Singing Notes

Wow, I raised you right, Jack! Yes, singing is a huge help. if you can sing it, you can play it.

 

Yes, this will help your ear a great deal.

Ever heard Slam Stewart? He was an upright bassist in a duo called "Slim [Gailliard] and Slam". He would sing along with all his [bowed] soloes. Great stuff.

 

tis not a coincidence...

I always recommend this... it's the best way of firming up the connection between the notes you hear in your head and the ones your fingers choose... essential for the journey from finger-wiggler to musician

 

It gets better with practice. People used to tell me I was a crap singer when I started. And now I sing at least 1/3 of the time in every band I'm in.

But you have to analyze your singing to improve it. Record yourself and pinpoint where you're going off pitch, how much you're going off-pitch, and what you need to do to get on pitch. I still struggle with pitch in my singing, and I have perfect pitch. It's a weird thing going on in my head where I think what's coming out sounds good in my head but doesn't sound good once it hits the mic, so I had to re-learn how to listen to what's coming out of my head. It ain't easy if you're not a natural singer, but it can be learned.

 

Well, for heaven's sake, don't sing on mic!

Really, for the sake of playing alone, it doesn't matter whether you're singing on pitch or not - it only matters that the pitch in your head matches the one you're playing on the bass.

 

Your goal at first is just to get perfect pitch? That's hardly a short term goal, or an easy one. You'll be hard pressed to get that in any small amount of years.

 

It will definitely help your relative pitch. You may want to start mixing up notes, though, like play an A and try to sing an F# or a G. Or play an F# and sing a C. But start off easy and use simple intervals at first, like A/C#, C/G, you know, 3rds and 5ths.

Unfortunately, if you weren't born with perfect pitch, you won't be able to have it, but you can develop your relative pitch to a point where it's just as good as perfect pitch with practice.

 

I don't know about that... I don't have perfect pitch, but I can identify my mother's voice.

 

Absolutely! That's called relative pitch, and in the real world, it's every bit as useful as perfect pitch. Perfect pitch really isn't that big a deal.

Don't know about this mother's voice stuff, but the accepted version of perfect pitch is to be able to tell the pitch of a note without having to hear a reference pitch. Like if you hit an A on the piano, I can instantly tell it's an A without having to locate it on the piano. it might save me about 3 seconds searching. Once you develop your relative pitch and learn all your intervals, it accomplishes pretty much the same thing.

 

Anyone can learn perfect pitch, it just takes longer the later you leave it. Those who are "born" with it were just nurtured as a child. Maybe they started young or just had a musical family.

 

John Entwhistle had perfect pitch but said that it was a "curse" as he could hear when (inevitably) the guitars went slightly out of tune at a gig and it really bugged him , but he just had to carry on!!

 

Ynwgie says everyone plays out of tune. Kinda annoying, ne?

Your ear will improve VASTLY with singing. I took a vocals class this year for kicks, and while I'm certainly no singer, it has improved my ear vastly. Started transcribing a Ray Brown solo on DB last week (haven't had time to practice for a couple days ) and I'm now completely comfortable not using an electronic tuner*. Probably one of my happiest realizations about my ear recently happened in October when I found out I could tune to "So What" and have it be within a couple cents of a perfect D!

* Note: From May 04 up until a few weeks ago, I was completely anal about using an electronic tuner EVERY time I played.

 

Yngwie is right, though. Everyone DOES play out of tune a little. Just by nature of the way musical instruments work.

Jack, having perfect pitch is fun. As for your questions, when I hear an A#, my mind automatically picks up that it's an A# without having to listen hard or go through any conversions. And no, once you hear the first note, it's not all relative after that. People with perfect pitch don't have to do those types of conversions.

As for being driven out of my mind when something goes out of tune, it can be irritating, but I've gotten so used to the fact that nothing is ever in perfect tune that it doesn't bug me anymore. If it's way off it's irritating, but if it's just a cent or two off, I really don't care all that much. Usually the only time being slightly out bugs me is when I haven't had a whole lot of sleep.