Double bass anyone?
 

Damn, I seriously want a double bass, especially since someone lent me a few jazz CDs containing Charlie Mingus tracks (Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is a personal fave I've got on right now).


Anyone here play? I'm an electric bassist normally, but I have a pretty decent skill with violin and cello.

I play a little bit - I'm learning it in a strings class at school. It's strung and tuned exactly the same way as an electric bass (E A D G, from left to right). It's a little harder on the fingers (if you want to play it that way) because of the flatwound strings but you get used to it. As for finding the placement of notes, there's plenty of charts available on the internet and in music stores. The internet ones are usually free though :). Since you have some experience with violin (I know cello is closer in size but it's tuned differently), you might not have too much trouble finding the notes. Just rely on your ears (and maybe have a keyboard or piano at the ready so you can be sure your playing the note in tune), then mark the spot with some fret tape :)

Ah, it's like learning violin all over again...:D

I believe there's some mathematical formula for working out note position for basses....except I'm not very good at math.

I think it's more about using your ears, which is why it's nice to have a piano or keyboard around, or at the very least, a tuner of some sort.

If push comes to shove, I will take the bass down to my church (which is virtually silent during the week) and work with the pianist there to match the pitches. I'm hopefully going to be accompanying this pianist during performances anyway, it's a good chance to practice.

i've played one before but it all came out very Beefheart-ish

(I don't think that's a good thing)

You should have said you were playing atonal music...:D

more like microtonal music

Haha!

Hey, whatever works for you! Plus you'll have another set of ears to help you :)