Guitar Nerds Anonymous

I'm hoping to take my piano playing to the same position as my guitar playing, where I can muddle along with most stuff as long as I've worked out what the main chords are. Where I'm struggling is that the fret patterns etc are totally second nature to me, but hand positions on the keyboard still require a lot of thought, so playing along to a metronome is kind of out of the question. Frustrating, but I'm trying to dedicate an evening a week to fucking about on the piano with Nick Cave deep cuts

Yeah, that would be nice. I'm right with you, I'm just not intuitive on Piano. I can play (or can when I've been practicing) moderately complex (Chopin Fantaisie Impromptu, Rach prelude in G Minor #5) sort of stuff but I can't jam for shit. I'm terrible at sight-reading too. I'm sure if I put the some hours in, I could get decent but it's demoralising starting from what feels like scratch. I'm much more confident on guitar, even though I've got two left feet, technically speaking.

moderately complex (Chopsticks...

Yeah, me too.

Different with bowed instruments though where the timbre is unlistenable without good technique!

I'm envious. The sound of a bowed violin / viola / cello / double bass when played well is just astonishing - that ability to move from piano to forte and down within a single note can be so emotive, and when you're used to plucked / whacked instruments like I am, it feels almost magical. Of course you can do it with volume pedals but they don't change the timbre like bowing does. Such a brilliant skill to have.

if something like this had been available when I learned I might actually have become a decent player.

This really resonates! I had a few lessons as a teenager, but I can't say that any of the theory really stuck (chord structures and triads, chord families, modal scales etc.) now I'm trying to relearn guitar "properly" to actually understand why I'm playing what I'm playing. Happily there's now so much stuff online I can find great refresher content that actually makes all that old stuff make sense, for example, these videos really are a good rundown of some of the reasons I suck at guitar
-qnrOnW.

I used to use a double bass bow on electric bass a LOT in last band (admittedly a while ago). Depending on the instrument (clearance issues are the big thing) you can do quite a bit with one!

Fodera built this one for Victor Wooten with special bow clearance. Does look a bit mingin' but I bet it's a lot of fun to play!

That's brilliant. Do you have any recordings I could hear? I don't think I've everheard any bowed electic bass before.

When we wanted a similar sound to that we put an electro acoustic through a 8x10 bass rig and 'played' the feedback. Blew two of 'em during that recording. Don't recommend it.

For some reason, long long ago, my mum bought a ukulele, it's been sitting in the bottom of her wardrobe for 7 years so I'm going to pick that up and try and learn a few cords left and right handed. This should give me a good idea of whether right handed is going to work for me.

Thanks again to all those who offered advice, it's been really useful.

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Sadly no evidence of bowed bass remains and this is actually the only live session type video I could find but I achieved a similar sort of feedback thing here just by cranking the amp and "playing" the bass against it. the whole thing is a single take recorded through a Zoom recorder so it sounds a lot weaker than the real deal but you get the idea :)

I would also like to have a listen to that. our bassist has played cello on a few things we've done and is easily convinced to buy stuff. I can see this getting v cult of luna v quickly, I'm excited

EDIT - page refresh fail

Oh man I love Cult of Luna, what a great band! Jónsi from Sigur Rós plays with a bow a bunch too and it's lovely!

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I used to do the same, big muff + delay + resting the headstock on the stack for a feedback bowed sound. Used to get some wild harmonics come through live, loved that. I nearly got one of those Stagg electric uprights super cheap but got talked out of it for a 5 string fretless Warwick which was amaze.

Our tamed down (boo!) version in the studio...

https://open.spotify.com/track/3ZGVkHsThzdqBLHRntFPer?si=p01-XWyLSSunXfLHNJ7hrw

Is that the kind of synthy sound in the outro?

Nah, that's bass. Old analogue memory man gives it that slightly chewy sound.

I meant is that an example of the headstock-against-stack pseudo bowed sound part

Yeah, think it was a jcm800 4x12 from memory.

Sounds great, v into it

Nice vibe man, I liked that a lot!

Thanks @Nahguavkire @jackbepablo seems like a lifetime ago now. Good times!(with rose tinted glasses)

So I hit the big 40 today. My family who are normally shit beyond words when it comes to surprises managed to pull a rather nice one out if the bag.

It's so nice to play the neck is just what I like and is very similar to my electric the comfort carve on the top hip is brilliant. The tone is bright and vibrant while being punchy.

It turns out that my brother has learnt to be subtle and found out what I like while enjoying himself guitar shopping.

Don't mind admitting I teared up when I opened it.

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That’s ace, happy birthday. :D

Nice! And Happy Birthday!

What a thoughtful surprise - lovely looking guitar.

That's fab - what a brilliant surprise! Looks like a beauty.

Congratulations on both counts, now get playing lots!