Thread: Jazz arco!
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Old 06-19-2011, 06:49 PM
Eduardo Barbosa Eduardo Barbosa is offline
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@Terry, I have playing Jazz with the bow, or any pop music I guess...
I feel that is really hard to get the articulation right. The accents on 2 and 4, an on the upbeats of 8th note phrasing. I also feel a lack of inspiration because 99% of jazz bassists have the same problem, on top of having some real bad intonation problems.
Also, if you noticed I have to hold the bow at a bit of an angle. When I play jazz I have the bass a little lower than when I play classical, because I feel like I can dig in more and transfer more of the weight of my arm into the pizz. That makes bowing especially challenging.
Trouble is... as I started doing it on some chick singer gigs I developed a taste for the damn thing!
Anyway, there is yet another aspect about it that I hate. Many times at rehearsal and/or recording sessions some chick singer will turn to you and ask "what if you tried something with the bow?" . But turns out they dont' have any idea of what they want or even what they are about to hear. And it is pretty much a novelty act.
Amazingly anything I play with the bow gets positive audience reaction, which sort of infuriates me. it's a little like I just finished playing Giant Steps on electric bass and the next thing is some dumb tune in Em, and I play a stupid slap solo with pentatonics, and sure enough, people will go crazy for it!
I hope that as I get better doing it, as I am committed to start practicing syncopation with the bow more often, maybe I will enjoy it more.

@Bin, Thank you!
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