Matthew Wengerd's Weblog

A classmate of mine and I are both preparing “Three Short Stories” for Double Bass and Piano, written by Bill Mays and recorded by the composer and John Goldsby
on Goldsby’s “Tale of the Fingers.” The first two “stories” of this suite both involve challenging arco sections (both written and improvised). Because of this, the idea of jazz arco playing has been at the fore of my mind for some time.

Goldsby and Lynn Seaton gave a great pair of demonstrations on the subject at the Aebersold camps and I’ve been working to apply some of their principals (particularly in the blowing section) to this piece (and my playing in general). I’ve had three great classical bass teachers over the last several years and considered the right-hand portion of this piece a given; not quite the case.

The anecdotal evidence seems to be that jazzers prefer German bow to French and I find myself among the presumed majority. All things relating to the German bow and it’s earthy grip pique my interest; there are myriad ways to unlock the musicality of the larger-frogged stick. The PBDB blog’s “Great German Bow Guide” took me to a website I’ve bookmarked but not yet explored: Robert Oppelt‘s personal site. On his “Get A Grip” page, he outlines eleven different grip-types for the German bow and, next to the demonstrative photo, explains what he considers the weaknesses and benefits of each grip. Among these is a Streicher-style grip and my predominant grip (#11). I would have preferred he more detailed descriptions of each grip, including their origins and names, but this serves an an excellent resource that was not available when I first picked up the bow.

Whatever way you choose to play your double bass, I would highly recommend Paul Brun’s book “A New History of the Double Bass.” In it, he outlines one of the most nagging questions in the string family – why in the world do bassists play with that funny-looking bow?!

By the way – while you’re at Bob’s site, check out his tips.

I’ve been in seclusion for a while now, trying to keep my proverbial head above the proverbial water. Well, this was worth braking the silence for:

One of my students told me he saw me on the USF Music webpage so I had to check it out for myself:

Isn’t that funny! I’m also in the flash video on the site. Go here to see more of my ugly mug.

Several years ago, I was dropping my parents off for a cruise from Port Canaveral while a hurricane (I can never remember which one was which) was coming in on the West coast of Florida. They had perfectly calms seas while I went to sleep unsure that the roof would still be there in the morning.

Seeing this, I wouldn’t wish rough seas on anyone on a cruise. That looks plain-old scary.

via, via

***offensive language ahead***

Loosely transcribed at AAJ:

”I don’t speak Italian, but I hope that somebody who speaks English tell those a**holes to shut off those f***ing cameras. Until you don’t do it, music won’t be at its best and you will have spent your money for nothing. I’m speaking to you, you, you, and you, and also you up there. If I see one single flash during the concert, I and Gary and Jack reserve to ourselves the right to stop playing and leave this goddamn city. It’s your privilege to be here, not mine”.

What is the performer’s relationship with the audience? Do musicians of a certain caliber possess the right to castigate their audience? Daniel Biro doesn’t think so and expressed his views here.

It’s amazing to think that audience members put up with this.

The following is probably one of my favorite jazz bass Youtube finds. It’s a nine-part feature of a Ray Brown masterclass with English students. It has a watermark in the top left corner, some credits at the end, and is dubbed in French. The cuts appear to consider only filesize, as no effort appears to be made to create cuts that fit the flow of the video.

All that said, there are so many jewels from Brown in this video. Even without the lecture portion, this video is an education in jazz bass. Brown’s wit and charm allow him to lay down the law with his charges while maintaining a light, friendly discourse.

Do yourself a favor and stop to watch them all right now:

I:

II:

III:

IV:

V:

VI:

VII:

IIX:

IX:

There’s a discussion about it at Talkbass in this thread.

Jeff Berlin has a tendency to cause quite a stir. He has very strong, sometimes controversial opinions about music instruction and the learning process. He has written for Bass Player magazine and founded the Players School of Music.

This video is a hilarious testament to his musicianship. There are plenty of bass players who can’t sing the National Anthem and play it simultaneously. Ever fewer can shift the lyrics one syllable:

It seems like there is a dearth of information about the German bow. I don’t quite know what causes this, but there just seem to be many more French players and information out there.

Imagine my joy and surprise when I read Stan Haskins’ Budget German bow roundup. He seems to give reasonably high marks to the Arcos Brazil bows, one of which I own. The bow is stamped “H. Cirillo” and is a very well-made, well-balanced bow. I paid less than $800 for it and have kept my eyes open for another bow in that range, but haven’t found anything yet.

If you’re looking for a bow in the sub-$800 range, read Haskins’ post and check out the bows he discusses.

The ClickForLessons blog had another interesting post (I was reading back into the archives) I thought worth mentioning. The issue of pricing lessons has always been a vexing one. How do you prevent undervaluing yourself without pricing yourself out of the market? I think these figures wouldn’t fly in my market:

If you want to make $100,000 this year, you can get 200 students to pay you $500 ($20 for half hour lessons, twice a month). You’d also be working your rear-end off – 6 days a week – and needing a support staff.

Or, you can have 60 students that will take two 1-hour lessons a month at $70 an hour. In the latter scenario, you could work Mon-Thurs and have a three day weekend every week – while making $100K. Typically, the person paying $70 vs. $20 also tends to be more serious and stay with you longer (thus avoiding churn and turnover).

I recently “gave myself a raise” and am charging $17/half, $30/hour. Upon obtaining my MM, it’s a sure bet that’ll go up. I could see charging $70 after a decade of pro experience, but don’t read the CFL blog and get the idea that you can demand those prices fresh out of school.

I do indeed like this reality check, though:

The average plumber charges $85 for a house call – whether it’s 10 minutes or an hour – then $85-$100 per hour thereafter. I’d say you’re adding more long-term value than my local plumber, wouldn’t you?

For those of you who do not know, I work for a radio station in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota Market. I have been a desk jockey for the station since the start of the summer. In recent weeks, I have been “voice checking” (recording copy for evaluation by my supervisors), working on my inflection and pacing. Wednesday afternoon, I was doing a VC in the production room adjacent to the Master Control Room. I was reading promos for some of our national broadcasts and out-of-date copy regarding our last fund drive.

We have a complex digital system, where the control boards can all be controlled remotely; I had been told that it is not uncommon for someone to mess with a coworker by re-arranging their board remotely during work like voice checks. So, when the lights on the board flashed, I assumed someone was playing tricks on me. Several minutes later, I notice several people hovering over the Master Control Board. At once, they all looked up and me and, in slow motion, raised their hands to their throats to make the left-to-right slice of the “kill it” signal. I looked at them, puzzled, and muted all the channels on my board.

A software malfunction had caused stereo channels in the two rooms to cross, and my voice was going out over the air, live. I was talking over classical music, reading completely unrelated copy several times. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so humiliated. People were quite upset with me until they realized I had done nothing wrong. I continued to do VCs with the caveat that a single blinking light would send me straight home.

At least the big leap is over with.

In high school, they all used to laugh at me because I dug this instrument. The theremin is one of my all time favorite sounds, coming in right behind that of my own instrument. www.clickforlessons.com had a link to this video on their blog. I now feel slightly vindicated: