque reproduction instruments. It is still possible nearly two hundred and fifty plus years after the introduction of the piano forte to purchase a real working mechanical harpsichord. And the harpsichord sound is a standard preset on almost any electric or electronic piano.

7) The piano forte is actually more endangered than the double bass.

8) Actually, it is the pipe organ that is endangered. Well not really. None of these instruments is really endangered. Knowledge and clear, well researched thinking is what is most endangered.

9) What is truly endangered are instruments that require amplification. When the energy crisis strikes full force, anything that can make a noise without amplification will be more valuable.

Mr. Prentice's perspective is a little short sighted, to say the least. It's some chicken little story with nothing to back it up except Mr. Prentice's imagination.

[drurb]

I think Prentice might live in Seinfeld's "Bizarre-o-world." He should get out more often. +1 on Silver's post.

[kurtsnyder]

Originally Posted by lloccmttocs

If we do something about this, then the bass will thrive as an important instrument in modern times, to be taken seriously, and to be used in many different musical styles around the world. I would prefer the second scenario.

I thought the bass was already thriving "as an important instrument in modern times" and that it is being "taken seriously"!

Originally Posted by lloccmttocs

In bluegrass circles, double bassists are hard to come by. I've been told the reason for this is because no one wants to destroy their fingers by plucking on tough, thick strings, and practicing takes too much effort because it's tiring holding your hands up for so long. I can see the logic in these arguments; I've been playing since May and I have received at least three blisters on my index playing finger. Lord only knows how many I would have if I played on a regular basis. But the blisters are also a product of a) playing incorrectly, and b) not playing enough.

I heard that it was just the opposite. There are plenty of bass players out there. It's funny... I've been studying the double bass for about 6 months now and have not had a single blister on any of my fingers.

I think this guys needs to give up writing!

[Jsn]

Wow...I'm a little surprised at the negative reaction here. The guy was trying to write an impassioned defense of the upright. And he was writing for a audience of electric bassists, trying to get more of them to pick up what is, indisputably, a more challenging instrument.

Why exactly would anyone feel the need to liken this to toilet paper?

[drurb]

Originally Posted by Jsn

Wow...I'm a little surprised at the negative reaction here. The guy was trying to write an impassioned defense of the upright. And he was writing for a audience of electric bassists, trying to get more of them to pick up what is, indisputably, a more challenging instrument.

Why exactly would anyone feel the need to liken this to toilet paper?

...because just about every point he made is based upon seemingly self-generated fictions, faulty, inept research, and false premises. There is no evidence that the fate from which he wants to "save" the double bass is one that has even a remote probability of occurring in the foreseeable future.

[Roger Mouton]

I go along with what Silversorcerer said. Prentice needs to get out more often and expand his search for the resources that are currently available.

[gems07111]

he's an idiot... that's it, he's an idiot.

[Paul Warburton]

This guy obviously has never heard of TBDB!

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by Jsn

Wow...I'm a little surprised at the negative reaction here. The guy was trying to write an impassioned defense of the upright. And he was writing for a audience of electric bassists, trying to get more of them to pick up what is, indisputably, a more challenging instrument.

Why exactly would anyone feel the need to liken this to toilet paper?

Jsn, do me a favor, please. Hang around TBDB for a couple more months. Use the search function, go back in all the forums that interest you...then come back and re-read this article. I can promise you that you'll find something very wrong about this piece.......let us know if you will. Thanks, man

[Ike Harris]

Here's another uninformed piece, from the liner notes of what is probably an otherwise well-worthwhile CD Bass Anthology of music from 1925-1941, "How Low Can You Go":

What the label says:

The first anthology ever of the string bass; A 3CD box set in a cardboard box; 96-page book. Original recordings from 1925-1941, from the legendary archival label Dust-To-Digital (that previously brought the world the beyond-elaborate Goodbye, Babylon and Fonotone Records boxsets). "Not so long ago, the string bass stood tall and proud - roughly the length and breadth of a poor man's pine coffin - in every musical aggregation throughout the land from Bangor to Buenos Aires, from the highest high life to the lowest lowdown: From tuxedoed symphony ensembles to tipsy Calypso bands to honkytonkers in oilfield dives, from elegantly gelled tango orchestras to iozz. combos in unspeakable speak-easys to methed-out rockabilly trios right off some flatbed: you can be damned sure Johnny Cash wouldn't have been able to walk the line without bassist Marshall Grant keeping him honest. But somewhere along the line, the upright acoustic bass was snatched from its hallowed place atop the sedans (special carriage) and show-stages and relegated to the trash-heap of history in favor of Leo Fender's sleek electric cousin, plugged in to compete with amplified guitar and drums. Now the stand-up bass makes its appearance mostly in limousine-liberal Lincoln Center iazx benefits and hardcore bluegrass bands - or as a comical hayseed prop in retro hillbilly outfits. And yet in that span between the turn-of-the-century tuba blaring from an Edison cylinder and today's synthesized-bass loops heaving from every SUV on the pike, the hypnotic pull of the old-school string bass remains. A musical craft handed down by calloused, bandaged fingers, it wrought a mighty saga of bottom-heavy rhythms that rattled the walls of many a venue and anchored many an historic recording session. Without it, the revolutionary sound of American mongrel music of the last century would have been thin gruel indeed." -Eddie Dean, from the liner notes.

[drurb]

Originally Posted by Ike Harris

Here's another uninformed piece, from the liner notes of what is probably an otherwise well-worthwhile CD Bass Anthology of music from 1925-1941, "How Low Can You Go":

What the label says:
...

When was this written?

[Ike Harris]

Originally Posted by drurb

When was this written?

Amazon says the set came out in December of '06.

iah

[drurb]

Originally Posted by Ike Harris

Amazon says the set came out in December of '06.

iah

Amazing-- I could see something like that being written, if at all, in the 70's. These guys are really disconnected.

[COUNT ZACULA]

Originally Posted by drurb

Amazing-- I could see something like that being written, if at all, in the 70's. These guys are really disconnected.

Maybe we are just so far on the inside, that we dont know where the general populace is coming from anymore.

[drurb]

Originally Posted by COUNT ZACULA

Maybe we are just so far on the inside, that we dont know where the general populace is coming from anymore.

Sure-- that must be acknowledged. It seems, however, that the two essays are just way off the mark in that objective evaluations of the assertions within them reveal them to be patently false.

Ex:

a shockingly limited number of resources for double bassists and their instrument

In America, if I wanted to go out and listen to a bassist at a local club, more than likely the club must be one that celebrates jazz or bluegrass traditions, in other words, old-time music.

In bluegrass circles, double bassists are hard to come by.

relegated to the trash-heap of history in favor of Leo Fender's sleek electric cousin

Just see Silversorcerer's post above.

[Ludwig]

The double bass is a good instrument and I like it very much. But fact is, that at the music schools in our region you can easily get instructions for the electric bass. But none of the four music schools I know lets you learn the double bass, they don't have a teacher for that.
I am self tought on the double bass, learning with several instruction manuals. When I decided, to realy learn an instrument with a teacher, I decided to learn the cello: The closest I could get to the double bass with a teacher available. Now I try to transfer some things from the cello to the bass.
At least in our music schools, the double bass seems to be dead already.

[Rovic]

electric bass will never replace the double bass in classical music, just because electric bass has no spirit.. the sound is just so dead.
it's meant for other purposes..

[drurb]

Originally Posted by Rovic

electric bass will never replace the double bass in classical music, just because electric bass has no spirit.. the sound is just so dead.
it's meant for other purposes..

Interesting. I'm exclusively a DB player. I think of the DB and EB as two different, but related instruments, each appropriate for different, as well as overlapping, styles of music. I admire those who are accomplished at both. It's hard for me to listen to James Jamerson's playing (yes, and countless others, but I picked James) and feel that the EB has no spirit or sounds dead. It really depends on who's behind it! The same is true for DB. Now, I don't know of anyone who has suggested that the EB could replace the DB in an orchestra. Likewise, there are certainly genres where you just gotta have an EB.