matthew wengerd|bassist

Presently on my stand:

Isaiah Billè: Nuovo Metodo Per Contrabbasso
—This is the first of seven (!) books in the method. I bought these when Mars was going out of business in Tampa for less than $35 for the first six books. ‘ve never really worked through them and am now to determine their viability as a teaching method. Plus, they’re helping me develop a good, long practice routine.

Ron Carter Basslines: All Bird
—Trying to build my four-on-the-floor reading and swing chops. my goal is to get through the whole book in one session by the end of the week.

Max Dimoff’s Warmups
—This is the Cleveland Orchestra warmup set about which I’ve already posted. Excellent, but tough!

Excertps for the USF Orchestra Seating Audition
—Two mvts from Mozart’s Haffner and two from Brahms Two. The Mozart (especially the Presto) is all about dexterity and speed and the Brahms, for me, is challenging in nuance.

Yardbird Suite
—From Aebersold’s “All Bird,” I have to have the head and changes down cold for the Jazz seating audition.

As a Cleveland Orchestra junkie and former student of Kevin Switalski, Assistant Principal at the CO, I was quite excited when Farin Hoover posted these warmups on Talkbass.

They are extremely time consuming and difficult, but well worth the effort. In the beginning, I recommend you take one warmup per day, until you’ve conditioned yourself to play the whole thing. I’m not there yet and they sure don’t sound musical or delicate under my fingers, but they’re a great conditioning exercise leading up to school.

My personal blog can be found here.

This is the Laborie endpin I recently had installed on my 2003 Solano Klotz. It is installed at a 44 degree angle from verticle and can be installed straight back (perpendicular to the back) or angled “out” (from the player’s feet). I elected to get mine set straight back because this is the way it’s invetors, Francois Rabbath and Christian Laborie, intended it.

The advantage of the Laborie is that it moves the bass’ point of balance closer to or behind the center of gravity, lessening the perceived weight of the bass on your left hand. Rabbath, a French bow player, advocates a whole system, including a small, sloped-shoulder bass (such as the Queniol), the Laborie endpin, French bow, and an open stance.

I, however, don’t have any of this besides the endpin. Instead, I play German bow on the largest bass I have ever seen and have a mid-stance (not too closed, not too open). The primary benefit I see with the Laborie is my ability to enter Thumb Position (TP) easily while standing. It also means I don’t need to haul a stool around anymore!

You can read more about Rabbath here

I will be meeting with Chuck Owen and Dave Stamps next Wednseday to discuss the details of my Graduate Assistantship with the Center for Jazz Composition at USF. I am quite looking forward to my time with the Center and believe that it may open as-of-yet unimagined possibilities for my future.

placement auditions coming soon.

Not only have I submitted my vaccination records (am I some sort of domestic animal?), but I am registered and ready to go!

I have discovered a new (to me) double bass blog and am amazed by this video:

More later.

I cannot get ahold of my MMR records and am, therefore, unregistered at present. I have also found that my Assistantship (like all others, I presume) starts on the 7th! Almost three weeks before classes!

At least I’ll be enjoying myself.