zbd1960

I've noticed that a lot of guitar/bass/sax players get a little tongue-tied around reading notation. Think of it this way: at its base, there are only 7 distinct note names A - G, plus a further mix of sharps/flats to make up the total of 2 semi-tones. Create a bunch of flash cards with a bass clef and a note on one side and the note name on the other, covering two octaves from the low E. Shuffle the deck and randomly test yourself on a handful once or twice a day. You'll soon pick that up. The other part is rhythm notation and things like Kodàly can help with that. You can download classical scores from ISMLP and follow the bass line whilst listening to the piece. Sight-reading is just a matter of doing it. Usual advice from those doing music grades is that sight-reading ability is about 2 grades lower than your current playing ability.

Take it easy and in the words of Arthur Dent: Don't Panic. They're not looking to trip you up, just assess where you sit. They're going to be interested in making sure they fill all their spaces - you're auditioning them as well. Hope it goes well. I'll post separately about reading notation.

I'd've said 8, 9, or 10 course lute... (lutes are generally double-strung apart from the top string)

Yay to confirmed - I will put it in the diary

Funny that.... I seem to be doing something remarkably similar

The age demographic in groups / societies etc of all sorts has changed dramatically over the last 40 years or so. When I started work, groups would have all age groups represented within them. Nowadays, you get a huge hole covering post uni to around 50. I suspect bands are not immune to this. My view is that there has been a huge change in working practices over the last 40 years - people no longer live/work in the same town; long commutes; working hours are rarely 9 - 5... end results is tired people with less free time during the week. PErhaps recent events will cause people to have a re-think? As a relative novice on bass I'll be looking for options shortly, although at the moment I'm signed-up with the local Rock School which has na adult section. They should start to meet shortly...

Just read through the whole build to date - love it. The walnut looks fab.

Nope - that's used for barristers....

Agree - Hercules stands are well engineered. I have one, and my sax stands (including the one for the very heavy bari sax), and my orchestral music stand are all Hercules stands.

Already there too

Best wishes for this - hope it works out for you.

No, you're not going mad - but I thought I'd separate the 'build' from me thinking about it... so this thread is in the build folder. If mods think that's pointless, then they can merge them.

A profundity

I tried several and found it to be very comfortable when seated

As promised, here is the thread to document the building of my bass. It is being built by Alan at ACG. https://www.acguitars.co.uk The basics: it will be a 4 string bass with a 32" scale length. The model is a Krell, and I am really looking forward to saying: the awesome power of the Krell... 🙄 I will talk more about it as it progresses. Last weekend I chose the various woods and settled after much chewing of the cud on: body - Spanish Cedar; accent layer - Purple Heart; top - Tasmanian Blackwood. The neck will be a 5 piece of Ash and Purple Heart, with Purple Heart fingerboard. Deposit paid and so build is underway. Alan did say that initial progress will seem rapid, but with builds as with IT the 80/20 rule applies: 80% of the work requires 20% of the time; last 20% takes 80% of the time... So pic has been received today of the body which has been laminated and cut out. Finished item is going to be around April next year or so...

It depends where you land in the production cycle, but he was saying roughly 10 - 12 months. Most viol/cello luthiers I've talked to in the past have said 3 years...

I'll set-up a thread to record progress and more details... 🙂 I opted for a 32" 4 string Krell (I am going to love being able to say "The awesome power of the Krell...." 👽) Spanish Cedar body with Purple Heart accent and Tasmanian Blackwood top. Five piece Ash and Purple Heart neck, with PH finger board. Pic is the wood selection

Thank you for the various comments and feedback. My current instruments are a Fender 4 string J and a Sire Marcus Miller V7 5 string J. After a lot of internet digging, reading this site, YT videos etc. I had a lengthy e-mail discussion with Alan at ACG and this weekend I took a trip up to Scotland to visit him. I am pleased to say that a 4 string has been commissioned and I spent a challenging, but enjoyable, hour or two working out my choice of woods...

There is some (unsubstantiated) debate as to whether Bach might have had a 7 string bass viol (i.e. french style) in mind for #6... As I said, baroque composers tended to use open strings, later composers didn't (I outlined in previous post possible explanations, but as ever, unknowable really).

Possibly Tim Toft in Stone? http://www.timtoftviolins.com

Cello's tuning is in fifths CGDA rather than the bass's fourths. Generally playing cello you avoid open strings... but it's a complex subject... In baroque era it was more acceptable to use open strings, but that was partly because they played on gut strings which do not ring the way metal strings do, and the bow and bowing technique were different...

A friend of mine is a sound engineer. He has an M.Sc in it. In most countries you can only use the title engineer if suitably qualified/accredited and it s a protected title. Not in the uk... we should respect the title of engineer more and reserve it for those with appropriate qualifications/accreditations but unlikely to change

The joy of transposing instruments - I play both Bb ad Eb saxes... Sometimes, baritone sax only has a bass part to read from, in which case they have to read it as if it was treble clef instead of bass and add three sharps to the key signature... Makes accidentals entertaining

Yep, they're big beasts - the hard cases are ridiculous

My primary instrument is cello, but my primary skill is as a choral singer singing the bass/baritone line. Because of the instruments I play, I read all four standard clefs (bass tenor alto, treble) and you need three of those to play cello (bass, tenor, and treble). Sight-reading comes with practice. My singing teacher would just shove something in front of me and say 'sing this'... Later in my early 50s starting on cello, I immediately joined a community orchestra and got thrown in the deep end. Over time your ability to play improves and the complexity of what you can play at sight increases. Sure, you can't play everything and you have to do things like reduce a mountain of semi-quavers to quavers, or perhaps even just crotchets, but over time you improve. With the exception of some jazz, all the groups I play in on cello and sax involve playing music that's part of a large score / arrangement. Improvising on that is not an option and you would not be expected to play it from memory. Obviously, if you are playing a solo then there is an option to learn that from memory. I find playing from memory - because it's something I've rarely done - extremely difficult. I've been doing it for some of the stuff I do on sax and in my bass lessons, but I find it extremely difficult to do and I struggle to remember something even half an hour later. Is that something that can be improved? Yes, bu tI find reading music much easier. When you're an experienced 'reader', it's like reading a book - you're not reading the individual letters (or notes), you see the shape and respond to it. Which skill-set is important to you depends to some extent on the genre you're performing and the nature of the group you are performing with. If you're in a covers or a jazz band playing a core repertoire then learning all of that from memory and improvising it is feasible. If I'm playing in an orchestra or singing in a choir and we've got a handful of rehearsals then a concert to perform two hours' worth of music that you might never see ever again (or not for some years anyway) then you need to be able to read.