First Lesson

[moles]

Well, after a good month long search, I finally got ahold of a teacher for private lessons on DB. Had my first one on Monday night, about 3 hours after I first spoke to the guy - I got such a good vibe from him on the phone I figured lets just go already! Turns out he lives about 5 minutes away from me too, which pretty much rocks, and he's willing to let me use his EUB if neccessary if I can't get the DB down for whatever reason.

Gotta say, it was about the most constructive 45 minutes I think I've spent in my 33 years on planet earth. Awesome - after putzing around on the instrument for the past 5 weeks or so, trying to make my BG and fretless knowledge fit on it - forget it, the light has been turned on in a big way.

I LOVE THIS INSTRUMENT ....so just thought I'd add my $0.02CDN to it all, if there're still newcomers to the upright that don't want to hear it from the experienced types, then let me say it.
Get. A. Teacher.
-Miles

[Aaron Saunders]

Been playing the DB around two years right now myself.

...


Those two years have gone by fast !

[Michael Case]

Good for you finding a teacher you like! That's always great, now you need to start your string search.

[Damon Rondeau]

You with Steve Hamilton? Gilles has got a lot of recognition and stuff and is a glorious player but does he teach? And of course there's Steve Kirby in town...

But Steve H, there's a guy that flies under the radar. Wonderful player, interesting soloist, great arco chops to go with the jazz. I'd like to see him out and about more often.

The jazz improv method he teaches is very similar to the method Ed Fuqua's been talking about around here... Steve showed me some stuff about time and feel that basically revolutionized all my bass playing. I thought I was doing OK on that but Steve showed me how to go deeper. It was simple, too -- like a lot of things, you only had to focus and do the work.

[moles]

Yeah, Steve Hamilton I know is at the Conservatory...I spoke to them and confirmed that he breaks for the summer. I figure there's time until he starts up again in the fall to figure out which direction I'd like to head in - ie classical or jazz studies. At this point I'm thinkng classical, but we'll see how much progress I make this summer. I wound up calling Vaughan Poyser, and him picking up the phone right away and getting back to me to chat within 2 hours, versus having to chase people down was a big plus. He seems like a no bs kinda teacher, which is pretty much what I'm looking for right now. I'm happy.
I thought about calling Gilles - he doesn't teach at all? He's seemed like a pretty no-nonsense type when I've met him also.