Modern Celtic Music & Bass Guitar

[cassius987]

I've been listening to a variety of Celtic or Celtic-inspired music these days, with some of my favorites being Bruno Coulais (Secret of Kells soundtrack), Karan Casey, and a variety of stuff from "Irish Music Podcasts", etc. What I notice is that in spite of the fairly simple harmonic structure of most songs, there are some weird rhythmic/arrangement-based tricks to really nailing them that seem totally specific to Irish and/or Celtic music. It's so fun to play and I love how in modern recordings the genre is branching out markedly. Lots of good fretless bass recordings, for example.

I'm hoping some people here can point me in the right direction to learning "proper" bass guitar for Irish and Celtic music, so that I could think about looking for a group to play with here in Denver. It seems like a "sound" some audiences would demand, and in any case I feel like I could play some of the songs I've been practicing for hours straight and never get bored, so I think it would be a good fit for me, and a good break from swung jazz and rock.

[bassybill]

I always think that if you learn to play an instrument well, then you can choose afterwards the style in which to express yourself with what you've learned. So my advice would be not to focus too much on learning to play a particular style. Just follow some of the good advice here on TB for learning in general and you'l be enjoying playing lines of your own that suit the music you want to play in no time at all. If you do want to lean towards that genre whilst studying, then listening to and learning (or, better still, transcribing) bass lines you like will give you some ideas about what makes those lines appeal to you.

I play in a band with an Irish guitarist/songwriter guy called Tom Martin and he describes his music as "Celtic Soul". Here's a couple of tracks for you to check out, let me know what you think. The second one probaby shows the Celtic influences the strongest out of the two.

http://www.billygreen.pwp.blueyonder...tin%20Band.mp3

http://www.billygreen.pwp.blueyonder...tin%20Band.mp3

[mr.hughes]

Check out anything by Lúnasa, with Trevor Hutchinson on bass. Great bass lines, playing and tone. First time I saw them it was an eye opener for me - hearing a bass line underneath those fast melodies and changes was the final piece in the jigsaw for me that helped make sense of it all.

I subbed for Trevor one night and learnt a heck of a lot.

[cassius987]

Originally Posted by bassybill

I always think that if you learn to play an instrument well, then you can choose afterwards the style in which to express yourself with what you've learned. So my advice would be not to focus too much on learning to play a particular style.

I agree on the one hand, but on the other hand I already feel like I have a fairly well developed general knowledge of bass, and could easily step into a Celtic group and start throwing my own ideas at them with confidence that it would sound good in its own right. But I don't want to stomp all over the style and I just detect that (as far as the authentic stuff goes) there are some recurring patterns and themes that I should learn, because I don't think they're offered anywhere else. It's like the music of any culture, the next one that comes to my mind right now is North African: a lot of times you can fake your way through it with your discipline, knowledge, and chops... however if you're really serious it's worth doing some homework anyways.

By the way I can't get your second link to work.

Originally Posted by mr.hughes

Check out anything by Lúnasa, with Trevor Hutchinson on bass. Great bass lines, playing and tone. First time I saw them it was an eye opener for me - hearing a bass line underneath those fast melodies and changes was the final piece in the jigsaw for me that helped make sense of it all.

I subbed for Trevor one night and learnt a heck of a lot.

That's been my experience with a lot of the music I listed. If nothing else I'll just have to learn the parts and hope I internalize what's going on. Did that with jazz so it could probably work too.