This is the page we answer questions that have been asked of us leading up to the event.
Hours of operation 9 am- 4pm Central Standard Time (aka Kansas City, Kansas USA time). This will be the times you will have class if enrolled (note: only 3 hours (10-12am and 1-2pm for George Vance Petite course)
There will most likely be concerts live streamed at the noon hour and in the evening hours. This will be many of our faculty members. A list will be published as we get closer to the event.
The cost: The event is free with donation suggested of $300 (which is half the price of our annual in person event fee) This years event is Online only due to the Pandemic. The donation is not required but we hope anyone that has the capacity to pay this amount or more for the event will do so to help out the fellow bass players. The suggested cost for petite course is $150 and the general observation is $100. We are hoping to meet our goal of raising $40,000 or more. The event in itself is going to helpout all of us emotionally to connect and inspire ourself. However, helping those of us that need it the most at this time would be a great accomplishment of the bass family.
General observation will have no assigned classes but, only a list of classes that they can go to observe. Much the way ISB convention would occur. You won’t be allowed to actively play in the masterclasses. However, if there is something you can join in without disturbing the regular participants (i.e. scales class) please feel free to play along at home.
Playing for Francois Rabbath and your favorite other faculty. This is a limited amount of space. We go with the first enrollments and/or special circumstances. Please ask us as if we can make it happen we’d be glad to but, it’s unfortunately not going to happen for all of us.
We will use Zoom for the virtual classroom. It is a lot like using FaceTime or Skype. YOUR INTERNET SPEED AND HOW CLOSE YOUR DEVICE IS TO YOUR ROUTER WILL GREATLY EFFECT YOUR EXPERIENCE.
We will need a email to use to call you. Usually your device will download the correct app for you and then you insert your class code. (usually you have to do this twice).
In the month of June you are welcome to join one of Johnny’s group classes to find out if your technical side of things work.
Video posts: To make this experience better for all participants (not general observation) we are asking you to make videos of your performances. These videos can be re made during the week as part of your instruction is to make your performances even better. We are asking you to post your video on your youtube or equivalent platform then share the link with us. You will have to make it sharable leading up to the event and during. We would hope for you to keep it up afterwards to provide a wonderful page of great performances of the bass to the world audience. However, at that time you can make your video unpublic. This would be fine as the feelings about the internet is different for everyone. Everyone must feel welcomed and safe. You are welcomed to keep your name off your video and give it a name you can tell your instructor or friends which one is you as each post will have a number. . During the masterclasses we will have the instructors watch this performance to give tips on. This way we will fix the technical issue of the instruments sound in the virtual classroom (it’s sometimes really not good others times it’s ok). Of course you can then talk about specific things and play for the instructor.
Most of the videos can be easily done with your phone camera. 1) Please take some time to make many videos of yourself.
2) We recommend playing with the reference recording and/or virtual or real accompaniment
3) Make sure the picture and the audio sound good by watching them back after doing a take or two.
4) never hurts to wear something cool or treat it like a real concert.
This part will take some time to get better at. Some of you are really good at this so please think as high quality as you can. Take this time to make something professional to share. It will only make the world better.
large Ensemble tracks.
Que Fereait Jacques? by Francois Rabbath see pdf page for downloadable sheet music. There will be a bed track for you to play your part. Most of us will play the easy (vol. 1) or moderate part (vol. 2) part. This is enough for all of us to learn a lot from. Some of us can play the part in Francois Rabbath Vol. 4. which is very complex. There will be some instruction on this piece during the event. The more you prepare the better you will learn.
Summertime for Bass by George Gershwin (see pdfs)
This is a very appropriate piece for this summer and week. When we make time for the bass. For the jazz people this song will be really fun for you to improvise on in the middle. Some of our participants will get featured in the middle while we all play the actual piece. Here is a link to Johnny’s easy version of the song in his book Jamming on the Bass vol. 1. This should give you some ideas on how to improvise if you’ve never tried. You can buy the book in Digital or hard copy at the store.