Double Bass Using Technology in the Shed (DB forum Thread)

[Co.]

For Bach suites and bebop heads, this means it's truly easy to record a medium slow version on piano, import it to ASD, and set the controls to loop whatever section I'm working on. It immediately brings intonation discrepancies to my attention in a way that is very welcome.

I don't think, music for a string instrument solo should be intonated like a piano. Definately not Bach suites.
I find it much more useful, to practice certain passages to a drone of the root or fifth of the section that I'm practicing.
For music that is modulating very fast and to keys that are far apart and for music without a tonal center, this might be different.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

You know, I knew as soon as I typed my last post that, this being Talkbass, someone was probably going to bring up the equal temperament objection.

With all due respect, I think in my case it's OK for me to practice along with a well tuned piano as a technical exercise. For one thing, I spend much of my professional life attempting to intonate together with a piano. For another, I listen to a ton of Bach that was written for a tempered instrument, and it all sounds good to me. Lastly, my intonation on the bass is not so dead on that I don't have something to gain by attempting to play in equal temperament.

 

[damonsmith]

I have to agree with Chris on this one, for a number of reasons. Much like working with the metronome doesn't cause any trouble with "feel" (if it does you didn't have any "feel" to begin with).
Matching a pitch in no way fixes your ability to create inflections in the moment. If you are really hearing, learn to place a pitch exactly means you can also move it exactly.
I think our instrumental practice should be with standard tempered tuning with the standard A of our region.
On one hand we are learning to play with the instruments we are most often faced with, in a wider sense we are learning to place a pitch in an exact place, which will only help us when we hear another exact place to put a pitch.
We will still be able to hear and play any valid inflections - the ear and the instrument pushes us toward just intonation if we are really hearing anyway.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

The Peter Erskine suite of "Jazz Essentials" apps are really great for a variety of reasons. They have a multi-tracked band doing popular jazz standards. You can solo or mute any track and can record your own track to listen back to in context of the band, When I have a specific goal to work on - soloing, walking lines, experimenting with rhythms (avoiding 1), etc.. I can really go deep by playing along with these apps. My only complaint is that the song library is limited. It's also a pleasure to play along with Alan Pasqua - on most tunes, he stretches out quite a bit in the middle verses so you give your ears a good workout as you play along.

I have always wondered about this app and thought it a great idea. I was reminded of it after seeing Erskine last month in Reno at the JEN conference. Is anybody else using this? For $12 for the suite, it seems like a total no brainer!

 

[GlenParks]

I use my old beat making set up in a similar way. I do find myself “writing more than practicing” when I use it, though I don’t much care atm.

I have a tascam dp1 (~$80) and a Roland SP404 sampler (~$300). The samplers on board mic is fine for my purposes. (You can run direct as well) it has filters and center cancellation available to name a few. You can use the effects on both the playback and the incoming audio.

I enjoy taking or building drum loops from Sandy Nelson records and playing along with them a lot. I also hook up a little Yamaha keyboard and loop chord progressions to play along with. Record myself, listen, learn.

 

[damonsmith]

Though I'd add I would only really do scales and arpeggios maybe an etude with a drone or other electronic aide.
If you take care of the instrumental practice well enough you should be prepared to play the music you need to play, all this stuff is more of a distraction than actual help.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Revisiting this old chestnut now that I am having to work on piano again for very practical work related reasons. Here are some current uses for "tenchology in the shed":

(Piano and Bass): using ASD to practice tunes in 3 keys. Sure, we should learn them in 12 keys. But putting a playalong into ASD and transposing it up and down a half step is pretty damn good practice, and is sure to put the tune in places where only very picky singers would dare to tread. I find this "off key" practice infinitely easier on bass than on piano. This afternoon I played through Autumn leaves in F#mi/Ama and G#mi/Bma on both instruments. On bass, it was not so bad. On piano, yikes!

(Piano and Bass): Using a small digital recorder and Drumgenius to record backing tracks on bass for piano practice and vice versa. This could be done much more professionally on Logic, but for quick and dirty, this does a great job. It's all about finding where to put the recorder in relation to the instrument and speaker to get a good balance. one you have that, it's off to the races.

(Piano): using ASD to fine tune any backing track to the tuning of the piano. On the computer version, you can do this in cents, any amount you like. I was even able to use this feature to practice the bottom part of a 4 hands arrangement along with an orchestral recording of the Beethoven 7 funeral march for a memorial concert. This is just fantastic. It's also great if you don't want to tune your bass to every single backing track.... just tune the backing track to your bass!

Also, all of the stuff mentioned previously still comes into play. many years ago, like in about 2003, I dreamed about having this capability but the technology just wasn't there yet. I ended up with all of this crazy gear and a million patch cables, etc. Now, with a modern Mac and some software, it's just so easy. It's a repost of sorts, but the current bridge of the starship Enterprise is really a fun place to be, and makes me wonder if the term "shed" still applies:

 

[Don Kasper]

Revisiting this old chestnut now that I am having to work on piano again for very practical work related reasons. Here are some current uses for "tenchology in the shed":

(Piano and Bass): using ASD to practice tunes in 3 keys. Sure, we should learn them in 12 keys. But putting a playalong into ASD and transposing it up and down a half step is pretty damn good practice, and is sure to put the tune in places where only very picky singers would dare to tread. I find this "off key" practice infinitely easier on bass than on piano. This afternoon I played through Autumn leaves in F#mi/Ama and G#mi/Bma on both instruments. On bass, it was not so bad. On piano, yikes!

(Piano and Bass): Using a small digital recorder and Drumgenius to record backing tracks on bass for piano practice and vice versa. This could be done much more professionally on Logic, but for quick and dirty, this does a great job. It's all about finding where to put the recorder in relation to the instrument and speaker to get a good balance. one you have that, it's off to the races.

(Piano): using ASD to fine tune any backing track to the tuning of the piano. On the computer version, you can do this in cents, any amount you like. I was even able to use this feature to practice the bottom part of a 4 hands arrangement along with an orchestral recording of the Beethoven 7 funeral march for a memorial concert. This is just fantastic. It's also great if you don't want to tune your bass to every single backing track.... just tune the backing track to your bass!

Also, all of the stuff mentioned previously still comes into play. many years ago, like in about 2003, I dreamed about having this capability but the technology just wasn't there yet. I ended up with all of this crazy gear and a million patch cables, etc. Now, with a modern Mac and some software, it's just so easy. It's a repost of sorts, but the current bridge of the starship Enterprise is really a fun place to be, and makes me wonder if the term "shed" still applies:

View attachment 4525911

I'm not taking the bait, Mr. Troll. (Oops. I think I just did.)
Happy New Year, Captain.

 

[Tom Lane]

Revisiting this old chestnut now that I am having to work on piano again for very practical work related reasons. Here are some current uses for "tenchology in the shed":

(Piano and Bass): using ASD to practice tunes in 3 keys. Sure, we should learn them in 12 keys. But putting a playalong into ASD and transposing it up and down a half step is pretty damn good practice, and is sure to put the tune in places where only very picky singers would dare to tread. I find this "off key" practice infinitely easier on bass than on piano. This afternoon I played through Autumn leaves in F#mi/Ama and G#mi/Bma on both instruments. On bass, it was not so bad. On piano, yikes!

(Piano and Bass): Using a small digital recorder and Drumgenius to record backing tracks on bass for piano practice and vice versa. This could be done much more professionally on Logic, but for quick and dirty, this does a great job. It's all about finding where to put the recorder in relation to the instrument and speaker to get a good balance. one you have that, it's off to the races.

(Piano): using ASD to fine tune any backing track to the tuning of the piano. On the computer version, you can do this in cents, any amount you like. I was even able to use this feature to practice the bottom part of a 4 hands arrangement along with an orchestral recording of the Beethoven 7 funeral march for a memorial concert. This is just fantastic. It's also great if you don't want to tune your bass to every single backing track.... just tune the backing track to your bass!

Also, all of the stuff mentioned previously still comes into play. many years ago, like in about 2003, I dreamed about having this capability but the technology just wasn't there yet. I ended up with all of this crazy gear and a million patch cables, etc. Now, with a modern Mac and some software, it's just so easy. It's a repost of sorts, but the current bridge of the starship Enterprise is really a fun place to be, and makes me wonder if the term "shed" still applies:

View attachment 4525911

"Shed" ... still applies. It is the very essence of learning.

 

[Maple]

Happy New Year!

since my post several years ago, I'd add a recommendation for "Pro Metronome" on iOS.
it lets you set up claves, polyrhythms and so on. I have been using it frequently for several years now.

and just recently, I downloaded Scott Devine's (Scotts Bass Lessons) "Groove Trainer" that is a hybrid of a metronome and Drumgenius
I haven't spent much time with GT yet but it has an interesting "drop out" feature where you can set a loop to randomly drop out for an interval to see how much you drift

That reminds me - in 2020, the Bay Area was shut down for a long time so I had a lot of free time on my hands.
I set up GarageBand on my laptop to have backing tracks that I could punch out for one verse (retaining a click track) and then record myself walking, soloing, etc and then play it all back with the drop outs replaced - it was eye opening in the least. I ended up working on that for hours each day until I could reliably get across the chasm without loosing my time.

 

[kerrycares]

Drumgenius is a great app to practice with , much hipper than a metronome.
I use it for practicing scales and even classical bowing to improve my swing feel.