50% Bass player

lightbg · #1 02-15-2007, 08:27 PM

Hi. I'm fundamentally a keyboardist but I started in this business when keyboards didn't split, so I copied a guy who played left hand on the neck of a bass guitar and right hand on the keyboards..... that was 36 years ago, and I'm still doing it (sooner or later I'll get it right..). Began with a Harmony acoustic, went with a Fender P in '80, and now I'm using a Traveler Escape Bass (a glorified neck, but it only weighs 4 lbs. and it's got a real nice sustain). Between that and my Nord Electro 2 I can emulate a Hammond using only 22 lbs. of gear...... I like that part a lot.
I club date in the north NJ area and teach public school during the day. Hope to meet some of you soon.

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Introvox · #2 02-15-2007, 08:51 PM

I do that too, Bass and Keys at the same time, I started years ago too. I was a Bass/Keys for a full time top40 act...

The singer really wanted to do "Action" - Streetheart

So I quickly found a way to do the intro....that freaked a lot of people out...

That was then....now I can play RCM classical stuff (or pop stuff, jazz whatever) RH - Piano LH - Bass

Action was actually done with LH - Keys and RH - Bass

If you teach (I have 95 private students a week) mostly RCM Piano, so I started playing sections with them following along with either hand I feel like, plus technical stuff (scales etc)

Now I'm playing along with a Grade 9 RCM student, LH or RH....it's like completely mental....Bach's Prelude and Fugue has like 3 pages of nonstop 16th notes

What songs do you play 50/50?

Bring on the freakshow!

lightbg · #3 02-15-2007, 09:48 PM

Most of my work is in a jazz trio format using keys/bass, guitar, and flute. I mostly comp LH on the Nord when in the trio format to simulate the great organ trios of the past, but our 4th piece is a girl vocalist and she's really into piano and bass. Since the Electro only splits the organ part, I need the guitar to fill out the bottom end when using the Steinway D sample........nothing like state of the art all over again......
Repoirtoire for the trio is mostly real book and transcriptions, and the vocalist loves standards and blues, so it's a lot of fun all the time.
On Wednesdays I host a jazz jam with a drummer and tenor sax. We usually have 6 guitar players, three drummers, and some vocalists, so I'm usually on the stand all night......but once we had two trombones.....Domino's didn't deliver that night.....

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