Klarinet Archive - Posting 000220.txt from 2004/09

From: ormondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: RE: [kl] Arrangement for clarinet and ......
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:36:22 -0400

Christy=A0Erickson wrote:

> She certainly would get more use out of a bass
> guitar than an electric violin I imagine.

It was obvious from the store's inventory that electric bass guitars are
popular, but if I may be candid (and please don't tell my daughter that
I said this!), the sound leaves me absolutely cold. But she's happy
for the moment, so I am also.

=3D=3D=3D=3D
Partly this post is for Mark because he used to play bass guitar (I
think), and I'd like to hear if my daughter and I were misled by the
clerk.
=3D=3D=3D=3D

My daughter didn't give me a chance to count frets and locate chords and
try this myself, but the clerk said that chords aren't normally played
on a 4-string bass guitar except occasionally at the top of the guitar's
range because the low chords sound awful. And the clerk didn't want my
daughter to even consider a 5-string bass guitar.

Electronic strings, which are metal because their vibration is detected
magnetically, are !ROUGH! on the fingers compared to gut strings. The
clerk said that some kids get carried away and end up with bleeding
fingers from playing too long. I fingered a couple of scales at the
store, and I can believe that this happens. Evidently there are 'flat
wound' metal strings that are easier on the fingers, but according to
the clerk, "nobody plays them because they sound bad."

Pop music and rock and peer pressure suck kids in certain directions.
Sometimes there's not much a parent can say without being a 'villain'.

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