Double Bass What to do when...........

[James S]

I had them down pat with the metrenome and last night

This statement is the clue to the specific problem here.

When going from the practice room to the stage the environment is quite different. As David suggested in a previous post, get a recording and PLAY-ALONG.

It is a common frustration to practice and learn your parts well, then underfire, BLOW IT. If you get used to hearing all of the other instruments as you play-along with your recording then during the concert it will feel quite normal. I have many students for whom this procedure works well for.

We are simply trying to create and get used to the environment before we have to jump in.

Another clue is you saying "I'm mostly a jazzer". Good for you! But your experience is mostly "ear" and "feel". All the more reason to play-along and hear and feel.

Knowing the music is far more important than knowing the notes.

 

[Don Higdon]

Also, just to be clear, rewrite the problem passage on a separate sheet, with all the notes for a particular string given the same pitch. Bar lines and note values as written, of course. All you will have to think about is the right hand - bow angles, direction, and time. It is very helpful.

 

[James S]

Monte,

I thought it might help if I related my on battle with this problem.

Many years ago when I began to play in orchestras I also would "have it down" in practice but not be able to come through in performance. I too was comming from a jazz background and while already having played jazz for many years, I had no problems in performing this style of music.

My teacher at the time was Ed Barker and he suggested a few practice techniques that really worked.

Bassically we recreated as best we could the live playing situation in my practice.

I would put on my Tuxedo. I would have already set up a tape recorder right in front of me , and it would be recording. I would walk into the room, pick up my bass, press start, and the recording of (Beethoven ?) would begin and I would play along.

I was supprised how much I could sweat in my practice room with no one watching. The most difficutl thing was to NOT reach over and stop the tape recorder when I did not like how I was playing.

Visualization is a powerful tool.

I also practiced like this for my senior recital at New England Conservatory and it was quite successful.
I am sure my actual playing ability was only good at best, but the performance was a breeze.

 

[David Kaczorowski]

Originally posted by James S


It is a common frustration to practice and learn your parts well, then underfire, BLOW IT. If you get used to hearing all of the other instruments as you play-along with your recording then during the concert it will feel quite normal.

We are simply trying to create and get used to the environment before we have to jump in.

Another clue is you saying "I'm mostly a jazzer". Good for you! But your experience is mostly "ear" and "feel". All the more reason to play-along and hear and feel.

Knowing the music is far more important than knowing the notes.

This reminded me of something I experienced when I began playing in an orchestra. At the time, I was so use to hearing and playing jazz forms that I could get totally messed up if I listened too much to the other sections, not that listening is the wrong thing to do, but I was listening the wrong way. I would get messed up while counting rests if something came in at measure 27 or whatever because that didn't fit into the way I listened, like a jazz musician use to 8, 16, 32 bar passages, etc. I'd hear that entrance and immediately think I messed my count or something. I wasn't thinking about, or hearing, the larger picture.

 

[James S]

I know EXACTLY what you mean. I too experienced this.