ArtLiestman
07-18-2011, 06:28 PM
Greetings, all.
I've come to TMBG and bass playing as my career is moving towards retirement (in a couple of years, I hope).
I've been interested in music all of my life. Both my mother and grandmother were both piano teachers, so I heard a lot of music growing up. I studied guitar as a teenager and enjoyed playing mostly on my own.
As a graduate student (in computer science, not music), I spent my evenings in local jazz clubs and eventually decided to take up the acoustic bass. I took lessons for a couple of years through the University, learning mostly classical technique for bowed bass. I also had an electric bass to play with, but never had the time to be serious about it. I enjoyed both basses, but didn't really progress very far.
Near the end of my graduate career, I got interested in African drumming and spent the next 30+ years regarding myself as a hand drummer (in addition to my day job as a University professor). I was good enough to play with other players who were full-time professionals, did a lot of playing locally and even a bit of touring further afield. Of course, this has nothing much to do with bass playing other than explaining why I didn't continue with the bass.
I was drawn back into the bass world when I first saw a video of the Kala U-bass. That appealed to me as a small instrument that might easily fit into my house (compared to that acoustic bass that I used to own) and that would be easier on my older hands. When I learned that a solid body was coming out, I got very excited and ordered one.
While waiting for my bass to arrive, I learned about TMBG and decided to take the plunge. My black solid body four string U-bass arrived about 10 days ago and I launched into the course. I've also picked up some other books and am considering looking for a local teacher who could handle a mature student with a smattering of relevant background and a decidedly non-conventional instrument.
For what it's worth, the solid body U-bass is a very nice instrument. From what I can tell, it has a broader spectrum of tones than it's hollow bodied sibling. I may want to add a more conventional bass one of these days, but this will keep me quite busy in the short term.
Is there anyone else out there with a U-bass? Anyone else with ONLY a U-bass? I hope this doesn't make me an immediate outcast in the Thunder Row family. So it goes.
Thanks for reading this. I look forward to learning more from the forum.
I've come to TMBG and bass playing as my career is moving towards retirement (in a couple of years, I hope).
I've been interested in music all of my life. Both my mother and grandmother were both piano teachers, so I heard a lot of music growing up. I studied guitar as a teenager and enjoyed playing mostly on my own.
As a graduate student (in computer science, not music), I spent my evenings in local jazz clubs and eventually decided to take up the acoustic bass. I took lessons for a couple of years through the University, learning mostly classical technique for bowed bass. I also had an electric bass to play with, but never had the time to be serious about it. I enjoyed both basses, but didn't really progress very far.
Near the end of my graduate career, I got interested in African drumming and spent the next 30+ years regarding myself as a hand drummer (in addition to my day job as a University professor). I was good enough to play with other players who were full-time professionals, did a lot of playing locally and even a bit of touring further afield. Of course, this has nothing much to do with bass playing other than explaining why I didn't continue with the bass.
I was drawn back into the bass world when I first saw a video of the Kala U-bass. That appealed to me as a small instrument that might easily fit into my house (compared to that acoustic bass that I used to own) and that would be easier on my older hands. When I learned that a solid body was coming out, I got very excited and ordered one.
While waiting for my bass to arrive, I learned about TMBG and decided to take the plunge. My black solid body four string U-bass arrived about 10 days ago and I launched into the course. I've also picked up some other books and am considering looking for a local teacher who could handle a mature student with a smattering of relevant background and a decidedly non-conventional instrument.
For what it's worth, the solid body U-bass is a very nice instrument. From what I can tell, it has a broader spectrum of tones than it's hollow bodied sibling. I may want to add a more conventional bass one of these days, but this will keep me quite busy in the short term.
Is there anyone else out there with a U-bass? Anyone else with ONLY a U-bass? I hope this doesn't make me an immediate outcast in the Thunder Row family. So it goes.
Thanks for reading this. I look forward to learning more from the forum.