Next Level Bassist Left Hand

There was a period of time when I would even drive to Chicago to
take a lesson from Brad Opland, and took a couple lessons Catherine
McGinn in the Milwaukee Symphony. I didn’t have a regular teacher
for a long time.
Rosemary did some Simandl work with me, but most of it was trying
to get me to be comfortable, and play in a way that was sustainable.
It wasn’t very dogmatic.
R: What’s your warm-up routine like today?
P: The lifestyle I live now as compared to when I was in college has
snapped me into reality, especially in terms of some of my practice
ticks. I’m can be more pragmatic now - I try to fix what I need to fix
and look for other things to work on. I also mess around on the bass
a lot when I’m at home and have time. I play music, I play nonsense,
I play with recordings. There’s not much of a routine. I’m usually
looking to solidify the trust I have in my abilities, and further them.
I’m trying to keep my mind in a state of plasticity. I take long breaks
some times because I’ll have a tour for several days and then spend a
day traveling - it takes some time to get back to your life. Before you
know it, it’s been a few days since you touched the bass! Those can be
really great opportunities, when I take the bass out and may realize
something I never realized before. While I wouldn’t want to always
have that lack of strength on the instrument, I do always want access
to that open-eyed approach where I’m not desensitized to the bass and
its sound. That’s a big part of how I practice now.
R: What are some more unique components of your technique? What
did you have to develop personally that not a lot of other players do?
P: There are some things about my technique that I do while making
the same kind of music as other bass players, and there are things I
do when I am doing things that no other bass players do (that I know
of). Sometimes unique techniques come about because I’m looking
for something I’ve never heard before, like a way of playing a certain
rhythm pizzicato with the right hand, in an order of the strings that I
haven’t heard. I sometimes use three fingers on my right hand to get
the phrase I’m hearing in my head.
I also play the same repertoire that other people play a bit differently
as well. There are a lot of bass players out there doing special things.
I feel like I haven’t talked about Edgar Meyer enough! When I found
out about Edgar, I got all the records I could. A friend of mine in
high school was also way into Edgar’s music, and had some of his old
recordings that you can’t get any more. I got super obsessed and got
all the videos I could. The Music for Two and Appalachian Journey
videos were really important, especially before Youtube. I checked out
how he did what he did, which had a profound influence on the way
I approach the bass. I really can’t talk about the things I’ve mentioned
before without including that.
P: Well, I’ve definitely thought a lot about Edgar’s mechanics. When
it comes to performing and being in the moment, how can you really
micro-manage things like the way your fingers move? You have to let
them happen when you’re listening to the music and allowing yourself
to change. Don’t think you’re controlling everything. While performing,
I would find that distracting if I thought about that very much,
and I think I make better music when I’m not thinking about things
like that.
I think the best way to understand the rudiments is to approach the
bass like a child, like you’re hearing it for the first time. How can you
really micro-manage things like the way your fingers move? You have
to let them happen when you’re listening to the music and allowing
yourself to change. Don’t think you’re controlling everything.
The idea of managing the movement between your notes seems
distracting to me.
R: Would you say your approach to the bass boils down to hearing
something and then finding a way to do it, versus thinking about the
fingerings/bowings/technique necessary to execute?
P: Of course, definitely! There are some good bullet points
for doing that.
• Memorizing the music
• Knowing the other parts of the music
• Get to the point of hearing music in your head without
seeing it on the page
• Connect what you’re hearing in the head with what you’re playing
That’s playing music! It’s a really important concept to me. Yesterday
I was working up the Courante from Bach’s 1 st Cello suite, which I
haven’t played in a really long time. I couldn’t find the music, so I
listened to Edgar Meyer’s recording. Maybe it would have been
better to reference the sheet music, but I didn’t have it at the time.
Some of the most musical bass players I’ve known have operated that
way. I’d like to have players take their eyes off the page and listen to
the instrument.
Do what you love. There’s really no point in playing music unless
you love it. That love can look like a lot of different things. Some
of the most inspirational musicians to me sometimes seem tortured
by music, but to me that is a part of loving it. You can find that in
so many different kinds of music. Play great music, and don’t let
someone else tell you what that is. ■
R: Talking about your technical approach to the bass, what do you think
of Edgar Meyer’s concept of the left hand never being locked down? It
seems like he is always preparing for the next note even as he arrives at
the one he is playing.
SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL BASSIST 25