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For a great beginner electric method for young students check out:

Bass 101: A Contemporary Approach to Bass Playing

by Ron Manus & L.C. Harnsberger

I’ve been using it with a 5th grader and it’s perfect!

For a more advanced method book, try Chuck Rainey’s series of “The Complete Electric Bass Player”.

When I was in high school I auditioned for the all county jazz band. I had prepared several scales and solos on my electric bass.

There were 5 or so us going and after school us and our band teacher rode a school bus to the audition site.

In the warmup room I kept looking around for the other bass players. I was curious to see what the competition was like. We arrived early and there weren’t many students there yet.

Another bus load of students came in. Still no bassists.

Finally right before my audition I looked around. I was the only one!

I auditioned, and well, made the group.

I had to ask my director on the ride home, “Do I tell people I made the ensemble or that I was the only one that auditioned?”

I’m a logger – I keep track of just about everything and have many journals, both paper and electronic. I was reviewing my notes on practice records and here are some of my current thoughts.

For the public school setting practice records can be a great tool to establish patterns and habits.

For the private studio setting I still like using the  Musicians Practice Planner.

For myself and an  advanced student I think paper still offers the most flexibility and I like using a composition notebook or a Moleskine Graph Notebook.

Some other random thoughts I found in my journal:

Google Docs? too clunky

Notebook on iPhone? not clean enough

Spreadsheet?  yes – would like to see more data / month at a glance but clunky to maintain

In a separate iCal or google calendar? Laptop and maintenance too clunky

GoalKeeper on iPhone? – Can’t see time

…which all brings me back to paper!!

I have a student working on fiddle songs from the Fiddler’s Philharmonic book. The book includes practice tracks and recoding but I wanted to have a background accompaniment track without the melody. I figure I could create one by recording myself playing bass and guitar. Time for the Tascam!

I first recorded a track of the CD accompaniment. I cloned the track to have a backup. I then edited out the beginning where it announces the track name but left in the count in.

Then I recorded myself playing guitar along with the original accompaniment and then overdubbed a bass line. I didn’t want the original but I did want the count in. So I cut out everything on the original except the count in.

Everything sounded good so I mixdown a master and recorded it to a computer with Amadeus Pro, saved it as an MP3 and emailed the file to my student.

All of this in 20 minutes!!!!

Here’s a band me and some colleagues put together for our middle school’s talent show.

My new electric bass – it’s awesome!! Lightweight, sounds fantastic, perfect action and playability.

I’ve now have my Tascam 4-track recorder for 3 weeks and worked with it quite a bit. Most people think of a 4-track as just a means for a garage band or songwriter to lay down ideas or a demo.

I have found it to be an amazing practice tool. It allows you to play along with a built-in metronome and play it back with or without the click track. This is an amazing way to open  your ears to rhythmic issues.

You can also load your own .wav files onto the SD card and record yourself along with it on a second track. Again, what a great practice tool!!! Upon playback, your ears immediately open up and you hear your playing in a whole new light. Musiciality, pitch, and rhythm take one real meaning when you can hearself as an outside listener.

It is also great fun to record yourself playing different parts of a song and for writing your own music and playing the different tracks.

My only real gripe is the lack of a backlit screen – it is a little difficult to see. Tascam’s DP-008 has this. The DP-008 is the 8-track model which is really nice and adds several features but battery life and portability suffer slightly. The DP-004 is really small. I don’t even notice it in my briefcase when I take it to work.

Why are jazz and classical genres having problems?
Why does iTunes excel?
Why do jam bands do well?
Why are recordings difficult to sell?

Why are orchestras such as Prairie Ensemble, Elgin Symphony, and Rockford Symphony doing well?

We need to break out of the tradition of a stuffy classical attitude. Successful ensembles such as the Prairie Ensemble of Champaign-Urbana currently do this.

Some Ideas…

Are classical concerts too long, too boring and too expensive?

Perhaps we need to retrain our audiences – like weight lifting start with small easy workouts then build up length and weight…Perhaps have a musical weightlifting series.

Try shorter, less expensive concerts

Involve the audience

Have a fun theme

Eliminate pretentiousness

Have a ‘dress down’ concert for the audience or encourage it in general

What style / kind / brand  of the following do you generally recommend to students:

Upright Bass:
Bow:

Electric Bass:
Amp:

This was a $200 carbon fiber bow that was used in a middle school. It was never abused, always loosened, and given the appropriate care. It played and sounded well until it’s demise. It lasted a few years.

Post your 2010 musical goals, resolutions, and thoughts!

from “The Perfect Wrong Note” by William Westney

I received a Tascam DP-004 digital 4-track for christmas.

Initial reactions:

Decent manual
Includes 1gb SD card
Wow, this thing is powerful!
Great mix of digital and analog controls
Very good sound quality
Size is perfect

Solid build quality
Built in mics are impressive
Good battery life on 4AA (I didn’t get the power adapter)

Screen needs to be brighter
SD card location sucks – in the battery compartment
I’d like an XLR input
It didn’t like one of my cheap SD cards

I am never going back to a regular tailpiece! My excerpts are so much easier thanks to the more even response – think of the Ginastera excerpt…I no longer have to finesse and coax certain notes. Figaro Overture is a breeze now. I realize your mileage may vary but this is exactly what my bass needed!

I feel my bass now plays and sounds like an instrument twice its value. I’ve had new bridges, the top re-graduated, soundpost adjusted, bought new bows… This tailpiece should be the first thing you try when searching for a new sound.

And – full disclosure – I paid full price for mine and have no affiliation with Marvin USA. As a matter of fact I’m still waiting for a response to an email I sent. UPDATE 12/20/09 – Kevin Marvin responded to all my emails (he was away) and has been really great answering all my questions. This tailpiece RULES!!

Looking for a great amp? I recently tried out the MarkBass brand of amps and this will be the next kind of amp I buy. I still really like SWR as well.

***12/21/09 UDPATE: After playing for a while I now attach the pickup in the standard way between the strings. Having it on the quiver transmitted too much noise.****

With the new tailpiece I didn’t want the pickup on the strings as with my standard tailpiece. So, I drilled a small hole in my quiver then cut small notches in to fit the piezo portion through the quiver. I haven’t used it live yet but it seems to work well.

Looking for a luthier in the NYC area? Check out Bill Merchant. He build my custom extension in 2004 and does exceptional work.

I just bought the Fishman Pro-EQ Platinum Bass Preamp from Musicians Friend. I love it. It sounds great and helps control feedback.