Members FrankDeets Posted November 16, 2014 Members Share Posted November 16, 2014 Hey yall my name is Frank and I am an upright bassist. I primarily focus on contemporary music and free improvisation. If you like improvising on your bass then I want to talk with you. I love improvising and thats why I started my career as a solo bassist about a year ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted November 18, 2014 Members Share Posted November 18, 2014 Welcome Frank. We need some new posters contributing here. I haven't touched an upright bass since I was a kid and played violin in an orchestra. My main instrument is Guitar but I've played bass just as long. I play nearly 100% original music now and all my parts are written and recorded on the spot as I play so I regard improvision as the highest form of free musical communication. I occasionally have to work through a part to get my hands to do what my mind is hearing, but for the most part, its all one take recordings. I have other friends of mine who are also into free improvision and we've recorded at least a thousand songs over the past 10 years, all written on the spot without any preconceived ideas before we played. We even thought about playing live writing all the music including the lyrics on the spot. Unfortunately my drummer got sick and he's still getting some Kemo. It took several years playing together before we learned to read each others minds and anticipate where the others were going at any given second. Jazz players do this all the time but we applied that methodology to Rock/Blues/Pop/Alternative & Jazz mix stuff and its worked extremely well. We don't target a specific genre we target what sounds great to us. The other guitarist has a gift for writing lyrics on the spot, I can pull riffs, leads and bass, out of my back pocket at will and the drummer is just plain inspiring. Its hard to find other musicians with that gift. Most are slaves to other peoples music and the locks to those chains are so rusted they can never break free of their security and walk that path beyond what they've rehearsed. That security can make them good musicians up to a point but they are the anchors that keep them grounded at the same time. I did the highly structured and practiced thing too in dozens of club bands, and that is a necessary discipline to master, but I always loved the jam thing too. and wrote my songs around many of those formats where you could let several musicians take turns doing their thing. Lately I been doing 100% solo recordings playing all the parts. I guess the part I like the least is writing lyrics. I can do it well enough and can pour out allot of good material in a short period of time, its just getting motivated and coming up with inspired themes that haven't been used too much. Like with my music I may write many sheets of lyrics then pick and choose which may fit a song, then adlib them in to fit properly. I rarely have a problem with melody/harmonies, its just the written content has to be there to work with. My memory tends to be photographic so conjuring individual words has never been a strong suit for me. Give me one good line of words and I can modify it into a verse in an instant. Like anything if you do it enough you'll become better then the next guy who only does it on occasion. Anyway, its good to have you here. How long have you been playing and what kind of musical roots do you come from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted November 19, 2014 Members Share Posted November 19, 2014 I'm a guitarist who noodles on bass and I think I may have tried playing a standup bass twice. Welcome aboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators ThudMaker Posted November 19, 2014 Moderators Share Posted November 19, 2014 Welcome to the forum, Frank! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FrankDeets Posted November 24, 2014 Author Members Share Posted November 24, 2014 Thanks for the welcome yall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FrankDeets Posted November 24, 2014 Author Members Share Posted November 24, 2014 I've been playing for about 14 years. I come from a classical and jazz background. But I've done a lot of folk music and thats where i really learned to truly listen to music. I am the type of jazz bassist that grew up in big bands with no amplification so I know a thing or two about plucking the strings and getting my sound out. I did get a B.A. in music from West Virginia University. I started my masters at Shenandoah Conservatory for classical performance but dropped out because I was improvising all the time in my practice session and decided to pursue the career as a freelance musician. good to meet you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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