Electric Bass Guitar Research Articles

Neural electric bass guitar synthesis framework enabling attack-sustain-representation-based technique control

Musical instrument sound synthesis (MISS) often utilizes a text-to-speech framework because of its similarity to speech in terms of generating sounds from symbols. Moreover, a plucked string instrument, such as electric bass guitar (EBG), shares acoustical similarities with speech. We propose an attack-sustain (AS) representation of the playing technique to take advantage of this similarity. The AS representation treats the attack segment as an unvoiced consonant and the sustain segment as a voiced vowel. In addition, we propose a MISS framework for an EBG that can control its playing techniques: (1) we constructed a EBG sound database containing a rich set of playing techniques, (2) we developed a dynamic time warping and timbre conversion to align the sounds and AS labels, (3) we extend an existing MISS framework to control playing techniques using AS representation as control symbols. The experimental evaluation suggests that our AS representation effectively controls the playing techniques and improves the naturalness of the synthetic sound.

The Bass Guitar in the Contemporary Music

The interest for the contemporary repertoire, combined with the interest never abandoned for the Electric Bass Guitar, pushed me to investigate the role of this instrument in the contemporary repertoire, observing that only at chamber music level It has found its own dimension, however totally absent in the soloist field. Can the electric bass guitar rise to the role of solo instrument in contemporary music? How can it find its way to be considered as a solo instrument in contemporary music? Can composers approach this instrument exalting its expressiveness and technical potential? The research is divided into two parts: The first part concerns the history of the instrument, its construction and its impact on musical culture. In this part we will also analyse some pieces of the contemporary repertoire, analysis accompanied by video demonstrations of some excerpts that I perform personally. The second part is the fulcrum of the research: the execution of a piece for electric bass and electronics, "L' Autodidatta" by Maurizio Tedde. It will highlight the collaboration between the performer and the composer, the vision of the composer and the role of the electric bass in the piece, demonstrating that Bass and the electric bassist can have their own dimension in the soloist field.

Neck dive of electric bass guitar as an explanation of the force balance junior high school students in Japan study

Neck dive of electric bass guitar as an explanation of the force balance junior high school students in Japan study

Low-Latency f0 Estimation for the Finger Plucked Electric Bass Guitar Using the Absolute Difference Function

Audio-to-MIDI conversion can be used to allow digital musical control through an analog instrument. Audio-to-MIDI converters rely on fundamental frequency estimators that are usually restricted to a minimum delay of two fundamental periods. This delay is perceptible for the case of bass notes. In this dissertation, we propose a low-latency fundamental frequency estimation method that relies on specific characteristics of the electric bass guitar. By means of physical modeling and signal acquisition, we show that the assumptions of this method are based on the generalization of all electric basses. We evaluated our method in a dataset with musical notes played by diverse bassists. Results show that our method outperforms the Yin method in low-latency settings, which indicates its suitability for low-latency audio-to-MIDI conversion of the electric bass sound.

String/frets contacts in the electric bass sound: Simulations and experiments

For particular playing techniques such as “pop” or “slap” in the electric bass guitar, the string collides with frets, producing a percussive sound used in different music styles. The string/frets contacts introduce a nonlinearity which is investigated both numerically and experimentally in this paper. A physical model, based on a modal description of the string, is implemented with an unconditionally stable scheme. Simulations including a string/structure coupling and the two polarisations of the string are confronted to controlled experiments, showing a good agreement for increasing amplitudes of initial conditions. A parametric study is then conducted numerically in order to highlight the influence of physical parameters on the transient behaviour and raises questions related to tuning and playing issues.

The Appearance of the Electric Bass Guitar: A Rockabilly Perspective

(2003). The Appearance of the Electric Bass Guitar: A Rockabilly Perspective. Popular Music and Society: Vol. 26, Reading the Instrument, pp. 351-366.

The Relationship Between Types of Rap Music and Memory in African American Children

Heavy metal and rap music are the two most scrutinized forms of music. Heavy metal music, which features the thundering rhythm of the electric bass guitar and drums, is often characterized by songs that glorify violence, abuse against women, hate, deviant sexual activity, and the occult, notably satanic worship (King, 1987). Rap music also often advocates violence, substance abuse, and sex, but heavy metal music generally advocates rebellion and satanism as well. There are several types of rap music; the most popular are called gangsta, hip-hop, political, and commercial. Each type of rap music has distinguishable characteristics. Gangsta rap contains graphic and derogatory language and advocates violence and the use of drugs. It also contains many obscenities and downplays the importance of women. In this regard, examples of artists whose music is considered gangsta rap are AMG and Snoop Doggy Dog. Hip-Hop rap is a mosaic of jazz, rhythm and blues, and rap music. Examples of artists whose music is considered hip-hop are the Fugees and Heavy D. In contrast, political rap music pertains to Black power struggles and criticism of the police, government, and organized establishments. Examples of artists whose rap music is considered political are Public Enemy and KRS One. Furthermore, commercial/pop rap is mainstream rap that appeals to both African American and European American popula-

Writing Jimi: rock guitar pedagogy as postmodern folkloric practice

Most instruction in electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and electronic keyboards is conducted on a one-to-one basis by uncertified, independent teachers. The lessons are face-to-face, and based on the student's imitation of the teacher's example. Popular music education is a ‘little tradition’ (in comparison to school music departments) and largely an oral one, thus meeting the usual criteria of folk cultures.

Double Bass and Electric Bass Guitar: The Twain Shall Meet

Double Bass and Electric Bass Guitar: The Twain Shall Meet

Electric bass guitar incorporating fine‐tuning and string length‐adjusting means

An electric bass guitar incorporating combination string-adjustment, fine-tuning, and bridge-elements. The bridge-elements are accurately adjustable to any position, and are so constructed and related that the lateral positions of the strings will be determined with great precision, regardless of the adjusted position of the saddles. Fine-tuning screws are interposed between the saddles and an anchor wall which both anchors the strings and anchors the ends of adjustment elements for the saddles. The strings are confined closely in vertical slots so that they may not move laterally but may move vertically as fine-tuning occurs. The fine-tuning screws engage the string portions in the slots.

Electric bow for the electric bass guitar

An illustrative characterization of the invention depicts the cone shaped bow enabling the bassist to bow one string of the electric bass guitar singularly, bow two strings simultaneously or bow three or four strings of the electric bass guitar simultaneously. The use of a cone shaped rotating bow allows the bassist to hold the bow in the right hand and play pizzicato with the fore-finger. Bowing the string(s) is actuated by depressing the foot-switch and pressing the cone shaped bow against the string(s) to be bowed on the electric bass guitar. The foot-switch activates the cone shaped rotary bow to rotate clockwise between 2000 and 2400 revolutions per minute. The quality of the sound produced by this invention depends on two factors. First, the cone shaped rotary bow consists of a plastic cone that is wrapped and glued with horsehair. The cone is pressed on a grommet thereby mounting the cone to a direct current DC 6-9 volt electric motor. Factor one, the quality of the sound produced by this cone shaped rotary bow is produced by applying sufficient amounts of rosin on the cone shaped bow. Secondly, the quality of the sound produced by this invention depends on how the cone shaped bow impacts the string(s). Depressing the foot-switch activates the bow, pressure exerted on the string(s) by the bow is the means for producing different sound qualities. Factor two, less pressure exerted on the string(s) by the bow produces softer qualities of the bowed sound, increasing amounts of pressure exerted by the bow on the string(s) of the instrument produce a more intense impact.

Stringed musical instruments

A stringed musical instrument such as an electric guitar or an electric bass guitar is balanced to render the instant comfortable to play, supported by a support plate at its center of gravity. The tuning machines are on the body for the purpose of balance. The neck should be of proper weight and rigidity to sustain greater tone and brilliance.

The Electric Bass Guitar

The Electric Bass Guitar