The spring workshop put on by the Viola da Gamba Society of New England was a really good time last weekend. The theme was Music for Voices and Viols by 17th Century German Composers.
I think my favorite thing we did was a Buxtehude piece, Vulnerasti cor meum. What a gorgeous piece!!!
We had some tremendous singers join us from the Joyful Noyse ensemble. What a treat!!! I have to get the score for that piece and would like to play that again.
If you’re not familiar with the piece, here’s a version on YouTube. Buxtehude rocks!!!
Here’s a fun little snippet for practice. To be able to try this piece, you should be pretty fluent playing scales in 10ths like I’ve done in this video.
Once you’re playing 10ths fluently, playing the top two lines makes for a tremendously fun and beautiful sounding exercise or warm-up. Here’s the best of 2 quick capture takes, not perfect, but will give you a sense of the approach for your practice.
No way I’d be able to play all of this, but doing the 2nd violin and bass part together could be something I think I could polish up. And, if I could convince either violinist in my trio to try it, I’d hand them a mandolin (so they’d be at a handicap), I’d put on a very loud metronome and give it a go.
While playing this piece takes a lot of technique, it also reminds me how great it is to learn music thoroughly. I just about sat down and playing the first phrase perfectly the first time (naturally before I was recording, lol), because the music has been so thoroughly learned. I’m playing this piece (on cello) with my trio. And, in so doing, we’re working through all the movements, listening to excellent reference recordings and just really digging in.
There’s a great chapter in The Listening Book called “Finding a Teacher” that I’ve always really enjoyed.
This summer I met my cello teacher, before I was even playing cello again. She was the conductor of the big band at the World Fellowship Early Music Week. I knew from our first rehearsal that she was a musician I wanted to study music with. We were playing a beautiful Lully piece and she was halfway between conducting and bouncing up and down, exuding this tangible sense of joy.
On Wednesday afternoon it was such a beautiful afternoon that she canceled rehearsal and declared a group swim. Fantastic! I went for a swim in this beautiful lake, and this part you got to visualize a bit. (I wanted to draw a picture, but I can’t draw.)
Start Visualize
So, I’m swimming in this beautiful lake with a mountain view. My cello teacher is about 10 yards ahead of me. Next thing I know, I look up and she’s standing up in the middle of the lake. Turns out there’s a big rock in the lake that you can stand on, just at the water’s surface, and she knew just where it was. End Visualize
To me, that’s sort of what your teacher can do with music. Show you what’s possible! And, you should make sure that you feel that way about your teacher’s playing and coaching. When I was much younger I wasn’t so proactive about these things. For example, my studio placements at NEC I left entirely up to the school. And, that wasn’t a good idea. You have to be proactive about that. I would do undergrad at music school SO DIFFERENTLY now. Alas.
Anyway, so I’ve had two private lessons with her and it’s been really helpful to my re acclimation process on cello.
I don’t think she’d mind if I shared one anecdote from our second lesson when we took a look the Suite 1 prelude. And, this does (finally) relate a bit to electric bass. I’ve been playing this piece on electric bass since I got one when I was twelve. As such, I had really lost track of the phrasing and articulation and the composition’s structure. So, back on cello, I’m playing that first phrase with the first three notes in a down bow, and she has a really good coaching for me: “Think of those first three notes like the ringing of church bells in a cathedral. Really big on those three notes in your down bow. The rest of the notes, lighter, as if they are the reverb sounding from those three big notes. Call and response.”
Isn’t that fantastic? Here’s a video clip where I repeat all that, and then try to bring that coaching into the beginning of the phrase on my EAB. Really hard, but worth trying.
That’s what a great teacher does! I’ve been playing that piece for years, but I’ve got an entirely new way to look at it now. Fantastic!
Let me end by saying that studying is such a great part of the musical process, and no matter what level you’re at, participate in that dynamic. Take some lessons, help support the players you admire, and coach those that admire your playing. It’s really a core, special part of the process, and what connects and binds us all together. That and the Force of course!
I love this piece, it fits really well on bass. I wanted to put up something this morning, and realize I never put a YouTube video of this one. So, here’s a quick take on the EAB via instant upload. You can hear a polished audio version from my 1996 recording Music for the 6-String Bass at http://bentorrey.com:2112/music/track06.htm For a PDF transcription and an article on this piece that I wrote for Bass Frontiers mag in 1997, check this post out.
The Adagio movement is really great. It’s really fun to study all the embellishments that Anth0ny Pl33th puts in there. Here’s a first take practice clip via the YouTube instant upload (A=415). I don’t quite have all the embellishments memorized, so there’s a few goofs.
One note on approaches to bowings. I think sometimes there’s a temptation to follow the bowings almost too closely. Say for example in measure 3, maybe articulating the first note only, and doing all three notes on one string with pulloffs. While I experiment with that approach from time to time, I think the non-articulated notes, on pizzacato bass, just drop off too much, so they should be articulated, maybe a bit lighter.
Here’s some more work on the Marcello Sonata No. 6. Here’s the 2nd movement, which I can’t quite play up to tempo with the great recording I have (A=415). I’ve got some fingering and raking approaches that are really working here, but it’s not quite under my fingers at this tempo. I’ll keep cranking it with the metronome, and hopefully will record it with AT on harpsichord one of these Tuesday nights.
I got a question recently from a new reader of my blog, Vernon (thanks for reading!), about repertoire to try for electric bass with piano accompaniment. As I thought about that a bit, I thought about the Bach gamba sonatas, and then I though about the Marcello Sonatas. I played these as a kid on cello, playing the No. 6 in G Major at a recital in 6th grade. Although that was 24 years and an instrument ago, I decided to take a look at that one first.
What a great piece, this will certainly work well for bass and piano, some of the tempos might need to be adjusted down a bit, but definitely give it a look.
Here’s a few suggestions to help get you started:
1. Get a great recording and dig in listening to it
I found a great recording of all 6 sonatas at arkivmusic.com. EXP0012, a recent cd release of a 1978 recording. Anthony Pl33th, Richard W3bb and Christopher H0gwood. Absolutely fantastic. They really dig in and bring the pieces to life, with beautiful embellishments and ornamentations.
2. Grab the score
I found a great copy of the score at EveryNote.com for $2. A great edition that includes separate solo and continuo parts, and even has figured bass notation, which is always fun to look at.
3. Study the accompaniment
I don’t always have time, but if I’m really into learning a piece and adding it to my repertoire, I’ll generally study the accompaniment quite a bit. That’s probably pretty obvious, but I thought to mention it just in case. I’d take about 3 passes at working through the accompaniment. First, I’d hack through it on piano, I always need work there. Second, on bass I’d try two different approaches. First, assuming the continuo had the bass line covered, I’d work through the voicings in the right hand piano part and see if I could play those with a fingerpick approach, using reductions where necessary to keep the tempo and pulse going. Then, I’d also take a stab at doing the continuo part with my left hand, and very reduced voicings in my right hand. I had the best luck with that approach in the Grave movement and might post some of that video, although it’s a bit rough. That’s really fun though, because you get to practice your accompaniment skills, and your thoughts on voicing reductions will really help you learn the melodies.
4. Play the cello continuo part
This recording is like a cello continuo masterclass. Notice how much he’s playing that isn’t in the score. For example, the pickup that brings the group back for the second A section of the opening Adagio movement. Play the cello continuo part along on your electric or upright bass. I have the ridiculous luxury of having a gamba right now, and it’s been a blast to play along on gamba.
5. Have at it on bass
Having done all that, have at the cello part on electric bass. They are really fun, and at the tempos taken, quite a wild ride on bass. I really shouldn’t post any of this on YouTube; It seems like anything you put on YouTube is assumed a “best effort” thing. But, actually, I like to post practice stuff, because I think it’s informative.
Well, here’s a practice clip (A=415) of the closing Allegro A section that is pretty rough. I haven’t quite memorized it, and this is 10-20 clicks faster than I’ll probably ever play this, but it’s not too bad and should give you some idea of the approach I’m taking. I’ve got the A section in pretty decent shape, but the B section has a few tough fingerings, bar 33 with the F#7 chord there. So, I cropped this recording after the A section, although I did pretty good in the B section. Love that end bit (46-50) that’s got a real Iron Maid3n/Billy Sh33han type vibe.
I haven’t posted much bass stuff of late, mostly because I’ve been working on gamba and upright this summer. But, I’m always relating things I’m working on back to electric bass eventually.
Here’s a practice snippet of the Allegro from gamba Sonata No. 2 in D Major. I’m playing along with the definitive recording by J0rdi S@vall and T0n K00pman (A=415).
Throughout this piece one thing that really helps is to think about extensions within a position, spanning 5 or 6 frets within a position. For instance, in the first few bars I’m playing a position that spans 5 frets. And, in the 3rd measure, I’m barring the 14th fret with my first finger, that really helps too. Later when I hit that high A, I’m just stretching for it, but really remaining in position. Going for stretches and extensions within a position, rather than thinking about shifting too much.
Not a very good take, but take a listen anyway, and below there’s a start of a quick transcription to show my approach to the fingerings.
If you’re looking for an edition, I would highly recommend the Dover ISBN 0-486-25641-3, which includes the cello suites. www.doverpublications.com.
OK, so here’s my latest crazy idea. What I’d like to do is setup a 6-week online course to discuss playing a Bach Cello Suite on electric bass. Sort of a peer-to-peer discussion, with me sort of leading the discussions. We’d spend a week on each movement of a suite (starting with # 1), “meeting” 1 night a week via video chat. We could record the video chat sessions and post them to a Moodle site where we could post practice takes and ideas for fingerings and etc.
I think that would be cool and very do-able, now is there anyone who would like to do that with me? Current thought is to do it 6 Monday nights in a row, probably at 9PM EST.
I should probably also mention the basics of my approach to playing Bach Cello on bass, which includes a high C string and playing the music in the range written. I’ve got scratch tracks of suites 1-5 online if you haven’t checked that out.
I really dig the salty tone in Sor’s writing at times. I’m re-reading the Method for the Guitar, and really liked this quote:
“I make a great distinction between a musician and a note-player.”
I love that. He goes on to describe in detail what makes a musician and what makes a note-player. Really nice passage (page 18 of this Dover edition from 2007).
Here’s a nice piece Allegro in G, from The Classic Guitar Collection, Volume 1 page 53 (Amsco ISBN 0.8256.2268.9) that lays out pretty well on bass. The only tricky part is measure 12, where I opt to switch hands playing the top voice with the left hand and the bottom with the right, which I do right through to the end. That seemed to be the only way to keep the pulse going.
Anyway, I’ll have to call this the practice of a note-player, but I’m always aspiring to musician status. Back to work. See you later.
