George Vance

It is rare in music pedagogy that something truly revolutionary comes along. Progressive Repertoire is the first English language method for beginning Double Bass to incorporate the innovative division of the Bass fingerboard into six positions, developed by renowned French bassist François Rabbath in his three volume Nouvelle Technique de la Contrebasse. Mr. Vance has created a method that introduces these revolutionary ideas in a progressive manner using familiar folk and classical material to produce studies and pieces that will appeal to novice Basses of all ages. In addition, a Compact Disc or MP3 download is included with each of the primary books containing all the music performed by François Rabbath, with Elizabeth Azcona-Hartmark, piano.Progressive Repertoire for Double Bass will introduce American teachers and students to the most important techniques developed for the instrument.

Johnny wrote some thoughts about George’s teaching to him. It has a lot of what George was working toward. Something that we see very present in the KCBASS workshops. Generations have now benefited from George’s work.

This Interview was transcribed by Johnny Hamil and Christian Chesanek and published in ISB magazine. It is an important document to anyone wanting to understand George’s overall philosophy and insight into his reasons to construct the progressive Repertoire sequence with Annette Costanzi.

Podcasts to listen to more about George by Johnny Hamil and many of the people who his teachings continue on with.

George Vance and His Influence