Announcing "The Bergonzifying Transmogrifier" for Bass

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='crez5150' post='1245258' date='May 26 2011, 09:48 AM']How on earth do we bassists have fewer notes???[/quote]
I have thirteen-and-a-half.

[Skol303]

[quote name='crez5150' post='1245258' date='May 26 2011, 09:48 AM']How on earth do we bassists have fewer notes???[/quote]

... because we tend to get paid the least (ba-da-boom-tish!)

Seriously though, props to the OP for developing this little tool. Sure, people can say "what's the point?" - and that's a fair comment. But I'm generally supportive of anyone who makes the effort with things like this, and especially when they share them for free.

[Steve Dixon]

[quote name='BassoRidiculoso' post='1244639' date='May 25 2011, 07:14 PM']Slonimsky[/quote]

that's what I thought... maybe someone should have told Nicolas Slonimsky he was wasting his time when all a proper composer needs is whatever they pull from their brain

I thought it was a nifty little gadget that could help you practice arpeggios, or at the very least give you some melodic groupings to chew on... the POINT being that that particular configuration of notes didn't come from the composer's own brain

so you guys never listen to any music that didn't come directly from your own heads?

if you don't see the value in it, you can always say nothing, instead of treating it as an excuse to imply your 'serious composer' credentials

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='Steve Dixon' post='1245496' date='May 26 2011, 12:46 PM']if you don't see the value in it, you can always say nothing, instead of treating it as an excuse to imply your 'serious composer' credentials[/quote]
I was merely asking what it was for.

To be honest, I still don't know.

[Major-Minor]

When we first get into playing music, most people play as their teacher tells them or they copy their favourite player or mimic guys on the web or on cd etc
But there comes a point where we have to start thinking for ourselves. And the sooner a player can develop this self reliance the better. It's also how we develop an individual style or voice. Some take years to get to this point. Some never get there at all.
Reliance on a machine to create notes for us to play is all well and good but it's just putting off that point where you take control of your musicality. Many of my classical muso colleagues never go beyond playing just the notes on the page. Of course they do it to the highest of standards. But I have always wanted to be a more rounded fluent player able to create on the fly and feel in control of the music.
If you are still at the stage of needing to be told what to play then this software may well be useful to you. But the sooner you can think music for yourself the better.

Sometimes a simple uncluttered and repetitive bass part is exactly what is required so bass players need to be able to infuse those few precious notes with as much passion as we can without feeling we are bored.

[Mike]

Some interesting discussion, I think some of the posters who aren't sure of its application should check out Jerry Bergonzi's approach to improvisations and his writings.

Thanks again Basso Ridiculoso for another (free) resource!


Mike

[Bass Awkward]

Odd. Deserving of praise, and thanks for letting us see for free, but I feel it's a bit mis-targetted.

I'd have thought that ALL we jazzers do this ALL the time anyway - not just Slonimsky and Bergonzi and Wayne Kranz, or whatever...

And with more than four variables, and for four notes on every bar of bass with a couple of variations to quavers and triplets - taking into account chromatic approaches, passing tones, 3rds and 7ths, changing with a chord sequence and complementing a melody.

...

Still, that is quite fun. I'd like to see one that can take four notes of any given chord, and generate a line for that, then change chord with a sequence for each bar. That'd easily create excercises in reading and walking bass for students.

But 'band-in-a-box' already does that. Oh well.

Nonetheless, this is a really good tech demo, and it's nice to create an mp3 and score on the basis of a mathematical concept.

If you're into finding some really fun mathematical ideas to use for note generation, have a look at Allen Forte's 'The Structure of Atonal Music', or Schoenberg's 'Structural Functions of Harmony' or stuff by the late, great Milton Babbitt.

Many of these ideas can be aplied to tonal music, too - it just means narrowing the parameters a little.