Last night I saw Hesperion XXI with Jordi Savall at the Sanders Theater. What a fantastic show. Such great playing from the entire ensemble. Really inspiring.
There was a signing line after the show, and it was a real honor to meet him briefly. What a super nice guy!
bentorrey :: Oct.26.2008 :: Stocking the Pond, Filling the Well :: No Comments »
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!
bentorrey :: Oct.25.2008 :: Musical Thoughts, Repertoire :: No Comments »
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.
bentorrey :: Oct.05.2008 :: Repertoire :: No Comments »