Quote:
Originally Posted by 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. |
I just have to ask you Ludwig, what are they using in the German Symphonies? I mean, I hear these wonderful recordings on the classical stations. Were these all made in the 50's or something???? I know Germany can now boast an electric bass luthier who is none short of the best in the world;- Jens Ritter. I have two of his masterpieces and I guess I am bragging a bit, but don't you think of the Wilfer family and the Pollmann makers as still being a large part of the German tradition of fine world class instruments??? Maybe we are somewhat behind the trends or fads over in the States and truly I mean no insult to any national heritage, but pop music is faddish and trendy and folk music is what has incredible staying power as does orchestral music. I can truly say that while I played bass guitar for 31 years, I always thought of the electric bass as a kind of "pop" music instrument. To me the real bassists were Mingus, and folks that played the DB, and I always knew that one day if I could make the transition and become a "real" bassist, that's what I would play. I think I saw a Prescott on Captain Kangaroo when I was a kid (Mr. Greenjeans with a long beard would bring it on) and it was kind of ingrained in my future from there on out.
I suppose this is a more passionate post than my former one, but look at Ken Smith, grandfather of the high quality custom shop EBG, playing DB in the orchestra now, restoring fine old basses, promoting the best contemporary makers. Ken's an individual, but he's also a part of the main stream. If the EBG is going to ever acheive the kind of serious stature that belongs to the DB, it is the Ken Smiths and the Jens Ritters that will put it there, not Leo Fender. And I say that as a proud owner of a 1973 Precision that was built on my 14th birthday. It is what it is. It was built for "pop" music. Now there's nothing wrong with that. But it is just a fashion and trend and the pendulum does swing.
I'll try to draw an analogy with imagery and film. In the early 60's a fellow named Pete Turner started making incredibly beautiful color photographic images. One of them graces Oliver Nelson's
Blues and the Abstract Truth album. Soon color photography became dominant over B&W and all of the prognosticators foretold the demise of Black and White photos. For a time the film was hard to find (NOT!!!!) For a time all of the ads were in color (NOT!!!!) And now that all of film is soon to be history, (NOT!!!!) there is the convenient little algorithm that is just one of a few special effects in my photo digital programs that allows you to convert an image to B&W. Why is that???? In every program no matter how simple, you can convert it to B&W. Hmmm. And in every decent midi program there is an acoustic or string or double bass setting. It seems like even when music goes to all digital the sound of the DB persists. I doubt the analogue real thing is going away if the digital world has chosen to embody it as well. It is just flawed reasoning to think the DB will go away. To the extent that it is less dominant in pop, that has already happened. If anything it is on a strong rebound. What are all of these EUB's struggling to be??? Something there is that a bass guitar is not and never will be, and that something is a double bass.
