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Double Bass The String vs. The Ebony
- Thread starter Maestro
- Start date
My bad...good thing I didn't mispell it, I'm good at that...I could have put Ray's pees very easily...;-) I edited it and fixed that bad...LOL!Ray Parker said:No pieces here -- I play tunes.
- Dec 13, 1999
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- Disclosures
- Chuck Sher publishes my book, WALKING BASSICS:The Fundamentals of Jazz Bass Playing.
Guitar elegant? Maybe... but IMO it's a mess. Too many notes and the top two strings are off by a half step. Makes learning the note mapping on the fretboard a headache. If you wanna see how complex it gets, take a look at George Van Eps' "Harmonic Mechanisms for Guitar" when you get the chance.
Singing your lines is good too. Got that from my old guitar teacher. If you can sing what's in your head (which comes more naturally than playing bass), then all you have to do is match the bass with what you're singing and slowly make it another means to communicate like how you use your voice. Once you get it down you can stop singing the lines so you don't sound like Slam Stewart.
Maestro said:
Singing your lines is good too. Got that from my old guitar teacher. If you can sing what's in your head (which comes more naturally than playing bass), then all you have to do is match the bass with what you're singing and slowly make it another means to communicate like how you use your voice. Once you get it down you can stop singing the lines so you don't sound like Slam Stewart.
I hear ya with the positions. I don't really pay a lot of attention to it (obviously). I just know, like you already said, for example, I'm in the position that has the D on the G string as the highest note and the A on the E string as the lowest and go from there. Even when reading through Simandl I just reference the fingerings and it's obvious to me which positions to be in. I don't know if this is a shortcoming or not but it doesn't seem to be, as long as I know where the notes are and how to get around and am aware that the stuff can be played horizontally, vertically and a combo of both. If you asked me to go to the fourth position I would have to think about it whereas if you ask me to play the E note on the G string with the fourth finger I can do it without thinking - of course you might hear me drone the low E to check my tuning. 
BTW guys - wish me luck. I have my first paying DB gig this evening and it's a recording gig. It's kind of a Brazilian jazz/pop thing. We had a rehearsal last night and I didn't notice anyone cringing and they seemed to be happy I'm playing DB on half of the tunes. I guess I'll know the score when I hear the first playback - and I'll have my BG along to bail me out if needed.
-Scot
BTW guys - wish me luck. I have my first paying DB gig this evening and it's a recording gig. It's kind of a Brazilian jazz/pop thing. We had a rehearsal last night and I didn't notice anyone cringing and they seemed to be happy I'm playing DB on half of the tunes. I guess I'll know the score when I hear the first playback - and I'll have my BG along to bail me out if needed.
-Scot
What happened to that thread from a couple of days ago called Ebony vs. Ivory, or something like that? Did it get moved? I thought it was good because it had a good explanations about why the Simandl positions are named as they are. I tried a search but didn't come up with it.
-Scot
MODERATOR'S NOTE: In general, posters have control over their content, which would mean that Alan Maestro had the ability to delete it because he had the first post. Here, several posters have asked about the thread so I have revived it.
Have at it, folks. BEST, SAM
-Scot
MODERATOR'S NOTE: In general, posters have control over their content, which would mean that Alan Maestro had the ability to delete it because he had the first post. Here, several posters have asked about the thread so I have revived it.
Have at it, folks. BEST, SAM
Scot - since my post and all others in the thread were deleted, here it is again. On the G string, when 4th finger falls on a natural note, it's a "whole number" position. when 4th finger falls on what would correspond to a black note on the piano, it's an in between or "half" position. So, the notes when played with 4th finger (on the G string), and their resulting positions:
Bb: half
B: 1st
C: 2nd
Db: 2nd - half
etc.
There is no "1st - half" because there is no black note between B and C. Silly, huh?
Bb: half
B: 1st
C: 2nd
Db: 2nd - half
etc.
There is no "1st - half" because there is no black note between B and C. Silly, huh?
Maybe an easier way to think of it is in terms of the C scale. With a 1-1 (minus 1) correspondence this makes finding any position pretty simple. 7th position would be the first A past the octave and 11th position would be the last E on the fingerboard...
Sorry -- the computer geek in me.
The way to figure out the Simandl positions, if I'm understanding it right, is that the position number is a one-to-one relationship with the degrees of the C scale, but that first position is the seventh degree of the scale so you have to either add one to the scale degree or subtract one from the position to find the note in the scale that you want.
For instance:
2nd position: 2-1=1 -- first note of the C scale
E: third note of the scale, so 4th position
14th position: 14-1=13, so thirteenth note of the scale, or A (way up there)
The way to figure out the Simandl positions, if I'm understanding it right, is that the position number is a one-to-one relationship with the degrees of the C scale, but that first position is the seventh degree of the scale so you have to either add one to the scale degree or subtract one from the position to find the note in the scale that you want.
For instance:
2nd position: 2-1=1 -- first note of the C scale
E: third note of the scale, so 4th position
14th position: 14-1=13, so thirteenth note of the scale, or A (way up there)
It works, I guess.
The tag line is just a take that I had on the adage that 'Insanity is repeating a procedure exactly, expecting a different result' that struck me as humorous as I undertook that exact path with a computer problem I was having -- with sufficient time between attempts at the solution so that each time I had the idea I thought it was unique until I realized that my Deja Vu upon failure was anything but.
The tag line is just a take that I had on the adage that 'Insanity is repeating a procedure exactly, expecting a different result' that struck me as humorous as I undertook that exact path with a computer problem I was having -- with sufficient time between attempts at the solution so that each time I had the idea I thought it was unique until I realized that my Deja Vu upon failure was anything but.
'Insanity is repeating a procedure exactly, expecting a different result' never heard that on before Ray - I wont forget it - I've even tried it out for good measure! - Cheers!
