Hi, this is Isaac Trapkus, a bassist with the New York Philharmonic and this is What's in My Case.
I actually like to keep my bass out of its case so that it's ready anytime I want to practice.
So I keep my case under this futon, and there's nothing in it. And this isn't actually even
my bass. My bass is in the shop being repaired, this is just an instrument I'm borrowing for now.
So I guess that's it. Thanks for watching! Wait, what? You're saying that's too short? Hmm.
Yes, I do do other interesting things, thank you for asking. Why don't I show you how I make rosin.
Welcome to my top-secret basement laboratory. This is where I keep all of my rosins,
and you can see that some come in little pellets and some come in big chunks.
When we as musicians say rosin, what we're meaning usually is string instrument rosin, which is the
material that we put on our bows in order to grab the string. Rosin by itself is the product
of pine tree sap that has been boiled down, and the remaining part is mixed usually with beeswax
to create string instrument rosin. But that pine tree sap rosin is used in all kinds of industries
and products. It's used in printer ink, adhesives and tapes, it's used as the sticky ingredient in
asphalt, so it has all kinds of uses in all kinds of fields and music is just one of those forms.
Okay, let's weigh our ingredients. Here we have a hot plate and just a regular tin can.
Okay it's melting really nicely now. You can see how there's
bubbles on the surface that are kind of making it look cloudy, and those will pop as this continues
to melt and at the end you'll end up with a really clear yellow amber gold kind of color.
All right, let's transfer this to our cup.
Okay, give this a little stir, pop any of those bubbles.
Some of you are probably thinking, "yeah yeah yeah, this is cool,
but how come you don't just collect all of the rosin from your colleagues and melt it into one
giant super rosin block?" But I have done this.
Let's go try it out. We've got the rosin we just made,
and we've got a very top-secret double bass rosin that I've made
that is going to be much stickier and better for the bass, and we'll compare the two.
So first let's start with a double bass rosin since this is a bass. A good excerpt that will
show the difference between these two rosins is going to be the last movement of Mozart Symphony
35. This is a very scary but common excerpt asked at bass auditions, and it has some pretty quick
notes that have to be loud but clear and with a really nice tone, so that's the challenge.
Let's compare that to the rosin we just made.
I hope you can hear it's really difficult for me to grab the string. Bass strings are
much thicker than violin or even cello strings, and so you need a stickier rosin to be able to
grab the string as quickly and release the string quickly like we needed in that particular excerpt,
but I think this would be an excellent rosin for a more lyrical or melodic playing.
So rosins have their pros and cons, and it's about finding the right balance
of attributes in the rosin so that you can play your best and that you
can play a particular passage or particular piece uh your best. I'm Isaac Trapkus with
the New York Philharmonic and this was What's in My Case. Thanks for watching.