A performance contemporânea no baixo elétrico do repertório jazzístico e da música popular brasileira

Abstract

The electric bass, having its primordial role of melodic instrument of support of the harmonic/rhythmic base preserved, has been played in ways that extrapolate this designation. With the use of harmonics and chords, bassists have new possibilities for interpretation, either by providing the harmonic base, in an approach similar to guitar accompaniment, or by performing melody and harmony simultaneously, aided by the ampliation of the available notes provided by the harmonics. Even the rhythmic cells of different musical genres practiced by the bassists were influenced by these extended techniques, also gaining differentiated performances.

The search for a performance conception in line with the practice of the bassists of the present time, directed this research to the study of the process of use of the instrumental techniques of electric bass beyond the traditional pizzicato or the use of the pick, as well as the inherited baselines of acoustic bass practice. In particular, performances that add the harmonics and chords in the musical execution in the electric bass, its origin and its development, are the focus of this study.