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Classical or Jazz upright bass?

An editorial on how versatility can make for a more interesting and successful career in playing the upright bass.

When I was 18 years old, I new that I wanted to play the bass (somehow) for a living. It evolved from starting on the electric bass when I was 15 all the way to playing Strauss' Also Spake Zarathustra on the upright bass when I was in school at Indiana University, just 3 short years later! To make a very long story short, playing both Jazz and Classical upright bass made me an even better musician than I if I had chosen just one genre or style.

For one, by playing both Jazz and Classical, I had my upright bass in my hands that much more and therefore learned the instrument quicker and more in depth. I think that really successful upright players, love the instrument itself equally as much as any other genre of playing. In other words, I was happy if I had my bass in my hands!

Not only did I end up practicing more, whichever genre I was studying more of at the time, would always carry over and reinforce what I needed to know and learn on the other. Let's give a basic example: No Jazz player will ever succeed unless he has a groove and pulse. Jazz players call it "keeping time". It's the concept of maintaining a good steady pulse throughout and supporting the group of people you're playing with. What I found is that all the Jazz playing that I did established this pulse feeling to my core to the extent that I keep it with me now whenever I play, whether it be classical or jazz.

It works the other way 'round as well. Studying classical will surely help your jazz playing. I think music is certainly universal: The simple truths in music hold true no matter what it is you're doing. Music is music!

Why upright jazz-classical bass players work more than anyone else:  

This leads us into another great issue: Why just narrow your scope of playing to just one or two genres? For high school upright bass players, all the way up to professional upright bass players, being versatile can make the difference of whether or not you can make a true living at playing the upright bass at a professional level or not. There are lots of smaller, regional orchestras that pay a small, but consistent pay. With their 8-15 week seasons, and with enough jazz gigs, many bass players can find their "niche'" this very way.

What kinds of upright bass setups are available for the Jazz-classical players?

This has to be where the biggest change and advancements have been in the past 5-10 years. For one, there has been such a mass improvement in the way the upright bass is set up: Including new technical improvements with upright bass strings, upright bass pickups, and the general way basses are set up to play. With the newer, high quality steel strings, have enabled upright players a luxury of much lower string action and height. Nowadays there are strings that can actually "work" in a classical setting AND a jazz setting. With the advent of the metal wound synthetic strings, like Pirastro's Evah Prazzi or Obligatos. Some players prefer a mix: The Pirastros on the top G and D, with a more "growling" Thomastik Spirocore E. (We hope to have a page just dedicated to specific set ups at a later date).

Upright bass is an extremely versatile instrument. Every symphony needs at least 6-9 bass players and every acoustic jazz or bluegrass group uses an upright bass. There is no other such instrument that holds such an integral importance in such a wide spectrum. Learn it all, then play it all! You then will have a musically rich life as well as a successful profession.

- Steve Koscica