Double Bass Ghost notes - how do YOU use them?

[unbrokenchain]

Just curious about other folks' views on ghost notes, and where you put or don't put them in music. Thinking mostly in the roots/Americana vein, hence the bluegrass forum. That's the term I've always heard for them anyway, I'm sure there are other words for it. You know, that little percussive pluck of a muted string just before the beat of the actual note.

My experience has been something like, I started doing it unwittingly when I was cutting teeth and overdid it, playing them all the time. Had some folks tell me to back off at some point and just play the notes, too much rhythmic clutter. So I cut it out entirely. Then I threw it in on some country and bluegrass numbers just to see what the bandleader would say (various groups) and had them say "YES! That's the feel!" As if the ghost notes were what made the whole thing swing.

So now I'm very aware of them and selective. At this point I put them in tunes mainly when:
It's a duo, and the song swings
Other instruments who were previously holding rhythm parts take a break (and the song swings..)
Old school country with drummer, when drummer is just holding down a very basic part

I don't put them in, or at least rarely, when:
All the players in the group have very solid rhythm together
Ballads, dark minor songs
Anyone else is playing on that beat

You?

 

[AGCurry]

I use ghost notes to emphasize the following note (usually a downbeat). Obviously, you want to use them sparingly, e.g., to go from a bridge back into a verse, or from a verse to a refrain. If you're emphasizing too many notes, you're emphasizing nothing, and it just sounds like an annoying musical tic.

In Bluegrass music, there's little use for ghost notes because the music is fairly dense. My exception might be waltzes, subject to the conditions above as well as whether anyone else is playing a coincident note.

 

[Don Hergert]

Perhaps it's worth mentioning using ghost notes to your band mates too; I use them all the time on banjo and mando to be able to continue playing my normal line but muted to a volume level where you can easily hear subtle vocals. This also, coincidentally, makes the bass easier to hear.

 

[Zbysek]

Ghost notes are an important part of my playing. However, I have no system which I could describe. I use them when it feels right to do so...

 

[BarfanyShart]

If I threw upbeat eighth notes into a mid-fast walking line, it was usually a ghost note raked from the next string up which would already be naturally muted, or on the same string with the second right-hand finger between the fingered notes. The same thing can be done to emphasize a big downbeat, like Curry said above. You can do the same thing a bunch in a solo to add rhythmic interest to what is essentially a walking solo. I also did more complex versions of the same thing where I raked across multiple strings in triplet or sixteenth rhythms to lead to the note on the beat, again, just to add rhythmic interest to a meat-and-potatoes walking or two line. I always thought of it as a tool to add rhythms without muddying up the line with lots of notes, or just generally making something sound a little fancier than it is.

 

[GretschWretch]

I use ghost notes whenever I pluck a string other than the string I meant to pluck. Sometimes I whiff entirely and do not hit any string at all.

 

[Reiska]

Rarely, but I do use them at times. Depends so much on how the overall feel / groove is. One application is on one of our songs with only two chords and this dreamy, rocking, lullaby -type of feel, sort of country lullaby. Swinging stuff is another area where they fit well. The band I`m in went drummerless recently and I`m in the process of adjusting my parts and playing to the situation, so I`m sort of looking for spicing stuff rhythmically.

 

[Reiska]

Audio would be cool! If you know some great application I`d love to hear it.

 

[unbrokenchain]

In bluegrass and country sort of stuff, I think the ghosts notes sort of cop the percussive feel of a typical rockabilly slap line, but still allow the dexterity of regular pizz (and you can do it with Spiros and the like, which to my ear just don't sound very good for actual slap style). I'll see if I can find some audio of stuff that really exemplifies what I'm talking about..

 

[Holdsg]

appropriate for some songs, including older country (tic-tac feel, or honky tonk feel).
example: Folsom Prison Blues. you put a ghost note in there between the I and V, and it will sound more like the train going down the track.

 

[AGCurry]

While ghost notes often feel right in the moment, it may be useful to record your playing from time to time... hearing yourself play is likely to reveal that many or even most of them are redundant and inappropriate.