New video: Bach on Ubass(es)

Time for some classical music!

Playing classical music is very rewarding and it’s fun to do it on instruments that wasn’t even invented when the music was written.

This first video (I hope there will be more) features ”Inventio no. 4” (Invention No. 4 in D Minor, BWV 775) written by J. S. Bach. These short pieces was originally written as musical exercises for Bach students. Since I’m a forever student of music they suit me too! 🙂 I use these from time to time with my bass students. It’s lovely to play melodic baroque music on the bass/ubass.

Since Part 1 is played on my Kala California Solid Body, with the prototype strings (EADGC), I was able to play it one octave higher then on a ubass tuned (B)EADG. The contrast to Part 2, played on my Kala California acoustic/electric ubass with the original Pahoehoe strings, is nice I think. This piece was originally composed to be played on the piano (Part 1: right hand and Part 2: left hand). Playing both parts on one ubass would require some kind of tapping technique and could probably be done but would be very hard. I think it’s nice to use different instruments with sounds that, I think, compliments each other, and it’s easier too! 🙂

Playing in the high register of the Solid Body Ubass is very hard since the frets are pretty close from fret 15 and up. I decided to make ”one pass – no edits” takes of each part. It’s of course even nicer to play this as a ”real” duo since it will be easier to get more interactivity that way! 🙂
This piece can be done at different tempos and I opted for a medium tempo. It’s not slow but definitely not fast.

I hope you will like it and be inspirerad to play some classical music on your ubass!

In May I recorded some Bach-inspired improvised music. Here’s one of the videos recorded on my iPad (built in kamera and mic) I will try to make more videos like this but with a better video and audio quality!