Next Level Bassist Left Hand

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to pivot - these things should not cause you to tighten your neck, your face, or any other part of your body. You have to dissect the motion and see what is helping you execute it and what isn’t. Good players are able to adjust their body to the needs of a passage, a bow stroke, or a musical requirement - they aren’t “tense” or “loose” all the time. You have to be able to turn on and off the mechanisms. Searching for a bass My hunt for an instrument took a long time. I had a nice English bass that was a wonderful tool as well as being in beautiful condition. It helped me through college and helped me win a couple of auditions. After 8 years in a professional orchestra I wanted to take that step up to a higher caliber instrument, so I sold the English bass on the assumption that I would find its replacement quickly. It took me 3 years to find the bass that I’m playing now. I played a lot of different basses along the way. Aaron Robertson is a dear friend of mine, whom I met around age 18 at Domaine Forget, about 19 years ago. After I sold my English bass, Aaron graciously allowed me to play on his very fine Italian bass while I searched. It was very, very good but at the same time I got a bit spoiled. In a world of incredibly expensive instruments, it makes for some frustrating times. The market for fine basses is very tight because everybody owns them and no one wants to sell them. Every once in a while, there will be the miraculous “sleeping beauty bass in a closet” that surfaces but mostly they are few and far between. There are always buyers ready and waiting for something to become available. 3 years went by waiting and trying various instruments. Then Aaron contacted me to let me know he had something I might want. He sent it up to Seattle and when I opened the shipping trunk I knew it was the one. At first this fine Italian bass sounded good, but Aaron and I knew we could get more out of the bass. I could tell that some small adjustments would let it get there. Robertsons had done a fabulous job on it. The bass looked beautiful and sounded good. The bass bar needed adjustment, and Aaron had suggested a different bridge size. It turned out to be only a few tweaks away from humming the way we thought it would. It was a really long search, but in the end it was completely worth it. My advice in a bass search is that patience is your greatest virtue. The end goal is to find the bass that will thoroughly satisfy. Aaron helping me be patient and find the instrument was a huge asset to me in that time. The takeaway I’ve been doing long bow open string exercises since my senior year in high school. I went into great detail about practicing the open strings since then. That is one thing I’ve been doing every day for the last 20 years or so. Take the time at the beginning of every practice session, even if you don’t have time to do your full hour of scales and things will do so much for your playing. If you think of your right arm as your voice, the priority becomes clear. The left hand then can add to that expressive capability. The first question an audition committee asks is “What type of voice does this person have?” It’s the vehicle for communicating your expressive ideas. I prioritize right hand first, left hand second. It’s not a matter of the right hand being more important, but it gets more attention at the beginning my daily practicing to be sure. Going from really slow strokes to progressively faster, only focusing on the open strings without the left hand, will set the tone for the whole practice session. Having a controlled right hand and clear sound production allows you to then devote more time and attention exclusively to the left hand. You need to have a voice before you start moving the notes around. ■ Faculty terell Stafford, Chair, Instrumental Studies Department Eduard Schmieder, L. H. Carnell Professor of Violin, Artistic Director for Strings luis Biava*, Music Director, Symphony Orchestra Double Bass Joseph conyers* John Hood* Robert Kesselman* anne Peterson *Current member of The Philadelphia Orchestra PRogRamS B.m.: Performance B.m.: composition B.m.: music Education B.m.: music History B.m.: music theory B.m.: music therapy m.m.: Performance m.m.: composition m.m.: music Education m.m.: music History m.m.: music theory m.m.: String Pedagogy m.m.t.: music therapy D.m.a.: Performance Ph.D.: music Education Ph.D.: music therapy Professional Studies certificate EnSEmBlE oPPoRtunitiES > temple university Symphony orchestra > opera orchestra > Sinfonia chamber orchestra > contemporary music Ensemble > Early music Ensemble > String chamber Ensembles For more information, please contact: 215-204-6810 or music@temple.edu www.temple.edu/boyer 8 SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL BASSIST Philadelphia, PA
Spotlight cleveland Orchestra Bass Section The Cleveland Orchestra is in many ways a peerless orchestra in the United States. As the smallest city to maintain a “Big Five” orchestra (a fabled rank that also includes Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York), it is also notable for sustaining an extremely high level of musicianship and artistry in spite of extremely trying economic realities in its community. Forever indebted to the legacy established by George Szell beginning in the 1940s, the Cleveland Orchestra continues to produce definitive recordings and scintillating performances heard in Cleveland and at many performances that the orchestra undertakes on tour throughout the world. Speak to any bassist from the Baby Boomer generation, and they will likely cite recordings by Cleveland and Szell as some of the most influential and impassioned they have ever heard. More specifically, they may say, the recordings of Mozart, Haydn, early Beethoven are almost unique in their clarity. Section bassist Derek Zadinsky identifies some of the advantages of the orchestra’s home venue, Severance Hall: “It is very easy for us to hear every player in the section onstage, so any discrepancies always become immediately clear.” At a time when the Philadelphia Orchestra made recordings in gymnasiums, TCO was finely tuning the most delicate inner workings of the ensemble. “The blend of sound in this ensemble is part of what makes the Cleveland Orchestra so unique,” says Zadinsky. “Playing in this orchestra can sometimes feel more like playing chamber music because our principal players are so easy to follow.” • Maestro George Szell carefully crafting the end of Beethoven Symphony 5, Mvmt 2 There is a tremendous range of color and dynamics in this orchestra, which many have attributed to Severance Hall. Some whispers even implicate the practice rooms at the nearby Cleveland Institute of Music, where the live acoustics of the rooms help attune aspiring students to the resonant and intimate nature of Severance. As a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Derek Zadinsky certainly noticed a transition. “I quickly found that the kind of playing that works best in Severance Hall is different from what I had been familiar with. The smaller size and resonant acoustics of the hall allow the section and orchestra to effectively play down to the quietest whisper.” While many auditioning bassists may take pains to attempt to recreate or simulate the playing style of a committee they are playing for, it is important to note Zadinsky’s heritage and current employer. No amount of second-guessing can substitute for confident and wellprepared playing, which Derek brought to his 2011 audition. That said, the fundamental philosophy of the section, according to Zadinsky is to “pay very close attention to all the composer’s markings, and frequently discuss exact strokes and rhythmic placement.” When tackling the immense complexity of Mahler or the deceptive simplicity of Mozart, Cleveland’s bass section places the highest priority on rhythmic unity and precision. Veteran player Scott Haigh says, “I think our section is committed to playing a vital function within the orchestra, but not a dominating one. Clarity, beautiful intonation, good rhythm, and balance with the other section is our style, yet we can rock out a section solo when called for.” Haigh also enjoys the variety of repertoire the orchestra plays, which allows them to maintain their flexibility. “Over the past few years I have enjoyed Baroque music in a more authentic style, but still using a modern orchestra setup. The conductors who specialize in this style are so much better than they used to be in working with modern orchestras. They seem to get the right string sound without having to change to gut strings, etc.” While many orchestras deal with uncooperative or difficult acoustics in their home concert space, the Cleveland Orchestra has developed its unique sonic pallette from playing in one of the best acoustics in the world. Severance Hall is certainly not the only ally of this venerable orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra is notable for one of the most extensive touring schedules of any major orchestra, especially from a city the size of Cleveland. While local citizens have much to be proud of, patrons from New York to Nebraska have opportunities to see performances. The orchestra also performs several weeks in the winter in Miami (no small benefit to musicians in notoriously cold Cleveland!), which Zadinsky describes as “coming to feel like a second home. The world is our oyster!” The orchestra’s challenge on these tours is to maintain the standard of precision while accommodating the huge variety of halls in which they play for perhaps one night only. Says Zadinsky “We are able to perform concerts that are equally musically compelling in a wide range of acoustics, from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Musikverein in Vienna.” Each concert is unique and exciting from many perspectives. No article on the Cleveland Orchestra bass section would be complete without some links to videos. While there are not many videos of the orchestra performing live, the immortal recording legacy of the group is preserved well on the internet. • Interview with Max Dimoff over a recording of Bach Cello Suite 1 - Minuets 1 and 2 • The Cleveland Orchestra playing Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben - this video begins just before the famous #77 excerpt. Minute marker 1 has a great shot of Peter Seymour, frequentsection guest and founding member of the Project Trio playing all over the bass! 1:25 is a great section shot as well. • A more complete rehearsal of Beethoven’s 5 th Symphony with Szell. The information and process on display here are incredible resources to anyone aspiring to be an orchestra player or a conductor. SUMMER 2014 NEXT LEVEL BASSIST 9
Page 1 and 2: | Left hand | Up and Comer Tim Dile
Page 3 and 4: Publisher’s Note It is no secret
Page 5 and 6: Jordan Anderson A Balanced Approach
Page 7: eventual performance. I try to imag
Page 11 and 12: Describe your background My teacher
Page 13 and 14: Exercises in Shifting Hand-Settings
Page 15 and 16: 2 Tonic Harmony: minor seven/major
Page 17 and 18: 4 Ex. A Rabbath's Crab Approach xxx
Page 19 and 20: Jordan Morton I try to come from a
Page 21 and 22: Finding your own path SUMMER 2014 N
Page 23 and 24: anything if I wanted to play the ba
Page 25 and 26: There was a period of time when I w
Page 27 and 28: isolation - at least I did, for man
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Page 31 and 32: use of the palette sonore, he has a
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Next Level Bassist Left Hand

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