I've been working on developing a three finger pizzicato technique. NHOP had a great technique as can be seen in this video.
I've been trying to develop this skill with some success, but wanted to develop some more refined techniques and a less ad hoc sense of when this type of playing is best (read: when to use my ring finger for agility and speed). The problem, as I see it, has been on developing my ring finger to play more than just ornaments on the G-string.
I came across Sigi Busch's Jazz Bass Compendium and it has some exercises to get one thinking about how to incorporate your ring-finger (denoted with an "a" in the exercises) into your playing. I have found these exercises useful in getting started. The next step is to develop your own exercises, scales, etc which incorporate your ring finger in a systematic way. Here are his exercises:
Last year I bought a copy of Kenneth Gaburo's "Inside" from Frog Peak Music. Its a great piece, but recordings of it are rare. Here's a video of Bertram Turetzky et al playing the piece (about 20 minutes in). In a related vien, while searhcing for recordings I came across Modbit, a weekly radio show of new music. Great stuff, including some Gabro works.
I'm a big fan of Alex Ross' blog. Here's a brief post on music in political ads. I'm still laughing at his accompaniment to Sarah Palin's response below. Enjoy. (In case you didn't know, Mr. Ross recently won a genius award from the MacAurthur Foundation. Congratulations Mr. Ross)
Experimental composer Glenn Branca is seeking 80 guitarists and 20 bass guitarists for his upcoming performance of Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City). This performance will be at The Pageant in St. Louis on Nov. 13 and is part of the SLSO Guitar Festival.
• Two rehearsals at Powell Hall: Nov. 11 from 2pm to midnight & Nov. 12 from 5pm to midnight
• Sound Check at The Pageant: Nov. 13 from 1:30pm to 5:30pm
• Concert at The Pageant: Nov. 13 at 8pm
Compensation is not possible, but food and drink will be supplied at all rehearsals and the performance. All musicians will need to be able to read standard staff notation and follow a part measure by measure.
Barrack Obama: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Johann Sebastian Bach (cello suites), Marvin Gaye, The Fugees John McCain: ABBA, Roy Orbison, Merle Haggard, the Beach Boys, Louis Armstrong, Neil Diamond, Frank Sinatra
I just wanted to note on a couple of things going on locally and federally with regards to funding for the arts.
Here in Calgary, there has been a big push by the mayor to get increased provincial funding for law enforcement. A recent letter to the editor in the Calgary Herald ("Get Tough" September 19 2008) states one view on the issue (HT to Sean Perrin):
Overhaul the justice system so it no longer hugs a thug and starts treating criminals like criminals. They gave up their "rights" when they broke the law, so treat them the way they have treated the good people of our country. Build more jails and get the criminals in them faster and for much longer periods of time. How to pay for that? No fancy bridges, no high-dollar art in government buildings. Funnel all the money that is spent on art, culture and other non-necessary things. In some Caribbean countries, there is no leeway -- you break the law, you go to jail and you serve hard time for a long time. The penalties are too harsh to even consider breaking the law. We need a federal leader who will grow the backbone to seriously shake up the justice system. Come up with a budgeted, realistic and believable promise to do this, and you'll get my vote.
The view espoused here (to put it somewhat mildly) is that the arts should come second to other public goods. Some of this debate (and I believe the piece the author is referring to) has developed with the arrival of "A Device to Root Out Evil" in Calgary.
One of the questions raised by this debate is "What is the benefit of public funding of the arts?" Many have argued that funding of the arts is essential for preserving and developing a group or nation's idea of identity. In this sense, support for the arts supports Calgarians' sense of identity or pride in their city. (As a note, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research research group on Social Interactions, Identity, and Well-Being thinks that discussions of identity are often missing form policy debates and economic analysis. Issues of identity have been important in the Council of Europe's research on social exclusion.) Evidence from psychology and economics is that a shared sense of identity can increase cooperation, well-being, and more generally, social capital. In terms of public policy, increases in feelings of shared identity or community could reduce some criminal activity (through increasing the concern individuals have for others or reducing individuals' desire to eschew the law) and increase the productivity of public goods (by reducing the extent of free-riding problems).
Below is a video which takes aim the cuts to arts funding that have occurred under Stephen Harper's government. The message in this video is, I think, one of the importance of arts in preserving (here) Quebecois culture. A couple of notes on the video:
Michel Rivard is a a Quebecois singer-songwriter. He is one of the founding members of Beau Domage.
The French word for "seal" (the animal) is "phoque". It is pronounced f*ck.
