Welcome to my blog!
I’m Mark Foley, bass professor at Wichita State U., and principal bass of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. I also play jazz, rock and bluegrass.
The purpose of this blog is to inspire students and to keep an archive of cool bass stuff that would appeal only to bass nerds.
Please post comments! I want to learn from you, too!
I promise not to be too verbose or opinionated – you shouldn’t be reading rants by me anyway, you should be practicing!
Here’s another great guy to be inspired by: Christian McBride. Full, honest tone; amazing time;, beautiful ideas. Notice there’s no “slop” in his playing – everything is executed with great care and patience.
Do you sometimes have a hard time getting motivated to practice? Let’s look at what motivates you.
There are two types of motivation: extrinsic (from without) and intrinsic (from within). Both are important, but sometimes extrinsic motivations (your teacher, an upcoming audition, competition, a practice goal, your mom) can be associated with pain, fear, and self-loathing (What if I lose? What if I fail? Will my mom still be proud of me? etc…).
Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is completely painless; it comes only from the love of doing. The great thing is that we all have it to begin with and it is always there deep within us. Intrinsic motivation is associated with our personal identity. So, listen to that quiet inner voice saying things such as: I like being a bass player. I love it when I feel the low notes go through my body. The music that I make is unique and totally mine. I like the challenge of working out the details of how to play. Being in a band is cool.
Have a happy practice…
This one is for string crossings. Jeff Bradetich teaches this down in Texas. The more you use the finger and hand joints, the less you have to rely on slower big arm motion. Therefore, do this one FAST!
This is the list. THE list.
It was published in an International Society of Bassists Journal about 30 years ago (Sorry, I don’t know the exact year for this citation).When I went to study with James Clute he gave me a xerox of it, and it became the syllabus for his class.
The article was written by Jack Wellbaum, former Personnel Manager of the Cincinatti Symphony. He polled thirty-two symphony orchestras in North America for their bass audition repertoire and compiled the results as follows:
Repertoire asked two or more times (Ranked according to the number of times they appeared on the list):
Beethoven Symphony No. 9
Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Mozart Symphony No. 40
Strauss Don Juan
Mahler Symphony No. 1
Strauss Ein Heldenleben
Brahms Symphony No. 1
Mozart Symphony No. 39
Tschaikovsky Symphony No. 4
Brahms Symphony No. 2
Britten Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
Shostakovich Symphony No. 5
Verdi Othello
Bach Suite No. 2 in B Minor
Beethoven Symphony No. 3
Beethoven Symphony No. 7
Ginastera Variaciones Concertantes
Haydn Symphony No. 88
Mahler Symphony No. 2
Mozart Marriage of Figaro Overture
Mozart Symphony No. 35
Mozart Symphony No. 41
Prokofiev Lieutenant Kije
Schubert “Great” C Major Symphony
Smetana Bartered Bride Overture
Strauss Till Eulenspiegel
Stravinsky Pulcinella
Beethoven Symphony No. 2
Brahms Symphony No. 4
Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals
Wagner Die Meistersinger
Repertoire asked only once:
Bach Violin Concerto in E Major
Beethoven Symphony No. 4
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique
Brahms Symphony No. 3
Bruckner Symphony No. 7
Dragonetti Concerto in G Major
Frank Symphony in D Minor
Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4
Schoenberg Variations for Orchestra
Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra
Strauss Death and Transfiguration
Stravinsky L’Histoire du Soldat
Stravinsky Rite of Spring
Verdi La Forza del Destino
Verdi Rigoletto
Weber Euryanthe
Weber Der Freischutz
Every audition rep list I’ve seen lately has followed this pattern. When you know all these pieces, a concerto and a few movements of unaccompanied Bach, you’ll have 95% of all the rep you need to win an audition.
Here’s a way to get to know your keys and your fingerboard. Play the first and third notes of a scale in one position. Do it slowly and slurred so that you use the whole bow. Shift and play the second and fourth notes, etc. Do this ascending and descending to nail down all those thirds and straighten out your hand position.
You’re not done yet. Play the whole thing again, but this time execute each third on the same string, so that you’re practising your shifts.
But that’s just thirds. Do the same thing with fourths, fifths, sixths, sevenths, and octaves, first within the hand position and then with shifts on the same string. After about an hour of this you’ll feel like an intonation ninja.
Pizz an open D string and let it ring. Listen. This is the sound of the bass in its naked state. The string is vibrating naturally – you aren’t imposing any stress on the system. Your body, too, is probably in a relaxed state – you are occupied with listening, no stress is needed.
Now, play the open D with the bow. Try to replicate the relaxed feeling and open tone that the plucked note had. It is interesting how little you have to work to get a good tone if the ear is in command. Tension gets in the way of good tone. You probably noticed that you didn’t have to push to get the string to move – just allow and listen.
Play a scale of long notes just like this. Pizz first, then arco the same note. You can alternate up and down strokes.
Here’s a quick warm-up that Lawrence Hurst taught me at Indiana. Its great for working the bow arm and getting you to feel comfortable at the extremities of the bow.
We’ll do a scale again. Put the bow on the string at the frog as though you are going to play the first note down-bow, but instead play up-bow. You’ll only have the space to play a very short note, and you won’t have to use anything except your fingers to engage the string. While the first note is still ringing, move the bow to the tip as though you are going to play the second note up-bow, but instead play down-bow. Again, it’ll be just a short pop from the fingers.
You are teaching yourself to gracefully move your arm between frog and tip, while also using the fingers to engage the note.
Edgar!
This one is for the left hand. It’ll make you more accurate and secure in your shifts. The goal is Balance and Timing. When you shift positions, keep the hand-shape stable. Move the hand as a unit; stretched fingers or a dragging thumb would distort the hand and intruduce tension. KEEP THE STRING DOWN into the fingerboard as you shift, otherwise you’ll have to expend extra energy and time putting the string back down. This means that the finger which played the previous note is the one that presses the string down during the slide. J.B. vanDemark taught us this at The Eastman School.
This exercise can be used to practice shifts between every possible position. We’ll use positions 1 and 3 on the D string as an example.
Go through every combination of fingers: 1 to 4, 1 to 2, 1 to 1, 2 to 4, 2 to 2, 2 to 1, 4 to 4, 4 to 2, and 4 to 1. Make an audible portamento to keep the shift slow and controlled. Slide on the previous finger; this means that sometimes you shift to an audible intermediate note before the next finger goes down (grace notes). Keep the thumb behind the second finger at all times. Repeat each combination at least four times or until you feel secure and balanced in the shift.
Happy shifting!
What is your feedback system?
We can get feedback on our playing through our ears, our eyes, and our touch.
The ears are probably the best way, but the eyes and the touch can help, too. Try this: memorize a passage you want to improve, then practice using each way.
1. Play it in front of the mirror. You can watch for straight bow, good posture, even shoulders, etc.
2. Play again, checking how it feels. Be sensitive to tension, balance, etc.
3. Play again, listening with your eyes closed. Is the tone good? Is the rhythm good? Are the notes clear?
You have nailed the passage when it looks right, feels right, and sounds right.
