Hecticness with some Tykosity

The tykes have a play to go to tomorrow in the morning so instead of having a planning day today like I "usually" do, instead I taught nursery classes. And since today was my first rehearsal with the Salomon Orchestra (an amateur group I'm playing with on Oct. 20th) I brought my bass along.

And thus began the trail of ridiculous mishaps.

First of all- it's been pouring down rain for two days. This means roads are flooded and the tykes haven't been outside. Both are important as it means that buses were diverted and the tykes were squirrelly.

I knew I had to take my bass with me so I started out a good 15 minutes before I normally do. I was surprised to see a 254 coming down my road but thought "hey! door to door service!" so I hopped right on, belatedly realizing that the sign on the front said that it was going in the opposite direction of where I needed to be heading. So I hopped off as soon as I could, carried my bass in the rain back to the proper stop, and proceeded to wait for 20 minutes for *my* bus. 20 minutes was an awfully long time and there *were* all those diverted buses, so I actually called TFL to see if my bus was on diversion. Nope! It'll be right there! You just have to be patient because of rush hour! So I waited. Right up until a kindly bus driver poked his head out the door and said "are any of you waiting for the 106? It's diverted!"

Thanks TFL. You're awesome.

So a kindly lady walked me over to where the bus would be heading off from (I don't normally take the 106, so I wasn't sure where we were heading precisely) So there we go- 45 minutes after leaving my house I was finally on my way!

So I get to school and Linda had made muffins! Brilliant. And they were super tasty too- carrot cake like with courgette and sultanas (um, or zucchini and raisins depending on which country you're from). Linda and I had a quick chat, I had multiple quick tune ups of the bass, and off we went! Teaching time!

The tykes, as I previously stated, were squirrelly. But it's all good because we started on High and Low today! Which actually, I'm super excited about because I haven't tried teaching that before and it's a new explorative experience. (Yes, explorative. Totally a word.) We curled up in to balls on the ground when the sound was low and stood up tall on our tippie toes and reached our hands to the sky when the sound was high. Then, because they were squirrelly, I made them do this again and again and again. Because music class should always encompass a bit of calisthenics as well.

Then I brought out the BASS. This was not as exciting for them as one might have hoped. They actually thought it was scary. Totally didn't feel like listening. So instead I made them bounce and bounce and bounce and stop! for the last 15-20 minutes of class. I don't know how that one hasn't gotten old yet...

So the second nursery class we did high and low and we reached and rolled and I brought out the bass and huh. They couldn't tell if the bass was low or high. I think legitimately couldn't tell- like on the xylophone they're used to the sound enough that it's all cool- but the bass? Is a completely alien sound and timbre. Particularly because of the gut strings. No matter- they gave it a go- each of them played a bit on the bass (i.e., dragged their grubby little fingers across the strings) and then, because they were announcing that they wanted to put on a little show- we put on a little show. We practiced being good audience members and listened carefully as people were singing.

Here's what was interesting though- anyone remember "Alf is and Ant" from last term? It was one of the songs from Parent's day last term and man! was it ever a big hit. But some of the kids singing it today? They weren't here last year...So I asked the teachers, "did you teach the rest of them 'Alf is an Ant'?" No, no they said- J. taught them.

Little 4 year old J. Who can sing all of "Mama Mia" with appropriate dance moves. Taught the rest of the class his favorite song. Awesome.

Then we danced around a bit and did tall shapes and wide shapes and small shapes before I panicked a little because it sounded like one of the tykes had managed to get behind me and smack the bass pretty hard. J. was the only tyke behind me so I said "no! don't touch the bass!" and he felt bad and apologised almost immediately (which normally is not the case.) So I said thank you for the apology and thought no more of it until I was packing up to head to the third nursery class.

It turns out that probably J. had touched the bass- but the big sound? That was the G string snapping.

So you know how I had a rehearsal this evening? Now I was one string short. So I called Peter up and he said I should just use a modern steel string for the moment and directed me to the closest music store.

But first I taught the third nursery class where they all decided the bass was a monster! And I showed them that it was bigger than two! of! their! TALLEST! classmates! Which was pretty impressive. All of this while I am taking the G string off of the tuning peg. So much for lesson plans- lets show you kids instrument surgery!

During lunch I went to the first store- but did they sell bass strings? Nope. Fortunately Peter's number is saved in my phone (I should probably put him on speed dial or something like that) so I called him up again and proceeded on a mission to Piccadilly Circus where I found a totally cute music shop and was able to buy a new string AND multiple rubber tips for my end pin- which is great because I keep losing them on public transportation.

So there we go.

Oh! And I taught at the new school too where not only could they hear high and low, but they also heard and were able to differentiate between middle sounds, trolls (crotchets/quarter notes), and goblins (quavers/eighth notes)! I was so proud!

I'm an idiot

I wouldn't want all these blogs to make you think that every thing I do comes up roses, that wouldn't do at all. So here is the remarkably idiotic thing that I did today:

So I got this new trolley for my bass, right? People use them to cart around their groceries, large bags attached to wheels with a tall handle. I bought one a while ago after I'd got fed up with carrying my bass everywhere. I went around to various shops that had them sitting out front and measured the depth of the platform above the wheels with my handy tape measure key chain. Eventually I bought one from a guy in a carpet shop who, when I asked for the price, said "eight pounds, but for you I'll go down to seven." I love when people haggle down with no help from me. Anyhow- this trolley has been brilliant and is very useful for hauling my bass around. It has also been handy because when my bass is set on top of it, it tends to stay there- so it has been a trolley/bass stand.

However.

One shouldn't trust a trolley/bass stand to always perform both functions to optimum levels (raise your hand if you see where this is going!) And today, when meeting our new tutor for the "refining workshop skills" class and shaking his hand, my bass toppled forward and fell onto it's bridge....


So that sucked.

Oddly, the front of the bass seems to be totally fine- it's the back that is all shot to hell. Pretty much every seam possible is open back there and the lower left bout as well. I was thinking a week ago that probably some of the seams were open because of the weather, and this pretty much confirms it. Having a bass split along the back when it falls on the front? Weird. They all look like really clean breaks and most, if not all, have hide glue on them which means that none are new breaks. So hopefully it should be easy to repair. I'm taking it to Malcolm Healey, the luthier, this afternoon. Obviously I will keep you posted!

But you can see why I feel like an idiot....

Baroque Basseybye

Recently I have been having trouble tuning up my E string because the gear on the tuning mechanism had sort of, um, popped out? Like, you could force the gear to turn, but when it got to a certain point it would pop out of the grooves of the gear and you'd be back down a third or something like that. Basically it totally didn't work.

So I called Peter, and he thought that it was probably because there was too much string in the gear box and since the string is SO thick, it was probably pushing the peg out of place. So I had to take off the string, cut of the top of it, and then re-string it.

Not so bad, right? And it wasn't really-except do you know how difficult it is to try and convince a half centimeter thick piece of dried out intestine that it wants to be straight instead of curled like it has been for who knows how long? It's tough!

Anyhow, here is a picture so you can get a feeling for how thick this string is. Long story short- I totally fixed it and am awesome.

"Fridays are Tough" or "Yay for Lunch!"

This morning was a struggle to get out of bed. I don't know if you've noticed this, but I've been quite busy recently and tired to the point of titling posts "tired." Also, I had lost my notebook, which was a great concern as it is full of important information, yet doesn't have my name on it. So I was worried, and tired, and *maybe* a bit cranky.

Then our tutor didn't show up. Which was terrible because it was supposed to be Pete Churchill who in addition to being one of the most amazing musicians in the world to work with, is also leaving the school after this term- so we were all really eager for his lesson. Alas, we suspect that he was never told that he had a lesson with us.

So this morning was crap. We sat like lumps in a windowless room and discussed an in house performance that we are going to do on Dec. 13th. I volunteered to play Poucha Dass because it is a great piece, and it will force me to actually practice (which is a good thing indeed.)

We thought that since we are supposed to be doing a performance, we might as well write something to perform rather than getting on stage and sitting like lumps the way we were doing. Nick and Jorge started up some samba rhythms and we practiced improvising over the chords that Nick was playing.

Man-oh-man was I not feeling it. Eventually I gave up and put the bass down and started doing some samba based body percussion with Jorge, but then my chest got all painful where I was slapping it so I tried singing along Kate and Caroline's little melody and yeah, still wasn't feeling it. Also, I was really worried about my notebook.

Lunch was a welcome, welcome break- since we had no tutor and were being good productive students anyway, we decided to take an hour and a half, which was perfect. (Okay, by the time we got back to work it was like two hours, but still.) A break and food and a bunch of emailing had made me feel much better so after lunch I bounded in to the room and played some riffs from Poucha Dass which spontaneously spouted a marvelous free improvisation that lasted over half an hour. It was totally clicking and grooving along and there is nothing better than that.

Emma had done some really neat electronics stuff during the free improv so we decided to record each of us to do some extended techniques on our instruments for her to sample. It was handy to hear what everyone else was coming up with too- since we had absolutely no guidance nor supervision we went a little nuts: playing the oboe into the tuba? Why not, it might sound cool! (It did, it was also LOUD)

When it was my turn I was thinking about doing some tapping on the side of the bass, but since we had a real live percussionist in the room I made Jorge come over and use the bass as a drum, and that sounded great so I tried to do a bass line at the same time.

I think we're on to something here. Kate got up and started dancing and that then was the starting point of our next free improvisation. (Um, the bass/drum- not the dancing. Though now that I think of it we could use her dancing....) Jorge and I need to work a bit more on it because as it is the bass is moving a bit too much for me to be able to be terribly in tune or accurate about what I'm doing- but I think with a little practice it could end up being kind of awesome. We could get Tara or Heather to do something with the bow as well...

So now we're all excited about our ideas for the Dec. 13 piece and hopefully we'll be able to convince Nathan to let us work on them and flesh them out into an actual structure during our creative ensemble classes on Thursdays.

I've been researching how to put audio files on to the blog, so if this all works out- I'll put the performance up online...nice, huh?

The story of the bass

On Wednesday we had a bit of a break from induction activities, so I took that opportunity to go down to Surrey on the tube which is where Malcolm Healey's shop is. I got to take the bus too, because the tube doesn't go quite far enough, so that was good because it was my first opportunity for that.

The bus went right by Malcolm's shop which was good because that meant that I knew where to get off. I got there a little after two and was quickly let in and given a mug of tea. Malcolm showed me the bass that he had set aside for me and I tried it out for a bit to see if it was the same size. It was a good thing that I had given him the string length, because that means that the notes are in roughly the same place on the new instrument that they are on the one I have at home. So anyhow-I didn't have any problems with that instrument, so that is the one I've got back at Sundial now.

While I was at the shop though, people kept coming in, so there was an 87 year old bassist who still plays with local orchestras and a pair of friends who are building a mandolin and wanted some help seeing if their fingerboard plane was straight enough. Those friends then ended up trying out Malcolm's new musical saw too. It was a little ridiculous.

Malcolm gave me a ride back to the tube station (Morden, at the end of the Northern Line. I kept saying "Morden" to myself in the voice that they used in the Lord of the Rings movies when they say "Mordor" all dramatically.) And then I rode the tube all the way up to Moorgate with the bass. I perched on one of the seats at the every end of the car and tried to stay out of the way. The people who work at the stations were actually very nice about my having a giant instrument on the tube and helped me go through the luggage gates.

It is a bit awkward to carry- and I don't know quite what the dimensions are yet and it doesn't have shoulder strap- so Malcolm gave me a leather carry strap that hooks on to the end pin and around the neck of the bass. It is nice in theory, but I haven't quite got the hang of it yet. I'm trying very hard not to bang in to doors and ceilings and the like...

It's going to be £500 to lease it for the year, which I think is probably reasonable. I'm going to talk to Jose and Clare and see if perhaps I can get the Leadership office to help with the cost. I figure it is worth a try.

And now I have to rush off for yet another rehearsal...I'll let you know about last night's dinner in Highgate and the silent disco from two night's ago soon. (Do you like these cliff hangers? Okay, maybe not cliff, maybe short wall hangers...)

Jim Root 1948-2007

I just got the newest issue of Crescendo which is Interlochen's alumni magazine. On the last page they have those people who have died in the last year, and Jim is one of the people who actually got an obituary instead of just their name and when they were at Interlochen.

Jim was the guy who helped me out so much whenever I was traveling with the bass. He hooked us up with a trailer at one point, and was always very sweet about making sure that a van was going to the airport that would be able to carry the bass in its flight case. I made him a paper crane one time to thank him. The second summer I was a counselor I had to go get a parking permit sticker from the security office. The desks were in different places and everything was painted differently; they had completely remodeled everything.

My crane was still sitting on top of his monitor.