Having read the original article a few more times and calmed down I am left thinking that its acerbic cynicism reveals heaps more about the author and his personal shortcomings than his topic. What a miserable sod!! Would he still maintain that he is a music lover? What sort of support does he give to his Creative Writing students?
In recent years we have called a short list of classical instruments endangered here in Australia. The bass, tuba, harp, French Horn and bassoon. Then suddenly numbers have picked up as the Youth Orchestras have increased in strength and numbers, and schools have offered attractive scholarships. Numbers in our Conservatoriums have increased and the quality of graduates is rising steadily. Because our Australian orchestral scene is not very big and rather shallow sadly there are not enough jobs and vacancies are rare. Yet knowing this the bass students are prepared to invest so much emotional capital and time and achieve such great results, musically and technically. On a much bigger scale I believe the same is happening in the US, if not world-wide. Teachers of piano, flute, violin, cello, trumpet and drums have never been busier. The relative costs and portability of instruments are so obvious. I can't speak for our jazz scene and all its genres but it seems healthy and with a lot of interest in the bass. I observe that people are divided into two camps, those who are drawn to high pitched sounds and those who are drawn to deeper sounds. Fewer still are drawn to produce the deepest sounds on string bass and yet people buy sound equipment to thump or blast them out on bass guitar.
I have taught hundreds of bass students and only a relative handful have wanted to progress to full-time professional level. Hopefully my legacy will be that I have helped create a whole lot of music lovers that will keep it alive in future.
Sorry to sound off, Andy. Keep up the good work, finding these articles and posing questions for us. All the best.
