Call me crazy but..

[MichelD]

Just to make sure my Real Book jam buddies can't fool me I've been working on a key most of us rarely encounter playing with average guitar players: D flat.

Nothing fancy, practicing one octave scales in two positions and major, major 7, dom 7 minor 7, minor 7 b 5 arpeggios.

The Bb natural minor scale is the same notes so it is kind of a two-for-one sale too.

Ab next

 

[mambo4]

Ab kills me on an upright, and is a good challenge on a bass guitar.
"play as low as you can but no using open notes"
those are some big frets
don't fear to move you left hand if needed

 

[buldog5151bass]

Always good to transpose songs as an exercise.

 

[MichelD]

Ab kills me on an upright, and is a good challenge on a bass guitar.
"play as low as you can but no using open notes"
those are some big frets
don't fear to move you left hand if needed

Ab kills me on an upright, and is a good challenge on a bass guitar.
"play as low as you can but no using open notes"

exactly

 

[Spin Doctor]

Crazy butt...

 

[g-dude]

Okay, crazy but.

 

[Mushroo]

Now you can play key of Db crowd-pleasers like "Sweet Child of Mine" and "Never Gonna Give You Up"!

 

[Papageno]

Just to make sure my Real Book jam buddies can't fool me I've been working on a key most of us rarely encounter playing with average guitar players: D flat.

Nothing fancy, practicing one octave scales in two positions and major, major 7, dom 7 minor 7, minor 7 b 5 arpeggios.

The Bb natural minor scale is the same notes so it is kind of a two-for-one sale too.

Ab next

Charles Mingus' "Good Bye Pork Pie Hat" is in Bb minor, the relative minor of Db.
For guitar players, that's a piece of cake: they just put a capo on fret 1, and then play (what they call) A minor. LoL

 

[Whousedtoplay]

Just to make sure my Real Book jam buddies can't fool me I've been working on a key most of us rarely encounter playing with average guitar players: D flat.

That's why I like tracks in C like the following tune. - LOL!

P.S. I wonder why the bass player plays mostly the roots of the chords?
LOL.

 

[WrapRough]

Sorry if this is a silly question, but why is playing in certain keys more difficult than others? On piano it's obvious, and you are taught scales and arpeggios in a certain order, C, G, D, A etc... But on bass, where the instrument is balanced and the fingering is the same, I can't compute why it makes any difference other than fret spacing? But if you're practicing stuff up and down the neck in all 12 keys then it shouldn't feel alien..

What am I missing!?

 

[MichelD]

Sorry if this is a silly question, but why is playing in certain keys more difficult than others? On piano it's obvious, and you are taught scales and arpeggios in a certain order, C, G, D, A etc... But on bass, where the instrument is balanced and the fingering is the same, I can't compute why it makes any difference other than fret spacing? But if you're practicing stuff up and down the neck in all 12 keys then it shouldn't feel alien..

What am I missing!?

From my perspective I play electric and upright and to be honest I prefer to play both in the lowest position on the neck with open strings as much as possible where the patterns are not the same as rote-learned patterns memorized up and down the neck.

Any other questions?

 

[WrapRough]

From my perspective I play electric and upright and to be honest I prefer to play both in the lowest position on the neck with open strings as much as possible where the patterns are not the same as rote-learned patterns memorized up and down the neck.

Any other questions?

OK I get it if you're playing open strings for the line, but if it's all fretted then I don't get it...

 

[JRA]

Any other questions?

what guitar players are you playing with that can wail on realbook tunes but can't play in Db?

 

[MichelD]

what guitar players are you playing with that can wail on realbook tunes but can't play in Db?

They play all keys all the time.

I was talking about my own effort to get familiar with Dbm7b5.

I'm the one that has to work at it, particularly on my upright.

 

[JRA]

I was talking about my own effort to get familiar with Dbm7b5.

 

[fretlessbass]

Sorry if this is a silly question, but why is playing in certain keys more difficult than others? On piano it's obvious, and you are taught scales and arpeggios in a certain order, C, G, D, A etc... But on bass, where the instrument is balanced and the fingering is the same, I can't compute why it makes any difference other than fret spacing? But if you're practicing stuff up and down the neck in all 12 keys then it shouldn't feel alien..

What am I missing!?

I didn’t get the feeling that HE didn’t know his keys, instrument, etc.
MichelD mentioned playing in keys that “average guitar players” don’t often play in; I infer that he may’ve been playing with guys who probably play more pop than other genres....THOSE guys sometimes have a problem with anything in flat keys—which, on the other hand, is quite normal for jazz and R&B....and anyone who plays with horns.

 

[WrapRough]

I didn’t get the feeling that HE didn’t know his keys, instrument, etc.
MichelD mentioned playing in keys that “average guitar players” don’t often play in; I infer that he may’ve been playing with guys who probably play more pop than other genres....THOSE guys sometimes have a problem with anything in flat keys—which, on the other hand, is quite normal for jazz and R&B....and anyone who plays with horns.

OK, so it's less common for bass players to feel uncomfortable in certain keys than guitarists?

 

[MichelD]

OK, so it's less common for bass players to feel uncomfortable in certain keys than guitarists?

I started this.

And when I started playing bass, most guitarists I accompanied played three-chord songs in cowboy chords on John Prine, Johnny Cash and Chuck Berry tunes.

I'm now older, (much older) and play with guys older than me out of the real book and other songbooks with many chords all over the map. All I was trying to say in the original post was that I was trying to get acquainted with some of the more obscure chords that occasionally come up in charts that I get put in front of me.

To answer your question. I don't honestly know. I can only speak for myself.

The guitarists I started playing with regularly 45 years ago couldn't play Bm7b5 if it meant their life.

The people I play with now can.

I have made it a personal challenge to be able play in all keys on the bass, but I know of some players, one in the rockabilly category for example who if the song has more than three chords in it and doesn't require slapping, is lost.