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Candidate no.

Module Title:

Issues & Topics 4

Module Code:
(e.g. 5AABC123 )

4AAMS164

Essay no:
(e.g. 1 or 2)

Essay Title:
(may be abbreviated)

On Bi-Musicality

Assignment tutor/group:

Moehn

Deadline:

24/02/2015

Date Submitted:

24/02/2015

Word Count:

1400

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accurately above.
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DECLARATION BY STUDENT
This assignment is entirely my own work. Quotations from secondary literature are indicated
by the use of inverted commas around ALL such quotations AND by reference in the text or
notes to the author concerned. ALL primary and secondary literature used in this piece of
work is indicated in the bibliography placed at the end, and dependence upon ANY source
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In order to investigate and understand the concept of bi-musicality,

I chose to learn to play the double bass, specifically, jazz double
bass. My musical history being a jazz pianist meant that I felt I could
transition fairly easily from one to the other as it would be a simple
matter of transferring skills learned from the piano to the bass. Little
did I know how wrong I was. What follows is an essay based on a
diary I kept of my time learning the bass over the last month or so in
which I will talk about the challenges (and there were many),
difficulties and benefits of this endeavour.
The first thing I needed to do was to decide which instrument I
would learn. Initially I contemplated choosing an instrument from a
completely different culture, such as the Ney or Sitar, but then I
decided that in order to focus on the bi-musicality aspect of the task
at hand, and the fact that I have always wanted to learn the double

bass and this would give me the impetus I needed to commit to

what was a difficult process.
Having decided on the double bass as my instrument of
choice, I set about the process of learning. For me, this entailed
finding where the actual notes where on the finger board. For the
last ten years, I have played the piano, where the technique for note
production is press a note, hear a note. I quickly found that this was
not the case on the double bass. There is no fret board, so at the
start, note production is completely hit and miss; guesswork. This is
where I encountered my first real challenge; impatience. Without
sounding conceited, I have been playing jazz piano for so long now
that I had forgotten what it was like to be bad, and those feelings
came rushing back as I fumbled around with this great hulking mass
of wood, (I specifically recorded this emotion in my learning diary).
This led to me starting from scratch and working my up
incrementally, doing only what I was able to do at the time. This
sounds like a truism and it is, but while one is going through such as
slow, arduous procedure, a single, solitary hour of practice can feel
like an eternity.
Slowly but surely, however, I progressed, and after four days
of consistent practice, I was starting to find my way around the
instrument. I was finally able to produce what sounded to me like
the noise a bass was meant to make, rather than an indiscernible
wub like sound. My primary practice technique, before I had any
formal tuition, was to playing along with jazz tracks that I knew very
well, and to try and fit a bass line to them. My go to album was
Robbie Williams Swing when youre winning as Id listened to it
from childhood and knew each song by heart, which meant I was
able to focus my energy on matching the bass line on the track. This
was immensely helpful as I was actually starting to enjoy the
learning process.
However it was here that I encountered the biggest challenge of all;
stamina. Playing the piano for so long had led to me building a lot of
pianist-specific stamina in my fingers but only for chords fingerings,
not bass fingerings. This meant that, for the first week, I could only
play properly for an hour at a time before I literally could not hold
the bass anymore.
After two weeks, of self-tuition, I felt that I needed the guidance of a
professional bass player, so I contacted a friend of mine who
frequently plays at Ronnie Scotts and asked him if he would look
over my playing and critique it, which he did, and there was a lot to
critique (as he put it). I suddenly felt very nervous, because all of
sudden, my ability was being directly observed, rather than being
listened to underneath the rest of a sound, as is the case in jazz.
However, my friend was really helpful and gave me some excellent
pointers on how I could improve my sound, including things I had
never even considered, such as how to stand, how to hold the bass
so that I wouldnt hurt myself in the long run and more general
things like tuning. Again, all things that are second nature to long
term players of the instrument, but these had never even crossed
my mind. I would like to note that I consider this to be one of the
best parts of this assignment; being the catalyst for me to
understand a completely different aspect of playing and the process
other people have to go through to produce a sound.
The evening after my first lesson, I took my bass down to a
jam session that I have been running at my University. I saw this as

a very important step, because I would no longer be able to stop

and fix what I was doing wrong, I had to keep going due to the live
nature of a jam session. My nerves were tempered by the fact that I
knew everyone at this event, and they all knew that I by no means
an actual bass player, rather that I was learning and that this would
be a great opportunity for me to test my skills in a participant
observation.
As Id hoped, the jam was exceptionally helpful. It showed me
that although had a lot of work to do, I was well on the well to
becoming a bass player. I was able to play in the band for a number
of songs in various styles with varying degrees of success. What was
also very helpful was getting the opinions of those I played with on
my ability to see what they thought I needed to work on.
Practising consistently for two weeks, combined with two more jam
sessions meant that I felt I was making considerable progress. It
also made me quite conscious of the effect it had had on my
approach to the process of music making. Prior to learning the bass,
Id thought of music principally from the middle out; in essence, Id
thought in terms of chords and the function they had in the sound
being produced. This process forced me to listen to and appreciate
the bass as both a separate entity, with all its complexity, and as
one part of a multi-layered sound. This gave me a completely new
perspective on what was a very familiar area, and I feel it has
genuinely helped me to develop as a musician.
Playing in the jam was also extremely significant for me, as it
enabled me to play a completely different role from the one I had
played for the last decade. I suddenly was able to understand what
Hood meant when he said that you have to persist in your basic
studies until your basic musicianship is secure.1 For the first time
since Id started learning the bass, I felt like I belonged in the sound,
that I could essentially hold my own and become part of the greater
sound. This was an immense feeling and has led to my decision to
carry on learning the bass outside of the assignment.
During the time Id studied the bass for this assignment, Id learnt
an entirely new instrument, how to play it, how it works, how it fits
in a jazz ensemble and how to think like a bass player. As mentioned
before, it also gave me an entirely new musical insight that I
absolutely cherish, and I believe will be invaluable going forward.
Furthermore, it has enabled me to really understand the concept of
bi-musicality, that is, playing more than one instrument proficiently
and to a level where one can interact with others in the instruments
natural environment. Although the peculiar notes I continue to
produce make me well aware that I am not Ray Brown, I feel that I
have made a lot of progress and will continue to do so. As Thelonius
Monk said there are no wrong notes in jazz, just poor choices.

Hood, (1960) Pg. 58