upright and electic

[00:00:01]Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening. I want to share something, a question that was sent to me on Instagram about uh upright bass and electric bass.

[00:00:15]Let me tell you, uh if we haven't met yet, my name is Ted and I talk bass.

[00:00:20]My goal here is to help bass players make bass make sense. No more, no less.

[00:00:28]So, if you're into that kind of thing, hit the hit the hit the button. Okay.

[00:00:33]So, seriously, um I played upright bass in college.

[00:00:41]And when I first started, I had been playing electric bass for many, many years.

[00:00:46]Uh and you know, first people would say, some people would say, "Oh, it's just the like the electric bass, but it is inverted." I don't believe that. They're two different instruments, okay? Um for several reasons. They are in the same register, but they're two different instruments. But, I want to talk about similarities with the landscape of both instruments.

[00:01:16]Starting in the first position here.

[00:01:20]So, on electric bass, a lot of times you know, we we will hear this one finger per fret thing.

[00:01:27]>> [music] >> And folks will get caught up in doing that.

[00:01:32]But, here's the thing that you got to remember about the one finger per per fret.

[00:01:37]That really comes from a guitar player paradigm. What do I mean by that?

[00:01:44]Understand that the highest the excuse me uh the highest section of the electric bass >> [music] >> is the lowest part of the electric guitar. That makes sense?

[00:02:08]All right.

[00:02:09]So, sometimes, depending on the scale of your instrument, you don't necessarily want to be rambling around with the one finger per fret.

[00:02:20]You don't You don't necessarily need to.

[00:02:22]You need me I'm going to I'm speaking loosely here.

[00:02:25]You know, case-by-case basis. But, let me show you the similarities.

[00:02:30]So, on upright, when you learn your F major scale, right?

[00:02:37]First scales I learned on upright bass were F and B flat. Watch this.

[00:02:45]>> [music] >> I just pulled this bass off the wall. I haven't played in a while.

[00:02:53]So, let's make sure we got some some okay-ish tuning.

[00:03:01]>> [laughter] >> So, watch this.

[00:03:06]>> [music] >> I'm using one, two, and four.

[00:03:13]>> [music] >> Now, if I go up a fourth, I'm play the key of B flat, >> [music] >> the shape is the same. Everything is the same. I just move the key center up a fourth.

[00:03:31]>> [music] >> Okay? There is a book There is a book that I think is great.

[00:03:45]It's called 30 Etudes. It's a Simandl book. So, when you get into the upright world, there's these schools of thought.

[00:03:53]Dragonetti, and you've got um Simandl, right? Methods, right? So, >> [music] >> what will happen on upright is you wind up with a fingering or a a hand shape that's sort of like this.

[00:04:18]Okay?

[00:04:19]Sort of like this claw shape.

[00:04:22]Because a lot of times when you especially when you're starting out on upright, you're not really using that ring finger as much.

[00:04:33]>> [music] >> But if you caught the live stream last night, this is what I was talking about.

[00:04:38]This finger and this finger are kind of working in conjunction with each other.

[00:04:42]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Those little classical uh style A2s and stuff, they're great. They're great. Um let me show you now. So, I that was >> [music] >> F major and B flat major.

[00:05:20]>> [music] >> Now, if I bring it up if I bring up the key to a fourth up, I'll go to E flat major, now there's some shifting involved. Then I got to talk about that.

[00:05:34]Let's stick to this um first position.

[00:05:37]What about E major?

[00:05:41]>> [music] >> What am I doing?

[00:05:48]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Open E, F sharp, G, open A, B, [music] C sharp.

[00:06:09]D sharp and I can shift there.

[00:06:12]>> [music] >> Micro shift.

[00:06:19]>> [music] >> That doesn't really make sense for me to do what I just did.

[00:06:26]Now, if I move that up a fourth, I'm going to A.

[00:06:30]>> [music] >> The same shape.

[00:06:38]Understanding those relationships between fourths, what a fourth is, is super key.

[00:06:49]Western harmony typically moves in fourths.

[00:06:54]Take the same idea with a closed uh with a closed shape. Let's do uh G major.

[00:07:02]Now, this is a That is really a one finger per fret idea right there.

[00:07:12]>> [music] >> You know, even though I'm not playing all of them, my fingers are kind of you know, mostly spanning four frets, all right? But, you can still see this you know, this kind of idea, like I said before, that's from my time playing upright. And I'll be honest with you, I was a very mediocre upright player. But, you got to work your ass off to be a mediocre upright player. I I I know from experience. You got to work I Listen.

[00:07:41]I earned my bachelor's playing upright.

[00:07:45]Don't know how that happened, but here [clears throat] we are.

[00:07:48]>> [music] [music] >> Right?

[00:07:57]But, I can also see this like this.

[00:08:02]>> [music] [music] >> Now, I'm kind of compressing that shape, not putting so much strain where it doesn't need to be, okay? So, like when you are learning scales, your modes, which are also scales, all of that stuff, you start to experiment with in my opinion, different ways of addressing the the the the phrase or the passage or whatever, right?

[00:08:47]Efficiency is key. I'm always looking like, "Well, what is the most efficient thing to do?"

[00:08:53]Right? What can I do repeatedly at any tempo without causing myself an injury?

[00:09:02]Right? And I've been playing for since '83, and I've had very, very few injuries from playing this instrument.

[00:09:13]I am not giving medical advice, though.

[00:09:16]So, anyway, just something to think about with the lower position.

[00:09:22]So, if you wanted to practice your, you know, F major, >> [music] >> B flat major, >> [music] >> Right? Now, we're not going to go to E flat major cuz I don't Well, yes, we are.

[00:09:48]>> [music] [music] >> You start discovering oh, dang.

[00:10:03]>> [music] >> Different places to shift.

[00:10:11]>> [music] [music] >> Right?

[00:10:23]E major >> [music] >> A major >> [music] >> Now, D >> [music] >> What?

[00:10:44]These headphones be coloring my ears sometimes. Not all the time.

[00:10:49]>> [music] >> Where would I shift?

[00:10:56]Nah.

[00:10:58]>> [music] [music] >> Right?

[00:11:15]Cuz I'm talking too fast is what's going on. Okay.

[00:11:21]Anyway, these are quick tips. I don't want to ramble too long. Just wanted to put that out and I really wanted to share it with the person who sent me the message on Instagram.

[00:11:32]And hopefully someone else you else can catch it and find value in it.

[00:11:37][laughter] Again, my name is Ted and I talk bass.

[00:11:41]If you need help making bass make sense, hit that subscribe button. I'll see you next time. Peace.