How quickly things change, at least for me. Last time I hinted at the fact that I was really interested in learning the stand up bass. This has been a goal of mine for some time, and I have been learning about about the double bass in the past few months.
Some of what I have learned: they are really expensive. And there are only a couple of places here to look. Add to that the fact that I keep getting different information from everyone I speak to. Plus my wife, who has never, ever balked at me buying an instrument, wasn't too thrilled about this one. But don't get the wrong idea - she didn't talk me out of this, although she asked me to cool my jets a bit before I spent so much money. Nothing wrong with that idea at all, and in any event I didn't have enough cash to do an impulse buy of that magnitude.
There are other considerations too. With a bass, face it, you can only have one in a group or in a jam session really. I think I wrote that I went to a Django jam the other day, and while it was kinda fun, I got some grief because my tenor sax is, I admit it, loud . Not that I can't try and play quietly, but there is a limit to that, too quiet and it sounds like crap, so why play? At this session, and on another occasion, someone asked if I played soprano sax - good for middle eastern stuff, and I assumed quieter than my tenor.
OK, fast forward a couple of weeks and I am at the local music store, a good place where I am friends with the brass repair guy. I ask him if I can try out a soprano sax. Sure, he says, why not? So I buy a reed (yeah kids you don't want to pass these around...) go into a quiet room and play.
Most everything I had heard about sopranos was true, mostly: hard to play in tune! But no one told me how heavy they are, and most of all, how friggin' loud!!! Worse than my tenor. I gave it a good shot, but 15 minutes of playing convinced me I have zero interest in playing soprano.
On a whim I tried out a clarinet. Years back, a friend of mine leant me her second clarinet, but even tho I had been playing sax for years at that point, I couldn't make a sound out of it, not one peep! Drove me nuts, but I said, what the hell, I guess I don't need to play clarinet then.
I mentioned this to my friend at the store, and he said, can' t be right, here try one out.
OK, back in the quiet room, raise the horn to my lips, and - out comes this beautiful sound. I was stunned, really. Why hadn't I been able to do this before? I played for about 20 minutes, and while you wouldn't have liked it, at least I could actually play the thing.
Much lighter and quieter than the sax. And the lower range - oh man, I think I got hooked right then.
Next day I tried another clarinet at another store. Things were getting serious at this point.
I did a lot of research on the internet, especially at sax on the web, (in the doubling forum) a good site for sax players. I found out what to look for, and went to ebay and found a completely rebuilt horn for a very reasonable price - like about 1/10 of what I would pay for a good double bass. It just arrived today in the office, and it looks good to me, but I have to run back to the music store to have my friend pass his blessing on it, plus buy a few necessary things like reeds and a good mouthpiece.
Am I excited? Yes! Impulsive? You bet, but thanks to my sweetheart I have made a much better buy. I mean, it all makes sense to me, since the clarinet is perfect for klezmer and middle eastern music and jazz too. Maybe next year at this time, if I am good enough, I will make it Klez Kanada!