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Starting a no-guitars rock band - tips, experiences?


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To keep things fresh and full, the idea is to keep my left hand always on a crunchy wurly/clav/hammond sound to fill in as rhythm guitar... at least on octaves doubling with the bass line... and to keep things interesting, I can play a bit of left hand bass to allow the bassist some stretching... If the guy knows how to uswe his wahs/overdrives/octave pedals, then we´re talk something REALLY interesting here...

 

Another keyboardist would free my left hand... but would be one more difficult position to find... and I defnitely would lose some of the spontaneity that the trio plus vocals approach would give me... But that´s one possibility too...

 

About Ben Folds Five, I like his sound, but for this band specifically, find it a little bit on the clean-piano rock side in opposition for the dirtier approach I´m leaning towards... But his bass player and drummer seems to play like those guys I´d like to have playing with me, in your face approach and stuff...

 

 

 

 

My drawbars go to eleven.

Gear: Roland VR-09, Nord Electro 2 61, Korg CX-3. Hear my music: facebook.com/smokestoneband

 

 

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My current band started out as a guitar-less and bass-less quartet: keys, sax, drums, and a vocalist/rapper. In addition to our originals, we did a lot of covers of heavier music, like Zeppelin, Hendrix, Sabbath and Slayer, and kind of prided ourselves on our strict no-guitar policy. Our sax player uses a lot of pedals, and can get some amazing distorted sounds, and I played a lot of grindy Hammond, plus we have a killer drummer, so it worked. That lineup gigged for about a year and that version of the band was a lot of fun!

 

We've since added a guitarist and a percussionist, and the band is still a lot of fun. Why add the guitar? We'd always said that the only guitarist we would allow in the band was this one guy we all had played with before and we all totally loved his playing. He's an amazingly creative player, awesome soloist and great writer. We booked a show with his trio, and the other guys in his band backed out, so we just asked him to sit in, everything clicked, and he's been in the band since then. I'm still playing LH bass, though.

 

One of my fantasy bands is a trio of 2 keys players and a drummer, with the keys players trading off on bass chores. Seems like there is a lot of possibility in a band like that, I just haven't found the other keyboardist yet.

Turn up the speaker

Hop, flop, squawk

It's a keeper

-Captain Beefheart, Ice Cream for Crow

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One of my fantasy bands is a trio of 2 keys players and a drummer, with the keys players trading off on bass chores. Seems like there is a lot of possibility in a band like that, I just haven't found the other keyboardist yet.

 

Amem! I'd love to do something like that, if only you were in Florida. Ever saw one in action? check this out.

 

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUIiR5VxgvE

 

 

"The purple piper plays his tune, The choir softly sing; Three lullabies in an ancient tongue, For the court of the crimson king"
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Seems like I've done a lot of gigs without a guitarist ... since you have vocals, I see no reason why a guitarless rock band would be a problem! Keys are such that you can be very creative with sound palette ... Ben Folds to (some) Coldplay to Stevie Wonder (adding a sax player or even just a small horn section would really be awesome if you're going the funky R&B route) to Depeche Mode to, who's that guy who wrote that 70s tune "Dream Weaver" (I think he bragged once that his album did not have any guitars on it) ... there are soooo many directions you could go.

 

I am aware that some of the bands I mentioned above use guitars ... but they are so keyboard-heavy it seems you could capture the vibe without.

 

Original Latin Jazz

CD Baby

 

"I am not certain how original my contribution to music is as I am obviously an amateur." Patti Smith

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One of my fantasy bands is a trio of 2 keys players and a drummer, with the keys players trading off on bass chores. Seems like there is a lot of possibility in a band like that, I just haven't found the other keyboardist yet.

 

How far away from me do you live? :D

Original Latin Jazz

CD Baby

 

"I am not certain how original my contribution to music is as I am obviously an amateur." Patti Smith

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(though they do have a bass guitar).

 

:mad:

 

it's an electric bass, not a guitar with missing strings.

 

:taz:

 

It's the same scale as an upright bass, only smaller, fretted, and needing amplification.

 

keep it up and I'll start calling your Hammond an "electric piano" :evil:

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(though they do have a bass guitar).

 

:mad:

 

it's an electric bass, not a guitar with missing strings.

 

:taz:

 

It's the same scale as an upright bass, only smaller, fretted, and needing amplification.

 

keep it up and I'll start calling your Hammond an "electric piano" :evil:

 

Do you mean the bass guitar on the video? :rolleyes:

"The purple piper plays his tune, The choir softly sing; Three lullabies in an ancient tongue, For the court of the crimson king"
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Do you mean the bass guitar on the video? :rolleyes:

 

Guitar:

http://www.coolguitarshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/acoustic-guitar.jpg

Electric Guitar:

http://www.guitarlearningbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/electric-guitar-chords-for-beginners.jpeg

 

Bass:

http://musicalmart.net/shop/images/Upright_Bass.jpg

Electric Bass:

http://images.guitarcenter.com/products/full/Dean/632866249664036162.jpg

 

Bass Guitar:

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/321385220/Double_neck_acoustic_guitar_12strings_with_4string.jpg

 

Electric Bass Guitar:

http://www.lordonly.net/Images/John/lojtric1.jpg

 

Questions?

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Do you mean the bass guitar on the video? :rolleyes:

 

[snip]

 

Questions?

Yeah, what does the company that invented the instrument call it? Let's check.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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Do you mean the bass guitar on the video? :rolleyes:

 

[snip]

 

Questions?

Yeah, what does the company that invented the instrument call it? Let's check.

 

LOL. :thu:

 

I don't know that you will ever change Griff. He is a guitarist after all. The philharmonic once posted auditions for double bass and he showed up with this. :laugh:

 

http://doubleneckguitarguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/galveston_double_guitar_bass1.jpg

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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I find it amusing that you reference the Wikipedia article for "Bass Guitar".

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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I find it amusing that you reference the Wikipedia article for "Bass Guitar".

 

It was a redirect from "Electric Bass"

 

From the reference material at bottom of the article:

 

The proper term is "electric bass", and it is often misnamed "bass guitar", according to Tom Wheeler, The Guitar Book, pp 1012. Guitars by Evans and Evans, page 342, agrees.

 

So do I.

 

I don't understand why it's so hard to comprehend this significant semantic difference. You don't play the bass the same as you do the guitar. It lives in an entirely different frequency range (unless you play Nu-metal and your guitarist has a 7-string drop-tuned to Ab :freak: ). It serves an entirely different function in an ensemble. The only things they have in common is general shape (thanks to Fender), general design of pickups, and the existence of frets (optional on a bass).

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Yeah, what does the company that invented the instrument call it? Let's check.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bass_guitar#History

 

Fender didn't invent it. :P

Okay fine. I'll admit that saying Fender invented the electric bass is like saying Henry Ford invented the automobile. [Aside: I thought Fender did do it first. I would swear I read that, but maybe it was just one of those misinformed sites.]

 

I don't think anyone here thinks bass or bass guitar or whatever you want to call it is basically the same as a guitar, played the same way, nor anything else you're arguing about. There's some crossover in some cases, but more commonly not. We all know the difference Griff, I promise.

 

That being said, I know we're not going to change your mind about how you think that an electric bass and a bass guitar are different things and that people shouldn't be calling it a bass guitar (even though the manufacturers I checked and Sweetwater do), so there you go.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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That being said, I know we're not going to change your mind about how you think that an electric bass and a bass guitar are different things and that people shouldn't be calling it a bass guitar (even though the manufacturers I checked and Sweetwater do), so there you go.

 

The "bass guitar" photos were a joke. To me, the phrase "bass guitar" is an oxymoron. They're two different instruments.

 

And, as I hinted earlier, it's akin to calling a B3 an "electric piano". The only thing they have in common is keys, and it's lazy to refer to them as the same object.

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It's always so fun to come back and see where a thread has gone after a couple days/pages.

 

Of course it came a long way! A thread about ideas for a non-guitar band on a keyboard forum is like a thread about free donuts on the fat camp forum. :D

My drawbars go to eleven.

Gear: Roland VR-09, Nord Electro 2 61, Korg CX-3. Hear my music: facebook.com/smokestoneband

 

 

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Some drunk chicks call bass a "big guitar".
:D I've heard/seen that happen too.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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How about baritone, alto and tenor guitars?

 

How about them? They're actually offshoots of the guitar - same basic design, just tuned differently (in the case of the tenor, it's a 4-string, but primarily because it was designed like a banjo, and predominantly made by banjo companies). I'll grant you, the tenor has more in common with the ukelele and the banjo than it does the guitar, but since they're almost impossible to find, having fallen out of fashion some years ago, the semantic issue fades into the same obscurity as the instrument.

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