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Old 01-16-2015, 07:51 AM
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Eric Swanson Eric Swanson is offline
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Ken, its great that you are playing so much orchestral stuff!

I was actually reading through some of those etudes last night, for sight-reading practice. Let's just say I need to keep working on that

Your post brings something to mind. I was lucky enough to have just one three-hour lesson with Robert Brennand (former NYPhil Principal), back in '79. It was after he had left the orchestra. He was my teacher's teacher, so I was able to meet him and have this one unforgettable lesson. He was truly gracious and kind to me.

Anyway, he said that he never used etudes; he sort of chuckled when I told him some of the technical exercises I had been doing. He said that all he ever practiced or played was actual music; actual orchestral parts.

His point was that if I took a part, broke it apart (practiced separate hands, played it backwards and forwards, did double stop shifting, etc.), and based all of my practice on the parts, it would be a better use of my time. That's what he said he did, anyway, and his sound and musicianship were unforgettable. He said he thought playing the actual orchestral music was a better for one's musical mind than anything else.

He was also adamant about memorizing the parts. He basically said that the only way to be fully present in the orchestra was to know my parts cold, using the written music only for occasional reference.

So, I've mostly followed his suggestion; doing what you are doing, practicing/playing actual music and working out "issues" as they present themselves, memorizing as much of it as I can.

So, deviating from all of that recently, I found the book you shared helpful, mostly for sight reading practice. Other books I've been liking, also for sight reading, are Books 2 and 3 of Ed Friedland's electric bass teaching series (which I read through on both DB (arco and pizz) and the EB.
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