hello everyone,
I've just registered into the talk bass forum.(newbie)
Mainly because I've been following this forum for sometime and felt that I could(or should?) contribute something to the community via what I know and have experienced first hand.
I've been playing in Europe for the last 10 years, and in fifths for the last 9 (since 1998). I've played in many kinds of musical situations (freelance/ including bass guitar in fifths) with some interim stable work (chamber orchestras).
I have won two auditions here in Spain-one for a chamber orchestra and another for principal bass of a newly formed symphonic orchestra.(I'm no longer with these ensembles because I went into business for myself and can now CHOOSE what I want to play-a big advantage,in terms of time, money and for the completion of artistic goals)
I studied with Joel Quarrington until 1996 (not in fifths). I then won a Canada Council grant to go study with Ludwig Streicher in Vienna. I can therefore say that I know what to expect (at least in Europe)when one would like to play in fifths but is unsure of making the switch.
I feel Joel has been very honest in his web site in stating that "not because of the 5ths tuning superiority will an orchestra hire the candidate". I'm also in agreement when he states that " jobs with a small, or no, double bass contingent might be winnable". Unfortunately, I've experienced that the 5th tuned bassists' worst enemy is/are........other bassists.
I suppose that the main reasons are: ignorance, jealousy,nepotism,conservatism,traditionalism and other human related but lower scale emotions which hinder the developement of the noble part of our human spirit which poseses feelings and attitudes such as:cooperation ,understanding,acceptance,change,...etc.
This is my conclusion, and I have come to formulate it because I've experienced these obstacles first-hand.
While other string players are very enthusiastic about 5ths tuning ,it seems that only a few bassists are even open enough to really give it a go. This translates into a misunderstood conception of what 5ths tuning is all about and why a string instrument ,regardless of its size, should be tuning in 5ths.(except a guitar of course)
Logically, just because something is not accepted into the social community should that mean that it be discarted.After all, Galileo Galileis' and Leonardo Davincis' discoverys were not accepted either at the begining.
Social Proof is what is termed in psychology as "the blind acceptance of a belief". Such is the case with tuning in fourths, and the attitude towards anything other than that in the doublebass community.With respects to 5ths tuning , Arthur Schopenhauer (the german philosopher) once stated:"all truth goes through three steps : first, it is ridiculed. second, it is violently opposed. third, it is accepted as self-evident.
5ths tuning is ,I believe, going through some "growing pains" and it is at the second stage of Schopenhauers' truth cycle. The technology of string manufacturing is on the 5ths tuning side- so are many luthiers, and little by little- performers as well.
I've been able to get jobs based on my musical level and with people whose main criteria for judging others are musical ones.It hasn't always been the case....life's tough.I do know that in comparison with a fourths tuned instrument, a person
whose judgement is based on musical criteria will ALWAYS go for the 5ths tuned string player.This reminds me of Joel quoting one of his students on a radio broadcast. He said the student told him that the fourths tuned instrument sounded " ...as if it were broken or something..."
I hope my viewpoint has helped. Being a conformist, gets you nowhere fast.
One would be worst off having played in fourths all his life and not having won that o so coveted orchestral job.(which ironically doesn't even depend on how well you play the stupid audition most of the time anyways) Music and a life in music ARE NOT getting an orchestral job.
