String Bass Story #2

This is a scary topic for any orchestra, private lessons teacher, and student. When a string bass falls the world goes silent. In all the years that I've played the bass one has fallen three times. 

The first time a bass has fallen was when I was in seventh or sixth grade. I had just taken one of my middle school's basses home for Winter Break. Whenever I wasn't playing it, I had to put it up on my parents couch. That way the cats wouldn't be able to get at it. Well one day, I had just put it up and walked away from it and it rolled off the couch. I took it out of its case to find that in the bottom bout there was an inch long dent that had cracked its way through. When my parents got it back to school I had to tell my teacher the story of how the bass got damaged. She told me not to worry about it and that it would cost more to fix the bass then it is worth. 

My 2004 Strunal Romanian String Bass at the 2008 Winter Bassfest at UW-Whitewater

My second falling bass story happened when I was in eight grade. There were four bass players in orchestra and only two uprights. To fix the problem the teacher let us switch from playing upright to electric bass every other day. One day when I was on electric bass, us bassists were fooling around while she was working with a different section of the orchestra. At one point I felt that I needed to push one of my fellow bassist, to bad he was playing upright at the time. He went down with the bass. We both got in BIG TROUBLE. We both lost 20 points for the quarter. Good thing extra credit was easy to get. I ended up going to two concerts that quarter and made up for the damage that I created. 

My third story occurred my sophomore year in college. I was leaving the bass storage room in the basement of the Center of the Arts building to go up to my end of the semester jury. I had my bass, stool, music, and bow in hand, all out of their cases. I made it a few yards away from the bass storage room, and I put my foot down a little unbalanced. I fell with everything!  I know there were people practicing in the practice rooms that I fell in front of, but no one came to see what the large noise was that had just occurred in the hallway. I was pinned under my bass with music thrown around the hall. My bow was by my side and stool was up against the wall. It must have been some great sight to see. Eventually I was able to get up off the floor and collect my things. I then continued my journey up to the main floor of the arts building to perform my jury with only a few bruises and no damage to my bass. 

I hope that in my upcoming years of bass playing that there are very few stories to add to this collection of mine. 

Happy Playing.

falling to a side

An unbalanced cart

For some reason I've been getting unreasonably angry about silly things that normally wouldn't bother me. I have been out of balance and need to get back into the swing of things. For this to happen I need a few things to happen.

1) the sun needs to stay out longer

2) spend at least an hour outside a day

3) walk more drive less

4) get my school work done with time to spare

5) workless, but have money to survive on

6) play with Kara more

7) cook and bake more

8) move out of my apartment

9) my apartment needs to be clean for more then one day

Once these things happen I will finally be balanced.

Music rehearsal rant #1

Me in a music museum in Venice this past summer

Today was one of the worst sectional I've been at for a while. What was meant to have been a brass and string section turned to being a violin, brass, and solos sectional. The other sections of the sectional did not get much of a chance to play until the last few minutes of the class. She even found it fitting to give us a 15 minute lecture about how we need to not talk once she put the baton down. It would have been more fitting if our limited sectional time. The basses could have been excused from class for the first half.  

Where is the daylight?

I don't remember where I took this from. It is from the bottom of Donatello's Bronze "David."

This is how I feel days.

Where are these long days coming from? I would have thought that by taking 12 credits I would have short days on campus and would be able to be at home more. Boy was I wrong. Today started at 6am with my alarm followed by 8am class with 930 work until 230pm. Lunch. 3:45 rolled around then it was time for orchestra until 525pm. Dinner. 700 usher recital until ? 900 Delta Omicron meeting until ? followed by reading for tomorrows class and finally bed.

Don't get me wrong I do enjoy being busy but I woudl like to be able to get to my class work before 10pmish. More then likly I'll get to it around 11om.

Tomorrow is going to be a little better because I start with a 215 class that ends at 330 then work from 445pm until 10pm. Sounds like fun.

Happy busy days.

Thanks Phil

Image from Corbis

Thanks a whole lot Phil. You saw your shadow today and that means six more weeks of winter. Way to go. 

I was thinking about silly holidays that we celebrate and this was the main one that I came up with. The other one  being Columbus Day in October, that has fallen out of favor due to racism towards Native Americans.  Back to Groundhog Day, and not the movie, this has to be the oddest and silliest tradition that Americans have. Every year on the 2nd of February Americans and Canadians pull out their respective groundhog to see if Spring will come six weeks earlier. 

According to the Wikipedia article, this tradition goes back to an ancient European weather lore about a badger or bear are in charge of determining the weather. It then goes on to say that the Catholic holiday, Candlemas is pretty close to this too, and the Pagan festival of Imbolc also bears similarities.  

I think this is one of those strange traditions that I will need to partake in eventually. They are all over the country. The closest one in Sun Prairie, WI with Jimmy the Groundhog. If I do get a chance to witness this first hand it better be with Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania. 

Happy six more days.

ACCEPTED!

APPLICATION STATUS

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities welcomes you.

I got into Red Wing! I hope that that means that I got into the program that I want. All that I need to do is send them an Immunization record. I am so excited about this. I was meaning to check on the status of my application, but never got around to it. I am so happy. I can't let anyone take away my happiness that I have right now for this news. I am so excited to get the chance to become a luthier. Now I need to get my butt over there and find a place to live for the next two years! 

String Bass Story #1

From the eleven years that I've played the string bass I have collected a few stories of string basses falling, breaking, and travel tips. 

Picture from hnwhite.com

This story is going to be about how I started playing the bass, and the reasoning behind it.  

When I was in fifth grade the orchestra teacher in the school district came to my school to see if anyone was interested in learning how to play any of the instruments. Later that day when I was at home, I told my parents that I wanted to play the viola. Later that week we went to the music store in Eau Claire to get my instrument. Up until talking to the man behind the counter I thought I was getting a viola. 

My mother said the dreaded phrase, "Do you have any violins?" 

I was heart broken. I gave her one last plea, "But I want to play the viola." 

Her response was just "I should have asked about the bass."

I stuck with the violin until a month into sixth grade when the new orchestra teacher was asking if anyone wanted to learn the string bass. Suddenly, I knew what I needed to do. I raised my hand signifying that I was willing to learn. That was the day that I got back at my mother for not letting me play the viola. 

I continued to play the string bass through middle school, high school, and college. 

Happy Playing.