First of all, I want to say a couple of words of
warning! 1.Watch your
fingers! I used my thumb while tapping on the right hand, and it
got very soar, then I couldn't practise for a couple of days.
Don't practise hard just before you have to use your thumb. 2.If you
havn't played any two hand tapping before, prepare yourself for
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTS of practise!!!
3.If you have
played ALOT of two hand tapping before, prepare yourself for
LOOOOOOTS of practise!!
Ok, first I'd like to thank Tracy
Hardy Johnson who wrote a lesson
with this suit for two basses.
I was checking Tracys lesson out, and at first I thought it was a
two hand tapping piece, and thought HOLY
CR*P
that's some cool sh*t! Then I realized it was for two basses, and
thought it was a very good arrangement, and started thinking...
Yes, it's true! Me, Sebastian, started thinking. If just the
thought of one bassist playing that piece on one bass makes me
fall of my chair and roll around on the floor (like I almost
did), what wouldn't people do if they saw (and heard) someone
play that piece! That guy (or girl... sorry...) would get all the
girls he wanted! (or gu... nah, just girls...:) So I thought what
the heck! I have to learn this stuff! I rearranged the
bass-bassline (just switched strings, still the same notes) so
the melody and bassline never was on the same string, then I
started to figure out a way to play em.
The right hand (Lefties, I guess you all know by this time that
you should use the LEFT hand for this stuff instead) has some
tricky stuff to do. I have played Fr
Elise with two hand tapping before, and I used all 6 fingers
on my right hand but my thumb. On this piece, I prefer to play
with my indexfinger, thumb and
"the-finger-that-tends-to-make-a-bad-gesture". If enough
people send feedback messages about wanting help on where to use
which finger, I will consider adding fingeringtips.
Left hand! (Leftis, you know the drill!)
Be prepared for some loooong jumps with your left hand! Since
this piece wasn't written to be played on one electric bass (at
least I don't think so), and since I only have a 4-stringed bass,
and since playing the melody and the bass-basstones on the same
string isn't a very good idea, it's a kinda hard bass-bass-line
to play while playing the melody.
OK, if some brave beginner who has never played any two hand
tapping before, I'll give you a quick lesson.
Have you ever played the piano? No? Have you ever seen a piano?
No?! ok... You know the big box in your livingroom that's smiling
with like 150 white teeth? Yes? Good! That's a piano. Two hand
tapping is pretty much the same as playing the piano (just a h*ll
of alot harder). Some prefer to play with the bass in the lap,
like a piano (a very small piano that you can have in your lap),
and some (including me) wield the bass as usual. Tap the frets on
the first bassline with your left hand, and the ones on the
second bassline with your other hand (preferably right, if you
are one of those wierd guys with two hands). There, you are now
ready to practise alot!
Begin with learning both basslines by heart, then you practise
until your fingers are at least 1 inch shorter, then you try to
play em together, start out slowly, then when you realize that
you're never gonna make it, play even slower, then when you think
you are the bass god nr 1, try playing it in 50 bpm, then after a
while you can practise until you get the speed up to 180!
Note: Activebass is a great site, but the basslinewriting is
kinda crappy. I therfore wrote the piece in Sibelius 2 too, and
if you click here, and install the plugin, you will get a noteshe...
No! Don't run away screaming! It's not only score, it's tab too!
OK? You will get a notesheet (WITH TAB) that is much easier to
read, and it's written in the correct time signature, which I
couln't write it in in activebass.
OK, I'll stop taking your time now, have fun, and GOOOOOOOOOOD LUCK!
OOOH, and some more stuff (I'll shut up in just a couple of
sentences)! In the sheet, I've made a couple of mistakes! I
forgot to write the time signature, but it's a 4/4, which even a
bassist can figure out. And the other mistake is in the third
bar... the third note, a D played on the A string, should be a D
played on the E-string (10th fret). OK! DONE!
