An Overview of Some Popular Bass Guitar Playing Styles

 

Bass Guitar
Image: guitarworld.com

A knowledgeable photographer, Benjamin Perlin uses his understanding of the scientific processes behind capturing images and printing them on paper to create unique effects. Alongside his photography work, Benjamin Perlin is also a musician who plays piano and bass guitar. Ben Perlin studies bass guitar with Denny Sarokin. When learning bass guitar, individuals should become familiar with the many different styles of playing.

A difficult bass style is jazz, which typically involves a great deal of improvisation. Unlike some other musical styles, jazz often makes the bass a central focus and celebrates its contributions, allowing bassists to create a unique voice. Learning some jazz bass helps individuals understand musical phrasing and can lead to more technical, but tasteful, playing.

Funk has produced some of the most memorable bass lines. The funk bass style is marked by slaps and pops that get the head bobbing. Bassists who learn funk songs build a strong foundation for moving into other genres of music. Plus, funk is a bass style that sounds great even on its own.

Blues players understand how to translate emotion into melody. When blues bassists play, they wear their hearts on their sleeves. Many beginning bass players start with blues lines because they are simple yet deep and moving.

Rock music steals bits and pieces from other genres and plays them loud and proud. To excel at rock, bassists need to become versed in other styles so that they can represent them faithfully.

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Sabattier Effect – A Striking Darkroom Technique

 

Sabattier Effect
Image: digital-photography-school.com

Based in Nashville, Benjamin Perlin maintains a focus on traditional film and darkroom techniques, as he feels these best capture the imprint of physical events. One technique with which Benjamin Perlin has experimented is the Sabattier effect, which describes a print that has not been fixed and becomes half negative and half positive with the passage of time.

Named after Armand Sabattier, the technique involves re-exposing a print to light, such that it acts as the negative on the unexposed silver. Highlights that would otherwise appear white are now grey, as they receive a certain amount of exposure. At the same time, striking white Mackie lines are created between the shadows and highlights.

Sabattier effects can be accomplished in a darkroom by turning on the lights three-quarters of the way through the development process. The technique is also useful in creating photograms that do not involve a camera. Instead, objects are placed directly on enlarger paper, with these prints emerging as silhouettes or shadow pictures. Various opaque and translucent pieces can be set in the light and taken off at various stages of the development process for a complex, subtle result.

The Invention of the First Camera

 

First Camera
Image: thoughtco.com

Nashville photographer Benjamin Perlin focuses on traditional film cameras and techniques and counts a Nikon F2 and Zeiss Ikon Contessa among his vintage-model cameras. Benjamin Perlin also has a longstanding interest in the history of the photographic medium.

The camera came about largely through the efforts of Alexander Wolcott, who also ran the first daguerran (photography) parlor in New York and patented a camera design in 1840. This invention was preceded by a sliding wooden box design in 1826 that employed a mixture of chalk and silver, exposed under light.

The daguerreotype process came about in 1836 and involved a copper plate being treated with silver and iodine vapor, which increased its light sensitivity. The image was developed through further exposure to table salt and mercury vapor.

Mr. Wolcott’s invention combined light reflecting images in a box with the existing daguerreotype process. It was groundbreaking in that it allowed candid photos and enabled the reproduction of images captured on paper.