Video - Oscar Peterson w/ NHOP & Ray Brown

Two greatly missed bass players.



I was glad to catch both of them.

Quote of the Week

"Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it."
- Henry David Thoreau

"Success can be found next to your lost set of keys. Good luck."
- BassBassDude

Lesson Revisited

I had my lesson on the weekend and it seems like I'm progressing pretty well with playing in 5ths. My tone is sounding better and my intonation is extremely close but not quite there when I shift quickly. In fact, the exercises given to me last week were etudes focused primarily on intonation; I just need to practice more effectively. Basically, effective practice comes from practicing slowly and deliberately with much concentration on each individual note produced. I also noticed that my left hand technique needed a slight adjustment in order to play properly in order to produce better accuracy and speed. My right hand bow technique also needed more work to create better tone and efficiency. Old habits die hard.

We also took a look at some music, of which I am happy to say is Bach's Suite #1 Prelude. Which brings me to one great asset of having my double bass tuned in 5ths; I can now play cello pieces. Now that's not to say that I couldn't play cello pieces, it's just that I can further understand what a composer is thinking when writing for cello. Furthermore, there is so much more fantastic pieces for cello than there are for double bass. It just seems more fun (and more challenging) to learn cello solos and on the double bass.

One last thing. I mentioned to my teacher that having my bass tuned in 5ths seemed to make more sense than having it tuned in 4ths. He agreed. Although it may be a little easier to play in 4ths, there seems to be something logical having my bass tuned in 5ths. My hands seemed to find notes with less trouble than when I was tuned in 4ths. This may be because I have a less of a learning curve having to figure out 3 of 4 strings, but old habits do die hard when your comfort notes are at different parts of the fingerboard.

There is a lot to woodshed before my next lesson and I need to bury my old habits and adopt better ones.

Coming Up...

Here's what's going on with me this weekend.

I have another lesson with my instructor. We'll probably keep ploughing through more on my technique with my left and right hands. Hopefully I'll get more stuff to work on (not to say that I didn't have enough to work on last time). Sorry, looks like I won't be at One Up Restaurant and Lounge. You can probably catch me next week from about 9pm to midnight. Other than that, I'll be spending most of my time working on my bass.

Have a good weekend.

For your listening pleasure...

Here's a quick snippet of Brian Bromberg's Wood II.

Audio:Shining Star

You can find more samples of Brian Bromberg's work at
www.brianbromberg.net
I might just have to pick this up. That and keep practicing.

Lights in the night

I took this shot back in the summer. I was playing around with the shutter speed at the time with a tripod. There is still a bit of motion blur that probably came from pushing down on the shutter button.
Lesson Learned: use the timer to avoid motion blur when slowing down the shutter speed.

Quote of the Week

"A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward."
- Jean Paul Richter

"I laugh at the face of danger... if that's danger at the door, tell danger I'm not home."
- BassBassDude

Change has been made

I have now officially taken the road less travelled and joined the "Dark Side".

On Saturday October 21st, I made the switch to have my double bass tuned in 5ths. I went over to my instructor's place and in 10min, he threw on the new "Pirastro Obligato 5ths". As soon as the new strings were thrown on, it seemed like I had a brand new bass. The best way I can describe it is that it was as if my bass could finally breathe properly. The open strings seemed to ring more and the tone seemed less stifled and bottled up. Shortly after re-stringing the bass, my instructor broke down my technique and re-structured it from scratch. He basically said that in order to play in 5ths, you must have sound technique and that meant starting from the ground up. From what seemed like the most simple exercises, I felt very inadequate trying to fight through all that was given to me. It was as though I was going through music physiotherapy; my brain could picture what needed to be done, but my hands were uncooperative.

After an hour-and-a-half, I left my instructor's place with a great new sound in my bass and a renewed passion in relearning what I had already learned.

Quote of the Week

"Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws."
- Douglas Adams

"If my brain were moving any slower, it would be moving backwards."
- BassBassDude

One Up Recap

Just a quick recap, played my first gig at One Up on Saturday night that went well. I never really played with the guitarist and drummer, but we got pretty comfortable with each other pretty quickly. Although I developed two blisters early on in the night, things went very well. I look forward to the next time we get to play together.

Just on the side note, I'll be playing at The Marlowe in Richmond Hill tomorrow night. Hope to see you there.

Endpin Upgrade

This past weekend I bareley got through a gig because of a recurring problem that I developed with my double bass' endpin. Basically, I had to do a few "modifications" for my endpin to work, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to use my double bass. Anyway, I got through the gig without damaging my bass and decided to replace my endpin.

When taking my bass in for repair at Heinl's, I decided to take the plunge and invest in a better endpin than just installing one that was of equal quality of the one that was broken. I'm not sure why, but it seems that I felt a little bit more comfortable with my bass. Whether it was the new endpin or if it was psychological, I'm happier with this purchase. At the very least, my endpin won't fall out while I'm playing.

Changing strings - Obligato

Upon my decission over the summer to switch my double bass tuning to 5ths, I just found out that Pirastro has a set of Obligato strings that are tuned in 5ths. To me, this is perfect. I've been playing Obligato strings for the past two years and I love the sound it produces from both pizzicato and arco playing. Furthermore, they are slightly softer than the Thomastic Spirocore strings that I was going to buy so this can help me get around the fingerboard a little better. Anyway, I'm very excited about this finding. I'll probably buy my strings in mid-October after a few gigs and take the plunge. The change is coming.

Quote of the Week

"If you don't find it in the index, look very carefully through the entire catalogue." - Unknown

"If you can't find it, it is probably lost."
- BassBassDude