Dr. Morton's Double Bass Technique: Concepts and Ideas

[phillm47]

I'm currently working through Simandl (book 1) with my instructor. I read about this book at the ASODB web site and it looks kind of interesting to me. Nobody in my area stocks it so I cannot look at it first hand. Does anyone own and/or give a review of this book (Dr. Morton's Double Bass Technique: Concepts and Ideas?)

[phillm47]

Nobody has, or has seen, this book and has an opinion one way or the other?

[Chris Fitzgerald]

It looks that way, but hang in there - sometimes these things take time. Not everybody checks in every day.

[David Kaczorowski]

I know some cats who attended his summer clinic and raved on and on about it.

I attended a demonstrastion/workshop he did at the ISB convention and was pretty underwhelmed by his strangulation technique and felt no desire to purchase his books.

"Triangulation" amounts to using basic Simandl and occassionally mixing it up with various "extended" left hand techniques for really hard sh*t. I glanced at his books and saw nothing "miraculous" about them. IMO, his is just another approach, among many, trying to improve on Simandl, but all it really is is Simandl with the addition of some possible extended techniques. Learning this isn't going to make or break a career. Plenty of fine bassists have been using traditional Simandl-type technique on the hard sh*t and sound just as good. Master Simandl, then you'll be able to judge where and when *you* might to use extended techniques.

[phillm47]

Thanks for the response guys! I was looking for supplement material to help me along. This book's description of included material indicated that it addresses technical issues and the like as opposed to scales or exercises, which Simandl has. Any suggestions on supplemental reading & study books in regards to music theroy, technique...etc?

[Chris Fitzgerald]

It might help if we knew what style of music you want to end up playing. The replies will be different depending on this.

[phillm47]

Hey Chris,

Classical & Jazz.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I can't help much with the classical stuff, but for jazz, I've found a lot of the Aebersold/Doubletime stuff to be useful. Certain of the play-along books also have transcribed bass lines available, which make for great studying materials. The channels on the recordings are split: left= bass& drums, right=pno & drums, so you can hear the bass clearly (or eliminate it completely) by adjusting your balance control. If you have the book of transcribed lines, you can either read through them WITH the bassplayer on the recordings (and he uses great players: Rufus Reid, Ron Carter, John Goldsby, etc...) to try to match the sound, or eliminate the bass on the recording and play along with the rest of the ryhthm section.

His online store also carries plenty of books on line construction and technique.

Hope this helps.

DURRL

[David Kaczorowski]

Fillembeforeseven,

I'm assuming that since you're working on Simandl, you're still learning positions and haven't reached thumb position yet. Therefore, I don't think play-alongs will be of much use to you yet. Purchase Simandl 30 Etudes. This will help you address specific technical issues not dealt with in the method and will also really help you develop a good tone. For your jazz, get the Rufus Reid _Evolving Bassist; Millenium Edition_. That will not only provide an excellent foundation for jazz bass playing (as the original edition did), but will give enough stuff to work on for the rest of your life as you develop and get better. These two are a must.

If you want to get a really good grounding in theory so that, as the bassist, you'll have the knowledge and understanding required to drive an ensemble, I suggest you get _The Jazz Theory Book_ by Mark Levine.

[phillm47]

Thanks guys for the input - I appreciate it!