Loving the unemployment
Summer has always been a slow time for me bass-wise. Though I’ve always done at least one summer festival since college, I usually find myself with quite a bit of time on my hands during the warmer months.
The lack of summer work used to cause me considerable stress, especially in my early years of freelancing, when my regular seasonal work was more sporadic. I’ve found my peace with this arrangement in recent years, overloading my September through May schedule to balance the lower frequency of summer employment.
In addition to having fewer gigs in the summer, I do quite a bit less teaching than during the school year, with many of students on vacation or simply dialing down the frequency of their lessons (after all, they need a break too!). These days, I build this more relaxed teaching schedule into my expectations for the year, making sure that I overschedule in the fall, winter, and spring to accompdate for the summer months.
As a result of this work rhythm, I try to take a nice healthy vacation in the summer, leaving the bass behind as I catch some rays, do some hiking, and relax on the porch. I’m actually outside right now, hanging out with my wife and listening to some music as I blog on my iPhone.
I’ve also found that taking a solid week or two off from blogging is very healthy for me and enables me to keep my enthusiasm and creativity up on the blog during the rest of the year. I really enjoy the blog, which actually makes it kind of hard to take that time off, but it’s a good thing to do and I plan on doing so around the beginning of August.
I will probably put out a series of “best of” posts that will self-publish while I’m away, and now that I’ve got the iPhone (sweet, sweet iPhone) I probably won’t be able to resist doing a few vacation-related non-bass posts.
Contrabass Conversations will keep up its regular publishing schedule, however. I haven’t missed a week since launching the podcast on January 1, 2007, and I want to keep that streak up as long as possible. I hope that readers out there are having relaxing summers as well–next summer will be a real extravaganza of bass content with the International Society of Bassists convention in Pennsylvania, and we’ll be there covering the whole thing. Hope to see you there as well!
Blogging on the iPhone
While blogging via a cell phone may seem like a painful experience, the iPhone is no ordinary cell phone, and with the release of the brand spanking new WordPress app especially for the iPhone, it’s easier than ever.
While I doubt that iPhone blogging (which I’m doing right now) will replace desktop blogging for longer posts, I have a feeling that I’ll be using this a lot. I’m out of the house without a laptop for much of the day, and this little pocket computer is just the answer for a mobile blogger.
Stay tuned this weekend for our special video episode featuring an interview and performance with Gary Karr, hosted by University of Washington bass professor Barry Lieberman.
An Afternoon With Gary Karr this weekend on CBC
Last week I had the opportunity to do an interview with University of Washington bass professor Barry Lieberman. The former Assistant Principal Bass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Principal Bass of the Winnipeg Symphony, Barry now serves as co-director of The American String Project, an innovative string ensemble which we will be featuring in the coming weeks on Contrabass Conversations along with Barry’s interview.
Barr also runs a series at the University of Washington called “Barry Lieberman and Friends,” which showcases prominent double bass figures from around the globe. In 2007, Barry featured Gary Karr in a very interesting interview and performance. This interview (conducted in front of a rapt live audience) was innovative in a number of ways–in addition to reminiscing with Gary about a life spent as the world’s most iconic double bassist, Barry played many of Gary’s recordings, prompting some very engaging discussions, and Gary performed several selections with pianist Harmon Lewis for the gathered crowd.
This is a meticulously crafted video which is a real tribute to this great artist, and it is a great example of the vibrancy that Barry’s activities bring to the Seattle double bass scene. In addition to being a world-class city with a bevy of cultural activities (I absolutely adore the Pacific Northwest), this video demonstrates that, though Gary Karr may claim to be retired, he sure seems to be as in love with music, life, and the double bass as he ever was.
We’ll release the video of this program on Saturday, July 26th at doublebassblog.org and contrabassconversations.com, and we’ll be featuring the first segment of our interview with Barry the following week, so stay tuned for this engaging video and be sure to subscribe to Contrabass Conversations to get all of our audio and video programs downloaded automatically for free!
Dehair the Rehair
One of my colleagues was over at my place a few years ago, and we were geeking out in true double bass fashion, playing duets, working on excerpts together, and getting into deep discussions about gear.
He and I left for lunch, leaving our basses out of their cases. We had a good time, got back, and he proceeded to pack up and take off.
pluck, pluck…
Later that day, my wife told me an amusing little tale about something unexpected that happened while we were gone.
Apparently, my big man cat Dan decided to do a little investigating of my colleague’s gear. He had left his bow out on our coffee table, and Dan the cat quickly realized that he could pluck the bow hairs out of the tip with his claw. My wife walked into the living room and found Mr. Dan furiously pulling the hairs off this bow. He’d gotten at least a dozen or so. Horrified, she pulled him off the table and shooed him away.
Uh oh!
Not knowing what to do, she took some nail clippers and trimmed all the broken hairs off the stick. My friend and I came home late that day and he packed up his gear, not knowing that his load had been lightened by quite a few bow hairs.
I didn’t know about this until later that day, and I got a good chuckle out of it, though I did eventually tell my friend about the dehairing incident.
Look out for kitties and basses! They can do some pretty destructive things with their little claws and fangs.
Carping about Cartage
While digging through my old e-mail recently, I came upon this snippy exchange between management and musicians regarding compensation for cartage. This is the sort of thing that really makes my blood boil–cartage is compensation paid to musicians who must load a lot of gear in and out of a venue. The philosophy behind this compensation is that it reimburses those who must come early, load in multiple trips of gear, and therefore need to drive to all jobs in large vehicles without possibility of taking public transit or carpooling.
Though it may seem like paying cartage reimbursement is a no-brainer for management, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been shorted this compensation while working on jobs, even when there is a policy in place under a contract negotiated with the American Federation of Musicians.
Those of us who receive cartage payment often get the evil eye from our colleagues (who mistakenly think that we’re getting more money per service when we’re only being compensated for having to drive solo in a car full of gear and arrive an hour early to load in). In many groups I work with, this reimbursement is viewed by management as a perk and looked at with dubiousness. It is therefore frequently on the chopping block when renegotiating contracts.
This is a segment of an e-mail exchange. After this exchange, those of us in this group began to be taxed on our reimbursement. This is not a normal occurrence in most groups I work with (mileage and cartage are generally viewed as reimbursement and are therefore not subjected to withholding by the employer–though we musicians have to report this money as income to the IRS), and a huge uproar broke out around this issue in this ensemble.
Though we cartage recipients were outraged, there are a lot more of them (the non-cartage recipients) than there are of us, and we often find ourselves alone in this battle, with management viewing us as an expensive annoyance and our colleagues viewing us as being awarded extra pay for doing the same job.
Is Cartage Compensation or Reimbursement?
After chatting with my more tax law-aware musician colleagues, I have been made aware that there are benefits to having taxes withheld on cartage, since this money must then be reported as self-employment income and is subjected to higher taxes as a result.
What do you think? Is cartage income or is it extra compensation?
Regardless of the above answer, you can see how hot under the collar musicians get when the subject is even broached. Here’s a bit of the exchange I dug up in my e-mail archive. I changed all the names of involved parties:
Hello ___________,
I am John Doe, the accountant for the Anonymous Center, and also the Random Symphony Orchestra. I am also familiar with some of your names having done the accounting for the No Name Chamber Orchestra for many years also . Please allow me to explain the change in handling cartage.
This has been a topic under discussion for many years now. We have been advising the Random Symphony about this situation off and on, but we decided it was time to take action now to protect the organization.
Basically, any payment made to an individual for which receipts are not turned into the organization has to be considered taxable income. This is also true of per diem money paid out. With the No Name Chamber Orchestra, this money also appeared on your year-end 1099s. Any per diems or drayage (as they call it), were also considered income, and it was filed with the government accordingly. You did indeed pay taxes on this income. Because the Random Symphony Orchestra correctly pays musician’s fees through payroll, the per diems and cartage should also be paid through payroll. An individual can not receive a W-2 and a 1099 from the same organization.
If musicians were to fill out expense reports for their personal expenses relating to business and submit them directly to the Random Symphony Orchestra for reimbursement, then it would not be considered income. Since the organization has no way of knowing whether or not any cartage money is actually spent or to what extent it is spent, we have to consider the entire amount taxable income. If you do have receipts, you can claim those business expenses on your year-end taxes to offset the income. The Random Symphony Orchestra does not handle expense reports for musicians.
As an hypothetical example, let’s look at per diems. An organization may give employees a $50 per diem for an out of town trip. Some people may indeed spend all or part of it, but others will save the money. Without knowing who spent what amount, i.e. without receipts turned in to verify that indeed the entire $50 was spent, we have to acknowledge the entire amount as income.
This is not an issue of mistrust or misuse. We wholeheartedly respect your professionalism, your integrity and your talents. This new policy is simply protecting the Random Symphony Orchestra from any government scrutiny as far as money paid to an individual.
I hope this explains the situation a little better. If anyone has any further questions, please call Frank Doe. If he can not help you, you may call me at the number below. I fully understand your concern, but please know, this is something that needs to be done to keep things in check. I appreciate you asking the question. I hope I have given you a satisfactory response.
Sincerely……..
Bill Doe
Service Accounting Manager
Anonymous Center
The e-mail outcry was instantaneous. This one (from a percussionist) sums up my thoughts on the issue quite nicely:
Dear Bill Doe:
I don’t get it. As far as I see it, cartage payment is indeed reimbursement: reimbursement for expenses involved in moving large heavy equipment. Some musicians have these expenses, and some don’t. Those that do have these expenses are reimbursed for those expenses. On the other hand, all musicians receive compensation for playing their instruments. What am I missing?
These outcries fell on indifferent ears. Our personnel manager e-mailed us with this message soon after the original one from Bill Doe:
Hello All,
I wanted to let you know that there is a new policy in place for cartage payment starting the beginning of 2006. Our accountants at Anonymous Center Accounting are going to be including your cartage in your payroll. This issue on how cartage has been paid in the past has been going back and forth for some time now. It has been determined by them that it is a form of compensation. The rule states:
“Anything that is paid to an employee that is not a reimbursement is considered compensation.”
So, in this check and in the future you will see cartage included as earnings.
Any questions please feel free to talk to me about it, although I might have to go back to the accountants, as I am not an expert on this subject.
Thanks,
Frank Doe
Notice that “Frank Doe” refers to cartage as compensation Is this accurate?
Many heated e-mail exchanges followed from both musicians and management, yet the policy remained in place until I quit this ensemble, and it probably still is in place.
One more thing–no musicians in this ensemble receive any mileage compensation either, even though tout-of-town talent makes up a significant percentage of the ensemble. Lovely huh? I quit soon after.
Your Thoughts?
What do you think of cartage payments (especially those of you who don’t receive them)? Are they reimbursement or extra compensation (you know what I think)? Was the management reasonable in this exchange? Do we deserve cartage at all?
Welcome to the world of freelance orchestral playing!
Trill execution from Phillip Serna
Prompted by a recent listener question on Contrabass Conversations, double bassist Phillip Serna wrote in with some notes from a technique class he recently gave on trilling. I thought that it would prove to be interesting reading for many string players out there. Enjoy!
Discussion on Trills from Valparaiso University – Double Bass Faculty – Dr. Phillip Serna
Trill Exercises are excellent edurance & stregth exercises for a double bassists fingers. There are several ways of dealing with trills, sylistically but more later. First, finger groupings:
- 1-2-4 & 1-2-3 (thumb position) for finger groupings
- Trill Combinations – 1-2, 1-4 & 2-4 (& reverse)
- Thumb Position Combinations – 1-2, 1-3 & 2-3 (& reverse). Use Franco Petracci’s Simplified Higher Technique for some great thumb position exercises For Extended Postion (all 1/2 steps) Combinations – 1-2-3-4, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, 2-3, 2-4, 3-4
In addition to a clear hammering motion from your left hand to initiate the strings, it is important to keep a strong curvature for your fingers to focus the pressure if your fingertips directly on the string. If your thumb placement is across from your 2nd finger (behind the neck) this allows for more equal leverage for your fingers to receive support from your thumb.
- Note – no two hands are made alike regarding bone structure & muculature. Some will have thumb directly across from 2nd-finger, some between 1st & 2nd-finger. *
It is essential to practice trills in rhythms: eigths, triplets, sixteenths, sextuplets. For those who have more strength, I often practice them without the bow. Pizzicato you wonder? Not really. This uses the hammering motion for upward movement & left-hand pizzicato for downwards pitch movement. For lay-folk: hammer-ons & pull-offs. This allows for greater clarity especially for trilling during slurs. Happy practicing.
Contextual information on trills:
There is no one singular way to perform a trill. When looking at 19th century trill, they often start from the printed note. When examining primary sources prior to 1800.
C.P.E. Bach’s treatise/ method on keyboard playing and Quantz’s method/ treatise on 18th century flute performance are great resources on ornamentation. Being a viol player as well as a double bassist, I thouroughly enjoy Judy Tarling’s book Baroque String Playing (for ingenious learners) – read the preface regarding the title, it is a bit of a historical in-joke. Tarling’s book is an exceptional collection looking at ornamentation using primary sources from more than a century.
Why is this important for the double bassist you might ask? There is no single way to perform trills, let alone the many derivitives that are to be found in the works of many varied composers. Many of them used varied symbols for trills, lengths of trills, etc.
Hopefully these explorations will make your exploration of music and infinitly richer experience.
Dr. Phillip W. Serna
Faculty – Valparaiso University http://www.valpo.edu/music/ Faculty – The Music Institute of Chicago http://www.musicinst.org/, Director, Viols in Our Schools – Bringing Early Music to Wider Audiences http://www.violsinourschools.org/
http://phillipwserna.com/ http://www.spiritofgambo.org/ http://www.chicagoearlymusicconsort.org/ http://www.vdgsa.org/3rdCoast
CBC 88: Guy Tuneh video episode
We’re featuring a video episode of double bassist Guy Tuneh on this week’s episode of Contrabass Conversations. Guy has been featured many times on the podcast in the past, and it’s a real pleasure to hear his fine playing again on the show. This episode is being released in both audio and video versions. You can check out our previous episodes featuring Guy Tuneh in our archives.
We’re also featuring listener feedback, bass news, a link of the week, and much more. Enjoy!
Video not working? Click here to view it or download it.
Ira Glass on sticking with it
This video of Ira Glass (via 43 Folders) really resonates with me. He describes the conundrum that creative people continually face–knowing what really is good before having the experience and technical command to actually create something good. I’ve faced this my entire life (in bass playing, blogging, podcasting, and many other endeavors) and this video really hits home for me.
By the way, I love how willing Ira is to offer his older work up for this kind of scrutiny. He did this, in hilarious and cringe-worthy fashion, with some old interviews he did with the M*A*S*H cast many years ago for the radio show.
Short Takes for 7/17/08
There’s been a whirlwind of activity among various areas of interest to me, from some cool new developments in the music blogosphere and Road Warrior Without an Expense Account’s new publishing developments to the release of the iPhone 3G. Where to even begin? Well, for starters…
My new iPhone!
I’ve been waiting for some time to pick up an iPhone, and I’m extremely into all the cool applications that are available for it and how it integrates quite seamlessly into my Mac-centric life. As you can see, I picked up a white 16 Gig model, which matches my similarly-colored Macbook quite nicely.
Simply put, this thing rocks. I used to be a Palm Pilot devotee back in the “dark ages,” and I frequently used my various non-smart phones to check e-mail and do basic tasks, but this thing blows anything I’ve used in the past out of the water.
Since I already use Apple Mail, iCal, Address Book, and a bevy of other Mac apps, using an iPhone is a no-brainer, but this is the kind of thing that would probably appeal to you even if you’d never used any sort of computer or smart phone in the past. It’s sleek and intuitive, and best of all, it delivers all the Contrabass Conversations podcasts in an über-slick format.
By the way, there are a bunch of music-related applications that have already launched for the iPhone, and I’ll be interested to see what else is on the horizon. I already picked up a cool app called Karajan Ear Trainer that I’ll be using in bass lessons to quiz students on intervals and chords, and I’ll definitely be checking out more apps like this in the coming weeks.
Contrabass Conversations transcripts now available
Speaking of Contrabass Conversations, I put the word out last week for any interested listeners to do some interview transcriptions. The offer still stands–though I can’t pay, I am happy to send either a complimentary copy of Road Warrior Without an Expense Account or a free Contrabass Conversations t-shirt to anyone who feels like doing a transcription. By the way, Darlene Marshall, who is our first transcriber, isn’t even a bassist! She has found bassist Andy Anderson’s episodes useful and has begun transcribing them. Check out her fine work here.
You can see what’s been transcribed through this link (also available through the Features directory at the top of the blog). Check it out–it will definitely be a good way to help get this information out to musicians worldwide.
Road Warrior available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble
As I mentioned last week, my book Road Warrior Without an Expense Account is now available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It’s great to see it offered in these mainstream retail outlets as well as through my own site, and if you haven’t gotten a chance to pick up a copy yet you can do so through either of those sites as well as right here from the blog.
“Road Warrior Without an Expense Account” (Jason Heath)
Upcoming Book Signing for Road Warrior and new book video
I’ll be doing a book signing for “Road Warrior” next week in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (my hometown). Though I know that this is pretty off the beaten path for most blog readers, if you happen to find yourself in southeastern South Dakota on Thursday, July 24, stop by the Oak View Branch of the Sioux Falls Public Library and check it out.
I’ve also put together a Keynote presentation about the topic of freelancing through the lens of my “Road Warrior” book, and I’ll be presenting for the first time at next week’s book signing. For the 99.9% of you out there who won’t be at that event, I’m also putting together a video version of the Keynote presentation–kind of a flashy 5-10 minute synopsis of the topics presented in this book. I’ll be putting that out (hopefully) in the next few weeks.
It’s good to have a “talk” in the bag for a book, and getting the materials together for this book signing has been a good motivator for me. I’ve now got a schpeal that I can give about the topic of freelancing, music school, and emerging trends for music performance, and I hope to be able to use it in the near future.
Here are the details for the event if you can make it out:
Book Signing and Music Business Talk
Thursday, July 24, 2008, 7 p.m.
Sioux Falls Public Library – Oak View Branch
3700 East Third Street
Sioux Falls, SD, 57103 (map)
Guy Tuneh this Weekend on Contrabass Conversations
Guy Tuneh, one of our most popular guests on Contrabass Conversations, will be featured again thisweekend on a special video episode of the podcast. We’re departing from our regular episode format to do both an audio and video version of the show this week, and we’ll be releasing them both this Saturday. This is not likely to become a regular thing for us since most of our interviews are done over the phone (how exciting would that video be?), but video content is a valuable component of Contrabass Conversations and I really enjoy putting these special episodes together.
Check out all our episodes featuring Guy Tuneh (including both audio interview segments and video performances) here, and feel free to call in any comments on our episodes to 206-666-6509 or through Skype (my handle: jsh177).
Just Wrapped Up an Interview with DaXun Zhang
The outstanding double bassist DaXun Zhang has been all over the world recently performing solo and chamber music with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Music Ensemble, the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, and many other organizations. We got a chance to sit down and interview DaXun this week, and I think that you all will be thrilled to hear from this great bassist. In addition to our interview, we’ll be featuring music from DaXun’s recent solo album.
If you haven’t heard DaXun play before, you’re really missing out. I can honestly say that I’ve never heard bass playing like this before. When Drew McManus and I were recording Because Shut Up, That’s Why! episodes earlier this year, we used some of DaXun’s playing (the Meditation from Thais in particular) for one of our musical examples. Watching the eyes of our guests light up when they hear this playing, then register surprise as the playing dipped down into the lower register, was really interesting. DaXun has the singing sonority of a top-notch cellist in the upper register, but still produces a magnificent bass sound in the lower register as well, and his distinctive approach to the double bass is immediately recognizable once you know his playing.
DaXun truly is the next generation of double bass artists, able to do things that were virtually unimaginable 50, 40, 30, or even 20 years ago. Watching this great artist emerge on the greater musical scene is, to me, like witnessing Gary Karr’s performance of the Swan for Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, hearing Scott LaFaro for the first time, or witnessing what artists like Edgar Meyer or François Rabbath were doing on the instrument. DaXun’s approach makes bass players reevaluate our own conceptions about what is possible for our instrument, and that is a rare thing indeed.
Don’t take my word for it, however! Check out this video of DaXun performing The Swan by Saint-Saëns, and keep that in the back of your mind between now and the release of our Contrabass Conversations interview with DaXun:
Great feedback on ‘Where’s My Trumpet?’
My recent tale of a colleague who mistakenly left his instrument 250 miles south of his gig definitely struck a chord with many readers. Here are some of the great comments relating similar panicky tales:
I just played a concert yesterday that was held at a high school about 1/2 hour from where I live. I decided not to use the directions provided on the group’s website, because I had my trusty ADC map for that county! I drove to where the high school was according to my map, and there was a school there all right, just not the one I needed! I drove up and down that road 3 times, took side streets to search, all to no avail. I finally stopped at a gas station to ask for directions, and found that just two years ago a huge new high school had been built about 5 miles outside town, and the old school rebuilt into a new middle school. My map was about 5 years old and of course didn’t show it. The high school was in the middle of nowhere; I would never have found it on my own. I hated that panicky feeling driving around thinking, “What’s going to happen if I just plain can’t find this place?” Thank goodness I always leave myself plenty of time to get places for just this reason! (more)
I’ll admit it, once I did forget my trombone on the way to a gig! I had just moved, and I was so concerned about getting the extra boxes out of my car that I didn’t think to put the trombone in. Fortunately, one of my good friends (also a trombonist) was playing as well, and the gig was in her hometown. I called her in a panic, and she laughed and brought two trombones to the show. (more)
I decided to get a bite to eat at an Evanston restaurant before heading into Chicago for my gig. I had my bass guitar with me. When I got downtown, no bass! I called the restaurant, no bass there. I then called the Evanston police and they had it! A lady in a house across the street from where I was parked saw me lean the bass against my car, open and close the trunk, and get in my car and drive off without putting the bass in. The bass fell in the street, she went out and got it and turned it in. What a relief. I found a quick sub and she got a reward.
Possibly the most embarrassing occasion was when I turned up at a theatre gig having left my suit hanging on the back of my bedroom door. I only realised this as I was unloading my bass and amp. I wound up doing the show in my jeans and trainers with a luminous green linen shirt borrowed from one of the backing singers. Not really the right look when the rest of the band are in black suits… (more)
Want to check out more stories like these? Just visit our Articles page, or check out the Story Time episodes over at Contrabass Conversations.
Update: We’re continuing to get more great “where’s my gear?” stories in the comments for the original post. Check it out and add your two cents if you’ve got a tale like this!
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