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1th time playing with someone

Stefan vdb 20 May 2013

I got an email from a good friend of mine, containing sheetmusic and an MP3.

He's following Bass guitar (1th year) in the town's musicschool. And this was 1 of the excercises he needs to do.

He asked me if I can do something with it on the vibes, so we can perhaps play together.
I got immediatly excited. Up to now, I always played alone.

I'm really looking forward to it.

Greetings,
Stefan.

Comments

Marie-Noëlle Mon, 05/20/2013 - 11:35

Yeah playing with someone is totally different and so much learning and fun... Keep us posted! :o)

Stefan vdb Mon, 05/20/2013 - 15:39

But first, thanks already M-N.

Now, I downloaded the file, and to my surprise it is the kind of thing where i'm currently verry interested in, and am working a lot with lately.

I got a sheet with the chord changes. (and his bass solo he needs to play)
Now I need to think how I would play these changes, and these chords. I love it.

If I post a pdf with what I came up with, will you guys tell me if it's good or wrong ?....or OK but could be bettter if you.....

Thanks in advance.
It's an amazing coïncidence, because my friend is totally not aware of the fact that I'm exploring these things.

Greetings,
Stefan.

Babu Tue, 05/21/2013 - 04:36

Stefan, that's the best thing it can happen to you ! Good luck !

Stefan vdb Thu, 05/23/2013 - 14:53

I took only a little part :

Bflat7/Eflat7/Bflat7/Bflat7
Eflat7/Efalt7/Bflat7/D7-G7
C7/F7/Bflat7-G7/C7-F7

This is what I came up with.
P.S. we didn't get yet to the playing togehter part.

Stefan vdb Tue, 06/04/2013 - 14:47

Tomorrow around this time will be the 1th time we'll play together.
I studied the sheet, the cords, so I'm prepared a bit.

+ today I got a call from another friend who plays piano who heard about our getting together. He asked to bring his electrical piano tomorrow.

So, we'll be a trio.
Vibes-bass-piano.

Exciting !!

Stefan vdb Sun, 06/09/2013 - 08:03

Hey,

in the end the pianist cancelled. It was just vibes and bass.

A new experience for both of us.
"So, now we are here together, how are we going to approach this ?" As mentioned before, my friend is a 1st year bass student, with no musical teaching before this year. It is truly amazing what he has accomplished in 1 year. It makes me blush a bit. But in the phase he is in now, he can play what he learned brilliantly, but he doesn't know how to 'color outside these lines'. Neither does he feel comfortable to do that already. That's absolutely no problem, but for him that just meant in playing the exact same thing over and over.

So what we did :
- just the 2 of us playing the exact same thing, and trying to keep it sync. That was a lot harder than with a tape or a metronome. at a few measures it sounded bizarre, even if we played correctly. Perhaps we just weren't used to the sound.
- A 2nd thing we did was that he played his piece, and I just played chords. That was very interesting for me. Are the chords build correctly ? does it sound good or weird. It was a 12 bar blues, and I must admit bar 9-12 I couldn't find the most appropriate ways to play the necessary chords. That was confronting for me.
- And then we tried a kind of dialogue between the 2 of us. He played his part, and in his longer notes I tried to solo in. Question-answer. This went better and better after each try.

My friend didn't expect a vibraphone to be so loud. Haha, I think he's a bit traumatized, of the volume of a not-amplified vibraphone against an electrical amplified bass. Also, he was struggling to find the correct settings on his amp. He's used to playing at his home in the attic, but now it was in our living room + an other instrument with it. The environment was totally different.

I haven't heard from him yet afterwards, but I want to go further with this.
Greetings,

P.S. sorry no recordings. :-)

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