When did you decide to become solely upright?

[fabledsoe]

Or did you decide to play both sides of the bass?

I am troubled about this, because most of the gigs I play, people want upright and my electric just sits in its case.

I've tried bringing out my electric for a whole set, but then I play walking lines it is frustrating.

Some days I just want to say I want to solely play upright, but in reality I know I can't do that and I need to play both.

Your thoughts and questions.

[TroyK]

Why do you need to play both? I'm sure there are some good reasons, but what are yours?

If you play rock. If you need the portability. If you're getting on and off of airplanes. If the music calls for it. If the person hiring you calls for it. If you need to play "Domino" at weddings to pay rent. I'm sure there are other reasons.

But, nothing wrong with being commited.

My love of bass came from my uncle's doublebass when I was a child, but my first personal bass was a Fender Music Master. Rock and pop music got the chicks through high school and into college (in theory). Started walking more and more and moving more towards jazz and "special projects", then I finally followed my heart to doublebass.

When I got serious about it I was in a fairly successful (locally) original music band. The bandleader was fine with (excited about) doublebass, but we were gigging and I wasn't really ready. So I took both for a while. Eventually, I was 80/20 and that after that band, I just started getting doublebass jazz gigs.

I keep a Fender around. Sometimes I travel with it or practice on it. I played my first and only rock gig this decade last summer and chose electric bass for it. There's this crappy gig that I used to play that involved climbing a ladder and playing under a 6'3" ceiling that I chose my Fender for that one out of practicality (I later chose to not do that gig anymore). But, I freely and happily admit that I'm a jazz musician and doublebassist now.

Don't fight it if that's where your muse is taking you.

[Marcus Johnson]

I have some slabs, too, and I enjoy playing them. But I don't generally get hired to do so any more. Virtually all double bass at this point.

It was different in the past.... the slabs paid a big chunk of my bills in the early eighties, especially in the studios.

Play what you hear. I hear them both, as it turns out.

[JayR]

The way I see it, as bass players, there is no good reason for us to cut ourselves off from any of our options. Almost every kind of music needs a bass player, and the more styles you're fluent in, the more potential gigs you are qualified to take. Almost all of my practice time these days is spent on classical double bass stuff, orchestral excerpts, concerti, etc, but I still make sure to take time every week to play my electric and keep my chops up. You never know where music is gonna be 10, 20 years down the road, and being that we play such a versatile instrument (/instruments), I can't see any reason not to keep up with everything we can do.

[mattfong]

I still play both. I prefer double bass, and don't play my electrics as much, but there is value in playing both, and I have fun playing both. In addition to my jazz trio, I play in a rock band and a reggae band. The upright doesn't really fit in there, so my slabs get use.

If you're a professional musician, the more versatile you are, the more gigs you'll get.

[TroyK]

Originally Posted by JayR

The way I see it, as bass players, there is no good reason for us to cut ourselves off from any of our options. Almost every kind of music needs a bass player, and the more styles you're fluent in, the more potential gigs you are qualified to take.

I don't disagree with you and it sounds like a sensible attitude towards making a living as a bassist no matter what.

As a musician, some people chose to be what they are, play what they play, express themselves as their artistic compass guides them. So, a reason could be that you want to be the best classical bassist in the world and don't want to dilute your practice time or efforts.

Jeff Hamilton tells a great story about getting advice from Ray Brown when he was getting out there. He went through several iterations of Ray telling him to get commercial work and various things, to which he always replied "No, Mr. Brown, I'm a jazz drummer". Eventually Ray Brown hired him and he was in his trio for a decade or so. He formed an alliance with Ray's heir, John Clayton and the two of them are a musicial partnership. He may, very well, be the best pure jazz drummer in the world. At least, I believe that he is the best at playing the way he conceives of jazz drumming.

For every Jeff Hamilton there are 50,000 TroyKs who are just out there doing what we do. Some of the difference is the fact that he had the audicity to assert himself as what he was instead of trying to do what anyone would pay him to do.

I've erred on the side of taking the gig, but I'm trying to come back to my muse a bit. I don't know enough about the person who started this thread to tell where he is, but maybe "stick to your guns and don't sacrifice your art" is the best advice for him and maybe "don't limit your options, be ready to play anything, anywhere with anyone" is the better advice for him. There is a lot of room in between and it's where most of us live.

[Uncletoad]

Originally Posted by here comes the trash can cymbal

When did you decide to become solely upright?

It was just before I turned 2. I was a late bloomer. I preferred to crawl and drool and never really wanted to give up the boob...

[TroyK]

Originally Posted by fabledsoe

Some days I just want to say I want to solely play upright,

It was right at the end of the paleolithic era. We had eaten all of the root vegetables and animals the scurry along the ground and we had to stand and walk to get the higher food sources...

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Uncletoad

It was just before I turned 2. I was a late bloomer. I preferred to crawl and drool and never really wanted to give up the boob...

....and then again after you quit drinking, remember?

[damonsmith]

For me it was just a few months after I got my first upright. I kept reaching for the bow when I would play BG. I have an acoustic BG which I like to play. I have an EUB which I like better.
The bow is what really did it for me, so BG just can't work for me.

[Uncletoad]

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

....and then again after you quit drinking, remember?

There is that.

[Uncletoad]

...and in reply.

I play whatever I want when my muse directs me to.

Right now I'm into playing the DB on just about everything. I'm finding my voice in it and as such thats what people are calling me to do for the most part.

The electric wood slab is kinda dull to me right now. I played a session last year where I did some chunka chunka on the old P bass through an SVT in a studio for an old school rock thing and it took awhile to get back into the mindset. When I did I was fine but I find today my hearts not entirely into it.

I notice that changes quite a bit.

10 years ago I spent half my playing time fronting a band playing tunes I wrote on my Martin 12 string. I'm not there today but who knows about tomorrow.

My muse instructs my path, if I honor it then I'm in line with what I'm "supposed" to do. I try not to let the "rules" dictate my choices.

Having said that I'm also a gig whore. Pay me properly and I'll do just about anything. I'll try to find the music in it and be happy. I don't want to phone it in no matter how far away from what I want to do I am.

Those things seem mutually exclusive but I don't think they are. Transcend the context and connect with the muse even if I'm playing a tin can. That's the ticket. That's when I'm being authentic and as such always a happy fella.

[M Ramsey]

I've never even owned a bass guitar of any kind, so I truly am solely upright!

My daughter and my son are both excellent bass guitar players and they are both fluent on the upright bass as well.

There's probably a handfull of people in this world that have ever seen or even heard me play a bass guitar. I'm not dissing those folks that do play, it's just not for me.

The playing styles and equipment needed are so vastly different, I prefer to concentrate my efforts into one style. It's better for me and the audience.

[Marc Piane]

I'm not solely an upright player though pretty darn close.

College 'converted' me. I was a EB player when I got to college. I don't think I had ever even picked up a DB.

I probably do between 150-200 dates a year. Maybe a half dozen require me to bring the porkchop. It really has nothing to do with the preference thing.

I just hear a certain sound in a certain context.

I'm one of those purists that thinks jazz should only be played on upright. It just doesn't sound right to me when I hear EB playing bebop. Say what you will but that is what I hear.

I am playing a gig with a singer/songwriter guy in a couple weeks that does kinda Phish inspired rock (paid of course). EB is the best tool for that job.

I think it is interesting to see guys play DB in atypical contexts but it often turns into a novelty. I hate when it turns into a visual thing. I don't play the DB 'cause of how it looks.

That said I am also a gig whore. If the check is the right size I'll play the baritone Ukulele and wear a grass skirt.

[Marcus Johnson]

Originally Posted by fingers

If the check is the right size I'll play the baritone Ukulele and wear a grass skirt.

Pics, please.

[Ed Fuqua]

Originally Posted by JayR

The way I see it, as bass players, there is no good reason for us to cut ourselves off from any of our options. ...I can't see any reason not to keep up with everything we can do.

I just don't hear electric, I don't like practicing it, I don't like hearing someone (i.e. ME) playing an instrument that isn't their voice and that they don't practice. Likewise, versatility is over rated. I don't want to be everything to all people, I want to be me. I can still be open, play a bunch of different music whatever, but I'm NOT trying to tailor my sound, my personality, my instrument to what somebody else wants. If somebody wants me to play with them, it should be because they want [b]my[b]voice in their music. Not because I need a gig. Jim Hall doesn't play a solid body to get rock gigs, doesn't do Brazilian gigs or R & B gigs or play ukelele to get Hawaiian gigs or banjo to get trad gigs. He just plays like Jim Hall.

So in answer to your question FEEBLESORE (it's just a sound thang, no insult meant) I stopped playing electric bass because
1. the sound of my upright was the sound that coalesced meaning from chaos for me. Whenever I heard (in my head) me playing music, upright was what my bass sounded like
2. there are some REALLY GREAT electric players up here. There is absolutley NO REASON to have a mediocre electric bassist on a gig when you can have a REALLY KILLIN' one.
3. the gigs that I was getting calls to play electric on were not gigs I particularly wanted to play

But really, nobody else can answer this question for you. It's not about gigs, it's not about what somebody else wants to hear, it's about what YOU NEED to hear.

[txstatebass]

Ed, I couldn't have said it better myself. I really dug playing electric when I was younger, but as time passed I realized that the sound in my head was the upright. So, I went full bore into that. I recently purchased a cheap electric (first one I had in years) for the sole purpose of trying to get back into it, but it just didn't feel like me. Stick to your guns and be the musician that YOU want to be. Musical honesty is far more compelling to me.

[TroyK]

You guys are right on and I'm there with you.

Now, I will say that I accept that some people (Christian McBride) hear and identify with a lot more than I do and if it's honest and you can pull it off, then be true to yourself that way too. Just don't sell out. Be true to yourself.

Jim Hall is Jim Hall. Jeff Hamilton is Jeff Hamilton. But there are great studio musicians, for example, who can and do play everything and that's what they love.

Who are you? When you put yourself out there, that is the question you are answering for everyone.

[Marc Piane]

Originally Posted by TroyK

Just don't sell out. Be true to yourself.

Then the reality of making a living as a musician sets in.

I will not do disco jobbing stuff. But I do want to pay my rent. I have, as we all have, played gigs that were not my ideal.

My point... The whole line of 'selling out' starts to get very blurry at a certain point.

[Uncletoad]

Originally Posted by fingers

Then the reality of making a living as a musician sets in.

I will not do disco jobbing stuff. But I do want to pay my rent. I have, as we all have, played gigs that were not my ideal.

My point... The whole line of 'selling out' starts to get very blurry at a certain point.

I have no idea what selling out is anymore.

I know I'm happy when I play music. Moreso than most things I can choose to do or not do in any given day.

Ok, I won't play with people that can't play for **** anymore. Selling out for me perhaps is working with people that phone it in or just have no skills.

I'll play music that isn't all that if the musicians are dedicated to it and I can find the vibe.

I won't do duos in the Hyatt with a computer and a "going through the motions singer/guitar/keyboard guy" anymore unless its so much money that I can count dollars faster than bar lines.

Two years of that was enough, long ago. I just can't play the Breadly anymore.

(medly of Bread songs).