Next Level Bassist Teaching and Inspiration

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immensely special thing when it happens. Something I find in common among great conductors is a true respect for the bass. They understand our importance for the integrity of the orchestra, the sound of the ensemble. Muti has said on a few different occasions that if he were to play an instrument in the orchestra, he would play the bass. Simon Rattle always wants the bass section to play out and to lead. All the guests that come in and never look at us, or tell us to shadow the celli have a lack of reverence for us, and for the composers. There’s a type of conductor that tries to make the art form serve his musical personality, or leave his stamp on the music. It’s very frustrating when people do that! Muti, Haitink, Rattle - these conductors truly admire and respect the composers they’re conducting. They are very connected with the needs of the piece rather than serving their own ego. Respect for the composer, respect for the bass and the bass section as a whole - these traits allow a human connection to form between the maestro and the orchestra. TEACHING I’m teaching at DePaul University now and I also coach the Civic Orchestra of Chicago bass section. Civic is a really great program, and I get to work with those students at least every month for a couple hours. The focus of my pedagogy is at DePaul, which is really exciting! I work with a really stellar faculty, including Rob Kassinger and Michael Hovnanian from the CSO bass section. Both of those guys are absolute masters! Jason Heath also teaches with us. He’s fantastic and very dedicated to the school. There’s also a jazz program at DePaul, so there is a very diverse body of students. Many of the bassists are pursuing orchestral careers, and there are also people who bring different interests to the table, like jazz or contemporary/electronic music. My current plan is to accept one student each year, to eventually have a 4 student studio. My preference is teaching undergraduates. I find undergraduate students are at the age when they are a little more open to the knowledge I’m giving them, and it’s a very exciting time in any musician’s career. I have one very fine young student now; he’s very focused on orchestral music. The vast majority of my experience has been with orchestral music, so it’s a good fit for us. My approach to teaching is very personalized. When I teach, I have a few goals in mind. I want to figure out what my student wants to do: join an orchestra, play chamber music, give recitals, compose, teach? My desire is to show him or her the best way to do that. I say “best way” because there is no single way to do any of these things! I also use the word “show” instead of teach. I don’t think “teach” is the right word to use; it has the wrong connotation. I identify strengths and weaknesses in students, and figure out the best paths they can take to achieve their goals. The second part of the equation is to show them how to play the bass. This may be a bit more generalized in nature. I certainly have strong opinions about what works best for certain styles of music and concepts of sound on the instrument. I have something like a routine that I hope students will visit on a regular basis, consisting of scales and arpeggios, bowing variations, things to train the body and the mind to produce whatever sound one desires on the instrument. One of the biggest gray areas I’ve found for our instrument is how to hold it. Everyone is a different height, with different hand sizes, different basses, etc. I’m astonished by how many viable options there are out there. One of the most fascinating aspects of my own playing and that of others is posture, how you engage the bass and body. This is a work in progress for me. My curiosity with this has lead me to many Youtube videos, checking out players in concerts, and studying the variety of approaches and what the benefits are. The third aspect is introducing the student to really great music. No matter what my students want to do once they leave my studio, I’m going to have them play Bach. I think that any great musician has to respect, understand, play, and listen to Bach. Getting to share the music of great composers (which also includes Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, and others) is certainly one of the most fun parts of the relationship with my students. ACCESSING BACH The first and most important step is to just listen to the music. Listen to the cello suites, the violin sonatas and partitas, the keyboard music - the quantity of music this man put out is incredible! There’s a tremendous amount to be learned from playing the cello suites on our instruments. I have studied the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th suites in a variety of keys. It builds a lot of different skills on the instrument, and demands a high quality of musicanship to execute. I find that unaccompanied music is great for students to learn how to sell a musical product that is truly solo. It forces the musician to become all parts of the experience - conductor, performer, interpreter. The easiest way to access Bach’s music would probably be the chamber music. Playing the bass lines to the Brandenburg concerti, Orchestral Suites or the violin concerti is so much fun. To be a bass player and just lay that stuff down is so satisfying. It’s some of the best music ever created! There’s so much music that can be performed beyond the cello suites, although that will be the primary point of exposure for most bassists. It’s also very important to keep in mind that Bach mainly played the keyboard and I believe the true greatness of his work was composed for it. It would be great if everyone got both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier and followed along with the score. I was a pianist and cellist for 10 years before I ever picked up the bass. I studied the Well-Tempered Clavier and cello suites and performed them; I learned so much from them. The music of Bach is a gift that has been life changing for me. ETUDES A little of my background: I started with Simandl etudes at the very beginning, and I quickly moved on from them. I could read music very well, and I had played cello for many years before playing bass. From Simandl I went almost immediately to the Petracchi Simplified Higher Technique and the Isaiah Bille method at the same time under the tutelage of Scott Haigh. While we spent significant time on these etudes, the majority of our lessons were spent on solo repertoire and complete orchestra works of the great composers. I think the use of etudes is subject to a case-by-case basis. There’s a great deal of information and value you can get from these books, especially when using the Bille along with studying orchestral excerpts. Etudes improve virtuosity in the lower register of our instrument. Playing with a beautiful sound and legato in an unfriendly key in a low register is extremely challenging! I think that it’s like taking your vitamins. While it might not be absolutely necessary, it can help build a foundation. Learning all 12 keys and all the different registers of the instrument is very important. One thing that I’m brutally demanding about is ensuring that every etude a student works on needs to be played extremely soloistically, with as much character, humor, love, and passion as they 14 SPRING 2014 NEXT LEVEL BASSIST
dare to give. Anyone who is coming in and playing etudes with their brain and soul turned off should stop doing the etudes and look for inspiration elsewhere. When it comes to Bille, many of the pieces are actually nice bits of music. They’re all extremely tonal, and although they may not be very risky or adventurous musically, they merit care and attention. It can be a good exercise for your musicianship to take a piece of music that may not be as high quality as the Schubert Arpeggione sonata and say something with it anyway. I think that there is a lot to be gained from etudes, but it takes a lot of discipline to ensure they are good for you rather than detrimental. MOTIVATION I think the most important thing a teacher can do to motivate is to show a student the greatness of what he or she is working on. I don’t think you can scare anyone into being disciplined, or threaten them with failure as a consequence. These tactics don’t usually work. If I have a student who doesn’t seem to be working to full potential, I’ll try to show him or her the right way without forcing it or scaring him. I think it’s really important not to force the issue, so the student can avoid feeling inadequate or obligated in some way. Students end up doing a lot of bad work practicing out of fear rather than their own passion for music. One thing I find is really fun to do in lessons is to play together. If you’re playing orchestral music, it makes a lot of sense to play the excerpts together, which can be really fun. Doing some duets is also fun, like the Bottesini or Anderson duets. My piano chops are still strong enough to play some concerto or sonata accompaniments as well. Exposing the student to as much great music is a great motivator. However, in the end, It’s really up to the student to have an organic desire to realize their potential. I will often play the other parts of the orchestra on the piano while my student plays an excerpt. It’s important to take us out of playing excerpts in the lesson, and put my student “on stage” with a really great maestro and Orchestra to make him or her connect with the music, and to grasp the big picture. I so often wish I could take my students and put them where I sit on stage when the CSO plays Beethoven 5, to experience the energy and the impact you feel in those moments. A lot of my work on excerpts is about simulating those experiences. The goal is to then have my students to be able to simulate those experiences for their audiences and audition committees too! FINAL THOUGHTS When it comes to listening to live music - for every hour of practicing our instrument, I think we should have an hour of listening. It’s so important and we learn so much! Hearing Hal Robinson and the many other stars of the Philadelphia Orchestra every weekend for four years in school - I feel like that’s how I became who I am. It inspired me to work and take the risks that led me to be Principal Bass of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Great music has never been as accessible as it is right now – go get it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eTlaE5y9hk NOW AVAILABLE SOLO TUNING Strings Handmade in Germany Photo Credit © Pöllmann SPRING 2014 NEXT LEVEL BASSIST 15
Page 1 and 2: | TEACHING AND INSPIRATION | A VIEW
Page 3 and 4: Publisher’s Note Welcome to anoth
Page 5 and 6: Harvie S The Fundamentals of a Bass
Page 7 and 8: day one with me because it’s abso
Page 9 and 10: SPOTLIGHT PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA DO
Page 11 and 12: Origin Stories ALEX HANNA SPRING 20
Page 13: 7th Annual Wabass Institute - the w
Page 17 and 18: Leigh Mesh A View from the Pit As a
Page 19 and 20: Tutor and Collection for Double Bas
Page 21: www.RobertsonViolins.com Tel 800-28

Next Level Bassist Teaching and Inspiration

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