Klarinet Archive - Posting 000221.txt from 2004/09

From: charette@-----.org
Subj: RE: [kl] Arrangement for clarinet and ......
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 15:34:14 -0400


> ==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.

True, and good advice. The 4-string has been standard for quite a long
time. There are very rare occasions when a bass will play _2_ notes, never
mind chords. BTW, my youngest son started playing bass a few months back.
It's amazing what a $150 bass gets you nowadays! Pretty good sound and
near spot-on intonation after a couple of hours working on a stock bridge!

> 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."

Flat wound sound just fine - I played them almost exclusively in my
jazz-playing days - but don't have much high-end punch, more of a "thud"
(I used flat-wound over nylon - with some sound shaping it was hard to
tell from an acoustic bass). She'll get callouses in a few months, and
won't bleed anymore unless she plays a 4 or 5 nights of 6 hour gigs
without a rest in between. Then, a blister forms under the callous and the
callous gets torn off. All the blood that drips out ruins the strings,
too, and bass strings aren't cheap! :)

> 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'.

Nothing wrong with rock & pop & such. Listen to some of the bass lines.
They ain't easy, and there's a lot of technique to become familiar with,
never mind worrying about 5 or 6 strings.

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