Being Musical

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but the last month or so has been extremely musical.

It all started with the Winter Bass Camp in mid-January. This was three days of intensive bass instruction and evaluation by five local professional bassists including one from the Seattle Symphony. All of the instructors play with professional groups including PNB, and Northwest Sinfonietta and most of them teach either privately, at local colleges, or both. I actually knew one of them who used to play in my section at PhilharmoniaNW about 15 years ago until he got a job with the Spokane Symphony and went onward and upward from there. I got a lot of good suggestions for how to improve my technique and was so inspired that I signed up with one of the instructors for private lessons which is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. The whole point of this exercise, for those who may be wondering, is to be a better bass player and musician. Needless to say, the better one is at something, the more fun it is assuming, of course, that you like doing it in the first place. Which I do.

A week or two later I went to the Bass Church for an evening of bass playing featuring two really good bassists and a gaggle of so-so adult bass students. I could have played but chose not to since I didn't feel like stressing myself out. However, I think it would have been an ego boost considering the other non-professionals I heard that night. Everyone was very nice though, and it was a pleasant social time with like-minded people.

The next stop in my musical journey was my first lesson. Ben, my new bass buddy and instructor, lives up by St. Edward State Park, a location far more convenient than anywhere in Seattle. I really don't need another weekly trip across the 520 bridge at rush hour which is the usual drill for any decent musical destination. So, on a dark Monday night I loaded my instrument into the bass transportation device and headed north. After a few difficulties due to darkness and invisible house numbers, a cell phone call revealed my destination. Since Ben was giving a lesson elsewhere in the house, I let myself in to be greeted by a rather large dog of indeterminate breed, enthusiastically wagging her entire hindquarters, and whose heart's desire seemed to be to give me something slimy she had been carrying in her mouth, apparently for hours. I respectfully declined the honor and felt grateful to be dealing with a well-bred hound who knew better than to bark at prospective bass students. Eventually, Ben finished his prior lesson with a callow youth I recalled from Bass Camp and directed his musical talents in my direction.

We had a good time as he led me through some scales, gave me some assignments to practice, shared some ideas to improve a solo I had played at Bass Camp (a short Beethoven piece originally written for mandolin) and, best of all, gave me a list of music to buy. I'm looking forward to working up some Vivaldi sonatas and a few of the incredible Bach cello suites transposed for bass which were among my purchases. I believe this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Next up was the PhilharmoniaNW concert last weekend featuring Dvorak's New World Symphony (which is still playing in my head), a trombone concerto, and an eminently forgettable Vaughn Williams piece based on English folk songs. In a nearly unprecedented occurrence, two of my coworkers who said they might come to the concert ACTUALLY SHOWED UP! One of them, who is my direct supervisor, was so impressed that he went out immediately afterwards and bought a CD of the Dvorak! I guess we got to him.

Finally, early this week, Ben emailed me and offered to obtain tickets to the PNB production of Sleeping Beauty for half price. It seems that it pays to know the right people. Naturally, I couldn't resist and we attended the ballet last night. It was quite the spectacle - colorful, graceful, and fully imbued with the romantic Tchaikovsky esthetic. Hundreds of little girls attended wearing pretty little-girl dresses and seemingly dreaming of being ballerinas. There were lots of bigger girls too, many of whom were dressed to kill - and I mean that in the best possible way. One of the teensy ones though, was sitting behind us and had many questions which she asked in a loud piping voice that continued despite her mother's shushing. In spite of this minor shortcoming, we had a great time.

So... has anyone else noticed how musical things have been lately?