Unbelievable. For those who are not musically minded - this is a piece which was written intentionally to test the mind and fingers. There are complex rhythms happening between the vocal and bass lines which require extreme concentration of one's cognition! Well done on your rendition.
Demon_Turtle89 on violin it's more like playing the single note as a chord. Possibly another string if you wanna get friggy with it. For violin incorporated in punk or hardcore, I'd check out folk punk or gypsy punk. Blackbird Raum is a good band to start with.
AntonioKowatsch, yeh that's bollocks really. I can do it Barry dransfield has always done it. Countless bluegrassers and folk musicians. It's just playing "off the chest" to free up your chin.
Lol all of these people bringing up bass players who can sing while playing. He was just singing and playing upright bass in the video, the song is just clever fun with a good amount of truth to it.
To everyone who is giving names of singing bassists as examples of players who can do it, please keep in mind that the song specifically refers to an upright bass (no frets, no position markers). That's an order of magnitude harder than an electric bass guitar. Plus in the video, he's playing a walking jazz line, not a repetitive progression. Also, "It's Impossible to Sing and Play the Bass" is the name of the song, not a statement of fact. But if you've ever tried to sing and play upright in a jazz tune (and do both on pitch,) you probably already know that it is "nearly" impossible.
It's absolutely not an order of magnitude harder than bass guitar. I made the transition pretty well. If you have good muscle memory, which is the foundation of your intonation, you can learn to do it without too much difficulty. I'm not saying the really advanced stuff, mind you. If you're trying to play a really difficult improvised walking bass line and sing a complicated part, sure that's going to be hard. But even a duffer like me can play through a blues or a fairly straightforward set of changes on a standard and sing the melody without slipping out of tune on either. If you want hard, try listening to someone sing and play fretless guitar. I had a recording of a friend of mine playing 1952 Vincent Black Lightning on a fretless guitar while singing it in just intonation. Not sure what possessed him to do that but he managed!
I'm a drummer and ive heared so many people just crack jokes on the expense of bass players but i cant help but to love them i love the sound and i love to play along them haha
For those saying electric bass isn't that hard to play and sing together....try it for yourself. I have played electric bass and sang at the same time in a few metal bands. Fingers fling across the fret board, while singing...and still trying to maintain the "feeling" behind my playing was always tough to practice. I also have played guitar and sang....and I can tell you that the bass guitar is the harder instrument to be technical with while maintaining proper vocal control. You can't just let your fingers do muscle memory movements on bass, because you will lose all the "feeling" behind your playing. It's hard to explain, but other bass players will get where I am coming from. This was an awesome video btw
"Failing" is another great solo piece for bass and voice. Add the property of the bow, giving an improvised speech, and trying to make it all happen at once while engaging the audience is also quite difficult. The double bass is just a weird instrument all in all.
I remember finding this piece shortly after "Failing" was mentioned in an Adam Neely video. No shade to Tom Johnson at all (I just found his RU-vid channel where he talks about a lot of his pieces, "Galileo" is awesome and "The Four-Note Opera" is HILARIOUS), but I think I personally like Jay's "impossible" bass piece better. But that's just me
The main challenge I'm finding is that I must rely on my fingering and tempo without really hearing it. While I sing a note, it's like the bass disappears and my fingers go on their own, and hopefully find their way automatically. Another problem is that on bass the right hand needs to be tight and right in its place, so if I get too much enthusiastic with the voice I must manage to keep my hands steady and right on time, like they were controlled by another soul, while my lungs are all over the place. It sucks. None of this happens while playing guitar. The strumming and the right hand are much less demanding. Most of bassists singers play bass like a guitar. Sting just played fewer notes, so he could take mini breaks from the instrument... the only one I know who almost sounds like two people is McCartney, at least from the famous non-jazz players, and still he had to adapt his lines quite a lot. Jesus, what a ramble.
I know what you mean, you keep going with your hands like an auto-pilot, without having to think too much about it. I meant when I play songs by The Police, I take advantage of those holes to sing freely and it all feels effortless.
This song was kinda funny. Les Claypool is the only person I knew off who could sing and play an upright bass, even with a bow (Mr. Krinkle for those who don't know what song I speak of.)
I don't mean to sound rude or condescending but note that I said UPRIGHT BASS, as in Cello, or double bass, or contrabasso. This video was meant as an irony type of thing mostly. Lots of ELECTRIC bass players sing, Les Claypool and Geddy Lee for example. But Les is the only person I'd seen playing Cello with a bow while singing is what I was saying.
And then you have Geddy Lee, who sings lyrics like "Apollo was atonished Dionysus thought me mad But they heard my story further And they wondered, and were sad Looking down from Olympus On a world of doubt and fear Its surface splintered Into sorry Hemispheres", and plays some of the most complex bass lines, while playing keyboards/synths with his feet and whenever possible his spare hand.
This is good. This made me think of a new first line to this “People told me that nothing was impossible, but they could never say it to my face. I told them, to sing and play the bass.”
I always wonder why upright basses don't have position guides on the side of the neck. The go on the positions 3, 5 ,7 ,9 ,12, 15 , 17 ,19, 21, 24, and so on. Fretless electric basses have them; it's not cheating. It is kind of cheating to have fret markers and fret lines on the fret board, but dots on the side are fine. If I ever get an upright bass, the first thing I'll do is buy a set of those dots and put them on.
There are two types of comments on this video: "Tell that to (insert famous bassist)" or "This is upright bass, not bass guitar, it's much harder to sing and play upright bass than it is to play electric bass and sing" And then you've got my comment lol
I'm certain Jay did this video all in fun to bring attention to the fact of just how many bass players play a significant role in the main vocals:) It definitely takes talent. Nobody mentioned Sting:) Also no matter how simple a baseline may seem, go ahead and play a 2 1/2-3 hour concert with 1000's of people standing before you and also singing the main vocals---without screwing up once:) Night after night. Easier to stand back and judge than done:)
So, you're brain works 3 different parts of the brain. Where to press your fingers on the stings, what stings to play, and remembering the notes. Singing works 2 main parts of your brain. Pitch and lyrics. That's 5 all together, not to mention if you have stage fright, or general anxiety, that messes with your head. This is truly impressive.
No, Smasher. The electric bass guitar is still a bass. The (erroneous) idea that a person can't sing while playing the bass is not based on the shape of the instument or how you hold it, but rather the role of the instrument in that single notes are played, usually not corresponding to the meter of the vocal line. It's similar to the (also erroneous) belief that a lead guitarist can't sing while playing. It's more difficult than singing while strumming chords, but obviously not undoable.
Man for calling yourself a doctor you're pretty dumb. He even explains it in the song, when you have the frets you don't have to play it by ear, you need the muscle-memory jotted down. That doesn't work with a double bass. Based on your argument a person could improvise a brand new technique over a melody he already knows, and that's not true. Every person who improvises and sing at the same time has practiced the scales and shapes they play months before they do it live, maybe to a different rhythm or beat but still. But most of all this is a joke.
That's a fun idea, but Geddy Lee plays several fretless bass guitars as do many modern bass guitarist/singers. Did you think people who play fretless instruments necessarily stare at their fretting hands while playing? I understand the argument you and he are making. I'm just pointing out that it's nonsensical and demonstrably untrue.
A fretless bass guitar has the same intonation and scale and frequence as a normal bass guitar, trust me man. I play fretless electric guitar and the difference is minimal compared to double bass and a bass guitar. You still only need the muscle memory jotted down.
Unlike most bass players mentioned here, Spalding actually counts because she does play the acoustic bass and sing. And when she plays an electric bass, it's a fretless one.
