Double Bass How do you play chords?

[lloccmttocs]

I'm playing the dragonetti in A and my teacher told me to learn up to the two chords after the first phrase. I just don't get how you do it. Can anyone enighten me on how to do that and how to do intervals with more than 2 notes in it

 

[bbates77]

I don't know the piece, but to play chords on the bass is similar to a cello technique.

If the chord has four notes in the space of, lets say, a minim: E B E G#, then play the E and B together in a space of a crotchet, and the E and G# in the space of the remaining crotchet. You cannot play all four notes together as it is physically impossible so you need to produce the effect.

 

[chaurett]

You mean the G Major chord, right? There are a couple of ways to do it. On the first part of the beat I like to play the open G and the B on the D string with my 1st finger and then grab the D and G harmonics with my 3rd and 4th fingers on the second part of the beat. Yes, try to make it sound like a rolled chord on a cello or violin. The other way to do it is to actually roll it. In thumb position, G on the E string with the second finger(often this note is omitted), B on the A string with the first finger, and harmonics with the thumb for the D and G.

 

[Eli_Upright12]

always low to high unless otherwise indicated, I'm assuming you've gathered from the two previous posts that its just not gonna work like a double stop, essentially try to mimic a guitar or piano chord, rolling from bass notes to higher ones.

 

[Paul Warburton]

I'm playing the dragonetti in A and my teacher told me to learn up to the two chords after the first phrase. I just don't get how you do it. Can anyone enighten me on how to do that and how to do intervals with more than 2 notes in it

Tune your bass in 5ths like Red Mitchell and Joel Quarrington!

 

[Aaron Saunders]

Tune your bass in 5ths like Red Mitchell and Joel Quarrington!

Could you imagine re-learning the Dragonetti in 5ths after already learning it in 4ths? *shudder*

 

[Tbeers]

The above posts are correct. But here's something cool:
Link Removed
Joe Venuti = awesome! He could play 4 string voicings on violin!

 

[Aaron Saunders]

The above posts are correct. But here's something cool:
Link Removed
Joe Venuti = awesome! He could play 4 string voicings on violin!

Ridiculous. Could you imagine the intonation issues?!

 

[bbates77]

Ridiculous. Could you imagine the intonation issues?!

Wouldn't it be the same as playing a fretless guitar?

 

[Tbeers]

Ridiculous. Could you imagine the intonation issues?!

There are recordings of him playing that way, it sounds awesome!

 

[Paul Warburton]

I'm sure you've all heard the great Joe Venuti stories?

 

[bbates77]

I'm sure you've all heard the great Joe Venuti stories?

Enlighten us...

 

[Paul Warburton]

OK...Joe was a legend in the practical joke dept.
Cowboy star, Roy Rogers was just getting ready to make his entrance to a thronging mass of children and their mothers at a NY theatre matinee atop his Wonder Horse Trigger.
Joe was stanging next to Roy and Trigger, talking to Roy, while playing with Trigge'rs dick with his violin bow. Soon, Trigger has a huge erection, dripping.
You can imagine the faces on the mothers, when Roy runs Trig out and rears him up on his hind legs.
There's bunches of these stories about Joe.
He once called every bass player in the L.A. Union and said: "I have a good paying gig in Monterey. I'll pick you up at 7o'clock at Hollywood and Vine on Saturday night." Many many bassists showed up with thier basses at 7 looking for the guy who called them, while Joe watched the specticle from his hotel window.
I heard later, that they were tuba players....you can bet one or the other is true.

 

[Damon Rondeau]

Paul, I'm interested in your first answer about tuning in fifths. I've just checked out those glorious videos of Red with Clark Terry and, of course, Red's playing double stops and chords all over the damn place. I haven't thought it through, but the fifths tuning really enables that, does it? Did Red start playing more of that stuff after he changed tunings?

Also on those vids his tone just jumps off his fingers...

 

[Paul Warburton]

Damon, I think we have at least one 5th tuner here on TBDB. I can't tell you why 5th tuning enables at least 10ths to be easier to pull off.When you see Red play now, it's based totally on 5th tuning. In the 4th tuning days I don't remember any double stops happening much. He still had that beautiful melodic concept going though. Always.

 

[Johnny L]

If you tune the way Red did, then you finger 10ths the same way you finger octaves in 4ths tuning.

I haven't looked at the Dragonetti in a while so I don't remember if it goes past the D on the G string. If no, then you could do it in 5ths tuning while staying in the key of G...and then you could just stop the strings where you would normally do the natural harmonics for the arpeggios...I think...still learning to play in 5ths tuning myself...

 

[Paul Warburton]

If you tune the way Red did, then you finger 10ths the same way you finger octaves in 4ths tuning.

Right
I haven't looked at the Dragonetti in a while so I don't remember if it goes past the D on the G string. If no, then you could do it in 5ths tuning while staying in the key of G...and then you could just stop the strings where you would normally do the natural harmonics for the arpeggios...I think...still learning to play in 5ths tuning myself...

Hey Damon, could you provide me with the links to the Red-
clark You Tube stuff?
Great to hear that you're trying it. I'm too old.
We had Larry Holloway on TBDB for a while, he tunes in fifths. There was one more guy...I dunno what happened to them.
Thanks in advance for the links!
Have you seen the Dennis Masuzzo book?

 

[Damon Rondeau]

I PM'd it to you, but here's the link again:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=red+mitchell+clark+terry&search=Search

And, for the record, I'm not man enough to try tuning in fifths. Fourths are still kicking my butt! I'd really like to incorporate more of those double-stops and chords, though...

 

[Paul Warburton]

I PM'd it to you, but here's the link again:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=red+mitchell+clark+terry&search=Search

And, for the record, I'm not man enough to try tuning in fifths. Fourths are still kicking my butt! I'd really like to incorporate more of those double-stops and chords, though...

Thanks...I do alot of double and triple stops. A GOOD source of what's possible in 4ths is, of course, Michael Moore.

 

[Ed Fuqua]

Also Dave Finck, he plays a lot of double stops and triple stops. And at ridiculous tempos too....