Unusual Bass Technique

[Farview]

You must have been part of the Chicago music scene. It was stupid like that there

Being process driven is not what you are talking about. It is when you do the same thing the same way every time because it's the "right way" to do it... even if the results could be better.

Being results oriented is when someone is not invested in how it gets done (the process), just as long as the results are what they want.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

You must have been part of the Chicago music scene.

A juvenile part of it.

every time because it's the "right way" to do it... even if the results could be better.

High school didn't reward you for being different.

 

[Farview]

But guess which type of people tend to be the most successful.

I don't remember high school as being a high water mark for much of anything, and it seemed even worse when my daughter went through it 20 years ago. I doubt it's gotten better.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

But guess which type of people tend to be the most successful.

Juveniles? high schoolers? Nah that doesnt sound right..

The people that were filthy rich to begin..

if you think stringing your shit upside down will give the edge, go for it. Don't come crying to me when Julliard shakes their fat heads.

 

[grimtraveller]

Some people are process based and others are results based. Both have their place.

Precisely. I am not processed based at all when it comes to music. I am in other things, but not music and recording. My sole aim is the end product. That doesn't mean that I think that the process based players are wrong, though. My approach in music has always been that everything goes, so long as one knows the appropriate time to bring whatever is going.

Give yourself?
Study?
A master?

That was a simple illustration of the diversity of approaches different peoples bring to the learning of a musical instrument.

What the hell are you into Grim

Nothing, hopefully, that will get me arrested.

That is training over time

I agree ~🌬 however you happen 🌪 to do it.

A guitar..That will require rewiring the brain a bit more

I play a series of instruments { below averagely !} and my brain requires re-wiring whichever, even going from bass guitar to double bass. To me, even the fretted and fretless basses are different from each other, as is acoustic and electric guitar.

Why? Why string upside down anything?

That just happens to be the way the instrument presents itself to the player initially sometimes, and they just go with it that way.
Some might do it just to see if it gives them an edge or a slightly different sound. There are many different ways of creating music. Because Paul McCartney taught John Lennon how to play proper guitar chords and played left-handed, John learned them backwards. He had to play them in the mirror to get the chords the right way around. Or so he said.

Playing is training, so who cares what's easiest. We dont do things because they are easy, we do them because they are hard

I don't think in those terms. I do the things I happen to be interested in, whether they turn out to be easy or hard. If hard, I'll find a way to make it work.

If you strum a upside guitar for what..the sound of the up rake on a down?

I don't know. If you ever come across someone that plays that way, ask them.

 

[grimtraveller]

Don't come crying to me when Julliard shakes their fat heads.

Rest assurred !

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

I play a series of instruments { below averagely !} and my brain requires re-wiring whichever, even going from bass guitar to double bass. To me, even the fretted and fretless basses are different from each other, as is acoustic and electric guitar.

That is great man. There are plenty of benefits to being multi instrumental. I am sure you play nicely too. The different aspects and points of view in the designs are fun to investigate. Even funner to play with. A friend was showing me some ethnic instruments around Gaelic fest. Talk about weird and unusual. The drums and percussion have such great natural sounds. Such different feeling and playing styles. Look up the Bodhran. They had this rhythm experience happening with women with castanets and tambourines. Then men with Irish drums thumping. It was crazy.

I get it, the kids learn 'wrong' faster. Little bastards.

 

[grimtraveller]

There are plenty of benefits to being multi instrumental

I think so.
In a way, being multi-instrumental has been instrumental {} in learning how to use VSTIs well. In the same way that being a bass player and having to learn to get to grips with a keyboards instrument or a guitar or mandolin required a very different mental application, utilizing VSTIs is kind of the same thing, but sort of in reverse. Whereas I'd approach, say, guitar, from a bass player's weird perspective, thinking of guitar parts and/or chords, the way I'd think of putting in bass parts, with a VSTI, it has always been important to approach the actual playing from the perspective of the player of that instrument, but thinking in terms of how I play bass, which is kind of bizarre.

I am sure you play nicely too

Take my advice ¬> don't stake your life on that !

The different aspects and points of view in the designs are fun to investigate

Whereas, I'm not sure that 'fun' is quite the word I'd use, I get what you mean and generally agree.

Look up the Bodhran

Having been into Celtic {particularly Irish} folk for the last 34 or so years, I've gained a healthy appreciation for the Bodhran. It's by no means my favourite percussion instrument, but I do love its tones. Over the years, it's been used it on a few of my songs.

They had this rhythm experience happening with women with castanets and tambourines

There are very few percussion instruments that I don't like or wouldn't use. I use percussion fairly extensively. I'll even use my laps or keys or pots and pans as instruments.
Percussion is a funny thing. So often it's merely an afterthought. For me, it's fundamental.

I get it, the kids learn 'wrong' faster

I think people learning an instrument learn as they learn. I don't think the speed of learning is dependent on the methodology ~ it's the individual in question.

 

[rob aylestone]

Played today with a guy on harmonica - and he's a leftie and has the low notes to his right!

 

[grimtraveller]

Played today with a guy on harmonica - and he's a leftie and has the low notes to his right!

I'm a lame harmonica player, but I sometimes do that. Sometimes, I'll be jumping between 2 harmonicas {say, a D and a G one} and it's easier to play one of them {or sometimes both} like I'm left.......mouthed.

 

[Orson]

That is great man. There are plenty of benefits to being multi instrumental. I am sure you play nicely too. The different aspects and points of view in the designs are fun to investigate. Even funner to play with. A friend was showing me some ethnic instruments around Gaelic fest. Talk about weird and unusual. The drums and percussion have such great natural sounds. Such different feeling and playing styles. Look up the Bodhran. They had this rhythm experience happening with women with castanets and tambourines. Then men with Irish drums thumping. It was crazy.

I get it, the kids learn 'wrong' faster. Little bastards.

Have you ever seen the Uilleann pipes Beaky? They can sound exceptional with some songs. Also very haunting sometimes. Great when not played fast. A lot of Irish music is always played as fast as possible. 'Diddly doo' music we call it.

 

[Mick Doobie]

Have you ever seen the Uilleann pipes Beaky? They can sound exceptional with some songs. Also very haunting sometimes. Great when not played fast. A lot of Irish music is always played as fast as possible. 'Diddly doo' music we call it.

Hauntingly beautiful, at times mournful, caressing the soul. An example of use, although I do believe actually played on keys to simulate pipes, Zeppelin's In The Light.

 

[dfackler]

When I was at school I experienced a lot of grief for being left-handed and not being able to write legibly with my right. This wasn't me "being difficult". It is how my brain is wired. My left-hand writing was pretty good, but that was unaceptable at that time.

As years went by I discovered I wasn't totally left-handed. There are things I do with my left hand, and other things with my right, but I'm not ambidextrous. I can't do the same thing (e.g. use a hammer) with either hand. It's always one or the other (hammer and most tools only with left hand, but scissors only with right hand). When I first picked up a guitar, I automatically played it right-hand.

I am a lefty as well. My dad wanted to switch me over, but my fourth grade teacher convinced him not to. I later made my living as a (French) horn player(which fingers with left hand!) for 35 years. In high school I learned to play guitar and bass right-handed-- putting my 'smart' hand on the frets, and rationalizing that righty instruments would be much easier to find.

The favorite uncle taught me to fish and shoot righty for similar reasons.

I can't manage a hand saw right-handed to save my life.

Years ago, there was a lefty violinist in the Buffalo Philharmonic. She played 'backwards', had a stand partner and sat 'outside' in the first violin section. I never witnessed any collisions. I don't know whether she had a custom violin.

My six year old grandson is strongly left-handed. Makes me smile. He's attracted to my mando-- he'll learn righty for the above reasons.

Living in my 'right' mind,

d

 

[ashcat_lt]

Jeez why is anybody actually upset about this?

My best friend in school was lefty and when he got a guitar, his mom wouldn’t let him restring it because she thought Hendrix played upside down. She was wrong, I think, but I had been playing a while, and to teach him, I had to sort of learn to play upside down. He still can’t actually play, but that’s not my fault.

OTOH, my brother has always plays a proper lefty guitar and can’t play upside down. He gets left out of every impromptu jam because there’s never a lefty guitar just laying around. He also gets mad at me when I pick up his guitar and play it upside down.

I actually did buy a cheap lefty Strat because I remembered back to the times John and I played and how it was a little interesting having one guitar attack the chords the opposite direction and wanted to have that option for recordings.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Have you ever seen the Uilleann pipes Beaky? They can sound exceptional with some songs. Also very haunting sometimes. Great when not played fast. A lot of Irish music is always played as fast as possible. 'Diddly doo' music we call it.

The Didgeridoo is an awesome instrument. African or Australian(..Straylia). Powerful. Loud.

I would make Didgeridoo music all day long.

 

[ashcat_lt]

Has anybody mentioned how "real" string instruments (violin, cello...) and even mandolins are basically tuned upside down from guitar? A fifth is just an inverted fourth. Yes the strings get higher in the direction we're used to, but the intervals string to string and chord shapes are the same as for a guitarist playing upside down.