Want to get classicly trained, now what instrument...

Patricide

After years of listening away to classical music and deciding that i want to pursue theory more ive decided that I want to go down the classicly trained musician route. The only thing is im torn deciding between which instrument to do this with.

I already play bass so i thought an easy place to start would be the Double Bass and that the theory i learn could be easily applied back to the electric bass too.

On the other hand I love the sound of the Cello, its also seems to me a more interesting instrument player wise. Itd be more of a challenge but i dunno.

Piano is another road id love to go down aswell but the main things putting me off this are price and mobility. Being a college student i can only really afford to pay €750 max to get somthing suitable for starting out. Also with a piano it aint exactly somthing I could chuck on my back heading up and down to college.

Thought id mention I already play guitar but im not really interested in it as a classical instrument.

So basicly im just looking for boardies advice on where should i start. What would you do in my situation, and feel free to embed any vids which really show off the instrument in question.

Also if anyone knows a good place to get "proper" music lessons(proper here meaning with the gradings) in limerick thatd also be handy.

spoonbadger

Piano!!! Piano piano piano!!.

I've been playing classical guitar for 2 1/2 years,and seriously, if you want to go down the "full classical training" road, then piano is your best option. Not only will it be easy to apply your music theory to, but you'll get the basics down much faster than with other instruments.

Piano has a larger range than violin/cello/double bass and is also more versatile (how often have you gone somewhere, where someone says "oh, hey!.Let's have a singalong, Does anyone play double bass?" )

And you dont have to buy a full piano, for 750quid or less, you could get a very nice keyboard, probably one with weighted keys and jacks for sustain/damper pedals.

ham_n_mustard

thers's a place up beside HSI on o'connell avenue that do lessons for basically any instrument. how good or bad they are....dont know. i know a lad there alright that teaches bass/guitar/piano. one of thos talented people...dont you just hate them?;)

MattKid

Any reason you are choosing Classical over Jazz for pursuing theory?

Patricide

Cause i want to be classicly trained, wanna learn all the threory cause my theory is is where im weak as foooook. I know how to play guitar and bass but i really wanna know all the theory. I wanna be able to compse properly and possily even conduct.

Yakult

Get a keyboard and work away on that for the mean time. Its what Im doing lol.

Or go to that Kerry School Of Music program during the summer. Seamus O S went to that and he knows alot of theory now the fooker.

Eoin Madsen

Tbh, I think cello would be quite less of a challenge than doublebass if you're coming from bass guitar. Getting used to GDAE as opposed to EADG is not nearly as hard as getting used to a scale length that's more than a metre long.

MattKid

Patricide wrote: »

Cause i want to be classicly trained, wanna learn all the threory cause my theory is is where im weak as foooook. I know how to play guitar and bass but i really wanna know all the theory. I wanna be able to compse properly and possily even conduct.

Fair enough but with guitar you can go into Jazz theory till it's completely mindboggling without having to learn another instrument.

Eoin Madsen

Music theory is music theory in either case, it doesn't differ at all. You're really not learning jazz as distinct from everything else until you're learning to improvise.

~nop~

Don't learn the piano if you're interested in ever playing with an orchestra! Bass and cello are both good ideas

Patricide

Thanks for all the info guys, Really not intersted in pursuing guitar to a classical level.

Would a cello really be that much easier to jump to from a bass over a doublebass?

Also ive often seen the odd piano in an orchestra, is it just the fact that because theres only one player youd have to be Extremely talented or is it that the majority of orchestras dont have pianists?

fish-head

Generally you'll only see a piano with an orchestra if it's something like a Piano concerto, which is basically an orchestra backing up a piano. Otherwise most composers don't tend to use them for orchestral stuff since a piano can play over 4 voices at a time most other orchestral instruments can only do the one.

Ifyouknowwarrimean.

Eoin Madsen

Patricide wrote: »

Would a cello really be that much easier to jump to from a bass over a doublebass?

No, but I'm pretty sure it would be somewhat easier. You're going to an unfretted instrument in either case and you have to learn bowing techniques in either case. Doublebass requires more stamina, and the scale length is much farther from that of a bass guitar. Bear in mind that the bottom note in the range of a cello is the C below the E on an bass guitar - it's still a lower register instrument than a bass guitar. The fundamentals of a doublebass are an entire octave lower than a bass guitar. The difficult thing about the tuning of the cello (CGDA) is that the intervals are a fifth rather than a fourth (EADG). But the lack of frets is going to hit you harder than that at first anyway.

Doublebass does get played in more styles of music, and is plucked in most of them rather than being bowed. But if you're learning a classical style, you're probably as likely to be playing pizz on a cello, so there's not much difference between the two in that way.

The reality is that you'll probably find whichever one you like more easier to learn in any case, so I'd just go on that.

Patricide

Eoin Madsen wrote: »

No, but I'm pretty sure it would be somewhat easier. You're going to an unfretted instrument in either case and you have to learn bowing techniques in either case. Doublebass requires more stamina, and the scale length is much farther from that of a bass guitar. Bear in mind that the bottom note in the range of a cello is the C below the E on an bass guitar - it's still a lower register instrument than a bass guitar. The fundamentals of a doublebass are an entire octave lower than a bass guitar. The difficult thing about the tuning of the cello (CGDA) is that the intervals are a fifth rather than a fourth (EADG). But the lack of frets is going to hit you harder than that at first anyway.

Doublebass does get played in more styles of music, and is plucked in most of them rather than being bowed. But if you're learning a classical style, you're probably as likely to be playing pizz on a cello, so there's not much difference between the two in that way.

The reality is that you'll probably find whichever one you like more easier to learn in any case, so I'd just go on that.

Thanks for the post really informitave i must say. Now just to see what kinda stuff id rather be playing, i really like the sound of bowed instruments over plucked, however I still would like the option to pluck. Ive only ever seen a cello bowed however, is this true for every style of music on it?

fish-head

Doubles Basses are possibly the coolest instruments going though... How can you beat an instrument that you have to wrestle with?

Eoin Madsen

Patricide wrote: »

Thanks for the post really informitave i must say. Now just to see what kinda stuff id rather be playing, i really like the sound of bowed instruments over plucked, however I still would like the option to pluck. Ive only ever seen a cello bowed however, is this true for every style of music on it?

Double bass has been used in jazz and other early "band" styles for which it is predominantly plucked (and is where the entire bass guitar idea evolved from). Cello has no tradition of being a primarily plucked instrument in the same way in any style that I know of. But in classical music, plucking a violin/cello/doublebass etc is common (it's called pizzicato), and is something you would definitely have to learn on any classical stringed instrument. The actual style of plucking a doublebass for jazz would differ somewhat from the correct form for plucking a doublebass in classical pizz though.