YOUR QUESTION:

08/24/2019 7:36:45 Jorge Castro

Hello trevor. As a huge can of your career and musicianship, i am really glad that your Back on Q/A on your website. When you are on tour, how you manage to switch your mind to play different kinds of music? And this question also implies The instruments. Sometimes you play electric Bass or Double Bass? I also play both, started as well with electric but i rarely study E-bass. Only Double Bass. As a daily routine, you dedicate your attention to both?
Because of your “Classical music” training, did your conceived The idea of making auditions to professional orchestras?
Maybe someday we can manage to play some bottesini’s concerto for 2 basses!

MY ANSWER:

You pinpoint the most difficult aspect of playing different kinds of music. There is not so much ‘in the mind’ I need to change. Music is music after all; rhythm is rhythm regardless of genre. Switching between two physically different instruments is the real challenge. For that I rely on warming up —preferably slowly, and getting my hands adjusted to the neck/fingerboard of any given bass. Simple scales and chromatic exercises are perfect for that.

I used to have more time to practice and there was a period where I was spending many hours on both electric and upright basses (four hours on upright then four hours on electric). These days I dedicate any practice time to upright as it is the most challenging and nothing beats classical technique for getting your chops in shape. I often practice orchestral excerpts and image that if I ever retire it will include joining an orchestra and chilling with some Shostakovich. And yes, bring on the Bottesini!