I just finished going through John’s Discover Double Bass course. Roughly 4 hours of video in 50 lessons; even a cursory review took a fair amount of time because it’s not just a lot of content, but much of it I found myself watching multiple times, asking myself, what did he do there? What did he do with his right hand? What was that bass line? If you’re familiar with John’s books, it should be no surprise to you that this new video course is similarly valuable. I think all serious double bass students should have John’s books and this video course along with Ray Brown’s book, Rufus’ book, Mike Downes, and Rabbath’s videos. Barry Harris would be up there too! The Discover Double Bass website worked flawlessly for me throughout which was a relief because I hate out-foxing tech; it just worked, no babying it. The thing is, the video course is a new medium for presenting John’s knowledge, and, probably, in every way, it’s better than the paper book - not as good as having John in the room with you in some ways, but better in other ways because you can rewind and review, practice and review again. Probably the only thing better would be to have a half dozen videographers record your private 4 hour lesson with him. The course is similar in content to John’s Jazz Bass Book, but I didn’t see any duplicated content. Many of the lessons focus on “rudiments”: coordination between the right and left hand, getting a good tone, fast, accurate shifts, intonation, patterns, etc. If you’re a more developed player, you might run across these and think “I got this” but I find that, as John recommends, I need to continually revisit these rudiments because even if I’ve “mastered” them previously, I develop new bad - sloppy - habits that I uncover when I re-work these exercises. It occurred to me while I was watching the video, that to a large extent, that really is the secret to John’s amazing playing: he’s famous for appearing so relaxed while he performs and now I understand why, because his devoted focus to mastering these rudiments has provided him with complete freedom to execute his musical ideas accurately and easily in the moment. Duh! And he tells you HOW he did it! No secret handshake required! Throw in a few bass line and solo studies, on both familiar and original tunes, all of which were great and informative: a historical perspective on Blue Bossa, John’s original atmospheric waltz, Fall Calls, which I’ve already added to my set list, and some others, and a serious student could easily spend a month on each lesson - and yeah, they’re on my todo practice list. To top it off, you get to watch John’s technique in action - how his hands coordinate, right hand technique, LEFT hand technique, bowing, Oy! Just watching these parts of the videos is a course unto itself. And, his rhythm section is a joy to listen to too; I’ll buy their album! Excuse me while I return to my rudiments practice and listen back to my recordings of myself and wait for VOLUME TWO!
Really glad to find this today. I have had John's Jazz bass book for around 15 years, and used it in my own teaching. This video is like taking a private lesson with him!
Grady Tate ( drummer) had a jiu-jitsu hold on Ray Brown so Ray Brown won't get ahead of him😆😂🤣, he had Ray Brown lock down on Killer Joe. Drummer and the pianist are fantastic, John Goldsby is a outstanding bassist. I own his new book Jazz Book Technique and Tradition by John Goldsby and the Forward by Ron Carter ( Back Beat Books). Also get Ray Brown Bass Methods Essential Scales, Patterns, and Exercises Hal Leonard Books . Two fantastic books worth owning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John, even this sample taste is very useful. I have been trying very hard to work on efficient fingering of certain lines across the strings as opposed to up and down the strings while incorporating open strings wherever possible. Sometimes I will make up little mini etudes to go from A to B (pun intended) in multiple ways depending on where you're going next. You're very inspirational! Stay healthy my friend.
No, but I agree we could have focused a little bit more, especially on the triplet drops. We did do some very detailed lessons with lots of focus on the right hand when that's the core topic though.
