Mastering the Bow -a few note changes

I've finally had a few days off  - in a row!- which gave me the opportunity to sit down and play through the entire book of Mastering the Bow (ok, I did this in two sittings) and get at the tiny details that are not quite right after the editor had his/her way with the manuscript.  While Carl Fischer is going to add my changes, I think any of you that already have the book ought to know about them too.  So.... here they are!

As far as the fingerings go, the errors don't make or break the etude, but they sure are confusing where there are, and a few are literally impossible.....

As you work through the book yourself or with your students, and find you have questions, I will be HAPPY to answer them here!

Happy practicing!
Gaelen

Kurt Muroki offers some tips

Happy December 1st!

I'm catching up on my reading, online and in print, and following up some links I wrote down a while back that I wanted to preserve here for ya'll.  So today, let's look at what the fabulous Kurt Muroki has been doing with some technique videos he made.  Kurt is the new professor of double bass at Indiana University (a great bass school!) and Stony Brook University (another fantastic school of music) and he brings lots of experience as both a performer and teacher to bear in his work.

First this: a video on left and right hand coordination http://vimeo.com/80002688

But wait, there's more.  A video on warm ups: http://vimeo.com/80001307

I've got a whole list of things I'm going to share with everyone this month - a month of presents from me to you!  Meanwhile, please comment back with your favorite videos or exercises that help keep you in top playing shape.

Happy practicing!
Gaelen

Look in the mirror

Good morning!

I was at the gym early today after taking my daughter to her new school, and noticed that I rarely look in the mirror at the gym.  Why?  I guess I think I can feel my form and don't need to look?  Also, I'm just a bit put off by people who seem to be staring at themselves the whole time they work out.

So what does this have to do with bass playing?  Well, I started thinking about the metaphor of "looking in the mirror" - really examining yourself (or in this case, your playing).  It takes more than a mirror, since our art is sound, not just visual, though you certainly can learn a lot from watching yourself play.  The questions is: are you looking?

I started my private studio lessons again last night, and have a few new faces joining us in the Left Shoe Bass Studio this year.  I hadn't mentioned in any of my emails or phone calls that I use a video service in my lessons.  I just put the camera on, and upload at the end of their lesson.  What I failed to anticipate was the reaction some of them had when they saw the camera!  By and large they are good at settling down, but I had to ask one of them what he thought about the video idea.  "It's just....I don't know if I really want to see what I'm doing!" he said to me, rather exasperated.

Dude, I get it.  Life is a lot more comfortable when I go around with blinders on, too.  But, you all came to me for help in improving, and watching yourself play, and seeing the change that happens during your lesson can be a wonderfully positive reinforcement for the practice you do all week long.  And the support of the changes is what I'm after by using video in lessons.  I suspect my students think they will need to criticize themselves by watching these videos, but really I'm interested in getting them to think analytically, and to appreciate the growth that happens during a lesson, and over the course of months of lessons.

So, I think I should really be looking in the mirror at the gym, as well.  Not to criticize, but to support the changes I've already made (very proud of my triceps these days, honestly), and the continue the work I do there.  And yes, I do watch and listen to myself practice, too.

Happy practicing!
Gaelen

Becoming an ideal student

I was emailing Orin O'Brien yesterday and thinking about an article she recommended to me when I was looking for a grad school teacher.  It's titled "Becoming an Ideal Student" and was written by Jeanne Baxtresser, the wonderful flutist and pedagogue.  Do read the article (I linked to it) and don't just take my word for it.  One of the items I have taken to heart as both a teacher and a student is investing in the way I prepare for lessons.  Ms. Baxtresser talks about having her students use index cards to write what they worked on, what needs attention, questions to address in the lesson, etc, and she keeps those cards filed as the semester progresses.  I don't use that system exactly, but for a long time I did use a carbon copy paper where I'd write out the main items a student needed to work on, ideas from our lessons, any music they needed to buy.  This way I could give them the sheet and still have something to refer to the next week as they were warming up, helping me to prepare better to teach that specific person.

But the times, they are a changin'.  I don't even use that system anymore.  I felt it created too much paper for both the student and me.  Like most other teachers, I now require my students to bring a notebook to each lesson, and for the younger ones I do the note taking.  My high schoolers need to take their own notes!  This year I've experimented with also using a video service where I can easily upload the lesson to a private site, and only the student who was taped can see their lesson.

How you do notes or notebooks or videos is really not the point I wanted to make (honest).  What I'm thinking about today is how I prepare myself to teach or learn.  I need to clear my mind, turn off my cell phone ringer, and give my student my full attention.  As a student, I also need to do these things, and even more, put myself in a place where I can receive comments not as criticisms, but as helpful tools to better my playing.  I'd say teachers have it easier in this scenario!  While my students are tuning, I read their notebook, get out music they are working on, and generally prepare to really listen to where they are right now in their playing.  Maybe they've had a week where there wasn't much practicing.  I find we often have great lessons on those weeks!  Perhaps because there is only growing that can occur?  I'm not sure, but often I find my students are more receptive on weeks where they are slightly underprepared.  (However, students, you know that we can't make progress like that every week.  Practicing simply HAS to happen.)

I wonder how often we really set ourselves up to be present for our students?  We all have deadlines, voicemails, text messages, emails, begging our attention away in little intervals.  In fact, I'm amazed at how much will accumulate during just a few hours of teaching, while I wasn't available to anyone but the student in front of me.

This was the biggest take-away from Ms. Baxtresser's article for me: being present with your student.  Do you have other tools you use to help frame your lessons?  I know of a percussionist who studied with a teacher who insisted on a 30 minute sitting meditation before their lessons.  While that's a great idea, I doubt I could get any of my 7 year olds to do a 2 minute sitting meditation!

Cheers to being present!
Gaelen

Hello world :-)

Seems like I've talked about blogging long enough and want to dip my toe into the pool.

I've been playing with the Rochester Philharmonic for 17 years (though it's gone by in a hurry) and happily teaching private students for about as long.  The more I teach, the more I know about playing.  And the more I perform, the more ideas I have about how to improve my teaching.  This is a great two-way street to be on!

Just to be clear, these are just my opinions and I welcome your comments and dialogue.  I'm certainly not "right" about anything, and think sharing our tools as teachers and performers can only strengthen our commitment to our art and pedagogy.

Today, I'm thinking about one big item I've been working on in my Alexander Technique lessons with Katie Fittipaldi.  She's a wonderful teacher here in Rochester, and also a cellist, which adds great value to our discussion of technique.  We've been addressing my right shoulder and the way I tend to let it slip forward when I play.  If I focus on keeping it back, that feels like I'm adding extra effort and tensing a new set of muscles.  But one idea I've been playing with is that if you are pronating as you bow out to the tip, you can also be "unwinding" the upper arm in opposition to that.  It sounds weird, yes?  But try it without the bow in your hand:

1. move out to the right, like a downbow, and notice that near the end of the stroke you'll naturally start to turn your hand over the stick (probably more noticeable in french bow hold, but I play German and we do this to some extant as well).

2. do it again, overdo it this time and make sure you use and turn from all the way up in your should socket.  Now your arm is like a washcloth that wrung in one spiraling direction.  Can you feel it pull in the pectorals and across the top of the shoulder? 

3. now do it again, but as you move out in the bow, think about your upper arm twisting towards your back even as your lower arm is twisting towards the bass.  You don't need to "do" anything about this, don't try to make them do the opposite actions, just imagine this is the direction each part of the arm is going.  Can you feel the relaxation in the pectorals now?  I also find my shoulder blade eases back into my back while I practice this way, since I'm not trying to pull the upper arm into the bow action anymore.

The bigger challenge for me is to incorporate this motion not only during practicing, but during performance when all my instinctive habits kick in.  Start small - start with whatever your easiest warm up is (open strings, simple scales) and keep attention on letting the opposition happen, rather than making it happen.

Happy practicing!
Gaelen