The Workshop

Aside from opening minds with new music, letting students experience with ‘Eastern positions’ gives them a different perspective on what they work on, and on the way they are being taught. Showing students a totally different way of playing the bass, that is still based on the same principals and positions they are learning makes them get motivated by understanding they can play whatever they want and however they want, with what they acquire by their work on classical repertoire. Read more here.

For double bass players who studies using the common western methods, this kind of workshop opens doors we didn’t know existed until recently. Double bass players will be introduced to the instrument’s traditional part in this music as an accompanying instrument, as well as to a new playing technique which allows expressing this music’s unique elements as a solo instrument.

Playing the double bass as a solo instrument in this music is a completely new field, which is forming as we speak. This new playing technique opens new repertoire and improvisation possibilities for the instrument, and sheds light on areas of the instrument that have been in complete darkness until now.

• “Expanding Traditional Boundaries: The Double Bass and Middle Eastern music“:

This workshop includes acquaintance with the new musical elements, the Arabic modal frameworks, the use of microtonality and rhythmic perception, and demonstrates the use of the double bass in this music not only as an accompaniment, but also as a solo instrument. This extended workshop includes individual hands-on experience with the new technique by all participants. A musical piece from the Arabic tradition, arranged for a group of double basses, will be played together by participants.

Duration of the workshop: Two and a half hours with no break.

Suitable for western double bass students of all levels.

• “A Perfect Match: a Mini Course“

This mini course includes the “Expanding Traditional Boundaries” workshop, along with two additional meetings in which we will strengthen our familiarity with the method for playing eastern positions, and discuss other interesting and important issues such as ornamentation in Arabic music, analysis of common modal framework behavior and improvisation.

Duration: Three meetings of two and a half hours.

Suitable for western double bass students of all levels.

My Workshop at the International Society of Bassists (ISB) convention was covered on Jason Heath’s Doublebassblog as one of the highlights of the event, read the post.

Here is a mention on “BASS WORLD” magazine:

Attendants say:

• “The workshop created a great interest for me, and I am sure to delve into this style in the future”
• “This was the newest and most interesting thing I heard today, and was a lot of fun”
• “The music is enchanting, and experiencing playing it helped me understand many new things.”
• “Your workshop was the most refreshing thing in the conference – thank you.”
• “The comparisons to western music and the examples you played were a real eye opener”.

This is a short video from the Middle Eastern double bass seminar I have conducted at the “Mediterranean Musical Dialogue” held in Jerusalem, Dec.19-25 2011.

More videos from workshops and other video clips of mine on my YouTube Chanel.

For full information see here: Middle Eastern Double Bass Workshops (PDF- can take a few seconds to load).