Anyone here playing Bach on your Guild bass?

lungimsam

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I know someone is/was.

1. What Bach ya' playin'?
2. Why?
3. How?

1. I'm playin' Bach Organ Trio Sonatas -pedal line. IV Sonata in Eminor is really beautiful.
2. For fun and to have something to practice to improve my sight reading.
3. I listen to Christopher Herrick's organ recording and play along. Not up to speed yet. I slow it down with Amazing Slow Downer app. But I'm getting faster quickly.
On my Ricky4003 so far. But I need to bust out the Starfire and hear it on there, too. I sometimes use fingers. Sometimes pic.
 

fronobulax

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I know someone is/was.

1. What Bach ya' playin'?
2. Why?
3. How?

1. I'm playin' Bach Organ Trio Sonatas -pedal line. IV Sonata in Eminor is really beautiful.
2. For fun and to have something to practice to improve my sight reading.
3. I listen to Christopher Herrick's organ recording and play along. Not up to speed yet. I slow it down with Amazing Slow Downer app. But I'm getting faster quickly.
On my Ricky4003 so far. But I need to bust out the Starfire and hear it on there, too. I sometimes use fingers. Sometimes pic.

1) Depends. I have J. S. Bach for Bass and J. S. Bach for Electric Bass which I acquired in Ye Olden Times before the internet was a reliable source for music. I have poked at various pieces in each. There is a Bouree in one of them that I inadvertently memorized and it has become my go to piece when I pick up an instrument and need to remind myself what my fingers are supposed to do. I did a lot of work on the Prelude to the First Cello Suite. It was in one of the books but with both tab and notation it was ten pages long. When I looked for something that was just notation I started finding differences between the sources. Finally my teacher made his own transcription.

2) Because it's Bach. My roots are in classical music and so I am quite comfortable with reading music and trying to play what is on the page. So when I was self teaching I gravitated towards something that I was familiar with. When (after decades of neglect) I started taking lessons to try and raise my bass game it just seemed natural to revisit Bach and see what I could do now. Trying to play Bach usually forces me out of my comfort zone (on the neck) and fix sloppy picking hand technique. I also like the challenge of figuring out where to play something and justifying my choice. For me it is fun, somewhat familiar and requires me to improve in certain neglected areas. I have not reached the point where I incorporate Bach into my own playing/improvisation but I was greatly amused when I was working through a Steely Dan transcription and realized that I already "knew" one riff because of Bach induced muscle memory.
3) I read music so that is mostly where I start. I listen to recordings but not necessarily to learn notes. I also sing in choirs and I have, upon occasion, decided I wanted to play Bach's bass line to a chorale and so have tried that from memory. I never use a pic so it is always fingers. I'm using my Betts Bass, in part because with 24 frets, playing above the 12th is slightly easier for me on that instrument.

With all that, when I was getting discouraged trying to play the Cello Prelude, I discovered two books by Bugra Balci. He is a composer and bass player and wrote two collections of etudes for bass, in the style of Bach. I am getting a lot out of these and they play differently since they were written for bass as opposed to transcribed from another instrument.
 

Minnesota Flats

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I've been told that my playing is all fugue-ed up, but I guess that isn't quite the same...
 
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Minnesota Flats

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I've actually composed a few Bach-flavored country & western tunes while hangin' around the ol' chorale.

Yippie-tie-yi-yoratorio!
 

chazmo

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Here you go. I've been working on this. My impression is that PDQ Bach was meant to be played on a prone bass. ;)

tumblr_m7enacJV4U1rqq1deo1_500.jpg
 

gilded

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I used to play the left hand part on a few of the Bach Inventions on my JS II fretless, back in the '70s.
 

jeffcoop

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I play the Bach/Paul Simon collaboration, "American Tune." As close as I'll get.
 

mgod

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This thread needs a "like" button.
 

planetguy

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no money playing that stuff....you'll go baroque. (groan)
 

Minnesota Flats

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"The man in the trench coat
Bach out, laid off
Says he’s got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off"
 
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