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10-26-2009, 03:15 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: UP | | | Notes lower than E
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This might sound dumb but here goes. I'm self taught and just started looking at sheet music for actual songs instead of working out of instructional books. In the books, the lowest note they show is the open E. On the sheet music I have, there are notes lower than that. How does it sound to just play the E or do you have to tune down or get a fiver? I've seen how the notes are such as the high C (?) and such but never really noticed the lower ones. |
10-26-2009, 03:19 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Harlow, Essex, UK | | | you could get a fiver but downtuning is a nessecary part of playing bass, how low are the notes your talking about? id imagine there Eb/D# down to C at the lowest
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10-26-2009, 03:20 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Minnesota - Twin Cities | | | Tune BEAD
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10-26-2009, 03:23 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Wisconsin | | | You could just play the note an octave up. From my experience playing DB, most low notes are a low D, so I'll just play the open string and it's all good! |
10-26-2009, 03:29 PM
| | Registered User
ALSO also really wants to be Omar Alfredo Rodriguez-Lopez | | Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Walrus, New York | | | I've seen people drop as low as Drop-E. It's all about what's necessary for your setting.
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10-26-2009, 03:40 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Cambridge, MA | | | How much lower than E are the notes? I have learned bass lines from piano books (there are a few out there that do a good job of reproducing the bass parts) and I have always found the piano bass clef notes are written an octave lower than they would be played on the bass guitar. It would be pretty hard to tune down to reach them, lol.
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BluesWalker
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10-26-2009, 03:56 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Redford, MI | | | Isn't bass music written an octive higher than it's played in order to make it easier to publish and read? That might explain why it looks so low on piano music. the piano music would have the acutal notes as they are intended to be played.
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10-26-2009, 07:21 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: UP | | | The one I'll point out is Rough Boy by ZZ Top. It looks like a C# and maybe down to a B? I'm guessing that tuning to BEAD would cover that? |
10-26-2009, 07:22 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: UP | | | Desperado by The Eagles has some low ones too. |
10-26-2009, 07:41 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Michigan | | | How does it sound to your ears? They should be the ultimate judge.
If you're using piano music instead of bass music, you're using a 'translation' that puts a number of parts together or else a part that isn't meant for bass. Go ahead and feel free to make any changes that bring it back to the original bass part. Use the chords and your ears to figure it out.
Just to be sure, the low E on bass is one line under the bass clef. If the written music goes below that, it's written for another instrument (or 5-string). |
10-26-2009, 08:40 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Seattle | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Arpeggiator downtuning is a nessecary part of playing bass | necessary may be too strong of a word. Been at it for 20 years and have only ever tuned down for one audition. Good to know how, but not necessarily necessary.
As mentioned in another post, bass (electric or URB) is a transposed instrument. Notated music is written an octave higher than actually played. If the music you are using is not written for the bass then the notes are intended to sound higher than you may be playing. |
10-26-2009, 08:51 PM
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Endorsing Artist: SWR Amplifiers | | Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Sydney, Australia | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Orangeclawhamme Isn't bass music written an octive higher than it's played in order to make it easier to publish and read? That might explain why it looks so low on piano music. the piano music would have the acutal notes as they are intended to be played. | +1 This.
There are a lot of arrangers that don't know this, or are working to a deadline and will just let a few errors slip through.
Additionally, notes that might be recorded in a studio version of a tune might not ever turn up in a live version - so just feel free to play those phrases, if not the whole line, an octave higher. If you can use the original artist's recordings as a reference, do, but don't sweat it. |
10-26-2009, 11:14 PM
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Originally Posted by David1234
There are a lot of arrangers that don't know this, or are working to a deadline and will just let a few errors slip through.
| If you don't know your ranges and transpositions and you're ok with "letting a few errors slip through," you aren't much of an arranger.
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10-26-2009, 11:23 PM
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Originally Posted by MNAirHead Tune BEAD | +1
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10-27-2009, 05:42 AM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Columbus, Ohio | | | Just get a 5'er...seriously never understood the resistence to a 5th string. I started on 4's and in about a year all I play is 5's and you have the additional range without some non-standard tuning.
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10-27-2009, 06:10 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Woking, Surrey, UK. | | Quote:
Originally Posted by crikker Desperado by The Eagles has some low ones too. | I think you'll find the low notes were played on the piano.
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10-27-2009, 06:10 AM
|  | Unprofessional TalkBass Contributor | | Join Date: Dec 1999 Location: Brighton, England, UK, Europe | | | As people have said - if the music was not written specifically for bass then there is your problem. Bass guitar and Double Bass are played an octave lower than written. So if you have say, piano music then those notes are an octave higher - not below open E!
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10-27-2009, 06:16 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Woking, Surrey, UK. | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Arpeggiator you could get a fiver but downtuning is a nessecary part of playing bass, how low are the notes your talking about? id imagine there Eb/D# down to C at the lowest | I've been playing Bass since 1972 - full time pro for 10 of those years - and I've never tuned down or ever been asked to. Therefore I would say that downtuning is definitely not a "necessary part of playing Bass". From what I can see, downtuning is a fad with Metal bands. You can't stop in the middle of a gig to downtune your instrument for a song, then tune it back up again!!.
If the notes are below the bottom E - and you haven't got a 5 string - then you play them up an octave!! - now THAT is a necessary part of playing Bass  .
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Peter.
You hum it, I'll play it!!.
Last edited by PJSShearer : 10-27-2009 at 06:22 AM.
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10-27-2009, 06:26 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: 21804 | | Quote:
Originally Posted by PJSShearer I've been playing Bass since 1972 - full time pro for 10 of those years - and I've never tuned down or ever been asked to. Therefore I would say that downtuning is definitely not a "necessary part of playing Bass". From what I can see, downtuning is a fad with Metal bands. You can't stop in the middle of a gig to downtune your instrument for a song, then tune it back up again!!.
If the notes are below the bottom E - and you haven't got a 5 string - then you play them up an octave!! - now THAT is a necessary part of playing Bass . | I STRONGLY disagree about the metal band comment. I'm currently playing a tchaikovsky (on URB) and it calls for a C extension. I wouldn't call that metal at all. I also encountered several songs in my school's jazz band that were in the key of Eb and ended with the low octave. |
10-27-2009, 06:39 AM
|  | Real Basses Have 5 Strings! | | Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Colorado | | | I really don't understand why DGCF is not the standard tuning for a 4 string bass and I really don't understand why the 5 string bass is not the standard instead of the 4. The extra low notes are useful in Metal, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Christian, Country, Hip Hop, Rap, Modern Rock, and even Classic Rock.
For Me the Low D is the foundation of my bass playing. | | Thread Tools | Search this Thread | | | | 
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