tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77447236821540669772024-03-14T04:49:54.943-04:00PBDBPeaBodyDoubleBass. A place for us to talk all things Double Bass at Peabody Conservatory and beyond.The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.comBlogger97125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-88139465887697636422010-12-12T14:27:00.003-05:002010-12-12T14:37:54.636-05:00Thoughts on Another No-Hire AuditionIt’s still not the primary topic of this blog, but recent events in a certain large Midwestern city have brought the topic of “no-hire” auditions out for another run around the track. I blogged about this last year in regards to the Alabama Principal bass audition, and already there has been considerable commentary on TalkBass regarding the recent scene in Chicago. In this case the situation The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-48831766969556887372010-11-15T11:36:00.001-05:002010-11-15T11:39:25.383-05:00Ira Gold interview, Part IIHere's the rest of my interview with Ira Gold:If you could go back in time and tell your 18- to 22-year-old self something, what would it be? Take a break! I worked diligently during those years, almost obsessively, perfecting my craft and giving up social opportunities to practice as much as possible. However, there is something to learning about the world, what is happening in your The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-83929707739424272472010-10-29T10:25:00.002-04:002010-10-29T10:29:00.860-04:00Ira Gold interview, Part I
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} span.s1 {letter-spacing: 0.0px} I’ve been meaning to blog for awhile about our newest Peabody faculty member, Ira Gold. Ira has been teaching some of our orchestral repertoire The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-19794630824943309792010-08-24T19:50:00.006-04:002010-09-10T21:06:06.396-04:00Is it happening?....Is it true? Has Summer actually ended? Are we actually starting the Fall Semester at Peabody? It would appear that it's actually happening... While details are hazy, I do distinctly recall hearing four hours of ensemble auditions the other day... and my teaching calendar does seem to have actual lessons scheduled on it. Alright, I'm a believer - let's do this thing!This year is going to be an The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-70782508649092715732010-06-30T23:14:00.009-04:002010-07-01T10:42:21.026-04:00The Toughest Question, Part 3It’s been awhile since I’ve had a chance to post! My apologies....In the first part of this series, we looked at things that might keep us from asking ourselves the following very challenging question:Do I have what it takes to be a professional bass player?In the second part, we moved on to considering how and from whom we might collect information that could help us answer this question.So....The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-75220407737396290382010-04-22T23:49:00.007-04:002010-04-22T23:58:03.771-04:00The Toughest Question, Part 2In Part 1, we looked at fears that keep us from asking ourselves the toughest question that we all must face as musicians looking to have a professional career:Do I have what it takes? In this part, we’ll look at the next step in the process: After we ask ourselves, who else should we ask this question? I think that the best way to start looking at this is to flip it over and look at it from the The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-40273777817598908712010-04-20T23:50:00.003-04:002010-04-21T00:00:43.115-04:00Must-read post on DBB.orgI had actually just finished the next segment of the "Toughest Question" series when I read this incredible post by Jason Heath. This post is a must-read for aspiring musicians at almost any place in their careers - deciding whether to be a musician, in the midst of their studies, or even an old wizened professional like me! Check it out.... I'll post my new stuff in a couple of days.The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-89192847372512046902010-03-13T18:04:00.004-05:002010-03-13T18:16:25.167-05:00The Toughest Question, Part 1I’ve addressed a variety of topics here on PBDB, and almost all of them are based on conversations with bass students that I have had over the years. People ask me for advice on music school choices, technique questions, instrument purchases, teacher options, and almost any other question that could possibly seem relevant to a young bassist who is looking for ways to grow and improve as a The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-13254155789454527832009-12-30T14:15:00.009-05:002009-12-30T23:57:29.233-05:00Getting the Most out of Orchestra, or: You're Already Sitting There, Right?Any music student of even a moderate degree of seriousness ends up spending some time in orchestra rehearsals. In fact, usually they end up spending a LOT of time in orchestra rehearsals. There’s lots of very good reasons for this. Many bass players are drawn to orchestra for the artistic pleasure of playing the great orchestral repertoire. Others are “made” to play in orchestra for a The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-42871692835055096972009-11-14T23:32:00.007-05:002009-11-14T23:39:59.179-05:00Care and Feeding of the Bass Teacher, Chapter 3: Should You and Your Teacher Break Up?Okay, so you’ve analyzed your teacher type and you’ve studied the owner’s manual. Things are going great with your teacher now, right? Everything’s humming along nicely? What, you say things aren’t perfect with your teacher? You feel some vague dissatisfaction? Or perhaps it’s more than that; perhaps you even feel like your teacher may be failing to help you achieve your goals? Not sure The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-421327172405082792009-11-12T20:47:00.003-05:002009-11-12T20:53:49.292-05:00Peabody '09-'10: Catching Up ReportOK, so as always with my blogging goals, I have failed utterly.... In this case I’ve dropped the ball on my efforts to create a weekly report on what’s going on at school. Life events intervened and kept me from keeping up with my pledge. So, in time-honored fashion, I’m gonna play catch-up by doing a catchall midterm report now and then try to get back on the horse next week with regular The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-87790267520519137722009-10-25T23:52:00.003-04:002009-10-25T23:59:10.463-04:00First analog contact between Jason and I captured on audio...I had the pleasure of finally speaking live on the phone with bass blogging overlord and PBDB aficionado Jason Heath this week, and he went and made a lovely Contrabass Conversations episode out of it! It was a lot of fun, and I think I did a pretty good job of fulfilling my two primary goals in this interview: - Don't say anything so outrageously stupid that it gets me fired, arrested or beat The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-67237174494278294252009-10-19T23:19:00.008-04:002009-10-19T23:32:42.178-04:00Care and Feeding of the Bass Teacher, Chapter 2: Common problems and solutionsRegardless of which teacher type you have acquired, now you have to figure out what to do with it. Teachers have lots of complicated features, and often we just throw our hands up in the air, press the start button, and hope that they work. This is unfortunate, because we can get a lot more out of them by understanding some basic principles. By far the most important of these is what I refer The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-54397229959769342322009-09-30T23:23:00.009-04:002009-09-30T23:46:37.127-04:00The Care and Feeding of the Bass Teacher, Chapter 1: Identify your Teacher TypeCongratulations, you are the owner of an official authorized bass teacher! This may be your first real bass teacher. You may have owned several teachers before and are just now acquiring a new model. Or perhaps you have owned this teacher for awhile and are simply checking the owner’s manual out for the first time to make sure you’re getting the most from your teacher. Or maybe you’re The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-28914039393726273162009-09-26T17:14:00.005-04:002009-09-29T22:17:53.105-04:00Peabody '09-'10: Weeks Three and FourWhew! We definitely win the prize for Hardest Working Bass Program in the Biz for the last 7-10 days of frenetic activity. It's been quite a show - hard to know where to begin.That's not true actually - it's pretty easy to know where to begin. Hal Robinson's first visit to Peabody in his new capacity as Artist in Residence was a complete and total success. He brought so much to his day here The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-14927467667104954402009-09-18T12:49:00.007-04:002009-09-18T12:57:26.289-04:00Hal Robinson comes to Peabody: Here's the PlanHere at Peabody Bass Central Command we are in final countdown to our first day of lessons and classes with our new faculty artist in residence Hal Robinson. Hal needs no introduction to most readers of this site - he’s one of the top players and pedagogues in the country. Paul Johnson and I are both former students of his and he has played a big role in both of our lives and careers. It is The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-25718586118500111032009-09-15T20:22:00.001-04:002009-09-15T20:24:14.363-04:00Peabody '09-'10: Week TwoWeek 2 at this Fall has brought that realization that his most college students before long: It’s a marathon, not a sprint. We all get excited and wound up for our school “firsts” - first lesson of the year, first orchestra rehearsal, first new bass student that we meet in the hallway, first night out with friends. Then week two arrives and we realize that those were indeed firsts - the first The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-89543060749175088992009-09-06T10:10:00.003-04:002009-09-06T11:27:09.085-04:00Peabody '09-'10: Week OneFirst, a brief intro: As I mentioned in a recent post, I need to get my blogging game in gear and stop letting weeks go by between posts. Therefore, gentle reader, I hereby commit to a weekly post that will sum up any interesting goings-on at Peabody; said post will appear on Sunday. School started officially on Wednesday, but Bassland was already fully in motion by the previous Saturday. On The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-30128699730242101152009-08-28T15:05:00.003-04:002009-08-28T15:13:55.489-04:00Jason Heath Kudos, August Quarterly EditionI’d be pretty shocked if there were any readers over here who didn’t also read Jason Heath’s Bass Blog, or partake in some other form of his vast media empire. Between blogging, podcasting, and ISB convention-ing, the guy is pretty much the Supreme Ruler of the Bass Intertubes. He’s also been kind enough to have me as a guest blogger for some time now, which I very much appreciate.Over the The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-8122154604109466842009-08-28T13:18:00.006-04:002009-08-28T13:26:15.311-04:00What’s that distant rumbling I hear?....It’s the mobs and legions of Peabody bass students arriving for the Fall semester!I’ve been enjoying my summer break to no end, and it’s been incredibly relaxing and refreshing, but I’m also tremendously excited about beginning of this year at Peabody. We have one of our largest incoming classes in years, and are looking forward to a year of great work, music-making, and hopefully a fair amount The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-8048605582028688922009-07-21T09:56:00.002-04:002009-07-21T10:05:35.847-04:00Beware the Outliers, Part 2In my last post, I defined what "outlier" means and how it applies to bass playing. In this post I'll make some comments on how we all can cope with, and learn from, outliers - whether we are one or we are learning from one.If you are a student, you need to seek out the views of lots of teachers and players and notice when a teacher or fellow student seems to have very unusual ideas about how The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-62440544508538168372009-07-09T00:14:00.004-04:002009-07-09T00:18:10.869-04:00Beware the Outliers, Part 1Outlier: a data point that falls far from most other points; a score extremely divergent from the other measures of a set.I first became familiar with the concept of “outliers” when my brother came home from his new job wearing T-shirt of the company softball team - it was their team name! (This job was at a DC policy think tank so I suspect that a fairly high nerd factor went into the name The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-91001245719660692422009-04-23T14:19:00.003-04:002009-04-23T14:29:21.662-04:00Ira Gold's Audition StrategiesAs I mentioned previously, Ira Gold, my colleague in the National Symphony, is teaching some of the Peabody bass students of Paul Johnson while he recovers from some surgery. He is also teaching Paul's orchestral repertoire classes, and the students have really enjoyed all Ira has to share in this area. Ira is an excellent auditioner and has had a great deal of success on the audition circuit, The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-84178460767986388572009-04-13T23:19:00.001-04:002009-04-13T23:23:11.366-04:00Change is in the AirI’ve certainly hit a nerve with my post on “no-hire” auditions - it’s produced more comments and traffic here and at Jason Heath’s site than anything I’ve written in some time. I’ve even gotten attention from some big-time symphony bloggers, such as my former Peabody classmate Charles Noble, former ICSOM Chairperson and Milwaukee Principal Violist Robert Levine and arts consultant Drew McManus.The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7744723682154066977.post-32700565049295221692009-04-05T10:33:00.005-04:002009-04-05T13:54:31.812-04:00The "No-Hire" Audition: a view from the other sideThis morning, I saw a post on a discussion thread at the site www.talkbass.com regarding the recent audition for principal bass of the Alabama Symphony. I was seeking out information about this audition because I know two of the finalists - one is a former Peabody student, and the other has subbed with my orchestra, the National Symphony. At this audition, despite having four finalists, the The Peabody Double Bass Facultyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03539761690557536855noreply@blogger.com10