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Double Bass My Pops is hard

#41
Scot said:
It's not white - it's amber in color - but it doesn't soften up when I hold it in my hand. It's hard as a rock. The paper cup is sticking to it and I have to tear that paper off so that it's out of the way. The paper cup has become one with the rosin. Even when I rosin up the bow 20 times back and forth it doesn't seem to soften up. I think I just need some new rosin. I'm going to grab some tonight at the shop. Thanks for the tip on the Carlson, E_J_Dad.

-Scot
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Scot
I'd think twice about buying a cake of Carlson at this time of year in the SF bay area. This weekend I got fed up with my Pops and grabbed an old cake of Carlson and began applying it. It was warm that day and I ended up with a gooey mess on my bow. I had to remove the rosin with denatured alcohol. Carlson is better than Pops overall but not during warm weather months. I've had better luck keeping my Pops in the fridge when I'm not using it. It takes about an hour to come up to room temp after taking it out of the fridge. You can hasten that process by putting it under a lamp. Putting it in the microwave is overkill.
 
#42
kwd said:
Carlson is better than Pops overall but not during warm weather months.
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Naah... remember you're down in the South Bay where it gets hot. Scot and I are around SF, and the weather stays pretty consistent, not to mention cold. I've never used Pops before but I doubt if the Carlsson is gonna get gooey in my apartment... it gets so cold at nights sometimes. Should be the same if not colder in Pacifica compared to my place near Twin Peaks.
 
#43
hdiddy said:
Naah... remember you're down in the South Bay where it gets hot. Scot and I are around SF, and the weather stays pretty consistent, not to mention cold. I've never used Pops before but I doubt if the Carlsson is gonna get gooey in my apartment... it gets so cold at nights sometimes. Should be the same if not colder in Pacifica compared to my place near Twin Peaks.
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You are correct Huy. I even live in the "foggy part" of Pacifica, which is the Manor area pretty close to hwy 1 and 35 junction. If anyone has fog in the Bay area it's us. I never know whether or not to take a warm jacket with to work in Burlingame just 12 miles away. But I get to see 2 different climates everyday. :D

-Scot
 
#44
Damon Rondeau said:
My comments may not be too popular here, and I don't want to confuse a person who is perhaps younger and doing responsible career planning.

I just want to say that if you're thinking about MONEY in relation to planning a career in music, you're probably in for some hurt. Music is a vocation, a calling. It chooses you, you don't choose it. This doesn't mean that you must starve; most serious musicians find a way not to starve. It just means that the decision whether to play seriously -- and what to play seriously -- shouldn't hinge on money in my opinion.

Jazz, symphonic, bluegrass, shopping mall polka band: it's all a big fat crap shoot. You gotta love music, you gotta practice your axe and keep learning, and you gotta play all the time.

I'm about 8 or 9 months down the road of learning arco skills and dipping my toe into the classical waters. It's immensely fulfilling on its own and it's making me a better bass player and jazz/bluegrass player. Good enough for me.

Economically, music is such a bitch that I think anyone's crazy if they're not doing something they love.
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Well, your comments are certainly welcome as far as I'm concerned. As far as career plans go, I'm 39 years old and never really made career plans as such. Music pretty much did call me while I made a living playing bass from 1988 - 1999. Then I had kids and decided to get a day gig for the health insurance benefits (my wife is a musician too). But music is still tugging on me hard and I'm thinking of getting back to doing what I love to earn a living. I guess that's why the symphony thing sounds so great because it's like a day gig only you get to play music.

-Scot
 
#46
Scot said:
Do you guys think 39 is too young to be going through a mid-life crisis?

-Scot
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That's when I had mine, which coincided with the aquisition of my 1st bass. I still refer to the bass as my 'midlife crisis'.

I'm marginal IT professional but I've managed to deal with a lot of the feelings of disolution and angst by playing the DB. It can be a real salve for the vicissitudes of life. I see it as adjunct, not an alternative. If you want to be a professional musician, go for it. My teacher is a symphony player but depends on teaching and managing rentals for most of his income. Even so, he has this odd sense of calm that comes with doing something you love.
 
#47
kwd said:
I'm marginal IT professional but I've managed to deal with a lot of the feelings of disolution and angst by playing the DB. It can be a real salve for the vicissitudes of life. I see it as adjunct, not an alternative. If you want to be a professional musician, go for it. My teacher is a symphony player but depends on teaching and managing rentals for most of his income. Even so, he has this odd sense of calm that comes with doing something you love.
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Man, sometimes I think I'm barely a marginal IT professional. :crying:
 
#48
It's ok... I'm an marginal java engineer, but few know that. Although I do have more UI experience than most other engineers. But as long as they keep sending the paychecks, I don't mind, as long as one day I'll be a not-so-marginal bassist. :D
 
#50
Maestro said:
The time to plan things out is now when you're just starting to play. Try to figure out if you think the symphony is a career you might like, because it takes some serious years of practice to pass an audition for such a position. Some folks will not like the style of music and stay away from classical music, but it's a decent gig, IMO, so something that each player needs to consider for themself.

Remember that while Jazz is cool and has been picking up in recent years, the gigs don't pay very much and it's a difficult way to try and make a living...so there are less good gigs with less opportunity. The symphony provides a stable (and clean;-) envirionment to play in. It's something for young players to consider, since 6 or 8 years can go by quickly and that is about how long it takes a person to bring their skill level up to what is required in a symphony, in most cases. Of course you can study the rest of your life and not learn to play all music...;-)
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The only thing worse than unsolicited advice is unsolicited bad advice. Or possibly unsolicited bad advice that sounds CONDESCENDING and from someone whose main area of expertise is outside the realm of the topic for which the advice is being offered. And in a rosin thread of all places.

But since you went there, let me counter. Nobody should decide what kind of music to play based on hypothetical employment opportunities down the road. You choose a genre because you have a passion for it. And if your passion is strong, you will become good, or even great. Which will enable you to make a living. We all make our own beds. There are good paying musically satisfying jazz gigs, and the best players will get those gigs. Nobody's saying it's easy. Nothing worthwhile is.

I'm not saying you should have to choose, either. If your passion for music includes the desire to be well-rounded and versatile, and more importantly if you love listening to and playing jazz, classical, pop, bluegrass, whatever, then by all means pursue any and all.

Originally posted by kwd
Even so, he has this odd sense of calm that comes with doing something you love.
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There is nothing odd about it. It makes perfect sense.

Scot, this is not directed at you. You don't need my advice. But for any actual youngsters out there who may have stumbled across the Maestro's comments, I felt this response was in order.

My .02, FWIW.
 
#51
Maestro said:
...The time to plan things out is now when you're just starting to play. Try to figure out if you think the symphony is a career you might like, because it takes some serious years of practice to pass an audition for such a position. Some folks will not like the style of music and stay away from classical music, but it's a decent gig, IMO, so something that each player needs to consider for themself.

Remember that while Jazz is cool and has been picking up in recent years, the gigs don't pay very much and it's a difficult way to try and make a living...so there are less good gigs with less opportunity. The symphony provides a stable (and clean;-) envirionment to play in. It's something for young players to consider, since 6 or 8 years can go by quickly and that is about how long it takes a person to bring their skill level up to what is required in a symphony, in most cases. Of course you can study the rest of your life and not learn to play all music...;-)
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I'll backup T-Bal's position. IMO Maestro's post is misplaced and misleading: you don't sart to consider a symphony career as DBassist when you have not yet figured out how to apply rosin to a bow.

In addition Maestro's post takes a strange twist when he starts to speak about the "stable and clean" environment provided by the symphony. It smells like prejudice and bigotry since the implications are far reaching: is it that outside the symphony it's all restless and dirty ? I look around myself and I don't see clear lifeslyle differences between jazz and classical musicians. What is Meastro talking about ? It's possible I am overeacting, but maybe Maestro should clarify his position, to make sure he is not insulting anybody.
 
#52
Pops, in my opinion, is the most multicultural and openminded rosin available...no predispositions or prejudices regarding weather, strings, basses, bows, or strokes. I use with confidence and admiration at all times.

It will even offer to run on your carpet if you give it a couple of hours.
 
#53
Have you guys looked at the salary levels for the majority of orchestra gigs in this country? You make more being an elementary school teacher. The vast majority of orchestra gigs pay "per performance" NOT salary. And if you're not the principal, I hope you have a trust fund. Yes, the organizations in major metropolitan areas provide a valuable source of income for some few musicians. But it is rare for even these musicians to rely solely on their income from the symphony - they teach, they tour as soloists or in smaller ensembles, private students, master classes, artist-in-residence etc etc etc.

If you want to make money, be a doctor or lawyer. If you have to play music, play the music you love. and do WHATEVER you have to do to continue playing it.


re:CLEAN AND STABLE - I think (hope) what YOUR STREAU is getting at is a pretty observable phenomena. That is to say being a 75 year old bassist who has been afforded the opportunity to buy a house and live in it, raise a family in it, play in the same place etc for the majority of his career is generally in better physical and sometimes psychological shape than the 75 year old bassist who has spent 45 years doing up to 200 one-nighters a year, riding that bus, eating that road food, trying to maintain a relationship in the face of all that. It takes a toll, physically and mentally. It's harder to get a jazz gig like that...

SCOT - I hope that playing music is NEVER EVER EVER like working a day job. There are section players in orchestras that are just like that, show up, push the buttons, get the check, go home. It's like they don't even HEAR the music. If it ever gets to be like that for me, just ****ing shoot me.
 
#54
Scot, hdiddy

If you've been able to remain employed as an IT professional during the bay area IT darwinism in the last three years you're probably better than marginal. Take heart.

All

All discussions about being full time musicians are tempered with economic realities. People always say that you have to teach to augment your income like it's being consigned to the searing flames of hell. What could more rewarding than guiding a student through his/her studies and having that culminate in them winning a contest, audition etc?

Can some of the seasoned people weigh in on this? (Ed, T-Bal, olivier)

Time to summon the moderator. This belongs in 'Miscellaneous' or 'Off Topic'.
 
#55
YOUR STREAU - don't "figure", check it out. The ads I see for section players in the union paper tend to run from $800 - 1500 "per performance" with a guarantee of about 18-25 performances per year. The top of that range gives you an income, before taxes, of $37,500. The only reason you should paly classical music with a symphonic orchestra is because that's what you really really want to do.
 
#56
Didn't mean to start a flame war about classical vs. jazz. It seems to me that jazz and classical musicians are both grossly under-paid compared to other professions that require the same level of study. But none of us ever really figured on getting rich playing music, at least not once we became grown ups. Right? It's just plain fun to do and they say that the key to happiness is doing what you love to do to make a living. I think that must be right.

The Carlsson's is holding up pretty well. Hasn't melted yet. We haven't seen the sun here in Pacifica since I've had it either, so we'll see.
 
#57
kwd said:
Scot, hdiddy

If you've been able to remain employed as an IT professional during the bay area IT darwinism in the last three years you're probably better than marginal. Take heart.
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Well I certainly hope so, after all the trouble I went through to get my Masters in Computer Science. But I'm the absent-minded sort, and I can't remember how to do my first derivatives in calculus anymore... though I vaguely remember the word "Chain Rule".

But about this whole business about playing music for a living, I think it's risky to throw yourself out there to live off of playing music and always easier said than done. If you're passionate about it, great, but I think it must take LOTS of chops to get paid $98k. But if one is still trying to figure out where to apply rosin (me included until about 3 months ago), I think it's being a little unrealistic to say that yeah I will positively absolutely become a well paid Symphony bassist in 7 years and still have a family and raise my children, etc. etc. at the same time while considering that there are so many experienced bassists that are vying for that same position.
 
#58
kwd said:
People always say that you have to teach to augment your income like it's being consigned to the searing flames of hell. What could more rewarding than guiding a student through his/her studies and having that culminate in them winning a contest, audition etc?

Can some of the seasoned people weigh in on this? (Ed, T-Bal, olivier)

Time to summon the moderator. This belongs in 'Miscellaneous' or 'Off Topic'.
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Yeah, me and my big mouth. Sorry guys.

Teaching is very rewarding. Even if it does not culminate in an award or audition, etc. The mere act of helping someone who also shares your passion for music become a participant at any level, or to help him or her continue the journey to a higher level is reason enough. I have the utmost respect for serious educators, and while I don't consider myself extremely accomplished, I do take my students very seriously. I am always looking to improve as a teacher and I reckon as the years roll on that teaching will occupy an increasingly greater portion of my life. It also gives me a good feeling to know that in a larger sense I am doing my small part to perpetuate the art form that I love (jazz).
 
#60
Sorry, kwd. I wasn't trying to be a smart @ss or question what you said. It was just an attempt to make fun of the Pacifica climate - you know everyone in the bay area associates Pacifica with fog and crummy weather. And it was also an attempt to be funny with the "staying on topic for the topic police" thing. One thing's for sure - I don't have any asperations for becoming a comedian someday. :)
 

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