Today began the KC Bass Workshop, presented and led by Johnny Hamil, with a bass ensemble of about 70 people reding our way through three of Johnny's arrangements - William Tell overture, Iron Man, and Summertime. You can tell just by that section that this will NOT be your grandfather's type of conference!!
I had the privilege of working with two groups of students today - a college group and a mixed pre-college group. My students were lovely and engaged and presented a lot of different repertoire which yielded good discussions about vibrato, Romanticism, and they also did some now exercises with me from Mastering the Bow. What fun!
For me the highlight as a lifelong student was getting a teachers class with François Rabbath and also playing with our students in a group class with him.
My notes from the teachers class:
- one of the problems of slowing your practicing down very much, that you use the body differently, like slowing down walking, you are no longer doing things naturally and will engage different muscles.
- teachers must not be the star. Lift your students up, don't punish the mistakes. He gave an example of watching a baby learn to walk. You don't hit the child when they fall.
- when you see someone playing well, there is no need to be competitive. Adapt what you want from that playing/person. Overall, his attitude is one of non-judgment and tremendous love and support for each other. Who wouldn't flourish in that environment?!
- the problem of aiming for perfection : when you miss even one note, the whole thing is ruined for you. Rather, set the intention on sharing love with your listeners.
- spent a good deal of time talking and showing us why having thumb position technique in positions lower that typical thumb position (octave harmonic) helps with virtuosity. Less hand to move around. This was shown to me in a practical way as we did some of his book 1 etudes and scales in group class.
Today had several incredible recitals in it: Lloyd Goldstein, Ted Botsford (awesome transcription of some Frank Bridge violin short pieces), Brian Roessler, and our fearless leader Johnny Hamil! Lots of great and varied repertoire, lots of different ways to play the bass (slap, jazz, classical, electro funky)
The students here are wonderful and so happy to share what they know and to ask for what they want to know. Bring on the sleep 'cuz I'm headed into advanced scales clas at 8 AM!!
Happy practicing!
Gaelen
