hi it's Geoff Chalmers here from discoverdoublebass.com that's the home of online
video double bass lessons so if you want to learn about this instrument please go and check out what
we've got on offer there's a load of courses and particularly some fantastic lessons that
i've enjoyed by Joseph Conyers who's joining me today so welcome Joe it's great to have you here
thanks it's great to be here well we've had a few questions come in and one of them was about
the use of extensions in orchestral excerpts sure whether you have to have one if you're playing
in an orchestra how do you handle those low notes what you should do if you don't have on perhaps so
maybe you could speak on that a bit Joe yes so as you can see i have a bass that does not have
an extension ah yet i have recorded excerpts and um a few yeah different excerpts for this course
my rule and this is the rule i always went by uh is to only use the extension if i can play
everything that's in the audition that has an extension written for it so the example
i would use the if there was ever an audition that has Shostakovich 5 listed i would not use
the extension at the audition because for the most part the auditions are blind so they can't
tell if you have an extension or not so but once you give away that you have an extension then you
set the bar that they expect to hear extension notes so generally i stay away from using the
extension as a matter of fact i don't know if Hal [Robinson] ever used an extension in any of his auditions
he just stayed away because it's just it's almost like another thing to worry about
um because it can be difficult uh as i got more comfortable for example if there was a Mozart 39
i could use the extension for that uh some of the Heldenleben excerpts depending on which one i
could use the extension for that but i would plan if there was one extension i did not want to use
the uh one uh piece on the list I did not want to use an extension for I did not use the extension
for the entirety of the audition now no one you don't get faulted i mean i'm not thinking i
for me it's not a big deal because who knows maybe the person behind the screen can't afford
an extension maybe they're playing on a bass that was that was they lent to them for the
audition and doesn't have a sense we don't know what those circumstances are however
upon getting the job it is expected to join the section that one has an extension to play the job
sure so in the um in the Philadelphia orchestra you're all playing with c extension all of us have
C extensions yes do you have um do you tend to use uh individual gates on each is it like a chromatic
gate that's funny so generally the machines are slowly working away although i think we have two
machines in the section yeah two machines left but everyone else has the gated on every
pitch the c sharp the d the d sharp what do you have on Norma what does that the the the gated
all the way up on every on every note yeah do you ever see any five strings uh is that rarely
in the states yeah almost ever yeah that we see uh five string basses but i uh have a little trick
on Norma if you look down on the e string or c string i've got what's called the hip shot
and the hip shot takes me to the low b i've never tuned into the b-flat wow but I've used the b many
times at work so that's really good for all the Europeans who say the Americans are a half
a step short of being as full bassists that's right we can still get down to the low b and even to the
b flat if we tune it tune it down that way have you have you ever played a five-string yes and
it's really annoying it's really it's very hard to have the a string in the middle of the bass
that's just a very that's a hard to wrap my brain around so i'm always i always play in the wrong
on the wrong string for the wrong note and all that fun stuff yeah yeah i think they're um yeah
it's a completely different animal and i think both can work really well and there were
pros and cons of both yeah yeah but i think a a c extension is a great it's a great thing so if
you're playing these excerpts and you don't have a c extension yes um are you just simply uh taking
the specific notes up an octave or are you ever transposing the whole passage or part of you know
if there's a line that how do you approach that is a great question Geoff so i try to do it musically
so if it's like missing one note it's always a good approach if it's missing one note i don't go
like and then all of a sudden back back and forth because that's that's strange uh for example in
the Shostakovich oh gosh you're putting on spot i don't know if i know the the the exact notes uh
but whatever it is it's like d d d d d I just play the whole lick up the octave right versus and then
jumping down because musically i would just follow the line as if the cello section were playing it
um and I do it in one of the excerpts [from the course] for the Mozart 39 um i go so i just play the d
flat and the e flat here and then go down because then we have the the help of the the rest of the
cello section uh playing that so but you could play da da da da i think some people actually do
d - d and then go on go over on the next beat does that make sense yeah um uh instead of doing
just the first two they'll play the first four notes and then go down on the next four because they
might find it sounds more musically satisfying so it's up to it's up to the player so do
you think that in terms of at what point do you think it becomes mandatory to have an extension on
your on your bass is there a kind of point where you think or not mandatory but would be you'd
be well advised to it matters what section you're playing in but definitely if you win a job in the
Philadelphia orchestra it's mandatory they have an extension yeah or you have one put on or you
get a bass one with one but that is just it must happen yeah you could be able to play those notes and
if you win a job at the Philadelphia Orchestra presumably you can then afford a bass extension yeah
or put one on that's kind of how that goes yeah that makes sense so for younger students who are
kind of high school players do you think that you know there seems to be that at that point where
it's like do i bother getting the extension for this space and especially when it's like
perhaps players are earlier in their career and they're not thinking about keeping the instrument they
don't have norma that's a great question you know Geoff it's a great question because i know
I used to be young once yeah and uh I know the the call of wanting to play those low notes yeah
and having feels good yeah it feels real real good but if i had to choose between a better instrument
yeah or a better upgrade on my bow that is definitely where i would put my energy yeah
guys the the the low notes will always be there yeah let's just do one step at a time and work our
way up to getting that extension because to your own point why would you get an extension put on
a low-level bass or um that you'll probably end up upgrading in the future now if you plan
on playing the bass for a long time uh and it is worth the quality you can consider it but for me
it to me it's the latest i know i've experienced there are people who are cursing me right now
while watching this but yeah it's the icing on the cake it's the latest addition i would focus
more on the quality instrument itself yeah because then you can always add an extension later where
you can afford it and i would focus on on on the um the bow as well yeah to me that's far
more important than an occasional e flat d as good as it might feel yeah i think that's great advice
and yeah let's wrap things up there but Joe thank you so much for joining me and thanks for watching
and if you want to learn more from Joe please follow the links that are under this video
you can check out his great lessons and courses over at discover double bass plus
you can go and follow him on instagram and see all the wonderful excerpts and the music
that he's sharing over there so thanks for joining me and thanks for joining us at home