Double Bass Doubling on other instruments?

[JBarz]

I am curious how many of ya’ll play other instruments and how you incorporate them into your bass practice and tune-learning regimen.

Do you maintain your chops on your double for performance, pedagogy, or just for fun? How do you balance practice time?

I play a little of everything (not well, necessarily), but have four kids and very little time to maintain “gig ready” sharp chops on more than a couple instruments at a time.

I’m working on writing and learning tunes on my little pre-war Gibson UB-2 banjo ukulele (think Lyle Ritz meets Bela Fleck) and upright bass. They seem to compliment each other really nicely (uke stays out of bass range and timber and vice versa). I’m also finding it particularly friendly for my drug-addled brain to only have to consider 4 strings at any given time. Ukulele is more fun than guitar for me because less options force me to be more creative with my voicing and arrangements.

Anyway, I’m just curious what other instruments (if any) you are drawn to and how ya’ll manage to strike your practice balance(s), what instruments serve what pedological purposes, etc.

 

[knirirr]

I can play the trombone at a very basic level, though there's not much time to practice, 15-20 minutes a day at most. It is currently just for fun rather than performance.
Reading treble clef in Bb is popular around here for trombone playing (brass bands are common), but I learned it using bass clef in concert pitch. The lowest note I can get is written as the open E string on the bass, and the highest I can currently manage would be the octave on the G string. So, it offers an opportunity to read bass music, and it is entertaining to try bass grade pieces, Simandl etc. on it.
As for my other instrument, the highland bagpipe, there is currently no opportunity to stay in practice.

 

[bassdude51]

You forgot tambourine in your list.

 

[TheLowDown33]

This may be heresy to some, but to me I view instruments more as "sound processors" for the music I hear in my head. Whether I'm practicing on guitar, bass, upright or keys, it's all similar concepts and it's all music. There are technical challenges on every instrument, and that's what requires the most time to wrap one's head around but once there is enough faculty to translate the ideas from thoughts to the real world, it's all the same. Since I practice almost every day, I'll just focus on getting better at the one I need to play the soonest for whatever work I have and put the others on maintenance mode.

I try to just maintain enough technical ability to be a step or two ahead of what's required of me as a musician. I've made the value decision that I would rather be above average on a few instruments than to get 10-20% better on a single instrument. As someone who makes music as a full time gig, it's better to diversify than to try and be the best "X" player.

 

[definenredefine]

Drums were my first instrument. Bass followed about 6 months later. Currently I'm playing more bass than drums because that's what I'm playing in my band. I really miss playing drums, though. Don't get me wrong - I love playing bass and it's been pretty awesome not being confined behind a kit when we play shows. But man...it's so fun to just beat the crap out my drums. Hopefully I'll be doing that with other folks soon.

I can also play guitar, but just barely, like basic punk rock stuff.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I was a jazz piano player before taking up the bass. Until this past year I hadn't kept up practicing since I picked up the bass in 1999. Due to the needs of my program at the U, I needed to pick it up again this year to lead a couple of trio ensembles with student bassists and drummers. It has been fun but very challenging and has resulted in some sobering ego moments and even a right elbow injury from jumping back in too quickly. As evidenced in this combo rehearsal recording with two freshmen at the U, I'm still kind of a "banger" at this point, but over the summer I hope to regain a little of the huge amount of stuff that was lost over the past 20 years of focusing on the bass. Link Removed

I plan to work the piano back in gradually as a secondary thing, and while I don't plan to gig on it ever again, getting back into playing on my own is a part of my long range retirement plan. Life is so busy and short, and I am always amazed at people who can keep up decent chops at multiple instruments. Jacob Collier, for instance, seems superhuman in this regard!

 

[BarqsBitMe]

I play the saxophone off and on and, at my peak, played well enough to be asked about joining a college level jazz band. Since then (nearly a decade) I have played much less, mostly due to lack of a decent place to play... apartment dwellers are not so enthused about their neighbors playing loud instruments, and I can't blame them. About 2 year ago I ended up buying an alto sax (coming from playing tenor, and a bit of baritone since I was in grade school) because my work was closing down one of our facilities and for several months I had the building to myself. It is an industrial sort of building with wide open concrete areas, so it made for incredible acoustics. Started playing a lot but they eventually demolished the building so there went my awesome practice space. Haven't played much since unfortunately and am considering selling it. On a positive note, bass was always a much more secondary instrument and I didn't really start taking it seriously until the last few years. It is interesting to see how my bass playing is catching up to my ability with the saxophone, and has surpassed it in some limited ways (scale shapes make playing any and all scales MUCH easier than playing different scales on a woodwind instrument). Hopefully going to be buying a house at some point in the next 2 years (if average home prices in my area aren't a million dollars by then ffs), so maybe I will have the ability to pick the sax up again some day. That would be nice because I enjoy playing classical music on the sax since it is a melodic instrument...not so much with the bass (typical role in most music is all I mean). That is also what got me to switch to alto from tenor. Tenor is of course often used as a melodic instrument in jazz, but not so much in classical.

My one gripe about playing the saxophone, compared to the bass, is how you can't just pick up a saxophone and play it. You've gotta wet the reed, assemble the mouthpiece, get it on the neck, adjust for intonation, mess with the ligature, and then warm up...then take it all apart and clean it after each use. Much less of a pain to just pick up my bass, noodle around for a few minutes, then put it back down. First world problems, I know.

And I guess another would be transposing. I can sit down with a piece of music and transpose it, note by note, but I don't know how some people get to the level of just doing it on the fly, in real time as they play.

 

[BarqsBitMe]

You forgot tambourine in your list.

"Tambourine? You know I'm the CEO right?"

 

[Scott Lynch]

I wouldn't say I have another primary instrument, but I do play guitar and piano for fun. There is value in learning a chordal instrument. It's drastically changed the way I think about and listen to music, much like learning drums did back when I was a music ed student in college.

As a school band and orchestra teacher, I also maintain a rudimentary skill set on all the wind, string and percussion instruments I teach to my students.

 

[Ed S]

A few years back, in my late 50s, I realized that many of the guys I played w/ were well into their 70s. I realized that meant I might have 2 decades (or more) of music making ahead of me, and that at some point, I'd be less eager/able to wrestle an upright around w/ me. So I began to look around for a 2d instrument, w/ the idea that if I started practicing now, I'd be reasonably proficient in 10 years.

I tried guitar and mando, but the "cramped" feeling to the lefthand shapes never felt right to me. For a while I tried to make Bari use work, but it never really clicked. I had attended the bass curriculum at the Midwest Banjo Camp for a few years, where I was exposed to the incredible variety of music that could be made on the banjo. My music preferences had been leaning more and more towards oldtime. Finally, my wife plays fiddle, and fiddle and banjo together are classic. It is nice to have a more portable instrument so we can make music on our travels. I'm not 3 years into my 10 year period, and there are at least a couple of simple. things I don't embarrass myself doing.

I wish I had a good answer for how to balance my practice. Basically it comes down to which I feel guilty about having neglected, or which one I'm working on new music on. The 3 of us in our string band each play 2 instruments, and we enjoy messing with the different combinations. So if someone brings a new song that works well on banjo, I'll work on that. Meanwhile, arco is always my weakest area, so I always have a need to work on that for our baby classical quartet.

Having set up a music room is great, because they are both out and convenient all of the time, so there is no impediment to just picking them up at any time - if only for 10-15 minutes.

 

[dreamadream99]

I started on trombone in a standard school band environment. By the time I got to college I was already a pro level player on trombone. I had picked up the electric bass when I was 15, but it was just a mediocre hobby — trombone was my main instrument. I found while I was focusing on the trombone, that I could not devote enough time to electric bass to get beyond the hack stage.

Then after about 10 years, I started getting some actual gigs on bass, and started taking lessons from a well respected local jazz guy. Suddenly, I found my bass playing was taking centerstage, and I put the trombone on the back hobby burner.

then over the course of the next 10 years, I began to focus exclusively on playing bass, and ended up dropping the trombone entirely.

My take is that you cannot successfully divide your time between more than one pursuit at a time, and expect professional level results from all endeavors. Much like the offt misunderstood “multitasking“ I believe that if you split your time between two instruments, each one is actually only getting 50% of your attention. In other words, I believe that if it takes you 10 years to get good at one instrument, and 10 years to get good at another, then trying to perfect both simultaneously, will still take 20 years.

 

[Reiska]

Basic tambourine is one of the hardest to play of all hand percussion, never mind all the variations, includind classical, IME. Get one, set the metronome to 60bpm and start from 4th notes and you will know what I'm talking about

Me, I'm a drummer and DB player nowadays. I've more or less played the drums since 10 year old, studied it in multiple schools and played professionally until 30-ish years old. I have sorta burned out to my original main instrument multiple times, along with getting back on the wagon again. One finnish comedian said once that playing the drums is like herpes, once you get it under your skin it never really goes away. I can relate to that

Taking up the DB was the outcome of my latest drum burnout some 7-8 years ago, and it took a while to really get back to it. I've played them in a couple of projects meanwhile, but only practised to get my chops at some kind of tolerable level once it was happening, Some two years ago I was asked to teach, and that started the flame again. I got my s**t together both as a drummer and teacher. Now it's completely on again, I jumped straight to the deep end in the musical side of it and started a sax / drums duo with my multi-instrumentalist wife, making our own original material. I'm seeking for new projects.

For me the two serves different musical purposes. I play mostly folk stuff on the DB, and while my ensemble playing is a lot about pizz and comping, the arco and my own solo stuff is what motivates me the most. I'm also slowly studying traditional american and roots music, which caught my ear when I started to transition from my original first instrument. Drums are nowadays my jazz instrument, and that is what I mostly practise. I love to play groove too, and that is my strongest side as a drummer.

Dividing the shedding time between the two can be challenging, but is totally doable as long as I manage to keep my head straight with it. I don't have to sound like anything but myself on either instrument, and I can accept the slow progression. There are days that I only manage to warm up the other of the two and that's fine as there's a reality to deal with. Most days are two instrument days however, and I have been able to at least keep them both going. Most importantly, I enjoy playing both.

 

[Brilee]

Taught myself on an electric organ around age 6. I've played the piano seriously since I was about 12. Got a BM and MM in flute but don't play flute anymore. I teach voice and play the piano in that environment frequently. In college I paid my way as a pianist for ballet, voice, instrumentalists, etc. So piano has been the constant. Finally had opportunity to learn bass in my late 20s. I learn the piano parts to all of my solos, which is hugely helpful. The technique doesn't interfere at all with bass, and having that keyboard concept of harmony and melody (keyboard is a great graph for pitch relationships) helps everything. I've always played multiple instruments. On my MM in flute, alto sax was my double (along with piano).

 

[Don Hergert]

it would be interesting if the poll could allow us to select multiple instruments...

In bluegrass circles, I'm mostly known for playing 5-string banjo, then mandolin and double bass in that order, but I play lots of different kinds of banjos and also mandolin and DB for old jazz, and I also play Dobro and harmonica and flute and I'm working on trumpet. So yes, it's complicated.

Happily there are some musical concepts that apply to everything, but there are also specific-instrument talents that can be lost with long periods of disuse. Since March 2020 my reasons for playing mandolin have dramatically increased because I use it daily for online jamming, but at the same time my reasons for playing banjo and for playing DB around other people, including the bands I play in, decreased to almost zero.

Happily opportunities have just recently begun to increase, but that leaves me trying to get back into serious playing shape again on banjo and DB, as well as the instruments which I really don't play very often in the best of times.

I've played banjo since 1970, so my "muscle memory" for banjo tends to come back very fast -- within 30 minutes to an hour I'm playing banjo again at a pretty high level. But I've only played DB for 4 years, and while my right hand seems to come back for DB very quickly, my left hand chord and position memory needs, and is getting, serious practice. Unfortunately though, the band that I exclusively played DB for before March 2020 disbanded during the pandemic, so that inspiration and challenge is no longer present. My goal is to regain all of those DB skills and be ready to gig again.

Under the best circumstances, trying to double with certain instruments within minutes of each other can be difficult for me. I can go between mandolin-OR-banjo and DB pretty smoothly, and vice versa, but going from banjo to mandolin or from mandolin to banjo requires some time and re-thinking of style and desired sound concepts, and I tend to not feel smooth on banjo for a while after playing mandolin. Just one of those quirks.

 

[s van order]

I came to electric then acoustic bass via cello. Maybe not a real common way so not listed in the survey.

 

[Alexis Duntov]

I am curious how many of ya’ll play other instruments and how you incorporate them into your bass practice and tune-learning regimen.

Do you maintain your chops on your double for performance, pedagogy, or just for fun? How do you balance practice time?

I play a little of everything (not well, necessarily), but have four kids and very little time to maintain “gig ready” sharp chops on more than a couple instruments at a time.

I’m working on writing and learning tunes on my little pre-war Gibson UB-2 banjo ukulele (think Lyle Ritz meets Bela Fleck) and upright bass. They seem to compliment each other really nicely (uke stays out of bass range and timber and vice versa). I’m also finding it particularly friendly for my drug-addled brain to only have to consider 4 strings at any given time. Ukulele is more fun than guitar for me because less options force me to be more creative with my voicing and arrangements.

Anyway, I’m just curious what other instruments (if any) you are drawn to and how ya’ll manage to strike your practice balance(s), what instruments serve what pedological purposes, etc.

I didn’t start any instruments until my late 20’s. Picked up electric bass then, also learned a little guitar. Was mostly a noodler until 40 when I decided to get serious about music and got a double bass. I’ll be 50 this year and I’m finishing my undergrad degree in jazz bass performance. I also still play electric and have a soul band outside of school that rehearses once per week and gigs about once per month. I don’t really shed electric much, just when I have to learn a new song. My current practice routine is 60 minutes double bass, and 30 minutes piano, which I had to pick up for the degree. That works for me right now.

 

[Alexis Duntov]

I didn’t start any instruments until my late 20’s. Picked up electric bass then, also learned a little guitar. Was mostly a noodler until 40 when I decided to get serious about music and got a double bass. I’ll be 50 this year and I’m finishing my undergrad degree in jazz bass performance. I also still play electric and have a soul band outside of school that rehearses once per week and gigs about once per month. I don’t really shed electric much, just when I have to learn a new song. My current practice routine is 60 minutes double bass, and 30 minutes piano, which I had to pick up for the degree. That works for me right now.

Also I take one day off from music per week, sometimes two. That’s important for me. Allows my body to recuperate and lets the information settle in my brain.

 

[scott sinner]

I am best at bass and prefer it. I’m quite good on guitar too, but don’t love it. Im competent on keys, played accordion in a group for years. I can basically play also banjo, mandolin, uke, drums, cello…enough that Ive recorded on those and a few others but couldn’t improvise fluently.

I am mainly a singer/songwriter in some sense, though not a sense that is associated with folksy stuff or main acoustic guitar or piano…more have been a singer songwriter on various instruments.

There is a broad sense that once I got decent at threeish instruments, certain fundamentals transfer also automatically. Like I will go into a world music instrument store and pick up some string instrument I don’t even know what it is, play each string, and my brain calibrates in a few seconds. I’m able to play chords or melodies right off.

 

[CaseyVancouver]

None that are a primary instrument. I feel I have a bass only brain.

But I have all these instruments in my music room and after my daily hour of running through arco bass stuff for my orchestras, finding energy or will power to play them can be tricky.

A violin, grand piano, 2 acoustic guitars,
7 electric basses, 2 uprights one tuned in 4ths one in 5ths.

So I sometimes play my version of a music triathlon:

For example, last night I grabbed Reinhardt’s ‘Nuages’.
Set the alarm for a series of 20 minutes for each instrument,
equals a one hour music triathlon

20 minutes violin
20 minutes acoustic guitar
20 minutes grand piano

All on Nuages. Kind of fun and I don’t feel guilty about not playing these beautiful instruments.
Hopefully I learn a bit.
Actually, I feel warm and fuzzy after.

I could also do this with a fretless, fretted and 5 stringer electric.

I only play other instruments for my own enjoyment, no gigs, serious rehearsals, or commitments.
It works.

 

[definenredefine]

As a school band and orchestra teacher, I also maintain a rudimentary skill set on all the wind, string and percussion instruments I teach to my students.

Thank you for teaching kids music. I hope you inspire at least a few of them to keep playing into adulthood.