“Designerkaugummi” – this was one of the first Baßtelstube tracks to be started, but for a long time, only one of the bass parts for this two-player track was written.
I finally got through to adding the second part, to be played in harmonics, and here’s how it sounds via a computer mockup:
And here’s how it looks:
Now for the second part – is this really playable? I decided to contact some subject matter experts, a few of whom have already performed, via twitter:
@alunvaughan @rhysbass @philwbass @tripwamsleybass bass expert question: is this playable in harmonics? http://t.co/sUldKpV9Yj
— Rainer Straschill (@moinlabs) December 18, 2013
What followed was an interesting discussion, and I’d like to include some of the highlights here:
@TripWamsleyBass @alunvaughan @rhysbass @philwbass No, not a joke…guess I had been suffering from acute Well-Tempered Clavier when writing
— Rainer Straschill (@moinlabs) December 18, 2013
@moinlabs @Stonewing I so desperately want to have coffee with you fellas. I love seeing big brains work.
— TripWamsleyBass (@TripWamsleyBass) December 18, 2013
@moinlabs @alunvaughan @Rhysbass @TripWamsleyBass no (not by a normal human)
— Philip Wain (@philwbass) December 18, 2013
@moinlabs @philwbass @alunvaughan @Rhysbass @TripWamsleyBass So can you change the key of the song? Or are you limited somehow from that?
— Matt Erion (@Stonewing) December 18, 2013
All in all, it turns out it’s not readily playable.
So what are the options?
First of all, thinking in the composer mindset, I don’t want to change anything, but may be forced to. But then you can change other things than the composition. Options I see:
A: Changes to the composition
- Moving notes to a different octave,
- Removing doubles (e.g. first chord remove one of the Fs),
- Changing or removing notes.
B: Changes to the arrangement
- Move notes to the other bass part.
C: Changes to the instrument
- Use spider capo,
- Use tricky open tuning.
D: Changes to production technique
- Multitrack
- Re-tune in-between
For me, D is out of the question – Baßtelstube is meant to be something that can be played live.
B is an option that wouldn’t hurt and should be considered before anything else.
C is something the tricky bassists quoted above (and in fact, you, dear reader, if you have an idea) are asked to consider. However, unless we’re going for a chromatic tuning or similar, it seems that we will at least need something from A1 or A2, maybe even A3.
But I’m confident that a combination of B, C (C2 in a mild fashion) and A1/A2 can make it work – we shall see!