Arpeggio Shapes

[SeaInTheOcean]

Hello, i am a jazz guitarist who has recently started learning the DB. I have been transcribing some bass lines to try and get things figured out, but i'm unsure of fingerings. With something like the bridge to 'rhythm changes' (two bars each) D7-G7-C7-F7. if i wanted to just play 1-3-5-7-8-7-5-3 of each chord how could i finger this. i have the Simandl book, and have been working on that arco, but i cannot really extract an answer from that so far. Any help would be appreciated.

[thesneakyjesus]

as quarter notes..


2-1-4-4
D-F#-A-D ascending starting with second finger on the A string on D



then
1-4-1-4 with a shift up between the G natural to the F on the A string, then shift back for first finger on the D to the B.
G-F-D-G

you can also try rabbath with a pivot the G natural and the F and not have to ****.

how does rabbath handle major thirds with a pivot?

[Clay_Bass]

I like to use open strings when possible as a little check for intonation, so I would probably finger what you described like:


D----G------------D----G-A-D-----G-D---A

0-4--1-/1--4-1-\1-4----0-2-0-4---0-4-0-2-
D F# A C | D C A F# | G B D F | G F D B |


A-D-G-------------D----A----D---------A----

4-2-0-/1---4-1--\0-2--4-0-4-1----4-1--4-0-
C E G Bb | C Bb G E | F A C Eb | F Eb C A |


You've always got to be thinking about being in tune along with the other things you need to work on. I know it drives me nuts when I listen to my own playing and one of the biggest sections of my practice time for the past year or so has been scales/etudes/just general playing, to a drone.

[SeaInTheOcean]

thanks guys. I've spent so much time as a guitarist trying to not shift, that i think i've been approaching the DB a little incorrectly.

[thesneakyjesus]

the only reason I put my example like I did is because it'll transpose across the instrument (with some adjustments when you get up to a thumb position, but still the same pattern/idea).

I definitly think that keys such as G/C/D/A etc. with out a lot of accidentals sit best on the bass using open strings. The body resonsates more, you get to check intonation, it allows you a stopping point to do some hammer on pull off sort of stuff.

Good luck.

I also think that guitar and electric bass are so much differnt than upright. I think of them differently. With electric I think more of patters and shapes that work and have a ceatain sound universally to the fingerboard. With upright I think more of goal tones and finding any fingering that doesn't get in the way. The rabbath technique has you study like 500 ways to play a G major scale and this really gets you over the hump. I've been trying to get into this. It frees you up from all the physical distance and shifting you have to do.

[jfv]

I play some guitar, as a diversion, and one of the things
that always annoys me is the way you fall into 'pattern'
thinking. In essence, you just identify some anchor, the
one note you might think about, and then its just some
pattern that takes over.

I also played jazz sax for a while, you never think about
patterns, its always conscious selection of a single note.

That's how I try to play the bass. Learn all the notes on
all strings, put that together with theory and when you see
an A7 you won't need to look for a fingering or pattern,
you'll play the appropriate scale whereever you choose
on the instrument, that's freedom