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Classical pieces for electric bass

#21
Imslp.org have all the old classical music, methods available for free.
Bass parts are there. The ‘original’ Bach cello suites are there.

Many cello and other lower instrument parts are good for bass.

I use it often when my symphony has a tricky piece coming up but I have not received the sheet music yet.

Don’t be discouraged negotiating through the site, you will get used to it quick. All free and has the old bass parts, solo’s, concerto’s etc.
 
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#22
CaseyVancouver said:
The ‘original’ Bach cello suites are there.

Don’t be discouraged negotiating through the site, you will get used to it quick. All free and has the old bass parts, solo’s, concerto’s etc.
Click to expand...
And if you're set on learning from a transcription, it's best to have the original music for comparison. Something sounded funny in one of my transcription books and I found that the transcriber had made an error. He didn't bother to bring over the phrasing marks, either.

B.
 
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#23
Ehh... I see this has already been well addressed, but I'll continue anyhow :)....

SteveCS said:
I'll probably get flamed for saying so, but this is the sort of thing that kills any case for the bass guitar to be used for classical or baroque music. No dynamics, no form, no phrasing, just rat-a-tat-a-rat-a-tat-a. Just a series of individual notes, and not even the right ones in places.
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edwardthewave said:
I hate to admit it, but I agree. I've been listening to a lot of bass-range string instruments and pieces from the Renaissance period to the Modern, recordings featuring instruments like viola da gamba, violone, cello, double bass, and even lutes and theorbos for inspiration for a good number of years. I even bought my 6-string Ibanez SR506 a few years ago for this, and I think the electric bass guitar is rather underwhelming and ill-suited for this repertoire.

It doesn't really sing like a bowed instrument, and it lacks the dynamic subtleties of a lute, classical guitar, theorbo, etc...
Even listening to Dave Grossman, the #1 player playing JS Bach on electric bass is underwhelming - no offense to him or anyone playing Bach's suites and partitas on electric bass. But it just sounds awkward and rather strained.

I think our best bet as bass players is to try a baritone or "contrabass" classical guitar like this: or something to play classical, baroque and renaissance pieces on.
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Like has been mentioned, I didn't think it was the bass, but rather that player's performance. Which I didn't think was good, but it was inspiriting. Dude has the technique down, he needs work however on the emotion. As Flea once put it in a BP magazine article, he has flash (technical ability) - but no smash (emotion)! Playing an instrument isn't about playing notes. Its about making music. That video inspired me to break out my Bach for bass book during this time, learn a song or 2, and make Bach proud :).

And if the maker of that video is a TBer, I'm not putting that video down. I think you're more than half way there... iffin I were you, I'd work on making that song beautiful, and then coming back and posting.

Patitucci made that come to life.
 
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#24
Posting this for fun (don’t flame me too hard!)

The Bach 6th Cello Suite. Considered the toughest Suite.
Casals used to practice consecutively one each day ending on the 6th, then took Sunday off them.


Joel Quarrington playing his 400 year old bass in a church.
His strings are custom gut ($1200 a set) and he tunes his bass in 5ths
(low to high C,G,D,A) Note he has the piece memorized.

This kind of thing sounds great on a fretless or fretted electric tuned in 4ths.

By the way, interpretation is everything when it comes to classical.
The conductor in tuxedo with white stick waving madly is the show part.
The important stuff all happened in the rehearsals. He tells everybody his interpretation.

 
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#26
Pacodelivery said:
Hey all! First time poster in this subforum.

With some more time on my hands due to the state of the world right now, I'd like to do a deep dive on improving my technique. One particular thing I'd love to do is learn some more classical pieces on the bass guitar.

I've already learned some of Bach's cello sonata #1, picking it up by ear.

I'd love to learn some more stuff! Obviously there's not a lot of classical pieces for electric bass out there, but in videos and in hanging with other players I've seen plenty of people bust out a section or two of various pieces I recognized.

So ... what pieces have you found that work well on the electric bass? What do you like to play to warm up or improve technique? Obviously sonatas written for cello or double bass will work but I'd like to not limit it just that. There's of course a lot of classical music out there, I guess what I'm looking for are pieces that you've played on a 4 string electric bass and been like "Oh, this really works on this instrument."

Melodic or chordal work are both great! Chords sound pretty great on my bass and I'd love to learn new voicings.

I'm up for trying to learn things by ear or from sheet music. I'd call myself a beginner to moderate sheet music reader. Probably the hardest gig I ever took where I was working from a written score was playing bass in "Little Shop of Horrors" (which is SUCH a fun show on bass ... all that old school walking bass soul stuff is a joy to play!), but my attitude when people say I'll need to read for a gig is "If you give me the music I'll go home and work it up" because I can't really sight read or anything. I'm up for challenges tho! My guess is to do this right might involve taking something written for piano and revoicing it for electric bass, which sounds hard but maybe I should try pulling that off!

Thanks all!
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I think, IMHO, the best way to approach this is; pick a favorite piece or pieces, search for it on the Internet, read it whether in treble or bass clef
What you will find is reading in treble is not that difficult and being open to both gives you a lot more possibilities
 
#27
SteveCS said:
I'll probably get flamed for saying so, but this is the sort of thing that kills any case for the bass guitar to be used for classical or baroque music. No dynamics, no form, no phrasing, just rat-a-tat-a-rat-a-tat-a. Just a series of individual notes, and not even the right ones in places.
Click to expand...
I expect all youse dinks putting this guy down to post your own vid > standing there with your four string < and knocking the piece out as well as this guy did, imperfect as you say it is. I'm not holding my breath.
 
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#28
slagheap said:
I expect all youse dinks putting this guy down to post your own vid > standing there with your four string < and knocking the piece out as well as this guy did, imperfect as you say it is. I'm not holding my breath.
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Pls. Reread... Nobody is putting the guy down... Nobody is discrediting his technique... We're just missing the musicality of it.
But if I draw a straight line in your thinking... I should like every classic concert ever played.... they're all professionals in there and they're surely better than I am.
Please explain me why that's not the case....
 
#32
swink said:
Pls. Reread... Nobody is putting the guy down... Nobody is discrediting his technique... We're just missing the musicality of it.
But if I draw a straight line in your thinking... I should like every classic concert ever played.... they're all professionals in there and they're surely better than I am.
Please explain me why that's not the case....
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the hell he's not being put down. what a load.
 
#35
Hey all OP here thanks for the replies lots of good advice here! Interested in maybe getting one of those books especially the one that @Sbassman Scratch suggested and checking out the website @CaseyVancouver mentioned.

I agree that Patitcui played it better than the other guy, but I think Maisky played it with even more feeling, even if you set aside the differences in cello vs electric bass (the link in my first posting). That being said I bet Patituci can probably do stuff on his instrument that Maisky can't, I imagine keeping up with Chick Corea's electric orchestra would be tough for a trained classical musician on cello!

For me I'm interested in learning stuff like this because I'm trying to improve my form, I don't imagine I'd be busting out classical pieces during a performance except perhaps for an audition.

Though I play more modern styles I *love* classical music; I've had a season pass to the Baltimore Symphony for the past five years I love going to the Meyerhoff. I totally agree that an electric bass is simply never going to capture the magic of hearing a piece played on a cello that was written for a cello, and that bowed classical instruments have a kind of expressivity that is unique to them.

That being said I'd love to see the walls between classical and other genres of music come down. While I'm not sure I'd want to see an electric bass sit in the symphony, I think that there's no reason at all that classical musics can't be written for and played on whatever instrument you want. I'd love classical music dearly and would love to see it more accesibled to wider audiences and cross pollinating with other genres. And while I appreciate that adherence to traditions helps keep the form alive I think the stuffiness of some quarters of the classical music community is off putting
 
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#37
SteveCS said:
That's a fair point, so why not...

https://youtu.be/otPTxHeKn4w [/Q
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SteveCS said:
Not being put down, but he is promoting himself as a teacher/educator, so really he should be a cut or two above the average dink, at least IMHO.
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i am not even a fan of classical pieces played on electric bass. fine for some, doesn't appeal to me, not what the instrument is about IMO. also has marginal value as a jazz chops builder IMO ( don't talk to me about pattitucci & the other monster players, this is about us regular dinks, right? ) that being said, i'm still waiting for one of you to sling a four string over your shoulders, STAND UP - AND PLAY THE PIECE.
 
#38
I started on trombone, and accumulated a lot of the classical repertoire, especially the All-State tryout books. Some were very technical exercises, and some were beautiful melodic lyrical pieces.

When I started on bass, i played these, because it was all I had. After a few decades, i noticed some benefits: the technical etudes expanded my technique, and the melodic stuff gave me a toolbox for melodic improvisation.

TLDR: I recommend trombone All-State tryout material for bass practice.
 
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#39
slagheap said:
...
that being said, i'm still waiting for one of you to sling a four string over your shoulders, STAND UP - AND PLAY THE PIECE.
Click to expand...

What do you think was in the video? Are you saying sitting down doesn't count? I could have done it standing up with the lights off but it wouldn't have made much of a video...
But it took all of 5 minutes to set up, just over 3 to record (first and only take, no guide track or click, no score and with a couple of 'first take no warm-up' clangers left in, ''cause I'm just a regular dink) and about 10 minutes to trim the ends, add fades and render the video. And was a direct response to your challenge...
 
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#40
slagheap said:
i am not even a fan of classical pieces played on electric bass.
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Well, I'm not a fan of people who mingle in a conversation, about a subject they don't even like, to misinterpret ( IMHO deliberately) what is stated by the other participants. And rattle the cage unnecessary.

And for the STAND UP AND-PLAY THE PIECE: Why should I even bother? challenge not accepted.
 
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