One year of double bass playing

[Lionelsax]

[Gitterbug]

Congrats! I know people who have played double bass for decades as their main instrument, and haven't gotten as far as you in one year. You will be welcome at jam sessions, where the house band bassist often has to toil all night while guitarists and drummers fight for a slot.

[Lionelsax]

Congrats! I know people who have played double bass for decades as their main instrument, and haven't gotten as far as you in one year. You will be welcome at jam sessions, where the house band bassist often has to toil all night while guitarists and drummers fight for a slot.

Thank you !

[Mark M.]

Really nice playing!

[Lionelsax]

Really nice playing!

Thanks very much !

[Al Haig]

Seems to be going well. Are you enjoying upright bass?

[Woody Sound]

Nice! My wife keeps asking me to try it. (She is a string player.). Did you use a method book, take lessons? Your own fingerings, or "traditional" bass scale fingerings?

[Lionelsax]

Seems to be going well. Are you enjoying upright bass?

Yes, I am !

Nice! My wife keeps asking me to try it. (She is a string player.). Did you use a method book, take lessons? Your own fingerings, or "traditional" bass scale fingerings?

I did it all on my own even if I've got Édouard Nanny method I studied a bit with the bow.
On the bass guitar I have been using kind of double bass fingerings for about sixteen years.
Even if on the net a lot of double bass players are a little bit snobbish (double bass players encouraged me a lot in real life) about that and say it's something else... It's not a big deal, I encourage you to try it.

[Little Jay]

Very nice! I recently got an EUB (Electric Upright Bass) because a friend wanted to get rid of it. I have no ambition to become a bass player but it’s fun to fiddle around with. I do appreciate bass players a lot more now, it’s hard work!

[Lionelsax]

Very nice! I recently got an EUB (Electric Upright Bass) because a friend wanted to get rid of it. I have no ambition to become a bass player but it’s fun to fiddle around with. I do appreciate bass players a lot more now, it’s hard work!

If you have never played the bass (guitar, keyboard or whatever), yes it's hard work. Yes, it's a bit weird and big at first but I repeat it, it's not a big deal.
Classical exercises helped me a lot, it's difficult if the instrument hasn't got the right set-up, I had practiced for months with a very anormal string height, my left fingers were sometimes sliding under the strings ! Thumb position was quite impossible but I did it.
When I modified the bridge it became easier.

[Ukena]

That sounds really, really good, LS.

I had been in love with the string bass for a long time, and when I was 27 I persuaded a Nashville-based bassist colleague (he was playing in the pit of a Broadway orchestra at the time) to accompany me to We Buy Guitars on 47th St. in NYC and help me pick out a bass. He found me a 3/4 plywood-topped bass that would travel with me for 20 years.

This was long before the internet. I taught myself to play it, listening to stuff, but basically just having a pretty good idea of bass lines, without any lessons at all. I cut my teeth on playing in a bluegrass trio on the streets of NYC, singing and playing bass, learning to slap it to keep the tempo steady. I actually got a few gigs out of it, too, and even got a couple of electric bass gigs, once with a big band (which was a very humbling experience – it was a gig I was completely unprepared for, since I had no time to prepare, nor was I given a list of songs).

Here is a recording of a song from a club date by a group I was in that later became a Broadway show (and it even had a TV spin-off pilot that was never picked up), although I was gone from the group by then. This was our first public performance, at a club in North Carolina. I'm playing bass, with slaps:

Run Red Run

[Lionelsax]

That sounds really, really good, LS.

I had been in love with the string bass for a long time, and when I was 27 I persuaded a Nashville-based bassist colleague (he was playing in the pit of a Broadway orchestra at the time) to accompany me to We Buy Guitars on 47th St. in NYC and help me pick out a bass. He found me a 3/4 plywood-topped bass that would travel with me for 20 years.

This was long before the internet. I taught myself to play it, listening to stuff, but basically just having a pretty good idea of bass lines, without any lessons at all. I cut my teeth on playing in a bluegrass trio on the streets of NYC, singing and playing bass, learning to slap it to keep the tempo steady. I actually got a few gigs out of it, too, and even got a couple of electric bass gigs, once with a big band (which was a very humbling experience – it was a gig I was completely unprepared for, since I had no time to prepare, nor was I given a list of songs).

Here is a recording of a song from a club date by a group I was in that later became a Broadway show (and it even had a TV spin-off pilot that was never picked up), although I was gone from the group by then. This was our first public performance, at a club in North Carolina. I'm playing bass, with slaps:

Run Red Run

Excellent and very funny !!!

[Cunamara]

The hard part of bass for me is not the physicality of the instrument as much as the conception of it: how to play *good* bass lines. Every so often I have "fiddled" around with one and my lines suck. Congratulation on getting past that!

[Lionelsax]

The hard part of bass for me is not the physicality of the instrument as much as the conception of it: how to play *good* bass lines. Every so often I have "fiddled" around with one and my lines suck. Congratulation on getting past that!

Everyone should learn how to play bass lines, it's the shorter way to learn how to improvise.

[jaymen]

Amen to that Lionel, playing DB showed how to improvise guitar leads. It opens up doors when you realize bass playing, is essentially mostly single notes, which is also what most lead playing is. And without that silly jump you have to do over the B string on a guitar, all the intervals are the same on a bass between strings, making it much easier to figure out and play.

[Lionelsax]

My two years of playing.
My biggest defect over other ones : I play too hard when I'm soloing.
Playing too hard kills dexterity and technique (bad articulation), notes sound muddy and it doesn't breath very well.

[Lionelsax]

Hi !

This is the only thing I can share but I won't share anymore about this rehearsal... That wasn't so bad but can be largely better (I'm talking about my bass playing).
I won't tell you the people I play with. No name, no place, nothing...

Box

[Groooooove]

Yes, I am !

I did it all on my own even if I've got Édouard Nanny method I studied a bit with the bow.
On the bass guitar I have been using kind of double bass fingerings for about sixteen years.
Even if on the net a lot of double bass players are a little bit snobbish (double bass players encouraged me a lot in real life) about that and say it's something else... It's not a big deal, I encourage you to try it.

As i'm sure others have suggested, simandl is the "standard" method for many valid reasons.

double bass is my primary instrument. I don't find bass players to generally be snobbish, but the ones that are, really are somethin' else.

Definitely the best advice ever is to practice with your bow. It's a valid technique in and of itself, obviously, but it helps define the pitch so much better than plucking.

I also think there's nothing wrong with reading through easier methods meant for kids. Essential elements for strings is geared towards 9-10 year olds but the content is very good (it follows simandl fingerings) and it's worth the $10 per book.

My favorite method for walking bass is actually meant for electric players, ed friedlands walking bass book. it's really, really good.

keep up the good work!!

[Lionelsax]

As i'm sure others have suggested, simandl is the "standard" method for many valid reasons.

double bass is my primary instrument. I don't find bass players to generally be snobbish, but the ones that are, really are somethin' else.

Definitely the best advice ever is to practice with your bow. It's a valid technique in and of itself, obviously, but it helps define the pitch so much better than plucking.

I also think there's nothing wrong with reading through easier methods meant for kids. Essential elements for strings is geared towards 9-10 year olds but the content is very good (it follows simandl fingerings) and it's worth the $10 per book.

My favorite method for walking bass is actually meant for electric players, ed friedlands walking bass book. it's really, really good.

keep up the good work!!

About the bow, I already played in a classical context.
And one of the guy I play with in a jazz trio, has got a brother who is a double bass teacher in a conservatory and records a lot of things, gave me free lessons. And he wants to do it again because he judged it was really fun and interesting.
I think Nanny is above Simandl, Simandl is a pioneer, Nanny developed more the technique overall about thumb position.

[Groooooove]

About the bow, I already played in a classical context.
And one of the guy I play with in a jazz trio, has got a brother who is a double bass teacher in a conservatory and records a lot of things, gave me free lessons. And he wants to do it again because he judged it was really fun and interesting.
I think Nanny is above Simandl, Simandl is a pioneer, Nanny developed more the technique overall about thumb position.

yes, fundamentally nanny and simandl are both "simandl" in my mind.

are you familiar with marcos machado? he is obviously a masterful player, but his knowledge of every method is quite impressive.

the bille stuff is also really nice, some of his short pieces are very well written.

sounds like you are absolutely set up for success. love to hear it!!

[Lionelsax]

yes, fundamentally nanny and simandl are both "simandl" in my mind.

are you familiar with marcos machado? he is obviously a masterful player, but his knowledge of every method is quite impressive.

the bille stuff is also really nice, some of his short pieces are very well written.

sounds like you are absolutely set up for success. love to hear it!!

No but you know, about methods, nobody reinvents the wheel, they just develop a little something you can discover by yourself by playing, the only difference is that they talk about it.
Playing is more or less something personal, I'm 50 and being seen by someone experimented is more useful than reading hundred pages of method.

[jaymen]

I have been doing Taizes ( about 6 of them for a monthly Thursday evening service) now for about a year, and many of them are slow enough tempo to be played arco on my Double Bass. Because I normally play Pizzicato, I have Spirocores, which are notoriously hard to bow. But I do not want to put on less powerful strings just for a once a month performance. The end result is I have had to refine my arco technique to the point where any other string designed for arco is very easy for me now to bow.

I try not compare myself to other luminaries/top bass players because to do so is counter productive as we all are at different points on our musical journeys, and each of us has different strengths and abilities as well. Name dropping never improved my playing one iota. Instead, I choose to do the best I can with what I have and work on my technique, which helps the most. Practice makes perfect, so I practice as much as time allows. This pays the big dividends, and is the most noticeably, tangible result of my efforts.

I also always tell everyone who invites me to play bass for them that I am really not a bass player: I am a piano player that found a guitar was more portable, and learned it too, but then found out that there are 30 guitar players for every bass player, which landed me where I am today. Many small band leaders have told me they prefer Double Bass players on bass guitar because they tend not to over play and keep it simple, as opposed to electric bass guitar players who play the bass like a guitar and constantly try to do lead lines. The trouble is finding one that does not have a big head. I know most bass players out there can run circles around me, but just staying in the pocket has it's advantages too: the other players can count on you to be solid and not go off the rails. That alone is one of the biggest lessons/ take away that has pushed me forward in my bass playing: Better to be solid and on key, rather than to try to do things that are over your head and screw them up. Sometimes, less can be more!

[Lionelsax]

I have been doing Taizes ( about 6 of them for a monthly Thursday evening service) now for about a year, and many of them are slow enough tempo to be played arco on my Double Bass. Because I normally play Pizzicato, I have Spirocores, which are notoriously hard to bow. But I do not want to put on less powerful strings just for a once a month performance. The end result is I have had to refine my arco technique to the point where any other string designed for arco is very easy for me now to bow.

I try not compare myself to other luminaries/top bass players because to do so is counter productive as we all are at different points on our musical journeys, and each of us has different strengths and abilities as well. Name dropping never improved my playing one iota. Instead, I choose to do the best I can with what I have and work on my technique, which helps the most. Practice makes perfect, so I practice as much as time allows. This pays the big dividends, and is the most noticeably, tangible result of my efforts.

I also always tell everyone who invites me to play bass for them that I am really not a bass player: I am a piano player that found a guitar was more portable, and learned it too, but then found out that there are 30 guitar players for every bass player, which landed me where I am today. Many small band leaders have told me they prefer Double Bass players on bass guitar because they tend not to over play and keep it simple, as opposed to electric bass guitar players who play the bass like a guitar and constantly try to do lead lines. The trouble is finding one that does not have a big head. I know most bass players out there can run circles around me, but just staying in the pocket has it's advantages too: the other players can count on you to be solid and not go off the rails. That alone is one of the biggest lessons/ take away that has pushed me forward in my bass playing: Better to be solid and on key, rather than to try to do things that are over your head and screw them up. Sometimes, less can be more!

You're absolutely right, in the last recording I shared I was rehearsing with a name of jazz in Europe, he met and worked for the greatest musicians. I play with him and if I say I'm not a double bass player, he says that he wouldn't have hired me if I wasn't.
He never complains, I only open my mouth to tell jokes, I don't speak so much.
He likes simplicity but he encourages me to play lines like if I were soloing.
No matter if it's bad, it's good to try, music is made of mistakes, those who never make them are not authentic.
He never complains ? Sometimes he says I'm playing to hard ! He is right, intensity doesn't produce a bigger projection but a loss of sustain and shaped sound.

[coyote-1]

It’s amazing how far deployment of chord tones and leading tones will get you…. EXCELLENT work. Sounds great.

[Lionelsax]

Hi !

This is the only thing I can share but I won't share anymore about this rehearsal... That wasn't so bad but can be largely better (I'm talking about my bass playing).
I won't tell you the people I play with. No name, no place, nothing...

Box

That's the thing to listen to, not the videos, here it's more concrete.

It’s amazing how far deployment of chord tones and leading tones will get you…. EXCELLENT work. Sounds great.