Clarky Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I am an occasional fan of a bit of gipsy jazz and was interested to watch some old YT clips of Louis Vola, Django Reinhardt's bass player and the main man on DB in the genre. If you watch the clips he plucks way up the neck (around the neck join) with an unusual clawing/slapping motion and his left arm position is also about as unorthodox compared with the 'classical' position. Just goes to show its the music that counts, not the technique! Well it made me feel better any way [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzz6fAdFFis&feature=related[/media] [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ynQs__VtfU[/media] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bassman Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Nice one Clarky bet he didn't eat his heart out over pickups, amps & strings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBus Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 And Django himself only fretted with two fingers. He couldn't do it any other way. Did that affect his ability? No. Probably contributed to his sound. 'The book' is only written by one person but there are countless millions of musicians. Just sometimes a different style of playing comes from someone else's 'sloppy' technique. Of course it is always advisable to work with a 'good' technique but there is no need to be too anal about it. Just enjoy the playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 [quote name='Mr Bassman' timestamp='1330957034' post='1565299'] bet he didn't eat his heart out over pickups, amps & strings [/quote] Well, if BassChat had been around in the 1930s/40s it might have been different ..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Here he is in his later years, still same unorthodox technique http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm-veVCBplc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlloyd Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Around 1:03... [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG0Z2mwzrEg&feature=related[/media] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 That some cool (and early) slapping Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenderjazz1 Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 made my day as i know i do it all wrong, as a new db player, my arms, hands and teeth! are everywhere in order to get through a 2 hour set with most of the notes in tune! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarky Posted September 26, 2012 Author Share Posted September 26, 2012 Try as I might, I keep playing towards the neck when not concentrating on my right hand technique. In that sense, these Louis Vola vids make me feel better about my 'non standard' playing technique. Its a habit i want to shake though. Photos from last gig (taken by BC's own Bluejay) show what I mean. [url="http://www.flickr.com//photos/bluejay_my_photos/sets/72157631577815149/show/"]http://www.flickr.com//photos/bluejay_my_photos/sets/72157631577815149/show/[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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