Doubling trouble

[Chad.mundt]

I once asked John Patitucci about how he keeps his chops on the same level. He seems to just be able to. When he went into college, he played EB very well, and then college pushed him towards DB, and then elektric band towards EB, the Akoustic band, DB. and his solo work, both. His sideman stuff, mostly DB. Now he's doing the classical thing on DB.

I don't get how he keeps his hand in.

[Michael Case]

I've played EB for about 14 years before picking up DB so I'm pretty confident on the EB to this day even though I don't practice it every day. When it comes to switching I'm in the same camp as fingers, I have to remember to not beat the crap out of the electric. Lat summer I had an off Broadway theater gig on electric, many times I would do a brunch gig on DB and go straight to the theater after. I had to be really aware of my right hand so I wouldn't play too hard.

[Mikey D]

Originally Posted by Chad.mundt

I once asked John Patitucci about how he keeps his chops on the same level. He seems to just be able to. When he went into college, he played EB very well, and then college pushed him towards DB....

Sounds familiar to me...I just hope I can be a tenth as good as John on both instruments when I leave my higher education though!

I'm currently finding it really difficult playing EB and UB as all of the jazz guys just want a UB'ist. So EB practice is confined to the bedroom really.

I did my first sort of gig on UB the other day and played one steve coleman tune on electric mid-set...It was such an unusual feeling switching, i felt like i wasn't even playing the electric!

Oh yeah, and this is also while I am getting my Charlie Hunter style 8 string chops up!!

[CamMcIntyre]

Originally Posted by Mikey D

I'm currently finding it really difficult playing EB and UB as all of the jazz guys just want a UB'ist. So EB practice is confined to the bedroom really.

I feel your pain. My first year of college i rarely touched my EB. As i started to work a bit more and get different gigs-i've started to even out. However, i'm talking about across all of my gigs. Jazz wise-i've played it on i think 2 tunes in the past 2 years of school. I play more EB in pop/musical settings-most of the time i can leave the DB at home for these. On the flip side-jazz, i don't need to worry about an electric 99% of the time.

[RajBOB]

Starting on EB around 12 years ago, I was fairly confident in my chops here and figured they'd be pretty resiliant to me taking up UB (6 months ago). First few months it was fine and for some strange reason, both seemed to be at odds with one another.

I think it was to do with thumb positioning on the left hand (on EB behind the forefinger, UB the second finger) and getting cramps and strain now between my ring-finger and second finger. This is what I'm struggling with at the moment. My fingering on the electric seems to have gone a ropey too at times and doesn't feel as fluid on quick runs. Having an electric band should definately help keep my playing OK though as I work through issues.

One thing I've found with UB and intonation is that it can really get thrown out by seemingly small changes as you really have to hear it and physically reference playing. I had a few weeks where I'd be playing in what I though was half-position and would find myself approaching first when I came to look at the bass (I wasn't hearing the difference). I realised that I had changed the height of the bass acciddently as the endpin needed replacing those few weeks previous. Intonation was particularly worse when combined with this endpin adjustment, I was playing barefoot (and so didn't have any sole height!). With electric you can always have a look and play the thing sitting or standing and make these types of adjustments with the help of the frets/ fret-lines. With UB, I think I need to be a lot more aware (this makes me like UB even more though for some strange reason!)

[bopeuph]

At my school, we were all required to be proficient on both instruments, and in every genre. I believe one thing that hurt me in band auditions was my funk grooves. I've been shedding that quite a bit since I left school.

I see myself as a multi instrumentalist. I play whatever I get paid for (lately it's electric bass in this city). I have been able to separate techniques among the brass family, and had no trouble starting on upright, but when I got to electric bass, I was applying too much of my upright knowledge to electric. My teacher, Dennis Marks, told me to treat it like a different instrument. Ever since that, it's been easier to get across obstacles on the instrument. I haven't been playing my upright much in the last month or so, but I was putting equal amounts of time on both (well, all four instruments that I might let myself get hired on) in the shed. I try to practice similar stuff on each instrument, but I just don't think I will ever be able to slap/thump on the upright.