Day 2:
Bach to Brown, a study in the historical significance of bass playing.
The complete history of music can be traced back to the beginnings of time itself. Music developed as a need to communicate with one another using sounds and has grown ever since. For the sake of simplicity, this timeline only focuses on a few important periods within our musical history and how it relates to fulfilling the “bass” role.
The Bass Timeline
1400-1500 - The Beginnings of the Double Bass
Although the exact date is arguably unknown, it is widely recognized that the development of the double bass was during the 15th century. During this time, there was a lot of experimenting with size, shape, tuning and how many strings it should have. Eventually through trial and error the modern double bass that you know today was born.
1624 - The Birth of “Pizzicato.”
This is a technique in which the player plucks the string rather than using the bow. The technique was first implemented by Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi in his piece Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorida. This event marks a turning point that forever changed the way bassists and tubists play. If you have ever seen the symbol “pizz” in your music, you can thank Claudio.
Early 1700’s Bach’s Influence
Johann Sebastian Bach is a household name amongst musicians and non musicians alike. What most people don’t realize is Bach’s influence on modern bass playing. During his lifetime, Bach composed over 200 chorales. These chorales hold a very strong importance as both a brass player and as a bassist. In relationship to the function of this book, we will focus largely on the bass part for these chorales. Although Bach was far from the first composer to write for bass, his writings offer a great perspective on how to move fluidly through chord changes within one tonal key center. Ultimately what made Bach’s bass lines so wonderful is that it always was designed with the melody in mind. The bass part must work with the melodic lines in order to fit in a Bach chorale. There is a lot to be learned by this.
1900’s - The Tuba’s Role in Jazz
Although we don’t see the tuba much in modern jazz today outside of New Orleans, the tuba was once the original bass instrument of choice. The problem is if you have ever studied early jazz, you do not really hear any tuba or bass in those old recordings. The reason is because when the tuba player would play their horn it would literally knock the needle off of the record and destroy the recording. In those early days, the tuba player was put in a completely different room than the rest of the musicians and played the music from far away. This is not like isolation techniques we see in more modern studios but existed purely because of the limitation of the equipment back then.
1930’s - The Jimmy Blanton Era
Although Jimmy only lived to be 23 years old, his influence lives on for an eternity. Bassists since Jimmy have either knowingly or unknowingly studied his style of playing. Blanton not only pushed the instrument forward in the solo light but he also changed the way jazz bassists played by implementing the smoother pizzicato style to playing rather than the rough and loud plucked technique that emerged as bassists took over the tuba role in dixieland. This allowed Blanton to play in a more relaxed style and connect the notes together in more of a “walking” bass line pattern that we know today.
Modern Influences
Below you will find an abbreviated list of Bassists and Tuba Players in the Jazz and Modern Commercial Music. Consider this list to be a launching off point of study. The more you learn about the life of each musician, the more you are able to understand their playing style. Don’t feel like you have to blow through the list quickly but rather take time with each individual. Study who each musician studied. Learn about the lineage of bassists and tuba players. As you begin to create your own web of influence, feel free to add this list and take notes on what you learned about each person. Most importantly, share this information with your fellow musicians. You may know something that they don’t know and vise versa. The best learning comes from shared education. Develop your circle of friends who you can share these things with and continue to lift each other up.
Double Bass
Jimmy Blanton
Ray Brown
Oscar Pettiford
Ron Carter
Charles Mingus
John Patitucci
Paul Chambers
Dave Holland
Christian McBride
Esperanza Spalding
Electric Bass
James Jamerson
Carol Kaye
Les Claypool
Bootsy Collins
Larry Graham
Louis Johnson
Jaco Pastoris
Stanley Clarke
Victor Bailey
John Patitucci
Marcus Miller
Victor Wooten
Tuba
Howard Johnson
Bob Stewart
Andrew Hitz
Sam Pilafian
Jonathan Sass
Theon Cross
Jon Gross
Joe Exley
Reginald Chapman
Sergio Carolino
Oren Marshall
Ibanda Ruhumbika
Roland Szentpali
Damon Bryson (Tuba Gooding Jr. )
Devon Taylor
Matt Owen
Scott Sutherland
Nat McIntosh
Breathing Demystified
Breathing is one of the most mis-interrupted concepts amongst many educators and students alike. It’s not to anyones fault though. To become a working musician, it is not required to have an undergrad in pre-med or biology. A lot of our mis-conceptions stem from just a general lack of knowledge.
It is important to understand that you already know how to breathe. You are also probably pretty good at breathing or else you would not be here reading this. With that being said, the goal when talking about breathing has to do more with how you use your breath versus how to physically breath. Many students I see approach breathing in a very unnatural way. They will raise their shoulders, add tension and breathe in a way they didn’t before they pick up the horn.
With that being said, the goal of this next section is not to change the way that you breathe, but to learn how to control it to match what is required of your instrument and the music you are playing.
A Common Misconception
Breathing exercises CAN NOT expand your lung capacity.
The average human can take in a maximal volume of 5 to 6 liters of air on a full inhale and exhale. This includes the air in your lungs, trachea and all the airways down to the alveolar sacs. This is more than enough air to play an instrument properly. The problem is that the average person only uses about 20% to 30% of their lung capacity for normal everyday breathing. As a musician we must learn how to properly use all available air in our lungs and airways, while at the same time not overusing it.
What determines your maximum lung capacity?
Posture – Sitting with correct posture will help to lift the rib cage off of your lungs and allow you to take in more air comfortably.
Muscle strength – Your diaphragm muscle is a muscle below your lungs that helps to support your breathing. Like any other muscle in the body, it may either be strong or weak due to conditioning.
Comfort – Any pain associated with disease or injury will affect the ability or desire to take in a full breath.
Flexibility of Skeleton – Joint stiffness, and diseases that cause curvature of the spine will determine your maximum lung intake.
Practical Applications of Breathing in Music
Breathing in music should not be a mechanical function. If you breathe in a mechanical way, your music will sound mechanical. Your breath should match the style of music and the length of the phrase you are about to play. There would be no need to take in as much air as you can to play a single quarter note at a pianissimo volume. In your practice time, learn how you can phrase your breath with the music you are playing. The more natural you can make this, the more freely you will be able to make music.
Don’t challenge the extremes
Try this…
Take a full breath
Hold it
Take a few more sips of air
How does that make you feel when you are holding your breath? Where do you feel tension in your body as you do that? Chances are, you do not feel comfortable and you probably would not sound good when holding on to that much tension and air. Many players unknowingly do this in their playing either by briefly holding their breath before they play or by taking in too much air and overfilling your lungs.
Now try this…
Take a full breath
Slowly let it all out until you run out of air
Keep pushing out all of the left over air
Now, how did you feel at the end of that exercise? Where did you feel the tension in your body?
Think of your lungs like a gas tank in a car. You want to never let your car run out of gas when you are driving, the same should apply to your lungs and air supply. Never let your lungs to run on empty at any time while playing. If you are ever forcing the last drop of air to play a phrase, chances are, you do not sound to good doing it. The reason is because that last little bit of air you are pushing out is stale air that is left in your trachea and passageways. You should always refill your lungs with air before you hit empty. You will sound better when you play and feel better as well. Depriving your body of oxygen is never a good thing to do. It is your job as a musician to make an intelligent decision of where in the musical phrase is a good time to take a breath.