Electric Bass at session

Hello all,

I have recently got into traditional Irish music. My primary instrument is the electric bass, but I also bought a whistle a few months ago.

I’m obviously new to the scene. I was looking for nearby sessions and found there is one this coming Sunday at a local Irish pub. I’m going to check it out without an instrument and get some beers! I’m really excited.

My question for the discussion: What is the prevalence of electric bass in sessions?

Thank you!

You see about as many electric eels at sessions as you do electric bass. Your idea of visiting without an instrument at first is a good one. Listening is one of the best ways for a beginner to start participating in sessions.
Enjoy!

G’day there Bo,
I havn’t been to that many sessions in my life,but I’d say that an Electric Bass at a session would be an ‘unwelcome’ Instrument…. there’s no ‘Bass’ in Irish Trad ..
Without an Instrument at first is a very good idea.Then,learn some Tunes on your Whistle and return.I’d say you’d be most welcome at that point..
Just my two bobs worth ..

get a Banjo!

Hello Bo! As a long time bass slapper myself I can say with all due repect - stick with the whistle. I did experience a session with a double bass (standup accoustic) player once and the guy was pretty good. It gave our session a temporary Lunasa kinda groove. However, that sitaution is a rarity.

I do firmly second the notion that spending some time just listening at a local session is a good way to start. It will allow you to see the flow of it, how tunes are informally grouped and the interplay between the musicians. Good luck with the whistle - I hope you stick with it. This music is addictive and best enjoyed on a melody instrument.

Personally I feel like upright acoustic bass could be a good fit, but not from a player that is “new” to the music. Learn the whistle and then think about how you would play a bassline to the tunes you are learning. Listen to some trad music with really good guitar players where you can hear the low end of the guitar and emulate those bass parts. Or just get a cello, it will be cheaper but it’s typically tuned different than the bass, and it’s not as low in pitch. Some albums with good bassy guitar riffs are Padraig Rynne’s “Bye a While” and Billy McComiskey’s “Outside the Box”. I had a bass player/ sound engineer listen to them and he thought there was a bass at first. So yes I think it can work with trad music but you’re going to have play a melody instrument well enough to establish relationships with trad musicians, and the bass will still be more appropriate in a trad “band” than at sessions, especially if the session is crowded with lots of musicians, and the good sessions usually are.

Basically if you just think like a bass player, you are not ever going to get it and the melody players will be thrown off, and won’t enjoy playing with you. Even if you are great at bass, playing trad is about being great at trad and following the melody players no matter what, even if you think your way of playing sounds correct, if it doesn’t mesh with, and accentuate the melody, it’s wrong. Listen to how a good fiddler will leap down a string for one or two notes and how those notes stand out of the rest of the tune. The tunes have their own lower voice built in, that’s part of the magic of trad, it is multiple voices tied up into one melody line and as a backer you are often holding out those lower notes until the next change.

From one bass player to another, I’d say…play the whistle at sessions. We bass players think differently, laying down ones and fives like we do, and that forces the melody into chord patterns that not everyone will agree on. In ITM, the melody is the most important, and does not need anything else to support it. Good luck to you, and tell us how things are going for you as you attend your sessions.

I have seen and experienced a double bass at sessions. The only times I’ve come across it, the player was fantastic. and I still hated it.

I have never in my life seen an electric bass at any kind of trad session.

Please don’t - stick to da blues

We’ve got a guy who plays the doghouse at our session. I like it! He wasn’t playing tonight and I actually missed it. I think it’s just going to vary session to session as to what’s going to fly. Personally I think our group would be just fine with an electric bass.

I suggest a mandolin or banjo, the tuning is not far removed from the bass , the tuning is E<A<D<G high to low, which is upside down to the bass. Then again you could be a smoking hot bass player, and make the session cook! either way do what you want to do!

If it is a large enough session with enough mighty players, and room enough to fit in at the venue, where’s the problem? Last week the Kilfenora had a bass on stage, along with a cello and electric keyboards. Great, rich, full sound. For what it was (a stage show: not a session and surely not “trad” as we think of it), it was wonderful.
Why is it when people ask about something, someone offers something else. Someone wants to play a flute and somebody suggests a whistle. Somebody asks about a bass and someone suggests a mandolin.
And at a session, “do what you want to do” doesn’t really fly. It is a cooperative, social effort, hopefully among friends.

“Why is it when people ask about something, someone offers something else.”

I suppose in this case it is because people want to be welcoming and encouraging to a fellow human being, but they don’t want to encourage them to take an unsuitable instrument to a session.

You would need to know exactly what you are doing, and even then a bass guitar would completely alter the overall mood of the session. My advice would be not to do it.
When you have years of experience of playing in sessions you might then give it a try, but by then I expect you will be seeing this music in a better light. Of course in forty years’ time bass accompaniment might be de rigeur, in which case I will be glad that I have died.

It is safe to say that any instrument, in the right hands, could be an asset to a session -- if you accept the idea that a session is a group of friends getting together to pass the time playing, chatting, having a pint, and having fun -- rather than an elite group of pure-drop musicians whose sole purpose is to make beautiful music.
Since there are few people posting here who are elite musicians I’d say that most of us just want to have fun. If somebody says he wants to play the bass and the response is “it’s better to play a mandolin” I see it as a know-it-all attitude -- and a subtle put-down -- rather than encouraging and welcoming.

Thank you all for your replies, and I hope for more additions to the discussion.

So far it seems that the bass isn’t welcome, but may have the opportunity given the appropriate situation. My present plan is to attend the upcoming session without an instrument. Then, as I learn the tunes I will join the session. Later, as I hopefully get to know the musicians and tunes, I will bring up the idea of playing bass.

I guess I have been playing along with too much Lúnasa recently.

What about bass playing the melody? Hahaha, I’m sure it sounds different, but I learn all the songs on bass before I play them on my whistle. It makes the transition easier.

Thank you all for the receptive welcome! I hope to learn and advance with all of you.

Electric bass player playing the tunes? Check out Barry Lyons bass player with 70’s band Five Hand Reel. On some tunes on their albums he plays the melody along withe the Tom Hickland’s fiddle or Dick Gaughan’s six string devil.
I am an electric bass player (among other things!) in my other musical guises but back at sessions on strummyfings. But after years of learning the tunes have sometimes considered ‘doing’ a bit of Fender bass at my friendly local session.
BUT the thought of having to lug the bass, the small amp combo, the leads, the mains cable down the pub over bunging the baritone uke over my shoulder puts me off. Apart from the horror that some of the regular players would experience just walking in with such kit!
Bo: why not take an akoostik six string devil and quietly experiment playing ‘bass’ on the lower four strings? Or get one of those generally useless ‘acoustic bass four string devils’? Like what the rock stars cosmetically use for unplugged TV shows? (albeit plugged into a 10,000 KW rig anyway!)

“Five Hand Reel”

Wow, yhaalhouse I’ve never heard ‘A Man’s A Man For A’ That’ rocked quite like that before!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0OOU4rmNfU

play video

If you can do something like this lady on the cello is doing, then you might well be onto something, but it would, as you can hear here, require the cooperation of the other musicians. The thing to bear in mind with bass instruments (and that includes bodhran) is that low notes will mask high notes, but high notes will not mask low notes.

I guess this guy could do a good job on Irish tunes if he ever found time in his schedule to learn any:

http://kamilerdem.net/English.aspx

Judging by the pix of this bassist, it would seem that his fingers are continually up above the ‘octave’! That’s NOT a bass player! Looks like a lead player turned flash poncey bassist and they are always rubbish! What you need is a bass player who can lay down a groove and stay Lo-o-o-o-w a huge majority of the time.Continuous party tricks on bass are lame.

We have some sessions with electric and acoustic bass and tuba, although generally not at the same time. 2 of the players are highly skilled, but they dominate and don’t seem to have any particular affinity for Irish trad. They will play EVERY tune, laying down a standard 1-4-5 line and never take the time to learn any tunes at home. If the tune is not in a regular major key, they will usually pick up the structure the 3rd or 4th time through. With the bass, reels sound like lounge music (think strangers in the night) and the bass turns sean-nos singing into Maxwell’s silver hammer. They show, I go.

I like cellists. I quite like upright basses, but not for traditional music from this side of the Atlantic. And acoustic bass guitars are always a disappointment.

But the number one rule in most sessions, the rule that is so blindingly obvious they don’t even mention it in the list of rules, is: you don’t play anything that needs to be plugged in.

If you want to experiment using a bass for trad that’s fine, but you need to do it with a group of consenting friends, not by imposing it on an existing session.

skreech: Sorry to be pedantic, but what about the occaisional piano/ synth/ keyboard? I’m guilty of this at the Wig Museum (as is Mr Rowe & Mr Boyle).

There is some great piano accompaniment on Michael Coleman’s recordings, you can’t get much more trad than that!

I haven’t ever experienced electric or acoustic bass that really worked. The best it has been is unobtrusive (quiet to the point where I can’t really hear it).

Cello playing the tunes is bad enough, I can’t imagine bass. That said, I do somewhat like that Ampersand video above, but cello in a session just drowns out everyone else and changes the music in a direction I can’t stand - especially when it’s not particularly good. Bass playing tunes would only be worse.

What about bass in the style of the left hand of a good ceilidh band piano player?

re posting above e.g.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB_PGa2l77c

play video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB_PGa2l77c

play video

“Judging by the pix of this bassist, it would seem that his fingers are continually up above the ‘octave’! That’s NOT a bass player! Looks like a lead player turned flash poncey bassist and they are always rubbish!”

Try listening to the samples as well as looking at the pictures.

I suggested Kamil Erdem because he has an exceptionally light and flexible touch that fits in well with a small group using unusually delicate sounds (he does a sort of jazz/Turkish-classical fusion). He uses the electric bass all across its range, as a sort of extended oud.

I don’t know of anybody taking the bass in that direction for Irish music but I don’t see why it shouldn’t be possible, if someone was willing to work at it. Probably easier in a band than a session, like most experiments with unfamiliar sounds.

We’re falling back into the old trap whereby we think of a *session* as a “Traditional Irish session” in a very narrow sense which is actually a very recent phenomenon.

There’s all sorts of arrangements and possibilities which occur in the real world. In many Scottish sessions, especially the “ceilidh” variety which often comprise musicians from this area of music and sometimes the SDB scene, there will often be basses and various other instruments involved. It’s not uncommon for “folkier”(for want of a better word) or “trad” players to mix quite freely with those who might approach the music slightly different.
In Scotland, however, the word “traditional” can also be ambiguous as those on the Scottish dance/Fiddle and accordion scene use this term to describe their music whereas the rest of us are often (sometimes scathingly) are referred to as “folk fiddlers” and the like.

Personally, I am not very keen on all these “boxes” and good music(if it is) should be interchangeable and the use of certain instruments shouldn’t necessarily be proscribed.

That’s not to say that I(or we) have to like it all, of course, but we can have a choice. Most players can find sessions which will suit them with a bit of effort.

There was a great band a few years ago, Broderick, that added an acoustic bass player for their second (and last, I believe) album, Cortenza Castle. The teamwork between bassist and guitarist made for some quite interesting and powerful accompaniment. But as folks have stated above, what works in a group setting often does not work as well in a session.

“…great piano accompaniment on Michael Coleman’s recordings, you can’t get much more trad than that!”

Horrible accompaniment. Absolute rubbish. One chord thumped throughout the length of the tune. The player had no idea what he was doing. Not a clue. He just hammered out a chord on the beat but had no concept of appropriate chords. This is some of the worst accompaniment ever and is only trad in the sense that it is old and on a Coleman recording. Otherwise it is sh*t.

You know the old saying about ‘giving unto Caesar’ etc. I play bass (though not a primary instrument for my by any means). No offense with the following

Concept applies here. Play your bass in music where electric bass is played.

This is acoustic music. Traditional instrument music. Leave the bass and amp at home.

Unless of course you are being paid handsomely as a staff musician doing a big show gig with Celtic Thunder or the like, and they do a medley of Danny Boy, Carousel and Sunshine of Your love followed by the Tarbolten 😉

Surely you jest David, that piano sets the golden standard for good backing to this very day!

Bass is fine at a session …

… as lomg as its this kind:

http://www.burton-on-trent.org.uk/wp-content/images/Bass/BassLogo.gif

🙂 🙂 🙂

I’m with David, the piano backing on many of those old 78’s is just awful.

Newborn Elf, are you for real here? Not everything that is old is venerable…

I have a friend who plays the bass in sessions, great player, he has been doing it a long time, but its an acquired skill, you need to over stand the chord progression of each particular tune , so you need to know more than just the tunes.
Im a bass player myself but I dont feel I can do justice to the genre myself ,, even though I play a lot of tunes over nearly 30 yrs at it.
But the bottom line is that each individual player and sessions have their own ideas so its simply not possible to generalise. In my experience though the prime consideration is the ability of the player; If ye can play the music well and dont overpower others, fit in and be flexible and adaptable , add to the music and not detract then In my exp you will be made welcome far more often than not!

Ha! No Timmy, I’m in full sarcasm mode. 🙂

Bass is one of my instruments, electric bass. I play it in my ceilidh/barn dance band.
I don’t bring it to a session.
I find much more enjoyment from knowing and playing the tunes, therefore I use my long-necked octave mandolin ( aka Irish bouzouki ), which can be used for chordal accompaniment if I don’t know any tune well enough to play melody.
I would second most everybody else here; leave the bass at home and learn to play the tunes; accompaniment is secondary to melody in ITM.

There’s a reason why the Bothy Band, Planxty, Dervish, etc. don’t have bass players.

They’re all too old to carry one?

It seems that at some time, somebody came up with the idea to play a banjo at a session. Somebody decided to add a bouzouki to Irish music. And somebody thought that Shakey Eggs were a good idea.
2 out of 3 ain’t bad.
Oh well, I guess the Accordionists and Piano Players should relax the left hand. No Bass need be applied.

Also on a lot of the tunes, the original bass line, the concept of which many folk here probably have never even considered, was somewhat limited comprising of a [dbl]Bass , bass and tenor D played in unison .
So every tone and melodic pattern is placed within this stack of octaves and often a big part of the very effectof the tune has needs these bass and tenors to come out. Such as the Langsterns Pony with a set of A drones compared to the same tune with a D stack.
Other tunes have an A in the Bass, and 2 tenors thats it, just the one note . Not really exciting bass line to play and almost impossible on a bass anyhow! complete sustain….

Playing the electric or acoustic bass at a session is like playing soccer wearing ice skates…it’s possible, but doesn’t really fit.

Well, perhaps a bad analogy…but I’ve been hauling my double bass in and out of cars from gigs to lessons to concerts for over 40 years and I LOVE that I only have to carry my fiddle to sessions, plus, I can put my whistle inside the fiddle case.

I’d say bring a wall of speakers and make them comply. There is a major need for bass in this music. There used to be bass from the floorboards bouncing around with wild unconventional dancing. The music has turned into parlor sport and they are ever so worried about their fine crystals and wig stands. Lol

The bothy bands of history -- the impromptu bands of immigrant laborers way back when, and from whom The Bothy Band took their name -- would likely incorporate electric bass, if there were bothy bands forming in our day and age. However inclusive they may have been about instruments, a “bothy” was regarded as a band; if I got the story right. An old bothy band, with the full, diverse panopoly of music making items, must have something to behold! Regarding electric bass in a session: I would vote NO on any musician’s plugging-in an instrument at a session.

“plus, I can put my whistle inside the fiddle case”

But can you put your cat in the fiddle case?

I’ve been told that the pianist on those old Michael Coleman recordings was provided by the record company, didn’t seem to know the music and just had to do some sort of a job on each take as it came along.

Cat in the fiddle case? See https://thesession.org/tunes/2094

‘greg’-

As opposed to “soccer wearing iceskates”, wouldn’t it probably be closer to “iceskating in steeltoed workboots”?

A better metaphor, anyhoo?

if you could get over the tuning differences, pick up the banjo, mandolin, or bouzouki.
i assume that the session doesnt need any more acoustic guitarists? if in fact they do need a acoustic guitarist, bass guitar to acoustic guitar could be a good transistion.

there is a man in York who plays a tiny electric bass that he made himself the he fits to a small amp in the Maltings session sometimes. He was excellent but mainly because he is also an expert guitarist and dobro player so knew how to back traditional music.

i’d say get better at the whistle or do as others suggested and/or take up another fretted instrument that keeps with the style

I’ve been a few sessions with amplified bass where the player, like any good backup musician, knew the tunes, had the volume set at a level appropriate for the size of the group and the venue. I really enjoyed it. I think with bass you have the same problem as guitar, if the player doesn’t know the tunes, it’s hopeless from the start. If the original poster wants to play bass in sessions, go spend a few years playing mandolin or whistle, learn the repertoire first, do the work and listening to understand how to back the tunes, then consider bringing a bass to a session. I’d say the same thing to a guitar/zouk/piano/whatever backup player. Learn the tunes.

"It seems that at some time, somebody came up with the idea to play a banjo at a session. Somebody decided to add a bouzouki to Irish music. And somebody thought that Shakey Eggs were a good idea.
2 out of 3 ain’t bad."

This site needs a like button.

What gave me a really good kick-start in sessioning(and this music as a whole) was first going to “tune learning” sessions. If you can find one(a good one) in your area, then you are in luck. But really I think you just wanna surround yourself with people that know The Music. I’ve met a lot of wonderful that have helped me in finding a lot of neat, helpful, and sometimes interesting things.

This music is very “low-key” to the point to where it can be considered “inaccessible”, so you may have to do a bit of investigating. It’s pretty “underground” in the culture that’s around me because none of my friends or family know anything about this stuff. I had to make new friends(which is always fun ;) But ask around, i’m sure you can find someone that knows what the scene is like in your area.

Ask yourself this question -- if there were some, say, Chinese or Indian traditional musicians playing locally, would you think it appropriate to take along your electric bass and join in?

I was at a dance in Chateauroux in France last week. The music was French traditional, cornemuses, fiddles, accordions and that sort of thing. One of the guys played the bass. It gave the whole thing a lift. My son thought the bass was one of the highlights of the night.

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii19/Kilfarboy/Chateauroux005.jpg

“ if there were some, say, Chinese or Indian traditional musicians playing locally, would you think it appropriate to take along your electric bass and join in?”

If your name was Jonathan Dimond, you might be made welcome.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig-SVBOZkvI&list=UUuLG31P7bKpHv--6WEpT3cw&index=24

play video

Or if you could play like these guys:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_hAFabslho

play video

I have only once see anybody bring a string bass into a Scottish tune session, and the player was Indian. It worked fine.

About the choice of instrument.

Speaking from outside of the Irish Traditional dimension, one thing that heavily influences a style(or genre) of music is instrumentation. Example…

Add strings to a “band”, you get an “orchestra”. Get the difference? Your local session may not want the dynamic that the bass guitar will bring. Here’s an example of a bass guitar in Irish music though this isn’t a session environment. Sorry, it’s all I could recall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCxbodAXCeI

play video

For more on Dynamics

Fiddle and Guitar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPHkPdqFYdQ

play video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbjLh1tqCUE

play video

A full band with Uilleann Pipes, Fiddle, Guitar, Bodhran and what looks like a Mandola?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAYW5dwZJRA&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL32F295EFACE8E58D

play video

Concertina and Harp
http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_239_2_ernestine_healy_concertina_and_fionnuala_rooney_harp/


Here’s more bass but I intended Accordian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqPzmQDejyU&list=FL_XAgqiEipg1802qjqNQ7aw&index=12&feature=plpp_video

play video

Here’s a Ceili Band with a snare drum and a piano
http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_333_9_the_triogue_ceili_band/

I know all of these are performance settings. And i’m missing the flute… :/ sowwy

On some of Kevin Burkes’ CDs, he has a piano backing on some of the tracks, and I really like the dynamic it puts to the music. Some tunes I really like on the tenor banjo, the “Lost and Found” jig and “The Trip to Durrow” reel being two of them. I’m a bit indifferent towards the banjo though. I really like backing instruments cause my music background is very *ahem* “harmonic”, so I favor the bouzouki and guitar.

I guess the main thing is the melody does so much on it’s own, so adding things like bass lines and backing chords can really throw things off if it’s not done right.

….as fiddlelearner says“…if it’s not done right.”
Are you going to be able to do it right if you just turn up with a bass without knowing the tunes ?
I don’t really think so.
If you want to do something in your own home, invite a few musicians round, say you’ll be playing the bass, see what happens. I reckon most might vote with their feet, and stay away, which is, after all, what most people have been saying here.

Hello Bo.
Please, no bass at a session.
Check out a few tunes played at the session, learn them on your whistle, join the session and have fun.
The presence of an electric bass at a session in the UK could result in complaints from the neighbours as the bass frequency carries a long way. The local government noise Police would then arrive and the session disbanded.
Regards.
Sam.

… or if they ever did. But a few years ago some Nepali musicians were employed by The Roadside Fish and Booze industry. We all had a great time playing together. This is in the heart of the north Co Clare trad music scene. Of course we had a good time. Nobody gave two sh*ts about what anybody else played. We just got together to pass a pleasant hour. Polkas on a traditional Nepal “fiddle” and a tunable drum? We had a good time and went home smiling.
Is there something we are missing here? Sam, your attitude totally sucks. **

** Please, no bass at a session.

Hey all,

Thanks for all the great responses. I’ll just stick to the whistle for the Irish sessions, and keep my Irish bass melodies to myself xD!

I’m having a great time with the whistle. And I’m stoked that found this website. SO much information, friendly advice, tunes, history, and what not.

Hello Bo.
Glad to see that you have decided on the whistle and I hope that you will have many hours of comradeship and fun playing in sessions.

Hello Yhaalhouse.
As a former member of Five Hand Reel (Dick Gaughan’s replacement) I fondly recall Barry Lyon’s nifty bass playing on a tune called Toppin It Off.

Regards.
Sam.

Bo, don’t rule out the idea that you may meet a couple a three players that might be interested in doing something away from the session as well. All bets would be off then. Irish music has been played with electric bass just fine by many.

Id much rather have a good bass player than a crap whistler in a session, and apart from the myopic views you might get here I think you will find many others would too! Certainly there are many facets of the music scene where you would be most welcome with your bass, as long as ye can play it well and do the music justice, Just ask first….

Here’s one we prepared earlier

https://thesession.org/discussions/23253

and there’s even input from “the man of three dots”.
🙂

Electric bass at a session! Ewww, no thank you. If you want to play in traditional sessions learn an appropriate instrument (first).

‘I ♥ Dow’,

I’m now officially the heckler- wouldn’t a regular guitar be a tenor bass, or would a small bass be a baritone? Please don’t uke on me, I’m just trying to clarify!

As for bass at a session, I’d say no- it would push it over from a session to a performance; too uncommon and potentially disruptive to your more common session-stock. I’d say the same is true for cello- the thinner the better.

Tread lightly and don’t be surprised to be put down if you want to thicken the sound!

One way of looking at it -

If you play fiddle, flute, pipes, whistle or such like and you attend sessions where you are not too far behind the standard of the other players then you’ll be welcomed at just about any session.

If you play electric bass then many players at many sessions will dread seeing you walk through the door no matter how good a bass player you may be.

Many sessions are fine with whatever but many are not.

You should probably bring the whistle instead of the bass.
I play both piano and bass.
I usually play piano at the local Irish Sessions instead of bass (either acoustic or electric) because some of the other musicians at the local Sessions specifically asked me to bring my electronic keyboard to the local Sessions. They seemed to think a piano would add to the general cacophony of the local Sessions.
I play my acoustic bass (or string bass or bass fiddle or double bass if you must call it that) on a regular basis at the monthly meetings of a local old time folk music society and with a mandolin and guitar band.
I play my electric bass at a local Blues Jam and almost every Sunday for church services.
No I don’t play melody at the Sessions because there are enough good melody players. However, while I am at home practicing by myself, I do play through the tunes so I am at least vaguely familiar with them.
Several years ago, at one of the local Sessions, there were two acoustic bass players each with his own string bass (or double bass or bass fiddle). For some reason, one of the bass players decided to set up his instrument on my right and the other set up his instrument on my left. I am sure this had nothing to do with the fact that I also play bass. When both bass players were playing at the same time, I felt as if I was going to be vibrated into a lower dimension.

Laurence

Speaking as a long time bass player, I have jokingly been called a “lower” form of musical life; or told that I should have friends in “low” places; or heard people say that if you want to get to the bottom of the music, you should talk to the bass player; or told that I am the “fishiest” member of the band; or told that there is something “fishy” about me; and, last but not least, “If I catch enough fish and put them on a string, can you come up with a good bass line?”

Laurence

For your listening pleasure. Irish jigs like they should be played on a bass guitar - Sligo style and with as much distortion as could possibly be tolerated at a session. Dialing in just the right volume on the bass amp could be an issue though.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JigsandReelsonBass?feature=watch

It sounds like you’ve been putting the work in, but I fear you are still going to run into problems if you try that at a session. Unfortunately, wig glue technology has not kept pace with musical developments and you will find that many of the old standbys will not withstand vibrations lower than 82.41 Hz. By the end of your first set there will be a pile of wigs on the floor and many of your session regulars will likely go home wearing the wrong wigs, where they will be made fun of by their significant others, children, and co-workers non-stop until the next week’s session where they will hopefully be able to sort it all out. At that point if you happen to reemerge with your four string devil they will turn on you like a pack of rabid wolves.

Sligo style? Just because the Krassen book says they are transcriptions of Sligo fiddlers, that doesn’t mean that you get Sligo-style music when you play them from the dots. Poor rhythm, sledgehammer ornamentation. Not pretty.

Thanks for the
“feedback”. Ever since I started mistreating Irish music with thundering bass I noticed my hair seriously receding. I fear a wig is not far behind but by then I fear even wigs will be electric.

I feel doubly blessed because I seriously love acoustic traditional Irish while the other Gemini twin draws me to take the tunes where they perhaps have never been.