julietgreen

My first bass 'chair' was through MySpace! 😂 Somebody just approached me because I had the VW background and he was a VW lover! Later I got asked to be in a band when I complained on facebook that I wanted to play bass again and one of my contacts picked it up. But this last time, I had to force myself to go to the local jazz jam and sit in. Then I got a couple of offers. So it takes some networking. I did have a couple of genuine contacts through JMB but they were outside my rehearsal radius (which I've kept quite tight).

Today I played on the upright bass for a bit - early days on this for me - just plonking through some of the chord notes and trying to maintain the 'correct' technique. Just now, I'm probably going to do a bit of fretless for jazz practice and then tonight go to rehearsal with my standard fretted 4-string because I'm not confident enough to use the fretless. Do you think switching like this is OK or is it going to give me brain damage/ruin all technique?

Since the demise of my regular slot in the rock band, I've been dabbling in a bit of mainstream jazz and latin stuff - trying to get a handle on walking bass but not finding anyone to give it a go with me. Actually, I did, but after saying they wanted me to play with them, they then wrote back and said they had no drummer so it was a no go. Hmmm. Anyway I went along to play bass at the local jazz jam. Very low key, low stakes stuff. Turns out that night there was nobody else on bass, so I had to cover the whole evening straight from the chord charts. On the strength of that I got asked to be the 'house band' the following month, do a dep on a gig last Sunday, to be the bass at the next jam and to join a jazz band as bassist. Shows you can fool a lot of the people some of the time. To be fair, I know the repertoire inside out - but as a listener, or a saxophonist. I'm less secure with all the walking bass patterns - I'm sure the low riders in the audience are cringing. But the drummer at the dep gig said how much he enjoyed playing with me - so there's that. I think the point of this is that I got over the imposter syndrome for a moment and made myself just do it.

I did subscribe to the 'never wear the band T-shirt during a gig' school of thought. This was particularly true when I was in the rock band - we had a wicked design but it was never worn 'on stage'. I've relaxed that view a little lately, under slightly different circumstances. I play sax in a horn section. The trombone player made us all bespoke T-shirts with the band logo + cartoon character with instrument. I'm prepared to wear that on stage if the rest of the horns are. But then I'm also prepared to do 'dance moves' under similar conditions!

Ignore the treble part and play the changes from the chord names? I have a similar problem in that I learned to read bass clef and can play it with my left hand on the piano. I know the bass notes on the bass - but I can't sight read from bass clef to bass! Yet, perhaps. Sight reading for me (and perhaps others) is a decoding process that seems to bypass conscious thought. (I mainly do it for sax) I have to think about it for the bass and by then it's too late.

It's when you realise that some people don't play - have never played - and you're not one of them!

Yep. You live and learn eh?

Aw - great advice all you folks! Got the thing in my hands first time today and, yeah, index finger is a little sore, but it was fun. Played a little bit through some 'slow jazz' 2-feel rooty things and a touch of slow bossa. Probably rubbish technique full of errors but I will get some lessons and am already looking at the Discover Double Bass site!

I'm just about to acquire a 3/4 double bass. I've only played electric before, though have done a bit of fretless. Any tips? What will it be like? Is it like learning from scratch or are there transferable skills?

Once upon a time I struggled to find a bassist that could play afro-cuban lines. There have always been plenty of bassists in this part of the world, along with saxophone players and vocalists. Keyboard and trumpet are the rarities, though my current struggle is to find female musicians at all.

Yes. True.

Nice track.

Oh phew! Thanks for that. Explains a lot. Face-palm! It was late last night. Can I plead tiredness? 😌

Do you play this? How? I notice the suggested bass in the Real Book is quite different from the Coltrane recording. Which one do you do or do you do something quite different?

Yep. This.

'Fine' is a relative term. I've I'm given a lead sheet, I can fight my way through something like Stella. I can't do that with faster numbers hence thinking about working out a few lines first. I want to dep for bass with a local jazz band.

Ah well Moondance was one of the first things I ever did play on bass.

To be fair, I'm doing all of that. Interesting exchange, though. Some seem to disapprove of the use of 'algorithms' for music on a computer - all music is algorithms, though. Creativity comes from having these embedded, either through years of study, or through having the 'knack' plus years of study. I'm not there yet.

Having said that, I'm just downloading 'Improvisor' which I had on my old PC. I was, however, looking for an app.

I'm working my way through learning how to 'walk' to a chord sequence. I've got the theory, fine. Putting it into practice is more of a challenge. Recently I started trying to think through a few fast jazz numbers - work out what would sound ok as a walking bassline. I felt it would be handy to have a piece of software that generated a line quickly from the chords and turns it into TAB, and then incorporate some of that if it looked useful. My composer software, Finale, used to do this, but the upgrade doesn't. Anyone know of anything that does?

I'm very much missing playing, since the demise of the last band I was in. It struck me it would be a good opportunity to improve technically etc. A summer school type thing would suit me but I don't know if such a thing exists. Anybody know of any?

[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1503496766' post='3358713'] Can you glue or strap any bits of your hand that need it? Painkillers? Sit on a stool to take some weight of your fretting hand? Get help loading in/out? [/quote] Definitely make the most of THAT one!

I did this a couple of times. The first time I fell off my bike and managed to get through with painkillers - fretting hand. The second time, all I did was lift a speaker off a stand - badly. I couldn't touch or move the thumb for 2 weeks - plucking hand. Had to cancel sax gigs, but managed to fumble through a bit of bass. Go for the gig as long as you can play a bit and no obviously fancy bass parts needed. Let us know how you get on. I recommend aspirin!

Many thanks to all for advice - particularly to those who explained how they learned, themselves. I have been through a fair number of the 'learn to play walking bass' type recommendations and I have a reasonable knowledge of chord structure and types. It's the practical bit of putting it into a musical context at the rate the changes happen, that I'm still cack-handed with. Making slow progress...

Still - I wondered how others actually learned.