Last Tuesday, courtesy of the US government
I took my first lesson with a local symphony bassist. (Such as that is, since the symphony has folded due to bankruptcy) I thought I'd share...
Firstly, Steve is a great guy - extrememly positive, with a oviously love of teaching. He started off with his philosophies regarding bass playing and off we went with two and three octave scale fingerings. I haven't spent a lot of time in thumb position, so I was suitably horrifying up there - but it will get better.
After that, literature. Steve doesn't believe in etudes. his idea is that after you work up an etude, you've got an etude. But if you use solos as etudes, you've got something you can play in public when you've worked it up. In other words, why work up etudes that will allow you to play the music, when you can just work up the music itself? Can't say I can argue with that. So he put up the Marcello Sonata in Am. I took a look at it, and said "Yeah, right...." but by the end of the lesson, I could see that it was reachable. I've been shedding it for a few days now, and I'm surprised how well I'm playing it! Obviously, something's working. I can tell this is going to be a great experience for me, and I'll try to share as I go along....
