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Double Bass Ever capo a bass

#42
A little late to the party but here's my 2 cents...For bluegrass, jazz, and most styles of music a capo isn't a practical idea. BUT if you were playing something a bit more unusual like pedaling a note like F that doesn't have an open string while playing higher melody notes or if you needed to play harmonics that can't be played in standard tuning I could see why a capo could be practical. Truthfully though, the situations I mentioned are highly unlikely for most players. A more experimental solo bassist could probably make good use of a capo.
 
#48
Coming from a 5 string BG, I kinda trained myself to play higher on the scale and to never use an open string, since that made transposing easier. It doesn't work quite as well on the upright since a) there's no low B to let you finger the low E, and b) My intonation kinda sucks as I move up the neck. This is definitely an area where the frets saved me.

Short story - now I'm back to playing a lot of open strings, making transposing harder, but at least my brain is better at dealing with it having spent a long time in a "no open strings" mindset.
 
#53
oh cmon. i´m playing for 3 1/2 years now, thinking of myself as a borderline amateur, at most. but i´m able to just move up a half or whole step during a song, or play notes that have a b or # in the name. why can´t you?

still, a capo IS very useful for faster stuff with some or lots of open strings
 
#55
To the OP, I'm sure you have figured out the a capo on an URB while possible is frowned upon
The reason is that most URB are very good musicians and we pride ourselves on being the backbone of our bands. While the others get all the attention with their flashy breaks, we are the ones with song structure , timing, tempo,chords and music theory to keep them on track.
While you have solved the problem for the moment by changing keys. It would do you a world of good to revisit Eb and find you can play it very easily in a few positions.
How can you make it sound good and have the drive the you need? Well that is were the real practice comes in, playing the right notes is just the first step.
In my option, this is a great opportunity for you to increase your skills.
If you are not sure of the were all the notes are on the fingerboard, you can easily find that out my Googling it.

Good luck
 

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