Look up Circle K strings. Their singles can get expensive though...
If you know the exact gauges you want, Naked Strings works too.
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Cello Tuning. C-G-D-A
- Thread starter tiredman9
- Start date
Look up Circle K strings. Their singles can get expensive though...
If you know the exact gauges you want, Naked Strings works too.
Are there any good books for a bassist to learn from using this tuning? I don't have much interest in learning classical cello suites, but other types of cello instruction could be beneficial.
I get my strings from Circle K as singles using their tension chart to figure out what I want.
I get my strings from Circle K as singles using their tension chart to figure out what I want.
This is true - but after you go back to normal tuning - you're still playing the same patterns. Have you really "broken" out of the rut, or just transposed your rut onto another tuning?
One of the benefits for me in using altered tunings is how it forces you to CHANGE the way you play.
If you change the tuning and it sounds lame using your old "4ths" patterns - you should stick with the tuning and change your patterns.
Try to make it sound "right. Scope out how to finger a regular scale or melody with the intervals all moved around.
You'll begin to develop new fingerings, enhance your ear, and when you go back to "normal" tuning you'll have some ways of phrasing and hearing you didn't have before.
Start small - just move 1 string (say the D string) up or down a whole or half step. And then try to play the old melodies and basslines you used to play (not the patterns - the actual notes of the line) if you stick with that - it will bust you out of old "patterns".
Nice to see you here Jeff! I really like your playing
Back to fifths...
I just went through Simandl volume 1 again, starting with the exercises which go up to III position, and figured out the new fingerings as I went.
Are any of you "cello-bassists" still hanging out on TalkBass? I have some questions about your experience with this tuning that I posted in a thread in the Basses (BG) section. The topic does fit here I suppose, or in strings too, but I decided to ask my questions in the basses section because there is a lot of traffic there and a lot of interest in alternate tunings. I suspect most of you hang out there too and if you have any thoughts to share about the decision to give CGDA a try I would love to hear them.
Ken
Ken
I'm still here, and don't look in the bass section much... what do you want to know, specifically?
I understand how to do it in terms of the technical details like string selection and where to buy strings, etc. I'm more interested in hearing how the transition went and how the tuning worked out for various kinds of musical styles. My purpose for considering it is that I have not been really happy with any of the many fivers I have tried but I would like to get the low notes and total range that a fiver provides. As I asked "over there":
"For those of you who have made the switch to CGDA and kept it, what can you tell me about the change? A long and painful process or short and sweet? Is a fifths tuning difficult to adapt to some kinds of music (and which kinds) or does it play well with everything once you learn it? Has it surprised you in any way, good or bad? Basically is there anything I should know about it before I take the leap that wasn't obvious to you when you started?"
Ken
"For those of you who have made the switch to CGDA and kept it, what can you tell me about the change? A long and painful process or short and sweet? Is a fifths tuning difficult to adapt to some kinds of music (and which kinds) or does it play well with everything once you learn it? Has it surprised you in any way, good or bad? Basically is there anything I should know about it before I take the leap that wasn't obvious to you when you started?"
Ken
Well, transition, that took a few weeks, but I played other fifths-tuned mandolin-family instruments before. So it will probably take you longer.
Thirds can be inconvenient, but it works for pretty much any style. I mean I've played jazz standards, classical, samba, reggaeton, country, kuduro, dancehall, R&B, hip-hop, electro... granted, not much rock. I guess rock that relies a lot on open E and A strings would be annoying.
FWIW I have a doubleneck bass with one neck tuned CGDA and one EADG. I've had it for about six years, and for the past five years I never used the EADG neck for anything other than hanging small stuffed animals.
Thirds can be inconvenient, but it works for pretty much any style. I mean I've played jazz standards, classical, samba, reggaeton, country, kuduro, dancehall, R&B, hip-hop, electro... granted, not much rock. I guess rock that relies a lot on open E and A strings would be annoying.
FWIW I have a doubleneck bass with one neck tuned CGDA and one EADG. I've had it for about six years, and for the past five years I never used the EADG neck for anything other than hanging small stuffed animals.
CGDA is the traditional tuning of a tenor banjo or tenor guitar
which are chording instruments unless your name is Roy Smeck or Harry Reser and you can solo as well
The chord patterns are clean and easy -- so for those with abiding interest tenor chord books would provide the chording patterns for this tuning
mandolins are tuned in ffths as well and it's a mystery to me why those chord patterns are different -- but there's another source
which are chording instruments unless your name is Roy Smeck or Harry Reser and you can solo as well
The chord patterns are clean and easy -- so for those with abiding interest tenor chord books would provide the chording patterns for this tuning
mandolins are tuned in ffths as well and it's a mystery to me why those chord patterns are different -- but there's another source
Well only the DB is tuned in Fourth in the string family ... I always find it quite wierd, it feels lit it should have much more range than that ... this is why we see a lot of DB with C extension or 5 strings DB for more than 200 years.
A small but growing minority of DB players are tuning in fifths now. You can read some comments about the tuning on a DB at Link Removed and you can find some more at [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] There's even a book about it by Dennis Masuzzo which is currently out of print but expected to be back in stock in a few weeks. There are quite a few advantages to using it on a DB that do not apply to a BG but it is tempting to use it on a BG to get the low notes and range of a fiver from four strings.
At the end of my practice session tonight I gave it a brief try by leaving the G string where it was and dropping the others to CFBb (high to low). Can you say FLOPPY?!? But it was quite obvious that thirds are difficult. What is not obvious is what intervals are suddenly more useful and what the optimum fingerings are. So, it is good to hear that the tuning can be used for pretty much any type of music because I would not have guessed that from my experiment tonight. If anyone else has any experiences to share I'm still listening but thanks to those who have responded so far.
Ken
At the end of my practice session tonight I gave it a brief try by leaving the G string where it was and dropping the others to CFBb (high to low). Can you say FLOPPY?!? But it was quite obvious that thirds are difficult. What is not obvious is what intervals are suddenly more useful and what the optimum fingerings are. So, it is good to hear that the tuning can be used for pretty much any type of music because I would not have guessed that from my experiment tonight. If anyone else has any experiences to share I'm still listening but thanks to those who have responded so far.
Ken
Well, do you play much traditional reggae? I hate having to do that, it calls for playing a lot of different notes in a fairly narrow range. Then again, I just don't like the style in the first place (give me Sean Paul over Bob Marley any day), that probably doesn't help.
There is one reason why I've ever regretted tuning in fifths. I know two girls who want to learn to play DB but it took one of them a few months to buy a bass, and the other is still trying to save up the cash. They couldn't really practice one mine or borrow my EUB in the meantime. Being more conformist would have been great in these two cases.
I've been mulling it over in my head and several of the bass lines I play right now would be a huge pain if the instrument were tuned to fifths, primarily because of a lot more lateral movement that would be involved. The nice thing about fourths is once my hand gets in a position, it can often stay there for some time and travel vertically. This helps me big time as I sing too. I think I'll have to stick with fourths.
No, I don't care much for the style either (one of relatively few musical styles I don't care for). The only "gig" I might eventually qualify for and the only one I aspire to really is playing in a church worship band. So it is mostly gospel, soft rock, and hymns -- modernized or traditional. The band also backs the choir much of the time and their music can be almost anything from Baroque to present day.
I hear you cassius, your concern matches mine. A fiver would fix this and if I could find one that I just loved from the moment I picked it up I would go that way. Perhaps the lateral movements needed with a fifths tuning are not as big a problem as they seem once you commit to the tuning. This is one of the things I would like to hear comments about. Dennis Masuzzo (mentioned above) has been kind enough to chat with me a little after I emailed him to ask about future availability of his book. His comment on the issue was "don't transpose, play the tuning". I'm not sure I know what that means or can know what that means until I try the tuning for a while. The book should be back in stock in a few weeks, when I get a copy it may explain the point better, or I can ask him about it then.
Ken
