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Current mood:  excited Category: Music
So, at the beginning of this year (March 2008), I was launched into a gig in front of 2000 people at a sold out Symphony Hall in Birmingham... on double bass.
I had been having lessons (20 minutes, once a week) for about 3 months because they were being given free by my school. This was NOT a jazz gig, therefore everything I played in lessons and at the gig was with the bow. The bow is a whole other subject which is too long and tangent-y (not a word I know) to talk about here, but put it this way, it apparently takes at least a year to get a good bow hold (I use a French bow) and even then it still develops.
So anyway, I was there on the main stage at Symphony Hall in the Concert String Orchestra, and no-one had even given me a stool to sit on. So not only was I quite ermm... crap as I shall put it, at double bass at that time, I had the added challenge of standing up whilst playing it (which for anyone who's ever tried to play entirely bowed passages and keep the bass from falling over knows how hard it is).
I managed to fudge my way through 3 or 4 songs which, when I look back on them, weren't that hard, and I walked off the stage glad that I'd done it. Not only was it a good experience, it's opnened a lot of doors. I now play in a real orchestra, as well as a string ensemble, playing music from Walton to Bach (plus I still find time to have a little jazz jam now and again). I can also add it to my list of useful stuff that will get me gigs.
Probably the most important skill I have gained however, is the ability to read music (notation) like I never would have been able to without playing double bass (especially orchestrally). Every part you get given for a contemporary gig, it's either 'use your ear' (i.e. improvise) or read from a chord chart (most of the time, there are exceptions). But for the classical/baroque stuff it's ALWAYS notation, so if I ever get handed a crazy looking piece of paper that looks like a load of dots and lines, I can now make sense of it.
What's the hardest thing about double bass? Apart from the sheer pain of pressing down strings with the action of about 1' (no joke), it's intonation. I learnt without the dots that you get when you first start, and had been playing bass (electric) for 4 years before, so I could already recognise when a note was out of tune relative to another, and (most of the time) adjust my hand to the correct position.
In the end, learning both basses definitely completes you as a musician, not only as a bass player. My sight reading has improved dramatically and my ear is also getting more fine tuned. My advice is, if you have the chance to learn (I don't have lessons anymore, too expensive, and I don't own a double bass; the only time I play is with the ensembles), do it.
 | Currently listening:
Quiet Songs
By Aisha Duo
Release date: 2005-04-26 |
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11:08 PM
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