Shift or pivot on Night in Tunesia?

[MartinT]

When playing the bass line intro theme of 'A night in Tunesia', do you shift half positions up and down (a la Simandl) or do you pivot and stretch while keeping your left hand thumb put (a la Rabbath). I've tried both, and find that I get hopelessly lost after a few bars when shifting, but I'm not sure that I'm always in tune for the D and B of the Dmin chord when pivoting/stretching. This all assumes starting out with 1 on Eb on the A string. Any advice as to playing this theme consistently is greatly appreciated.

Martin

[Phil Smith]

It helps if you use the open D for pitch reference, and then shift or pivot a half step for the F, A and B.

[scott reed]

It's old school but after you master the
shift/pivot I'd try the open D followed
by the F,A B in Simandl/Montag 1st
position to practice finding the Eb again on
the A string. Not as efficient but
depending on your tempo, bass and string
choice it may sound and project better.
You can always play it the other way if
you prefer but I've had better luck with
this fingering when I use gut strings.

[Paul Warburton]

Originally posted by scott reed
It's old school but after you master the
shift/pivot I'd try the open D followed
by the F,A B in Simandl/Montag 1st
position to practice finding the Eb again on
the A string. Not as efficient but
depending on your tempo, bass and string
choice it may sound and project better.
You can always play it the other way if
you prefer but I've had better luck with
this fingering when I use gut strings.

Scott, it's your PM teacher PW here...I think you're splitting hairs here. You could bring the gut strings with you, have the band call Tunisia as the first tune of the set, have the guts on your bass, play the tune and quickly, put back on your bass your regular strings. Or, simply take two basses with you!

[CS Bass]

The way I've always played it is:

Eb on A
Bb on D
Db on G
Eb on G

then
Open D
F on D
A on G
B on G

BTW, there are a lot of different versions of this song...If you want to make your own, I recommend it.

[scott reed]

CS, that was my recommendation because you kept
the 2nd, 3rd and 4th notes of each pattern on
the same string combination.
Paul, my bass inspiration is bassgod Dave Pomeroy
who has been known to take up to a dozen bass guitars with him on live and studio dates so he
could use the bass that matched perfectly with
each song. It's too bad I haven't been able to
convince the rest of the guys/gals in the band
to buy into this with double basses - but then again, I'm no Dave Pomeroy either. Thanks for the suggestions!

[Mike Crumpton]

My way is to play the Eb as per CS, go to the open D but play the F on the A string and the A and B on the D string. This allows you to pivot between the two chords without moving the thumb. Going from the open string to the string below is easier on the RH too.

I'm fingering this using 124 as per Simandal. I I didn't my intonation would wander.

[Pacman]

Originally posted by Mike Crumpton
My way is to play the Eb as per CS, go to the open D but play the F on the A string and the A and B on the D string. This allows you to pivot between the two chords without moving the thumb. Going from the open string to the string below is easier on the RH too.

That's how I play it, too.

[godoze]

i pivot.

[Marcus Johnson]

I do it the same a Pac and Mike C.