Double Bass Motivating Fellow Bassists

[Sean Riddle]

My high school orchestra is comprised of myself and two other bassists. The only problem is that I am the only one that can be heard. There overall technique ranges from laziness to just plain terrible. I'm thinking the lack of volume may be caused by this (correct me if I'm wrong experienced fellows . I'm a senior and my director is relenting the fact that he'll be stuck with them for the next years. So besides encouraging them to get lessons if they can afford them, what would be the best way to encourage them to better their technique and most importantly tone production? I've tempted to introduce them to the Vance method ever since my tutor let me borrow some of his old copies. Any other approach would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Sean Riddle]

I forgot to add that I think they were brought up on Simandl but developed a distaste towards it for an unknown reason.

 

[neilG]

It has nothing to do with what method they're using. Motivation is lacking for any number of reasons. Do I know you Jazzcat_13?

 

[Sean Riddle]

I know of you Neil. It's great to find a fellow bassist from Ventura here! I don't think I've met you before, but I have heard of you through my band director and I am considering of contacting you for a lesson or two once the school year ends so I can get a taste for what I need to work on in college next year . Knowing your playing and educational background, do you have any suggestions for what could help?

 

[Tom Lane]

This is a tough one, because nearly everyone has this tug of war between practicing technique and playing, and playing is typically more fun than practicing. I run into this with students regularly. I've had reasonable success by challenging them to do something that's just beyond their reach.
Different things for different students, sometimes intonation, sometimes rhythm, sometimes reading, but as an example, let's pick intonation. I'll play a scale they claim to know along with them with a metronome and wait until they're off-pitch. Typically they can hear that they're off. That gives me the opening to point out how important it is to make those *nut* pitches correctly before jumping up to the thumb position because, if their C isn't in pitch, how can the expect their D to be in pitch?
I find that that typically motivates a student to drop back a few steps and start to really master good technique because they can hear that bad technique is not serving them well. Hope that helps.

 

[M0ses]

Just popping in to mention that practicing without playing is wasted practice.

 

[neilG]

....... do you have any suggestions for what could help?

It's an interesting question. My first suggestion would be to expose young players to live performances of good bassists. Chances are, these students have never been to a live symphony concert, heard a classical soloist, or heard a great jazz bassist from just a few feet away. (Youtube even. ) It can be a transformative experience if they really have any interest.
Lessons are important. HS students play one or two pieces for months on end in school preparing for a concert. Boring. A good teacher will keep you interested, varying material, introducing you to a wider variety of music. Also, when you've been taught good technique, no matter at what level, it's more satisfying/fun to play.

 

[David Potts]

Something you could try is playing bass duets and trios together, where you have to match tone, intonation and volume with each other. The other bass clef instruments, cello and trombone, also have lots of good duets and trios. Take it in turns to play each line. Only good can come from this IMO.

Cheers, DP

 

[Lbernardes]

in order to motivate them i think that music itself is the way to go. if they lack motivation already, i dont think methods,studies or even a piece of music would help much...maybe that could even cause the opposite effect.
as someone mentioned already, watching good musicians and listening to good music that you can identify with...its just the best feeling ever...and try to see technique as a tool to be able to express yourself. whenever im not in the mood to practice i just listen to something and it doesnt even have to be classical, nor jazz...just anything tjat influences you to make music