Teaching jazz double bass in the 21st century

Tony Overwater

My initial plan was to do research and catalogue the available existing method books for Jazz bass education. But during the process I realized that matters were more complex than I had foreseen. Jazz (bass) methods were often based on classical music methods but Jazz education demands a different skillset and approach. I reexamined the fundamental building blocks necessary to successfully teach Jazz double bass. For this I designed a graphic theoretical framework that helped me analyze the existing methods. With this information I built a data base and webpage that offers analytical information about the available methods. Methods not limited to the traditional books but also on line learning programs and other methodical teaching material. Furthermore I examined the influence of the technological developments that the computer, smartphones, tablets and the internet have to offer. Teaching Jazz in the 21st century has proven to be much more of a modulair approach than the traditional linear approach.

Jazz Data Bass

While researching the available traditional and newly developed methods, I realised there was such a wealth of material available but it was difficult to get a good overview. Both students and teachers could benefit from all this educational material if it was more structurally available and searchable. Not only did I find the comprehensive methods like the ones by Hein van de Geyn and Rufus Reid but also many more specific methods on certain topics and other forms of methods like the master research by Linda Oh; ‘The New method of rhythmic improvisation for the Jazz bassist’. Published online by the Edith Cowan University. A large part of the new methods is now moving away from paper books and become available as online tutorials at websites, like Artistsworks.com with prominent teachers Among which John Patitucci, Christian McBride and many others.

So, I decided to create an online overview of the available methods. A user driven format where teachers and students can find the available methods and can contribute new methods under the surveillance of a webmaster. I started out with collecting the most important and influential methods and some more obscure but worthwhile ones. In future I will continue to add new found material and I hope others will add their contributions as well.

With this database I hope to offer information to both students and teachers in their search for effective study material. I added the table of contents of each method which provides a good insight in the content of the method. I added the description by the author and in many cases I wrote a short review.

I designed the following format of entries:

Title	ISBN
Author	Attachments
Description by author	Focus (technique, bass lines, history)
Year	Level (beginner, intermediate, advanced)
Format (Book, PDF, website)	Review
Table of contents	Last date of access
URL	Price
Style (eg. Jazz, Big band, bebop)