four became two, HELP!!!

[charles21o7]

Alright, now i consider myself a pretty experienced musician , ive been in bands for a long time, but its always been bands, never a duo. And my most current band blew up, and me and my old lead guitar decided wed do a dou thing, ya know play acoustic folk and blues and stuff like that. Well , i wondering what should be the instruments, bass surely couldnt be used in a duo. So what should i lean back on , he'll probaly play guitar and piano. I can play guitar , Piano, some kinda percussion instrument -bongos , congas etc., harmonica, or what?? Please help me , and please tell me what is the best kinda equipment to buy, outside of guitar, piano and bass i dont know much about good brand gear. THanks for all your help.

 

[Trevorus]

Bass done properly could work. I do believe. If you developed some kind of technique that would Fill in a percussion section a bit, that would be really cool.

 

[charles21o7]

Bass done properly could work. I do believe. If you developed some kind of technique that would Fill in a percussion section a bit, that would be really cool.

what do you mean, like slapping, or like family man barret style. Or maybe fieldy clacking

 

[Diowulf]

I think he means something like that. But if you're into tapping, you could also tap the E string to lay down a beat, and then do some bass line with the other strings.

 

[gazman_res]

bass + harmonica would be hella cool together man...

 

[charles21o7]

oh yeah, and i sing too

 

[Selta]

Get an acoustic bass...
I'm actually serious about that. I was in an acoustic setup once, it was a walk-in for me, and they had me play an acoustic bass, it was pretty cool, and sounded great. I also did vocals and keyboard in the band. Overall it turned out pretty good, did it for a charity thing.
I 2nd the notion for harmonica + bass!
Ray

 

[Figjam]

I think you're best bet for MOST of the time would be bass, probably a mix of percussive stuff and normal fingerstyle.

 

[Bard2dbone]

Check out a folk group called Trout Fishing in America. www.troutmusic.com They are a guitar and bass duo with both singing. They play kid songs for grownups, and grownup songs for kids. And they make it work.

The guitarist uses a percussive style, in which he is strumming all six strings constantly, and muting the ones he doesnt want, so that the percussive sound is covered by the guitar. The bass player mostly plays pretty traditionally, which makes sense since he came from the Houston Symphony, and it works. Try it.

 

[fulcrum]

I remember reading that book (Brautigan wasn't it?) in college. I don't remember a bloody thing about it though.

Oh yeah, the topic, huh. I did the duo thing for a good long while-- I was on keys and doubled on bass lines, and the guitar player also played bass on a couple of songs. It is definitely doable.

If we were doing it today, though, I'd track a whole bunch of backing parts (bass and kit among them), burn the tracks to CD, and play along with them at the gig karaoke stylee. But that's just me.

 

[Petebass]

If we were doing it today, though, I'd track a whole bunch of backing parts (bass and kit among them), burn the tracks to CD, and play along with them at the gig karaoke stylee. But that's just me.

I'm putting this sort of duo together right now. There's lots of well paid work in Australia for duo's that kinda sound like a band. I've found a cool little 19yr old female singer who can play acoustic guitar. I play bass obviously. For most of our songs I record a drum track, and if necessary some keys, onto my PC then dump the whole lot ont a minidisk for the gigs.

Most of the duo's here use tack sounding midi files, but I refuse to. I don't want to play along with something that sounds like a vintage nintendo robot.........