Double Bass Note lengths

[turf3]

I feel like I've got a good handle on song forms and playing appropriate lines (simpler almost always = better). As I get more control over the instrument I am starting to get unsatisfied with my methods on the lengths of notes. It's not like jazz walking, where you're playing almost everything from a closed fingering and you want to smoothly join the notes.

When I listen carefully to recordings, most of the time it's not clear whether a bass player is actually muting notes or if it's just a rapid decay of a weakly recorded bass.

What I started out doing was usually (on medium or fast tempos) to play a series of quarter notes with quarter rests between, using left hand muting for open strings. But I am not convinced this is best. Now I find, in questioning this bump-rest-bump-rest feeling, that I am experimenting with different note lengths, not always keeping them consistent through a song, and just not really sure whether what I'm doing sounds the best it can.

When I ask the other people I'm playing with they tend to just say "Sounds great!" which is not particularly helpful. But they are banjo or fiddle or guitar players, not bass players.

So how do you folks, who are actual bluegrass bass players, play your note lengths for different tempos and time signatures?

 

[engedi1]

When I play country or bluegrass I use left hand muting in a subtle way to control the note length. Check out this video of Barry Bales playing live. His note length is perfect and he is clearly using his left hand to mute open strings. He also uses left hand muting by just slightly lifting the pressure off the board for stopped notes as well as you can clearly see. He uses a great Italian bass with D'addario strings so it would probably ring like crazy if he didn't. He is a good one to emulate as he has the best job in all of blue grass (from a paying perspective) You can also play with higher action which will shorten the note length automatically, but that was never a good option for me.

 

[engedi1]

And then there is this video, which might be too basic for you, but does clearly show the note length on open strings.

 

[engedi1]

and just for fun, the advanced class

 

[turf3]

In the first two videos, there is mention of muting notes, but not much on specifics. Of course if you play a fingered note it mutes as soon as you let up pressure. It seems obvious to me that the duration given to each note would depend on the immediate performance demands of the song. Both of the first two videos show mostly muting to achieve quarter note - quarter rest - etc. But then when they actually play a line to illustrate, the note lengths are varying from that (to my ears).

I can choose to connect the notes smoothly (series of half notes), or I can mute to achieve a string of quarter notes and quarter rests, or anything in between those two extremes. What do you more experienced players do under varying circumstances?

 

[engedi1]

In the first two videos, there is mention of muting notes, but not much on specifics. Of course if you play a fingered note it mutes as soon as you let up pressure. It seems obvious to me that the duration given to each note would depend on the immediate performance demands of the song. Both of the first two videos show mostly muting to achieve quarter note - quarter rest - etc. But then when they actually play a line to illustrate, the note lengths are varying from that (to my ears).

I can choose to connect the notes smoothly (series of half notes), or I can mute to achieve a string of quarter notes and quarter rests, or anything in between those two extremes. What do you more experienced players do under varying circumstances?

To me you are overthinking it. I don't think of it as precise quarter note/quarter rest. That can get mechanical, and you may want slightly longer notes when walking up to the next chord.

 

[martinc]

In the first two videos, there is mention of muting notes, but not much on specifics. Of course if you play a fingered note it mutes as soon as you let up pressure. It seems obvious to me that the duration given to each note would depend on the immediate performance demands of the song. Both of the first two videos show mostly muting to achieve quarter note - quarter rest - etc. But then when they actually play a line to illustrate, the note lengths are varying from that (to my ears).

I can choose to connect the notes smoothly (series of half notes), or I can mute to achieve a string of quarter notes and quarter rests, or anything in between those two extremes. What do you more experienced players do under varying circumstances?

turf: Don't forget that you are also playing with people in a band.....so you have to control your notes to fit the particular pulse they have. I get to play with a lot of singers and pickers, in addition the main band I play in. There are many times I play the same songs or tunes with diffferent singers. I find that I often have to change the left hand note duration/muting very slightly to fit their pulse. So unless you want to play a military march style, you have to be ready to adapt the sustain of your notes. You just have to feel what you need to do with your notes while at the same time maintaining a strong pulse. Listen to players such as Travis Book, Byron House and Dan Eubanks and you will hear clearly that feeling the note sustain adds a great deal to the band sound. IMHO.