Day 1:

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Characteristics of a Great Bass Player

To determine the characteristics of a great bass player you first need to realize the characteristics of a great musician in general. 

Music comes from within ourselves not within the instrument itself. A lot of times, it is easy to get carried away worrying about playing the best kind of gear that we can. The fact is that the tuba alone make no sound without the assistance of the musician. Therefor the music lives inside of all of us. Because of that, it is important to build a strong conceptual image of what you want to be as a musician. Just like you may have an image of yourself and how you want to look, dress or how fit you would like to be. You may not always look the way you want but you usually have an idea of what you want to be. That is often the case in music. The biggest determinate to any player is not having an image of what they want to sound like. 

In this lesson we are going to narrow down the characteristics of a great bass player into three categories (in no particular order). TONE, TIME & PITCH

1.) Tone

1 : Timbre

2 : the character of musical tones with reference to their richness or perfection

3 : the character of the effect produced by a harmonic combination of musical tones

“Tone Quality." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2020

Your tone is your voice. Your tone is your identity as a musician. This can be a tricky topic and confusing at times because we often believe that as artists we must find our own “voice.” This implies that our tone should be very individualistic and unlike anyone else. Where there is truth to that statement, the reality is that it takes purposeful focus and direction to develop your voice. If you are too individualistic, just like in real life it becomes difficult to fit in and blend with others. As a musician, if you want to get work, you better learn how to fit in well with others. 

When you are first born, you have a voice right away. Over the years, you develop a vocabulary and your voice grows and develops as your body grows. You observe and pick up different characteristics from the influences around you. Being a musician works the same way. We must develop our tone FIRST by building a picture of what you want to sound like by listening to the pros.  

Over the years, I have found many tuba players developmentally behind from a tone standpoint as a byproduct of their environment. In grade school the beginning students are all usually grouped in the same class for the first year. These kids are often not allowed to play with the top ensemble or musicians because they aren’t “ready” yet. As an educator, I understand why directors do this but this does result in some big problems. This means in the early development of your playing, your main influence is the kid sitting next to you. This would be similar to being in an orphanage with no adult interaction for the first year of your life. You would ultimately have some developmental problems in which you would have to work past. 

2. Time

noun: the point or period when something occurs

“Time." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2020

As a tuba player or bass player, you serve two purposes within any given ensemble. You provide the low end in which supports the group. You also, provide the time. The bass is the link between the percussive, rhythmic instruments and the melodic instruments. Your job is to hold down solid time while providing the foundation for the group to work from. Strong musicians should not only possess good time but should also understand where to place each note on a grid in relationship to where the time is. For example, if you are playing in a horn section on a funk chart, you may want to place the music on the front part of the beat. On the other end of the spectrum, if you are playing a Duke Ellington chart in a horn section, your job is to be fashionably behind the downbeat, but not so much as you drag. Every different style of music has different rules on how the time should be interrupted. As a tuba and bass player, it is important that you know and study these rules. You can get by without knowing them, but you will sound immature. 

3. Feel

noun: intuitive knowledge or ability

“Feel." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2020.

This encompasses more of the unspoken aspects of a musicians playing. The feel is the players own interpretation of the music. You can have all of the notes and technique in the world but if you have a bad “feel” nobody will want to listen to your playing. 

Think of this as a social musical awareness and how you fit within the social musical situation. Imagine if you are out with friends and you out of nowhere make a tasteless joke that was inappropriate. Having a bad feel as a musician will have a similar result. This is a characteristic that grows over time and experience. Ultimately to have a good feel, you have to have a strong understanding of the music you are playing and your role within that music. We will talk about this in more detail to come. 

The Musical Language

VIDEO - A study on how we learn our musical language versus how we learned our first language.

The Musical Immersion / Our Language

Wouldn’t it be amazing to freely communicate with anybody across the world without any need for translation? Imagine a world where there is a universal language, a world where cultural differences and our native tongue do not separate us. We can communicate to anybody we want to, freely and openly. Well lucky for us, that world exists and that language is music! 

Let’s take a look at the similarities between the two words “music” and “language.”

lan·guage - noun

Definition: a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings. (Merriam-Webster)

mu·sic - noun

Definition: the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity. (Merriam-Webster)

Music is a language. Music is a way of communicating, just like English, Japanese, Creole or any other language would be. In fact, music is the universal language. The beautiful thing about music is that it is understood world wide, without any translation. Knowing this, wouldn't you want to invest your time into learning something that can help you to communicate to anybody of any language or culture?

Total Immersion

Let’s take a look at how you learned your first language. When you are an infant, you are completely surrounded by people who speak your native language. In fact, they not only speak the language, but they are the “professionals” of that language. In most cases, they have been speaking this language for years and have the ability to effortlessly communicate effectively with one another. As a child, you are totally “immersed” in your language and culture. As a natural survival effort, you begin to learn this language, so you can effectively communicate your essential needs. Your parents and guardians also encourage you to speak to them. You are allowed to speak freely and discover your own voice. If you say a word funny or make a mistake, your parents laugh with you and embrace your mistakes while offering the correct word.

This is the easy and natural process of learning. Before you enter into grade school and open a textbook, you can already communicate with your family and peers. 

When you learn your first language, you learn by LISTENING first, and then learning the fundamentals later. When you learn music, for some reason most people do the opposite. You pick up your instruments blindly in grade school, reading a book that tells you if you push down a certain key or valve and move your lips a certain way, you will create a certain note. Your only influence of what you are supposed to sound like is the first chair student in your grade school band. So for the first few years of learning music, you are only going to sound as good as that first chair player because that is your main influence of what you are supposed to sound like.

The only way to defeat this bad cycle of slow learning is to play with the professionals. Find as many CD’s and recordings as you can of your instrument and listen to them, try to emulate their sound. Over time you will begin to notice similarities and differences for each player you listen to. At that point you can decide for yourself what you like and dislike about those players and get an idea of what you want to sound like on your instrument.

The Natural Process

In learning music as an auxiliary language, it is important to follow the natural process:

1.) Listen – Observe the sounds you hear.

2.) Imitate – Try to simulate and repeat your observations.

3.) Evaluate – Asses to see if you received the desired response from number three

4.) Repeat – Do the same thing again

Let’s take a look at the quote below and discuss how it relates to learning music…

“He that understands grammar in one language, understands it in another as far as the essential properties of Grammar are concerned” - Roger Bacon

Here are the facts:

• We already know how to communicate. 

• We already understand the rules of communication.

• Though we may not know all of the specific details of a certain language, one does understand the basic principles of communication.

Throughout this course, you will learn more specific techniques to help you develop as a brass player and overall musician. As you move forward and begin to learn these techniques it is important to never forget the importance of listening. Before you can develop your own voice on your instrument, you must first listen to other musicians and understand what they are saying.

Remember that proper “technique” is what allows you to effectively communicate your language without any hindrance. When working through each exercise in the book, always look for the practical application of the exercise. Do not get too caught up in playing with “technique.” Concentrate on playing music. Or don’t concentrate, that works best for me.

Goal Setting:

I always tell my new students to think of the first lesson almost like going to see the doctor. When you goto the doctor, you essentially have a finite amount of time to tell them what problems or issues that you have and then their job is to offer you some potential solutions to your problem. When you leave, often times you have a prescription and specific instructions on how to work on your ailments. That being said, I believe that your music education is the same way. There is no teacher out there that can do the work for you. If that were the case, it would be way easier to just sit back and let someone else grind it out. Well, we all know thats not how it works. The point is, in any educational venture, you always get out of it what you put it. Take time to think about what your goals are and what you want to achieve in this course.

Here is a form that will help you get started. Take 5 minutes and fill out this form below. Consider this as a way for me to help better serve you along the way and for you to keep track of your progress.