Just curious: Why do you think that will make for live playing possibilities? Is it because you basically have about half to two-thirds of a band in your hands?
Hello, Illbay,
Though now I'm the U.S. Manager for Mobius Megatar touch-style basses, and spend most of my time in the shop making Megatar instruments, some years ago I wanted to gig in public. Here's what I've learned hat's relevant to your question --
First, if you have already played bass or guitar, then *please* consider getting a touch-style instrument tuned in FOURTHS. All the makers (Chapman, Krappy, Warr, and ourselves) will deliver an instrument in fourths if you ask, and if you find an instrument that has some other tuning, you can redo it for the cost of a set of strings, and 10 minutes re-setting the bridge saddles for correct intonation.
Why? Because if you set up your bass strings and melody strings in straight fourths, and you use a sensible learning method, then 85-95% of what you already know will transfer in a matter of only a few days.
Further, since all those years of training your left fingers were actually training your head, and since your right fingers are wired into the very same head, you will discover that (with a sensible tuning and learning method) .. that what your left hand knows, your right hand *almost* knows already. Meaning that your right hand picks up fretting and chord/scale patterns surprisingly quickly.
So, with the right tuning, and the right method, you can learn up to performance level in a pleasingly rapid period of time.
Now, about gigging ...
First, it opens lots of new kinds of gigs for a bass player. You don't need to have other guys. You can do solo gigs. You might think this is complicated, but (nag nag nag) with the right method you can get there quickly.
For example, solo you can play coffee-house gigs, restaurant gigs, weddings (they'll feed you, and everybody is happy!), and openers for larger acts.
Plus you can find two-person gigs, if you want to work with a drummer, or a singer, a good keyboardist, or a sax player.
Now, because the instrument is 'odd', there's an extra bit of work you may have to do to land the gigs. What worked for me (for getting solo gigs) was this --
I found a company which would print up a large brochure that folded, so that there were four letter-sized pages. On the front page a photo of myself in a tux showing the instrument, and a name for the act ('Celestial Jazz').
Inside I wrote a bio as a narrative story, not only about myself, but about the instrument as well. And then a great big part, like a restaurant menu, that showed a lot of songs, which I'd learned.
This promo piece, along with a cassette of recorded tunes, and I got gigs. To get the gigs, I made a list of restaurants, then walked into the place mid-afternoon (between lunch and dinner) and (usually) found the manager there. Showed him my brochure, then left it and the cassette, then followed up by phone, asking if he had an evening available for me to play.
I was aiming at dinner music in restaurants, but then also picked up some corporate jobs and weddings through the restaurant exposure.
Now since I didn't know many songs, I'd play some that I knew, then walk around the room, handing my 'menu' to people and asking if they had any requests. Because they were looking at a menu, they picked songs from the menu, and thus didn't ask me for songs I didn't know, but since I'd then played their requests, it made the tips better. (I had a signboard and prominent tip jar near the exit.)
Frankly, I wasn't a very good player.
But here's the wonderful thing.
Nobody has ever seen Segovia playing one of these touch-style instruments. Because it's new, it's novel. And, although it's not fair, novelty is entertaining. It's show business.
It was fun, and with just a little legwork, it was pretty easy.
It's something that pretty much any bassplayer can do, and it's a way to set up gigs that don't depend on other guys showing up for rehearsals or any of that.
And ... two-handed touchstyle is fun to do! So you get to have a good time, and it's another avenue for earning a living.
