Drop tune - why is it looked down on?

[Eater_of_Birds]

for me its just more range lower down. just needs appropriate strings, ill probly be getting a circle K set soon so the bottom string is just as tight as the rest (current in a band playing in CGCF). my other band which is on hiatus just now was in drop Bb, ridiculously low and basically requires a custom string set. annoying, but it sounds totally killer.

 

[Schizo Sapiens]

I don't see any problems with people looking down on downtuning, they're just close-minded purists.

However, there's some things that annoy me somewhat:
- People saying that instead of tuning down, you can just use the 5-string. Apparently they never tried to play some open-string based metal bassline in C tuning using B-tuned five-string (oh, i know, nobody should ever play metal ).
- People talking something like "I don't like drop-tuning because of lower string tension". Isn't that obvious that you need different gauge strings for lower tunings?
- People saying "we downtune because our singer sings in THAT key" as if all the songs in certain key have some fixed vocal melody range.

I didn't read the whole thread yet, there may be some more downtuning-related stupidity

OK, there's some more:
- "all 12 notes are already here, so you don't need to downtune". Yeah, all the A's sound the same in every octave :scowl:

 

[lucas vigor]

"C G C F"


"C F A# D#"




This is what I am talking about. it makes no sense from any musical standpoint.

I look down on it the same way I look down on anyone who uses crutches to make things easier in music. I had this same argument with some guy who always used the fast fret product. I kept on telling him he should get used to playing with out...and his excuse was just as lame as the excuses the metalheads are giving: "Just coz it makes it easier doesn't make it wrong".

Good. Then hire a computer to play your bass parts, so you can have crazy fast shredding bass lines and impress all your friends. That would also be easier then spending the time to learn your instrument in the tried and true, time -tested way.

 

[Burlington]

"C G C F"


"C F A# D#"




This is what I am talking about. it makes no sense from any musical standpoint.

I look down on it the same way I look down on anyone who uses crutches to make things easier in music. I had this same argument with some guy who always used the fast fret product. I kept on telling him he should get used to playing with out...and his excuse was just as lame as the excuses the metalheads are giving: "Just coz it makes it easier doesn't make it wrong".

Good. Then hire a computer to play your bass parts, so you can have crazy fast shredding bass lines and impress all your friends. That would also be easier then spending the time to learn your instrument in the tried and true, time -tested way.

lol

 

[Febs]

"C F A# D#"

Just out of curiosity, why do you think that this tuning makes any more or less sense than E A D G? The tuning is the same in terms of intervals from string to string, but shifted a minor third down. Obviously, you sacrifice three notes at the upper range of the instrument but you gain three notes at the lower range. How is it different from, say, a violin being tuned G D A E and a viola being tuned C G D A?

 

[djaydjay]

"C G C F"


"C F A# D#"

This is what I am talking about. it makes no sense from any musical standpoint.

I look down on it the same way I look down on anyone who uses crutches to make things easier in music. I had this same argument with some guy who always used the fast fret product. I kept on telling him he should get used to playing with out...and his excuse was just as lame as the excuses the metalheads are giving: "Just coz it makes it easier doesn't make it wrong".

I don't get why having more low range makes no sense? (CFA#D#). If you actually need it for the music you're composing (or covering), what is the reason not to tune your bass that way? because it is not the "standard" tuning that has been used in the last century?


(and I didn't get what your problem is with fast fret.)
Edit: oh okay I got it, didn't know some people used fast fret to gain speed by making strings more "glidy". I only used it to clean my strings.

 

[Febs]

"C F A# D#"

And a question for those who do use this tuning: why do people have a tendency to use sharps instead of flats when identifying the pitches? It would seem to me that it would make more sense to name the notes using flats. If you're composing off of that low C, for example, you could be in C Major or C minor. Neither key has an A# or D# but C minor does have a Bb and an Eb.

I asked a similar question earlier in the thread but didn't get an answer.

 

[KwinS]

And a question for those who do use this tuning: why do people have a tendency to use sharps instead of flats when identifying the pitches? It would seem to me that it would make more sense to name the notes using flats. If you're composing off of that low C, for example, you could be in C Major or C minor. Neither key has an A# or D# but C minor does have a Bb and an Eb.

I asked a similar question earlier in the thread but didn't get an answer.

That's a good question. If I drop or down tune, I think of it in flats. Do most electric tuners register in #'s? I think the clip-on types do, but I can't be certain.

 

[projectMalamute]

That's a good question. If I drop or down tune, I think of it in flats. Do most electric tuners register in #'s? I think the clip-on types do, but I can't be certain.

The tuner thing is probably the most common answer.

C F A# D# is awkward, with that augmented third in there. A stack of perfect 4ths is clearer. I suspect most people who describe a tuning this way do not read a lot.

 

[Bromosapian]

Just out of curiosity, why do you think that this tuning makes any more or less sense than E A D G? The tuning is the same in terms of intervals from string to string, but shifted a minor third down. Obviously, you sacrifice three notes at the upper range of the instrument but you gain three notes at the lower range. How is it different from, say, a violin being tuned G D A E and a viola being tuned C G D A?

This.

 

[projectMalamute]

String instruments have been using altered tunings for a long, long time. The term in the classical world is scordatura.

Drop D is an absolutely commonplace tuning for the bass guitar. A well rounded bassist should be able to adapt to it just like any other idiomatic technique. If you can't play in drop D you have a hole in your musicianship.

The failing is not in the band that plays in a drop tuning, it's with you.

 

[zachoff]

"
I look down on it the same way I look down on anyone who uses crutches to make things easier in music. I had this same argument with some guy who always used the fast fret product. I kept on telling him he should get used to playing with out...and his excuse was just as lame as the excuses the metalheads are giving: "Just coz it makes it easier doesn't make it wrong".

Good. Then hire a computer to play your bass parts, so you can have crazy fast shredding bass lines and impress all your friends. That would also be easier then spending the time to learn your instrument in the tried and true, time -tested way.

You have a rotary dial phone, don't you? Doing it the true, time-tested way. No need for voice dialing or even push buttons. Pfft. I use a phone the way it was originally intended and will not deviate for anything that might be easier.

Still have a car with a carburetor? 3 on the tree? AM radio just fine? Rockin' the CB, breaker breaker? Tube powered computer with punch cards?

 

[lucas vigor]

Again, why not just program your iphone to play your bass parts? Surely it will make it easier.


The skills required to be a true musician are dying out.

 

[Burlington]

Again, why not just program your iphone to play your bass parts? Surely it will make it easier.


The skills required to be a true musician are dying out.

OH no. Whatever will I do if I am not blessed by my elders?

 

[zachoff]

Again, why not just program your iphone to play your bass parts? Surely it will make it easier.

The skills required to be a true musician are dying out.

I don't have an iphone.

I see no shortage of good music out there. Apparently, musicians are still making good music despite all of the things that make it easier.

 

[djaydjay]

Again, why not just program your iphone to play your bass parts? Surely it will make it easier.


The skills required to be a true musician are dying out.

because it won't sound the same? because no computer has the ability to give you the same tone and the same variation?

When I'm going for a sound that only a computer can produce, I'm using one. When I want the sound of a bass, I use a bass.

I don't play bass to show everyone that plays guitar hero how much more skilled I am than them. I play bass because that is the instrument that gives me the sound that I am looking for.

 

[rockstarbassist]

good to see the lulz are still being broughten

 

[Passinwind]

String instruments have been using altered tunings for a long, long time. The term in the classical world is scordatura.

Drop D is an absolutely commonplace tuning for the bass guitar. A well rounded bassist should be able to adapt to it just like any other idiomatic technique. If you can't play in drop D you have a hole in your musicianship.

The failing is not in the band that plays in a drop tuning, it's with you.

I can live with that. The drop tuned band can live with a different bassist too. And we can all look down on each other, or not. Choices...what a concept.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

This thread will just not die...

 

[zachoff]

I only use reel to reel when I record. Digital is just too easy.