This story is the latest submission for the Upton bass pickup raffle. If you’d like to be a contestant in the raffle, just email me your worst gig story (either personal or second-hand is fine) by March 15. You can send them to jasonheath -at- doublebassblog.org.

Gig Story from Deborah Lamb

Here at The University of Oklahoma (OU), I play in various ensembles. Some required of me, some just for my own enjoyment. Wind Symphony is just that!

Two weeks ago the OU Wind Symphony had a concert, and we were going to play David Maslanka’s 4th Symphony, which requires A LOT of bass and has some very exposed parts. David Maslanka was there for the concert, so the pressure was REALLY on. During the day of the concert, I wanted to make some improvements on my bass to get more sound out of it. So, I took it to my apartment to accomplish the task.

My uncle, who comes to every concert, wanted to take me out to dinner that night to celebrate my recent birthday. Around 5:30 I loaded up my bass in my car and headed back to the music building to meet him. After parking in the parking garage, I usually take the stairs down unless I’m on the 3rd or 4th level of the parking garage. I had parked on the second level. Seeing as how I live up a flight of stairs, I saw no problem taking just one flight down to ground level. While going down the stairs, I put my foot where a stair should’ve been, and it wasn’t. I then fell down 6 stairs, injuring both of my knees and my left elbow.

I gathered myself together (with the help of some very nice strangers) and headed into the music building. Noticing the top of the bass was limping down, my heart sank into my stomach- I knew then and there what happened. The scroll broke completely in half and everything had collapsed. Not caring about my injuries or my crazy crying over what happened, I needed a GOOD bass- I had a concert to play in after all, and I didn’t want to let anyone down with this incident!

I found a master key, broke into my bass professors office, and stole a bass from one of our graduate students. I played through the concert on a bass I had never laid my hands on before with two injured knees and an injured elbow. I had never been so proud of myself in my life. I definitely earned my scholarship that night!

-Debby Lamb
Music Education Student at the University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK

This story is the latest submission for the Upton bass pickup raffle. If you’d like to be a contestant in the raffle, just email me your worst gig story (either personal or second-hand is fine) by March 15. You can send them to jasonheath -at- doublebassblog.org.

Gig Story from Kells Nollenberger

(This story is already giving me nightmares, by the way…)

It was the summer of 2000 and I had just finished high school in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Soon, I would be heading off to college to study music with my 100-year-old Czech bass that I had recently purchased from A440 Violin Shop. I bought the bass in the classic American fashion, by accruing massive debt. I didn’t care though, I was officially a bass player and I was loving it.

That same summer I was chosen to perform at the Texas Educators Conference with an All-Star College Big Band. There were going to be clinics and musicians from other states and free hotel rooms in San Antonio! My father agreed to buy me a plane ticket to the event for $350. Soon after I convinced him to pay for the flight, I found out that I could take the bus to San Antonio for only $150. My father agreed to let me keep the difference if I took the bus instead. $200!!! It was only a 22-hour bus ride, how bad could it possibly be? The prospect of sitting in a bus and making $5/hr seemed better than going out and trying to find a job that summer. Plus, the bus provided an added benefit in moving the bass. I figured that I would have a much easier time getting my bass on a bus than on a plane.

So my plan was hatched. I called Greyhound and gave them the dimensions of the hard double bass case that I was planning on borrowing from my high school. The woman on the phone informed me that there was no size limit on luggage, just a weight requirement of a 100 pounds. Her conformation was all I needed and I showed up the next week at the bus stop in downtown Chicago with my mom and a comically large instrument.

When I arrived at the gate, the Greyhound employees did not seem happy to see my seven-foot tall friend. They insisted that anything that big had to be sent through the shipping department and could not be put under the bus. We wandered over to the shipping department. Walking around with a hard-shell bass case can make you feel as if you have a large growth on the side of your head. Everyone just quietly stops what they are doing and stares, minding their words carefully. Naturally, the people in the shipping department also wanted nothing to do with me. It is around the time that you turn 18 and become an adult that you realize new things about your parents and that day I found out that my mom is an awesome “bad cop.” She was not going to take “no” for an answer. She started yelling, and I tried to look as pathetic as possible. One of the greatest weapons that you have as a traveling bass player is that people will do whatever it takes to make you someone else’s problem. The man in shipping department insisted that if we returned to the main terminal and informed everyone that I was a professional musician and the bass was essential to my livelihood then they would have no choice but to be accommodating. So we headed back to the terminal and after several more rounds of academy award winning “good cop, bad cop”, we managed to get my bass into the belly of a greyhound bus.

Once the baggage door was closed, I hugged my mother and made my way up to the bus door. The bus driver stopped me before entering. There was no room left on the bus for me. My brain went crazy. Should I try to get my bass back out of the bus? Would it take another two hours of yelling to get it into another bus? I couldn’t handle that. So I watched as the bus pulled out of the terminal. The bass that was leaving in the bus had a value that I could barely understand. I had not worked enough hours in my life to pay for the item that I had just lost control of. It had taken me several years just to raise enough money to have a down payment.

The next bus to San Antonio arrived shortly and it too was packed with people. I somehow managed to get on board to begin my 22-hour journey. The seat next to me was full for almost the entire ride. Mothers with their babies screaming, cowboys sleeping on my shoulder, air conditioning that barely worked: these were the least of my worries. Each time the bus stopped the bus driver would announce over the intercom and kindly remind the crowd, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please make sure that any and all of your luggage remains in the bus that you are traveling on. Greyhound can not be held responsible for any luggage that is not on your bus.” I tried to fall asleep.

We arrived in San Antonio and I jumped out of the bus looking for my bass. I looked all around the inside of the terminal. There was no sign of it and it’s not the kind of item that can easily blend into its surroundings. Having been unable to find it inside the terminal, I desperately rushed outside and could not believe what I saw. All seven feet of bass case sitting up on its own in the middle of the parking lot. I still have no idea what it was doing out there. I can only assume that someone saw the unclaimed instrument, and thought to themselves, “Maybe I should give the bass a try?” After carrying the instrument one hundred feet, they must have decided that it simply was not worth it.

This story is the latest submission for the Upton bass pickup raffle. If you’d like to be a contestant in the raffle, just email me your worst gig story (either personal or second-hand is fine) by March 15. You can send them to jasonheath -at- doublebassblog.org.

Gig Story from Eric Hochberg

My band was scheduled to play at a private residence in Glencoe, IL (tony Chicago suburb) for a reception on a Saturday afternoon. It was a beautiful summer day when we arrived at the house. When I enquired where we would be setting up, I was told by the boat dock. When I asked where the boat dock was, I was directed to a tram that went up and down a ravine from the dock on Lake Michigan to the residence. Ok, pretty weird, I thought, but manageable. So, my bandmates and I made a few trips getting our equipment down to the lake on the tram. When we got there I realized there was no covering for us to play under, ( a usual requirement for outdoor gigs), but being a sunny clear day, I thought nothing of it and we set up.

The guests started to arrive and we began playing. By the middle of our second tune I see a bit of blackness over the water out in the distance and for the next five minutes or so it gets blacker and closer. I’m getting a little worried at this point, but we keep playing, until you guessed it, we’re in the middle of a thunderstorm. Naturally, the guests were all rushing to the tram and stairs to get back up to the house. We were stuck on the deck, out in the open with no cover and all of our gear. I noticed a small shed that I opened and found a nasty old tarp in, so, we gathered our instruments and sound equipment in a pile and covered them along with our tuxedo clad selves under that funky tarp (complete with dirt, spider webs and leaking holes) until the rain stopped about 20 minutes later. What a damn mess!

We made it back up the ravine, packed up our cars and when our employer came out to say that she would like us to meet them at a restaurant in town to continue the “party”, I told them our equipment was more than likely damaged by the rain and we wouldn’t be able to make it… I guess she didn’t notice our rain soaked tuxes, either!

Eric Hochberg
www.erichochberg.com

Ciao – I took a “Kiss” song (Crazy Nights) and made my own version:

“(Whoow! Here’s a little story for everybody out there)

People try to take Guy’s soul away, but He doesn’t hear the rap that they all say,
They try to tell him he doesn’t belong, that’s alright, he’s millions strong
This is his music, it makes him proud, this is his Bass and you are his crowd

These are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy people
These are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy

Sometimes Bassists are so hard to survive, oh yeah, a million ways to bury you alive, but when Bass go down like a bad bad dream
Guy wound up tight, gotta let off steam
They think they can break Guy again and again, if life is bass-playing, than Guy’s much above!!!

These are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy people
These are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy…

Yeah, and nobody’s gonna change him, ‘cos that’s who He is, huh!

These are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy prople
These are crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy bassists..”

Maestro, this song is for you and I wish you to know: YOU ARE THE BEST, after you ALL of them are looking like Students!

Gig Story from Brayden Wise

When I lived in Vancouver, I played with the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble (http://www.pswe.ca) under the direction of Marc Crompton. One of the things I loved about playing with PSWE was that we always got to play some really bleeding-edge wind band music. Sure, we did the classics — Grainger, Claude T. Smith, etc, but we also got a chance to have at stuff by guys like Adam Gorb and Fred Stride, and play wind band (and chamber-winds) adaptations of Zappa, and so on.

This particular show in question featured a tune by Robert Jager called “A Sea of Glass Mingled With Fire”, which was originally a commission for the Tacoma Concert Band. The second movement of this tune is quite peaceful and pastoral, unlike the bookending movements which are a little more on the “fire” side of the title. In any case…

I was just out of college at the time, working a low-paying job in a high-rent city, and couldn’t afford great gear, but the stuff I had sounded wonderful, and worked for me. The bass I was playing that night was a Chinese plywood bass (I can hear the groans already!) which was seemingly made out of balsa wood and put together with Elmer’s glue. Despite its (many) shortcomings, it had an amazing sound to it, and was ridiculously easy to play. That is, until the quietest part of the aforementioned piece.

The score was down to just a few players, and they were all at the low end of the dynamic spectrum, when this earth-splitting cracking noise came from my bass.

This cracking noise was followed in quick succession with the sound of wood clattering on the stage.

I looked down, and wouldn’t you know it, my tailpiece wire had snapped and my bridge had fallen onto the floor.

My bass had basically gutted itself onstage at the LEAST opportune moment.

Panic gripped me quickly as I realized that we were only coming up to intermission and I was now bass-less. Irrational (and terrifying) thoughts of my soundpost falling over started to enter my mind, so I laid my bass on its back and hoped for the best. Mercifully, the third movement of “A Sea of Glass…” is played on Electric Bass, so I calmed my nerves, strapped on the electric, and played the end of the half.

At the start of intermission, my friend Roy Sluyter (a fantastic Vancouver-based jazz pianist and recording engineer) comes bounding down the aisles and just says “Get your keys — let’s go”.

We jump into my car and split from the theatre. Now, I have to fill you in on Vancouver geography. The show was being held at the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam. Roy lived in Port Moody — about a 15-minute drive away. Now, especially as a father, I don’t condone driving like this, but Roy and I managed to drive from the ECC to his house in PoMo, get the double bass that just *happened* to be sitting in his living room, jam it into my hatchback, and get back to the ECC in time to tune up and play the second half of the show.

It was through this experience that I got acquainted with Gerard Samija, who became my luthier of choice for the rest of my time in Vancouver. Gerard did a wonderful job of rehabilitating my instrument and it’s still working well for me to this day.

Brayden Wise
Bassist – The Central Band of the Canadian Forces
Ottawa, Ontario
http://www.braydenwise.com
Twitter @braydenwise

About the bass (from Jena):

I need to sell my Hawkes, which I have had for (gasp) 20 years. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the bass, it is a French (I’m told) copy of a Panormo, made around 1900. It has 42 1/2 inch string length and a Mario LaMarre extension. It is definitely one of the best sounding and playing Hawkes I’ve seen. I’m asking $36,000.

Looks good, eh?

The influential double bass pedagogue George Vance passed away last year after a bout with pancreatic cancer. Influenced by Suzuki, George codified an approach to teaching younger bassists that has influenced countless players and teachers (myself included–I use his materials with all of my younger students). Here’s some information about the workshop:

George Vance Memorial Summer Bass Workshop 2010

Silver Spring, MD, 301-588-9275, summerbassworkshop@gmail.com
July 6-10 2010

Day workshop for bassists desiring an intense study of the bass with master teachers. Workshop under direction of Martha and Sam Vance in cooperation with Institut International Francois Rabbath.

Francois Rabbath in recital Friday July 9, 2010

All ages are welcome; parents must attend with children younger than 16.
Daily schedule includes: master class, bass choir, group lesson, participatory lecture/demo, improvisation, evening faculty concert.
Faculty includes: Francois Rabbath, David Young,Ted Botsford, Tracy Rowell, Etienne LaFrance, Hans Sturm, John Hamil, Lloyd Goldstein, Nicholas Walker, Ira Gold, Christian Laborie, Gilles Duhaut.

What is your worst gig story ever?

To be entered in this raffle, all you have to do is send me your worst gig story ever. Did your bass ever get crushed on an escalator? Fall out of a moving vehicle? Did you ever forget your music and have to air bow the entire concert? Ever forget your pants? You get the idea.

There’s no specific length you’ve got to meet, but don’t be sending me a sentence or two–that won’t cut it. Make it at least a few paragraphs (even more is better) and you’ll be fine.

Send me your gig stories starting today (March 2) through March 15. I’ll be publishing the best of them during the month, so don’t send me something you don’t want going out on the blog! The winner of the Upton Bass Pickup will be selected at random from all those who submitted a story and will be sent out by Upton after the 15th.

Email to: jasonheath – at – doublebassblog.org
Subject: raffle gig story

About the Upton Pickup

The Upton pickup is a smartly-designed pickup that allows for easy custom fitting to any bridge. I’ve found the sound to be very consistent and even in all registers of the bass, and the natural wood construction seems to really help with producing an “acoustic” sound through the amplifier.

The following video details the steps that go into fitting the pickup to your bass.

Download the NHSMI flyer here:

NHSMI-2010.pdf

Audition repertoire can be submitted via CD and consists of two contrasting pieces/movements from “serious” repertoire. This could include two sonata movements, two concerto movements, one of each, or a short piece like the Bottesini Elegy, Koussevitzky Valse Miniature, or other such work.

Details are available through the NHSMI application, and you can always email me (jasonheath -at- doublebassblog.org) with any questions.

Placement audition music (to be played when you arrive) is available here (PDF), and you can get an application through this page.

About Bass Study at the National High School Music Institute – June 27 – July 30, 2010

We’ll be focusing on the following components at NHSMI this summer:

• Advanced technical studies
• Solo literature
• Excerpt preparation
• Orchestral studies
• Audition preparation
• Bass ensemble skills and repertoire

One of the biggest challenges facing high school bassists is developing the skills necessary to succeed in the college and conservatory audition process. Fortunately, there are concrete skills (both musical and extra-musical) the can vastly improve one’s chances at auditioning successfully.

I am a big fan of using Don Greene’s audition preparation methods along with sports psychology and incorporating it into the study of the instrument. After all, it doesn’t really matter how well a bassist plays in the practice room if he or she can’t replicate those results in “real world” circumstances. This training will be a big component of double bass study at NHSMI this summer.

About Jason Heath’s Bass Teaching

Over the past 10 years, my students have gained admission to many prestigious music schools, including:

• Northwestern University
• Rice University
• Indiana University
• The Colburn School
• The Cleveland Institute of Music
• Eastman
• Boston University
• Oberlin
• Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
• DePaul University
• University of Michigan
• Michigan State University
• University of Colorado
• University of Oregon
• University of Illinois

Through preparing students for successful admission to these schools, I’ve had the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the audition process for a large percentage of major music schools, and will therefore, for those looking to pursue a career in music, focus NHSMI studies on developing the skills and repertoire necessary for success in the college audition scene and beyond.

Here’s a sampling of the materials and activities planned for double bass study at NHSMI this summer:

Technical Studies

• Shifting Drills – 2 Octaves with variations
• Progressive Scales – 2 Octaves with variations
• Left Hand Speed and Agility Drills – neck and thumb positions
• Petracchi – Simplified Higher Technique
• Hal Robinson – Boardwalkin’
• Hal Robinson – Strokin’

Solo Literature

Tailored to each student, but derived from the following:

• Koussevitzy Concerto
• Bottesini Concerto No. 2
• Vanhal Concerto
• Bach Solo Suites for Violoncello
• Sonatas by Hindemith, Misek, and Schubert
• Short works by Gliere, David Anderson, and Rabbath

Orchestral Literature

In addition to working on music being performed by the NHSMI Symphony, we will cover the core works of orchestral literature, emphasizing listening, score study, and historical information to determine style, bowings, and articulation. Works will be derived from the following list:

• Beethoven Symphony No. 5
• Beethoven Symphony No. 9
• Mozart Symphony No. 35
• Mozart Symphony No. 40
• Strauss Ein Heldenleben
• Strauss Don Juan
• Brahms Symphony No. 2
• Shostakovich Symphony No 5
• Tchaikowsky Symphony No. 4

Also, expect mock auditions, bass ensemble rehearsals and performances, and much more. Download an application here, and feel free to email me (jasonheath -at- doublebassblog.org) if you have any questions!