BassCore summer program 2015 Preparatory Checklist

We could talk about all these materials during the course, but frankly, they are BASIC to advanced double bass playing, and they require little, if any, discussion or explanation, so they are presented here in the form of a checklist. We will have so much ground to cover in our two weeks that you have homework before the course! Please ensure you are familiar with each of these items before the first day of class. Mastery is not expected; just have some experience with it. You’ll need to invest a couple of hours in reading and watching some online videos, as well as take on some additions to your daily practice and fitness routine.

SECTION 1: AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME TO FIGHT WITH THEIR GEAR ____You have the use of a quality, well set up double bass with appropriate, professional­quality strings. If you have any doubt about your bass, please bring it in advance of the course to be checked out and adjusted, if necessary (no charge for simple adjustments). ____You have the use of a quality pernambuco bow, well­balanced (not tip­heavy), with good hair, a fresh professional­quality bass rosin, and, if applicable, rubber thumb grip. ____Your stool (if used) and endpin are at a height that allow you to bow with your right arm at a plane in front of the strings. What does that mean?

Consider this photo of Yo Yo Ma ­ imagine a yardstick being held under his fingerboard; his bow arm would clear the stick and not impede his bowing. Also, notice his perfect French bow hold.

SECTION 2: BUY YOURSELF SOME ESSENTIALS. ___Student or regular membership to the International Society of Bassists. This is the crossroads for high­level classical bass playing, and the main source for current information. You may deduct 50% of the cost of an ISB membership from this course tuition if necessary,

but membership is a requirement to attend this course. http://www.isbworldoffice.com/join.asp ___A mirror for your practice area at home ­ large enough to get a full view of yourself playing. Ikea has a good selection at reasonable prices. If you choose the widely available ‘closet door mirror’ type, we recommend getting two and putting them side by side. ___ A copy of Strokin’ (bowing book) by Hal Robinson, only available from Robertson’s (call 1­800­AVIOLIN to order ­ about $25). Indispensable right­hand exercises for bassists from any technique background. There are plenty of technique books we will discuss, but we don’t want to require any that you may not need at this time, so this is the only required book for the course. Please acquire it as soon as possible and start both Section 1 and Section 3. You will need to have memorized the chord progression for the string­crossing patterns in Section 3. Required apps:

___ Double Dynamo: a brain training ‘game’. A superb coordination and rhythm trainer, of the class of cognitive trainers called Dual N­Back. It will work on an iphone, but is much easier on an ipad. You’re not expected to achieve advanced levels, but just to try it out. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/double­dynamo­matching­rhythm/id703947966?mt=8 . Seriously, playing with it for around 10 minutes a day produces noticeable improvements in rhythm and sight­reading within a couple of weeks.

___ Videoshop, or another slow­motion video app. You will need to start video­ing yourself EVERY DAY during practice ­ just 1 minute of video is enough ­ and slow­motion video is even better for analyzing your motions. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/videoshop­video­editor/id615563599?mt=8

___Time Guru (or another random­mute metronome of your choice ­ though this is the only one we know of). https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/time­guru­metronome/id421929034?mt=8 Prior to the course, we want you to have tried out practicing with a random­mute metronome. Instruction is given in the Victor Wooten video referenced below.

___ Electronic tuner of your choice, such as Guitar Toolkit, ClearTune, or iStroboSoft. It should clearly display the precise frequency. Please practice tuning your strings to the exact pitch and tuning independently before class starts. We will do some practice tuning by ear, but there is not enough class time to tune everyone individually.

SECTION 3: MAKE SOME POPCORN. VIEW THESE: ___ Francois Rabbath: Art of the Bow and Art of the Left Hand. We know these are expensive DVDs, so please check off that you have watched the video clips on the Art of the Bow site, and you may check out the DVDs from Quantum Bass Center’s library. Though you may not have a teacher in the Rabbath lineage, this ground­breaking material is now part of the bass world, the technique presented is superb, and it’s something you will need to know about. http://artofthebow.com/

___ Renaud Garcia­Fons: video clips ­ a brilliant master of our instrument, and innovator of the Third Voice bow technique (a strumming battuto). Notice his bow arm is always on a plane in front of the strings! http://www.renaudgarciafons.com/index.php/en/video­en ___ Etienne La France ­ see this brief example of picture­perfect position and technique that permits Etienne great freedom of expression in all styles and all ranges of the bass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW2BVHQ­GQc ___ Sebastien Dube’ ­ extremely natural, fluid, astounding bassist in both classical and jazz ­ search for him on YouTube in videos such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htqelHdlYPA and notice his bow arm is on a plane in front of the strings! ___ The late Stefano Scodanibbio, innovator of incorporating two­handed pizzicato and extended harmonic techniques into the bass literature. These extremely challenging techniqes are RAPIDLY becoming a new benchmark. Consider they may be required on auditions within a few more years! See this brief example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxz4TPthn6o ___Victor Wooten ‘ProSessions’ on youtube ­ excellent tutorial on metronome practice (not necessary to have the same Korg metronome): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9X1fhVLVF_4 ___ Master classes from the International Society of Bassists conventions: have you played in a master class? Are you familiar with the teaching styles of the world’s foremost bass pedagogues? Watch episodes like this, with Paul Ellison coaching a student on excerpts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WApybymqzQ ___ Harold Robinson lecture/demonstration on orchestral excerpts ­ essential viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1D30AgYAk4 (part 1) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUpTSqEJKkg (part 2). ___ David Moore ­ one of the most significant modern teachers, in an excellent demonstration of the principles that you can use while working through the ‘Strokin’ book: http://musaic.nws.edu/videos/bowing­exercises­for­clear­sound­and­articulation ___ This ‘dead weight arm’ exercise (demonstrated by Dr. Noa Kageyama, who you’ll get to know through the Bulletproof Musician) is one of the first things we’ll cover in our course! Watch, and try it with the help of a friend: http://youtu.be/qRy5XrpuVcQ EXAMPLES OF CURRENT PERFORMANCE STANDARDS: What sort of expectations will we encounter at the level of preparing to enter the job market? ___ Listen: Rodrigo Moro Martin, a college­age student from Spain, studying in the UK, multiple award winner, in a live performance at a course in UK, in 2011. http://www.bassclub.org.uk/BassClubRecordings.php ___ Rice Bass Ensemble, 2012 ­ many of them undergrads, they put this together on their own time and played from memory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5nOQGEr6kQ ___ Blake Hinson, young winner of a position with New York Philharmonic, in 2009: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a45mpBLZ_2M

SECTION FOUR: READING ___ Fill out the self­management worksheet ___What schools to we need to consider/who should we seek as mentors and teachers if we aspire to win an orchestra job? This is the most succinct answer to the question; keep track of this list: http://wiki.talkbass.com/index.php?title=Auditions ___Read this article: Characteristics of Practice Behavior and Retention of Performance Skills: https://cml.music.utexas.edu/assets/pdf/DukeEtAl2.pdf ___Sign up for the Bulletproof Musician blog ­ on this page: http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/ Delivers an always­valuable blog post about practicing, performing, and auditioning to your inbox every Sunday morning. We refer to this material constantly in classes at QBC. ___ Neil Keleher proprioception information: Superb, comprehensive information about body position awareness (proprioception). We will be discussing the VITAL role of the thoracic spine ­ read a bit about it here http://www.sensational­yoga­poses.com/spinal­erectors.html and actually try these moves to become aware of the sections of your spine, neck and hip joints: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyrN9eaMCkY

SECTION FIVE: PRACTICING THE BASS ___Review bass position and bow hold photos, George Vance’s ‘Progressive Repertoire’ Vol. 1, pg. 9. If you don’t have this book, you may view it at QBC. Has your bow hold or bass position developed anomalies over time, or is it a new topic for you to study? Though there are, naturally, variations of the most functional playing position that work better for some individuals, these are excellent models based on sound principles of physics. Compare George’s position to yours in your practice room mirror; try these postures, and observe results. We can do a lot of work on playing position, but we would like you to have done some exploration of playing in a position that may be a new habit for you, so you can experience that you CAN change a habitual position if and when necessary. If, during the course, you find a playing position that would be an improvement for you, you don’t want to spend the entire two weeks reminding yourself to form the new habit. ___ Before practicing (if standing), do the Bridge Pose and hold it for as long as you can ­ repeat if you wish ­ this one simple move activates the glutes to balance your torso and avoid back strain. You don’t have to be a yoga person; if you need instructions, here’s a pretty good page: http://www.yogabasics.com/asana/bridge/ ___ Try a simple meditation/centering exercise before practicing. If you need to learn how, here is a good place to start: http://yogateacher.com/meditation­2/instructions/ ___ Remember the ‘dead weight arm’ video from above? Times when you’re sitting quietly (reading, riding the bus, going to bed, etc), practice letting all the tonus (muscle tension)

release from your bow arm. Think of it being as limp and formless as a dead squid, or this pork tenderloin:

___ Play for someone else at least once a week ­ any work in progress you have; play for friends, family, other instrumentalists ­ just do it regularly. ___ Sandor’s scale cycles ­ please be prepared to play the full duration of any ONE of these:: http://sandorostlund.com/scales ___ Video yourself playing daily ­ any video equipment you have will do, as long as you can review it immediately after playing. Keep it simple and easy to use. Even one minute of video will be very revealing! Get in the habit of making video part of your practice routine. We recommend making a ‘baseline’ video of your current performance of each of the pieces you are working on, if you need something to record. You will be amazed at your noticeable progress from week to week if you keep a video record. ___ Practice with random­mute metronome such as Time Guru. A good combination with practicing bowing patterns from ‘Strokin’ ___ Blues patterns: these have proved to be very expedient, fun ways to develop a strong left hand and play fifths and octaves with agility. There’s surprisingly little about playing traditional, old­fashioned blues patterns on upright bass ­ it’s largely left to electric bass, while the upright is assumed to be playing walking lines even in blues tunes. This is about the best that can be found at the moment: https://jsmusicschool.wordpress.com/category/the­blues/ . Suggestions welcome! Please PRACTICE playing 12­bar patterns for at least 10 minutes at a time prior to the course. A blues­a­thon will be one of our exercises! ___ Decide on some literature you would like to work on during our course. It can be material you need for an upcoming audition, or a piece you are learning for any purpose. Pick something you can play very comfortably (even if it seems like too easy of a piece), and something that’s a technical challenge. Short sections (2 minutes or less) will allow you to maximize instructional time ­ there is no need to learn entire works for this course, as we will focus on components of technique which you can apply to the whole piece.

SECTION SIX: PHYSICAL FITNESS Bassists are athletes, so fitness is simply not an option. We would venture to say that if one’s most physically demanding activity is playing the bass, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to make technique progress at a pace that would permit viable audition prep. No one can dictate what style of fitness program is right for you, but for the purposes of this course, please prepare the following basic moves:

___ Daily stretches for musicians: http://www.thestrad.com/cpt­latests/warming­up­and­cooling­down­exercises­for­musicians/ ___ Endurance exercise of your choice: musicians who participate in endurance exercise have been shown to experience less performance anxiety than those who don’t. Between now and the course, please allow yourself some time for regular running, biking, walking, elliptical training, or another endurance activity that suits you. ___ Pushups and pullups: upper body strength is important for being able to reach thumb position without strain, and play without repetetive­motion injury. Though there is no specific fitness test, we would like you to assess for yourself how many pushups and pullups you can do, and develop a strategy to improve. Pushups can be done effectively on the stairs, moving down a step at a time as your strength increases. A doorway pullup bar can be had at minimal cost at Academy or Bed Bath & Beyond. Many females have a big challenge with pullups, yet we must play basses that are relatively the same size and string tension as those owned by our larger male friends, who have more inherent upper­body mass and strength; we just have to do some extra strength training to equalize these biological differences. Woo! Now you’re ‘fixed’ and you don’t have to take BassCore! Please feel free to contact your course instructors with questions! These numerous items are intended to inspire your exploration, as well as to load you up with background information.