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Do we have any musical people on DC?
40hz:
Sorry I haven't been around much over the last few months - been totally obsessed by my cello!!!
-Carol Haynes (January 26, 2015, 08:39 AM)
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Understandable. Being a bass player, the cello (along with the saxophone) is an instrument I always wanted to take up. Imagine...to be able to play melody for a change...can such a world exist? :)
Carol Haynes:
Sorry I haven't been around much over the last few months - been totally obsessed by my cello!!!
-Carol Haynes (January 26, 2015, 08:39 AM)
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Understandable. Being a bass player, the cello (along with the saxophone) is an instrument I always wanted to take up. Imagine...to be able to play melody for a change...can such a world exist? :)
-40hz (January 26, 2015, 08:54 AM)
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Lots of nice melodies available fro the bass - just a shame they were mostly written for the cello and a damn sight harder to play on the bass.
Cello is inconvenient for travelling but pales into insignificance with double bass hassles (I used to play bass years ago)
My advice it take the plunge - get a cello and go for it - apart from tuning you have a good head start from bass!!
It will be 2 years in March since my first lesson and the obsession become more urgent every day - now playing in 2 orchestras and various ensembles including a cello quartet (great fun) .... :-*
From a concert last week - I am second from the right at the front
40hz:
Cello is inconvenient for travelling but pales into insignificance with double bass hassles (I used to play bass years ago)
-Carol Haynes (January 26, 2015, 09:48 AM)
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Couldn’t agree with you more about travelling with the double bass. And I never humped anything bigger than the 3/4 size. I can only imagine what a nightmare carting the awesome 4/4 would be like. In my "union member" days we used to get a flat "cartage" fee on top of the hourly session fee if the client insisted on hiring someone to play the "doghouse." Needless to say, Leo's Precision and Jazz basses got very popular with booking agents once their clients realized they could save some coin by not automatically insisting on a "real" double bass.
My advice it take the plunge - get a cello and go for it - apart from tuning you have a good head start from bass!!
-Carol Haynes (January 26, 2015, 09:48 AM)
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The tuning isn't a problem in my case. I already use a few alternate tunings on bass and guitar (on those rare occasions I get to play one.) Cello also uses the same "Ron Carter" ascending-5th tuning a piccolo bass uses - so I'm right at home. It would be more a matter of adjusting to the different scale length for me. If I can't close my eyes and (almost) always fret (or stop in the case of cello) the note I'm looking for, I know I have some work ahead of me.
If you play electric bass, give the E A D♭ G♭ tuning a try. (Think top 4 strings of guitar!) It's rather amazing. It does make a few things slightly harder to play than they would be with standard E A D G tuning. And you lose some of that lovely fingering symmetry the standard ascending-4th tuning provides. But it makes more melodic passages noticeably easier and less fatiguing to finger. And it only takes about a half hour to get perfectly comfortable with if you've been playing for a few years - or you have a guitar background, as most of the truly lousy (kidding!) bass players do.
:Thmbsup:
tomos:
It will be 2 years in March since my first lesson and the obsession become more urgent every day - now playing in 2 orchestras and various ensembles including a cello quartet (great fun) .... :-*-Carol Haynes (January 26, 2015, 09:48 AM)
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wow, that's really impressive Carol!
superboyac:
Cello is inconvenient for travelling but pales into insignificance with double bass hassles (I used to play bass years ago)
-Carol Haynes (January 26, 2015, 09:48 AM)
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Couldn’t agree with you more about travelling with the double bass. And I never humped anything bigger than the 3/4 size. I can only imagine what a nightmare carting the awesome 4/4 would be like. In my "union member" days we used to get a flat "cartage" fee on top of the hourly session fee if the client insisted on hiring someone to play the "doghouse." Needless to say, Leo's Precision and Jazz basses got very popular with booking agents once their clients realized they could save some coin by not automatically insisting on a "real" double bass.
-40hz (January 26, 2015, 11:08 AM)
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I'm one of those guys that insists on a real bass! Lol, that's always a tense discussion. Here's a very nice story about the most famous bass I know of: Ray Brown's bass. It happens to be right here in town, being played by his hand-picked protege, John Clayton (and I take lessons from his pianist!). A bass player told me this instrument was referred to as "The Truck" for its size.
I've clipped the story below, it's a good read, from here:
(actually, reading this story, it sounds like the large original bass is with someone else. Ray must have given Mr. Clayton his working bass, I'm guessing the smaller one.)
http://www.talkbass.com/threads/ray-browns-bass.168111/page-2
SpoilerOk, Here goes:
http://www.brentnussey.com/Ray_Brown_bass/RBbass1cr.jpg
I was so excited I forgot to comb my hair!
http://www.brentnussey.com/Ray_Brown_bass/RBbass2.jpg
http://www.brentnussey.com/Ray_Brown_bass/RBbassfront1.jpg
http://www.brentnussey.com/Ray_Brown_bass/RBbassfront2.jpg
http://www.brentnussey.com/Ray_Brown_bass/RBbass_back.jpg
http://www.brentnussey.com/Ray_Brown_bass/RBbass_scroll.jpg
The scans are a not so good, unfortunately. Somehow theres too much blue in there. The wall behind the bass should be just off-white, but its kinda bluey. And theyre kinda blurry, compared to the (very sharp) real photos. Unfortunately, when I try to compensate for it, the pictures get weird artifacts. Maybe someone knows how to fix it
Oh well, I hope you get the idea. If I ever figure out how to make better scans, Ill put them up.
I include the picture of me playing the bass for reference, Im 170cm (57) tall. The shoulders were really big and hard to get around, as Mr. Brown said. I played the bass with the pin all the way in, and it was still tough. But what a sound. Playing this bass was maybe the first time I understood that even though some basses had great recorded sounds, what you hear in the room as another thing entirely.
Mr. Lauder told me that when Ray moved to Toronto in the early 60s, hed had some close calls (damage) touring with the bass, and so they struck up a deal where Ray would take Murrays bass on tour (which was also a good bass, but not this good) and Murray would play Rays bass around town. He did studio and pit work etc. When Ray would come back into town, and Murray got his own bass back, all the producers would ask him Wheres that bass with the holes (in the tuners)? Eventually, Ray bought another bass, by a guy named Silvestre, from a classical teacher of his, which he then traveled with. When Ray moved to LA in 1964, he called Murray towards the end of the year and asked if he wanted the big bass. According to Murray, Ray said that it didnt work well in the studios, it was too loud and bled into the other mics, and was a PITA to carry around. So Murray bought her from Ray. He said when he got her she had all 4 gut strings. Eventually Mr. Lauder changed to metal and had a c-extension added. About a year after these pictures were taken, the bass was sold to Mr. Longenecker. Murray had told me he was going to sell it, and how much he was asking, but told me he wanted to sell it only to a member of the TSO, and that there was a young fellow in the TSO who needed a good bass. The last time I saw the bass in person was just after that sale, and the new owner had put a bridge with really long legs and very little wood above the heart on it. I dont know Mr. Longenecker, but by all accounts hes a great player and a nice guy, so maybe Ill see the bass again someday socially.
So between my conversations with Mr. Brown and Mr. Lauder, the history of the bass is:
circa 1950: Ray finds the bass, with no bridge or strings, in a pawnshop or Mom&Pop music store in NY. He buys it for about 200 bucks (good money then) and takes it to a bass shop in the city, where the guys eyes light up, and Ray knows he has something special. Over the years he has it appraised a bunch of times, and he hears English, Italian, Scotch, etc. Then it turns out its a match for a bass known to be an Amati in England. The bass becomes reputed to be a circa 1640 Amati.
1959/1960: Ray moves to Toronto. Nervous about having his good bass damaged or destroyed in travel, he begins to trade basses with Murray Lauder when on the road. Eventually he buys another bass, by Silvestre, which he travels with.
1964: the Silvestre takes over as Rays main bass. Reasons are mainly that the big one is too big and difficult to play. Also, he thinks this bass sounds better with the new metal strings. In interviews at this time, Ray still refers to the big bass as my best bass. Ray moves to LA, to get off the road and become a studio musician. The big bass is more trouble to carry around, and to play, harder to record, and just plain sounds better with gut strings. Ray has decided to use metal. So for these reasons he decides to sell the bass to someone who already loves it, his old friend Murray Lauder.
early 1992: Murray, in semi-retirement, sells the bass to TSO bassist Dave Longenecker.
2002: Ray passes in July. Murray passes in September.
Postscript: The Amati assertion has always been controversial. Ive talked to at least one guy who says the twin to Rays bass in England is now believed to be a Glassel, made in Marknukeurchen (sp?). To me thats actually great news, theres much more chance of finding another big Markneu
. bass than another Amati :) But it doesnt matter anyway. Mr. Brown always said to pick a bass, close your eyes and listen. If thats the sound you like, then thats the bass for you.
Brent
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