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Elmeaux
09-29-2011, 03:30 PM
For those who want a real challenge in bass playing, there's a new book of songs out there. If you can master these, you are truly a fine musician!


Zander Zon's Sonorous Songbook (http://www.basslinepublishing.com/zander-zon-sonorous-bass-transcriptions.html)

£14.99 is a bit steep for me...but maybe one day.

:cool:

Silverfox
09-29-2011, 04:48 PM
I am sure I could handle it, unfortunately I do not have a piccolo bass with altered tunings. (lol):)

pilmat
10-30-2011, 08:09 AM
I am sure I could handle it, unfortunately I do not have a piccolo bass with altered tunings. (lol):)

LOL, and I tell my wife I could easily win the Tour de France if I only had Lance's bike...

But on a serious note, however tallented and musical Zander may be, I always wonder about putting the bass in the "front". The bass has a roll, which as I feel it, should be to fill in the bottom and marry rhythm to harmony. It is of course very cool to break that and come forward in a solo, but just as cool to slip into the back when done.

Does Zander have a bass accompanying him?

Just food for thought and my 2 cents...

ArtLiestman
10-30-2011, 10:40 AM
I have to say that I'm always surprised by bassists who express the idea that the bass should primarily play a supporting role in music. I'm even more surprised when the suggestion is made that bass shouldn't be a solo instrument. (That's not exactly what you said, pilmat, but some people do say that.)

Why does a bass have to play a supporting role only?

Our instrument has a "voice" in a particularly low register. Other instruments have their distinct range of pitches, but pitch doesn't imply function.

Let's take this outside. I mean, let's look at something other than electric bass for a moment.

You're no doubt familiar with the song "Danny Boy". Can you hear it in your head? Can you sing it? Are you a soprano, an alto, a tenor, a bass? Should you be allowed to sing the song regardless of your own voice's range? Can you imagine how it sounds sung by a bass voice? Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXScZ4TiSFM&feature=related
That's Paul Robeson who was unfortunate enough to be stuck with a bass voice, but who didn't want to be confined to singing the bass role in a barbershop quartet. :)

To go even further outside, I spent a lot of time studying traditional African percussion music. In some African cultures, the "lead" drummer plays the highest (or one of the highest) pitched drums, but in others the low notes are where the solos lie. Neither is wrong, they are just different traditions.

In European classical music, the bass voice is often used in opera - not as a supporting instrument. Closer to home, the double bass is often relegated to a support role, but there have been compositions featuring the bass as a lead instrument since the 1700's. Haydn wrote a concerto for double bass, for example. In the early 1900's Koussevitzky wrote a lot for double bass soloists. (Check out some videos of Gary Karr on youtube.)

In jazz, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut6LinT-DJI&feature=related
That's Oscar Pettiford with a pianist accompanying him. Pretty nice, I'd say, but the bassist stays out front the whole time.

Music isn't stagnant. It's constantly changing in many directions. New musical types emerge and may become popular (or not). Imagine playing some Motown tunes in a concert hall in Vienna in 1780. That would be extremely weird (and probably off-putting) to the audience, but we think of it as classic - very natural. Adolf Sax invented the saxophone around 1849. My guess is that he never would have envisioned John Coltrane.

The electric bass is a much newer instrument. The instrument itself and techniques are still evolving. The bass will be used in music that we haven't yet imagined. The most important popular music of 2075 may be unaccompanied solo bass with teflon strings and a whammy bar. (I don't expect that to happen, but it might.)

Back to the original subject - what is the "role" of the electric bass? My personal feeling is that it isn't just to add "slap and pop" sounds. I prefer more melodic tones - fingers or pick, both are fine for me. I like bass players inserting chords in their accompaniment. I like bass solos - not inherently, but by players who have something interesting to "say". But those are just my preferences. It's fine with me if someone wants to do nothing but slapping, but I probably wouldn't stick around for too long unless they did something that really amazed me.

What about the solo bass? This discussion started with Zander Zon. I quite like his music. Does he ever play as an accompanist? I don't know, but that doesn't make his music less listenable to me.

For my own tastes, one of the most interesting and listenable bassists around these days is Michael Manring. He does accompany people, playing a more traditional supportive role, but he makes some wonderful music as a solo bassist. Yes, he uses altered tunings and detuners on some of his basses. These add some possibilities that you probably don't have on a pre-CBS P bass, for example. But he uses them in imaginative musical ways. If you don't know his music, get yourself to youtube and try a few different pieces. It may not be to your taste, but give it a listen.

To end, I'd just like to suggest that we keep an open mind about the possibilities that our chosen instrument presents. We shouldn't restrict it's use to a single genre or to a limited role in supporting other musicians. We can make some wonderful sounds. Let's use them creatively. Each of us will, naturally, focus on the genres and roles that we want to explore, but let's support our fellow bassists in their own explorations.

Party on!