R(of RBB) practising with an A7b9.

 Got to keep that bass going! It may not get you into Heaven though.

Welcome to our new host!

 Hey, we are now hosted by that iconic figure

ANGRY JESUS!

"Things are about to hot up around here, and I'm not referring to Hell!"

Make sure you pop by regularly!

Good Morning!

 Welcome back to Richard's Bass Bag 2*.

On this blog you'll hear all about the double bass - you'll learn finer points on how to get better at playing the double bass. Hey, but you'll learn about lots of other things too! Don't worry about that! We'll also work in conjunction with RBB & RBB3 at times. It'll be like one big family.

You'll notice that TC's blog is on our list. Hey, it'll be just like old times! The raccoon lives on!

We'll also be giving advice from Gloria.

She's the one who said, "I don't think I want to go to Heaven if Mr. Linford is going to be there."

She is a lady of wise sayings and I'm sure she can help with any silly religious beliefs. Who needs Robert?** Hey, Gloria only turned up at church when she had a new hat to show off. Cool lady.

Okay, okay, I hear you ask, "Who was Mr. Linford?"

Mr. Linford was our neighbour at Garden Road, Northland. Along with the O'Sullivans and the Frasers. He lived down at the front of our property with his wife (and sometimes a son). He was one of the men involved with our church (St. Vincent de Paul) and often used to collect the money from the congregation. He was often helped by Mr. Taber. Gloria didn't like the way Mr. Linford treated his wife. He used to send her up our steep steps to get some sugar (of something). She was not a well lady and she struggled with this task.

Well, there you go. That's a pretty good reintroduction to Richard's Bass Bag 2.

See you again soon.

* putting the number '2' back into bass bagging

** Oh, you probably don't remember him now!

Back in action!

 

Hey, if you're looking at the links on RBB, you're going to find that Akish, RBB2 & RBB3 are all going to be posting regularly. Hey, that's plenty for you to read! Go for it and enjoy!

I'm Bach.

 Okay, three famous action stars were asked to be in a movie about famous composers. Clint Eastwood said, "I want to play Mozart." Sylvester Stallone said that his preference was to play Beethoven.

What did Arnold Schwarzenegger say?

Okay, it's obvious that our little blogging community is going through hard times, what with Rob often deleting his blog and Peter often being away. 

No need to worry!

Richard's Bass Bag 2 and Richard's Bass Bag 3 are back in action!

For your reading pleasure.

Your worries are over!

Keep an eye out for more posts.

You can find us on Richard's Bass Bag* - just use the LINKS service.

Don't forget that you've got three blogs to check now!

* the original bass bagging site

What are those blogging boys up to?

 Peter (that very old guy who calls himself The Curmudgeon) got up through the night to watch a football final. I don't expect we'll be hearing much from him today. I think he's trying to relive the days when he played for a crack cracked football team at school. In those days, at Catholic schools in this country, you were expected to play rugby and you needed a medical certificate to play 'soccer'. Okay, Peter was half blind, but I think he was the only kid in the team with two working legs and arms who didn't have an extreme weight problem. He was the star of the team.

He was also quite a cyclist.

Robert the quite a few different things has been practising improvising over on his blog (you can use the LINKS service over on Richard's Bass Bag* to find the blogs of Robert and The Curmudgeon, if you're really bored). He likes to call it 'making up shit'. The next step for him is to move to 'making up nice stuff'.

Robert the quite a few different things

His next step is to think about phrasing and the use of harmonic approximation. What is harmonic approximation, I hear you say? Well, let's say the piece you are playing is in C major. You use the notes from the C major scale to play over all the chords in the piece. If a 'funny' chord pops up, you might get some interesting sounds but just move to the next note. You might want to try adding other notes that are not in the scale. This might sound good, or not so good. Hey, but you have to take a few risks. Remember that good phrasing will be your friend in this type of improvising. Try using the rhythm from the tune, or another similar tune. Buona fortuna Rob.

To finish here's an interesting little blast from the past.

Have a good week.

* the original bass bagging site

Home is the sailor...

 We've returned to Nuova Lazio.

Though it was nice to spend a night in Wellington.

It's good to see Peter and Robert (two little known bloggers) enjoying this blog in my absence.

Yesterday I watched a couple of videos about playing the violin without a shoulder rest. The first featured Yehudi Menuhin and the other featured another much younger bloke. 

There are lots of different views on how to approach the violin. There are those who hold it up with the thumb and those who use a shoulder rest and hold it with the chin. There is also the problem of which way the violin should point. I've decided to stay with the approach I have been using - no shoulder rest and violin basically facing straight ahead.

There are also violinists who spend their lives playing music written by other people and playing it virtually note for note. The other group of violinists like to make shit up.

Of course, the people who like to make shit up often use the tunes that other people have written. These violinists might be folk musicians, or bluegrass musicians, or rock musicians, or musicians from another culture or jazz musicians. Their 'rules' for making shit up might differ considerably between different groups. A lot of folk musicians like to use what Jerry Coker called Harmonic Approximation. Jazz musicians, on the other hand, explore lots of different note combinations - for example, the #11 is a very popular note. Though obviously there is a lot more to it than that. Bluegrass musicians have developed some unique ways of playing and some neat bowing styles - Hokum bowing and the Nashville shuffle are two.

Well, that's enough for today. I'll pop across and see if The Music Curmudgeon has written anything*.

Bye.

* Spoiler Alert: I've already looked.