Classical-style bass?

[Shroom]

I want to mimic the style of Romantic-era pianists on my bass, albeit in a simpler form. I'm thinking mostly of the arpeggiated-sounding type of stuff, but am open to anything of course. Does anyone know where there are any tabs or videos that might teach me how to do this? Or maybe artists I could look into?

[BillW87]

Originally Posted by Shroom

I want to mimic the style of Romantic-era pianists on my bass, albeit in a simpler form. I'm thinking mostly of the arpeggiated-sounding type of stuff, but am open to anything of course. Does anyone know where there are any tabs or videos that might teach me how to do this? Or maybe artists I could look into?

There's a lot of great classical music arrangements out there for bass guitar, youtube is a great place to start looking. Getting comfortable with two-handed finger tapping techniques and switching comfortably between finger picking and finger tapping is pretty essential for doing more advanced arrangements of Romantic-era piano and other classical music.

Some videos that helped inspire me to start playing in a similar style to what I think you're going for...

Bassist who goes by "Zander Zon" who plays a lot of piccolo-tuned melodic arrangements, here he's playing Pachelbel's Canon in D:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQoRS09OUnE

Great finger tapping version of Fur Elise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bChfp3FxsU

Bach Cello Suite no. 1 prelude on bass, good example of classical fingerstyle on bass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkZMlP7SRKk

Shameless self-promotion, but here's a vid of me playing an arrangement of Canon in D as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg7iKKZEq7o


Hope that's all given you a good jumping off point for a couple of different techniques that you can use to play that style of music. As far as actual arranging goes tabs are pretty hard to come by so if you're able to read music your best bet is to try your hand arranging from the original score yourself as most classical scores are available free online. Having a program that can convert tabs to audio playback is an awesome tool for arranging as well, I personally use Power Tab Editor since its free and displays everything in a dual format score+tab and has midi playback.

[BassChuck]

Remember too, that 'Romantic Style' is more about 'how' the music is played rather than 'what' music is played. You can play the Bach Suites (there are 6 of them and each one has 6 sections) in a Romantic style. Listen to how Chopin is played on piano and get ideas about tempo flexibility and note stressing. Apply that musical approach to Bach, or any other style of music. Leonard Bernstein said he loved to play Bach inventions in a romanitc style. It's a great way to stretch your musical mind.

[Shroom]

Originally Posted by BillW87

There's a lot of great classical music arrangements out there for bass guitar, youtube is a great place to start looking. Getting comfortable with two-handed finger tapping techniques and switching comfortably between finger picking and finger tapping is pretty essential for doing more advanced arrangements of Romantic-era piano and other classical music.

Some videos that helped inspire me to start playing in a similar style to what I think you're going for...

Bassist who goes by "Zander Zon" who plays a lot of piccolo-tuned melodic arrangements, here he's playing Pachelbel's Canon in D:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQoRS09OUnE

Great finger tapping version of Fur Elise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bChfp3FxsU

Bach Cello Suite no. 1 prelude on bass, good example of classical fingerstyle on bass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkZMlP7SRKk

Shameless self-promotion, but here's a vid of me playing an arrangement of Canon in D as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg7iKKZEq7o


Hope that's all given you a good jumping off point for a couple of different techniques that you can use to play that style of music. As far as actual arranging goes tabs are pretty hard to come by so if you're able to read music your best bet is to try your hand arranging from the original score yourself as most classical scores are available free online. Having a program that can convert tabs to audio playback is an awesome tool for arranging as well, I personally use Power Tab Editor since its free and displays everything in a dual format score+tab and has midi playback.

I actually stumbled upon Zander Zon a little bit before posting this. He's awesome! His tuning makes him a little hard to mimic, but his style is definitely worth listening to and trying to be influenced by. Anyways, I unfortunately can't read music very well

[Orangeclawhamme]

subscribe

[AcidFripp]

Tune your bass CGDA and play cello suites like a boss.

[Zander4724]

Hi guys,

I know this thread is quite old, but just to add - Bassline Publishing has released a book which contains tabs and notation for all compositions on my album, Sonorous. The book also contains very detailed performance notes as well as advice on getting started with altered tunings and piccolo strings, so it would be very helpful for anyone looking to explore this sort of style.

Here's the link if you want to check it out:
Zander Zon - Sonorous Bass Transcriptions

It's also available worldwide!

Best wishes,

Zander Zon

Zander4724's Channel - YouTube

[Fergie Fulton]

Originally Posted by Zander4724

Hi guys,

I know this thread is quite old, but just to add - Bassline Publishing has released a book which contains tabs and notation for all compositions on my album, Sonorous. The book also contains very detailed performance notes as well as advice on getting started with altered tunings and piccolo strings, so it would be very helpful for anyone looking to explore this sort of style.

Here's the link if you want to check it out:
Zander Zon - Sonorous Bass Transcriptions

It's also available worldwide!

Best wishes,

Zander Zon

Zander4724's Channel - YouTube

+1 always worth checking out Zander if you have not done so yet.

[Mugre]

I think a good bassist can acquit themselves very nicely playing 'cello pieces on the bass guitar. I plan to try some of my cello etude books on the bass to see if I can develop a style that's a little different or more melodically informed than the (more usual) pattern based methodology.

We'll see. I'll probably suck no matter what.

Oh yeah, +1 that "romantic" is as much a style as an era.

Mugre

[Zander4724]

thanks, fergie!

i agree with that playing cello pieces on the bass guitar can work quite well. especially if the notes are allowed to ring out as much as possible and a bit of reverb is used.

zander