Gerald Veasley's Bass Boot Camp

[KSB - Ken Smith]

Concerning Gerald Veasley's Bass Boot Camp, I have found several Threads all over TB about this but nothing too current on the Venue for this week. Maybe the Mods can place this under the proper Forum whatever that may be.

I will have been invited by Gerald to give a Seminar there on Bass Set-up/Maintenance, etc. I will also cover some Double Bass (upright bass) stuff at the end to those who are interested. I am Scheduled at this time for Saturday at 2pm. I will also try to be available for one-on-ones throughout the day and maybe even Sunday if I can get over there providing a space can be alloted for this besides the main one hour Class.

[Twnty1inRF]

Great weekend! I'm still working on some of the stuff I learned there and hope to go again some time.

[lamarjones]

Not sure when I went (what year was that Jive?) but it rocked, great people GREAT instructors, hour long one on one with the manthing, great performances, and THIS years staff is just sick.

Ken, good to hear that you will be there, that even has just stuck in my mind as one of the best experiences ever in my life.

[KSB - Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by KSB - Ken Smith

I will also try to be available for one-on-ones throughout the day and maybe even Sunday if I can get over there providing a space can be alloted for this besides the main one hour Class.

I spoke with Gerald this afternoon and as of now, Sunday is looking good. I wont know till Saturday what kind of set-up will be available for Sunday but something I am sure will be worked out.

[T-MOST]

I attended BBC 2006 and had a great time. I learned a lot about myself as a bass player and bass playing in general. The guest bassists were all approachable and very open to questions, demos and advice. Gerald in particular has a great philosophy on bass as it relates to life. He's a great bassist and a really deep thinking man. I havn't made it back since '06 but I will. If anyone has the opportunity to go I definately recommend it.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Moved to BG at the request of the thread starter. Apparently this thread got moved to DB. Ken let me know that he wanted it to be posted in BG, but wasn't sure of the exact forum classification. BG mods: feel free to move it wherever it belongs, as long as it's within BG, as apparently there aren't many DB players involved.

[jive1]

Originally Posted by lamarjones

Not sure when I went (what year was that Jive?) but it rocked, great people GREAT instructors, hour long one on one with the manthing, great performances, and THIS years staff is just sick.

Ken, good to hear that you will be there, that even has just stuck in my mind as one of the best experiences ever in my life.

That must have been 2003.

Good times, good times.

[KSB - Ken Smith]

The Camp ended last Sunday evening but I left in the mid afternoon to get home.

This was a fun experience and I am sure the 80 or so Boot Campers felt the same. Besides the regular staffers or great teachers/Players they had Will Lee in one Saturday for a Class and Brian Bromberg on Sunday.

I did one Master Class on Saturday from 2-3pm and Gerald titled it "Bass talk with Ken Smith". So, what do you do for a class with a heading like that? Well, I took a pencil and paper and leaned it on my music stand. Then I polled the group of about 60-70 people (some were in private lessons and didn't make it) and asked them what they would like to discuss with me. I got about 12-15 subjects and took them one at a time from the top.

A few questions were missed due to time but I offered one-on-ones throughout the rest of the day and Sunday for those that had more or other questions. I held back on answering a question about 6-string construction mainly because it was mostly 4 and 5 string players and again, only one hour for the Class. There were a few Upright players (doublers) in the group so I saved that for the last 5-10 minutes.

On Sunday, I set up in the main room during Lunch for any one on ones and left my old English Gilkes DB on display during the following class which was Bromberg's.

Both Brain and Will gave some great talk. Last year Richard Bona was the main guest. If for nothing else, the class with guys like these could easily make the Trip worth anyones while.

The Berks Jazz Festival was going on as well and in the same hotel at 10pm or so Saturday Gerald Veasley and his group was due to play. After dinner I went to my room to take a short rest and turned on the TV. There it was, on channel 9, Gerald's concert broadcasted by "Smooth Jazz" on TV. I laid back in Bed and never left the room..