KCBass has got our lifetime faculty member and L.A. Philharmonic bassist Ted Botsford to perform the excerpts that are asked for Kansas and Missouri bassist. He also provides insight into each one after the performance. Ted was a George Vance student and grew up in workshops just like the kcbass. He is a true inspiration as he gets to work in one of the great orchestras in the world performing the masterworks such as these.
All of the faculty at kcbass encourage you to try out for the district and state orchestras but, also your school orchestras, youth symphony, and community orchestras. Each one of you have different opportunities to play with other musicians…. please try them. This offers a rich lifetime of playing bass that we hope you enjoy. It’s super fun to do solo playing and bass orchestra stuff that we do at our events as well. Our instrument has the best of all things. Please don’t forget to like our youtube channel or on facebook or instagram. For the youngest students you already know the Mahler symphony no. 1 3rd movement (very beginning of the movement you hear the bass). You may only know the version you play in the books but, it’s a solo version and it’s really cool to play with all the other instruments. This is the best piece to start listening to Orchestra music if you don’t already. Other great Orchestra pieces in the George Vance books are: Sheep May Safely Graze by J.S. Bach, Jesu, Joy of Man’s desiring by J.S. Bach, The Elephant from the Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens, Russian’s Sailor’s Dance by Gliere, and Beethoven Symphony no. 9. Of course there are other great classical pieces but, these are mainly orchestra pieces. Remember that the Baroque orchestra was smaller and it grew thru the Classical and Romantic eras. This is always easier to hear by just listening and watching videos of pieces like these.
A list of Orchestra pieces that maybe if you are looking for pieces you may have heard before.
Great links to Ted Botsford on his faculty page on our website.
KS 20230-24 District and State auditions (note Kansas asks to prepare everything and they will pick at audition). Please take the tempos you can on anything that is played at a tempo too fast for you currently. Metronome work is highly recommended to overcome any issue in this regards. It is Far better to play the correct rhythm
The sheet music for these excerpts can be found at Ksmea.org under excerpts for Kansas and Mostaweb.org under excerpts.
Also the youtube score of each piece is also highly recommended to listen and watch the bass part go by for the whole piece. This is a great way to study the orchestra part. all of them are the next youtube with the time of when the excerpt is in the piece. It is recommended to play up to the part required to better play the part. A bit like knowing the whole piece will inform your small excerpt. This is usually easier sight reading parts as the excerpts are generally the harder section of the piece.
You may also find the orchestra bass part for the entire piece at Imslp.org under the name of the piece in parts. This is highly recommended for many of you that have finished or almost finished the George Vance method books.
George put the 9th symphony by Beethoven in the final book to encourage you to seek out these amazing works of art. You are ready to play these great baselines if you can play concertos (vol. 3). Anyone still in vol 1 or 2 note that you are ready for some great bass parts (such as the Mahler symphony no. 1 3rd movement) but there will still be some challenging things. Please enjoy the idea of being part of a larger work of art than a solo piece. These are some of the greatest works of art known to the world.
Regardless, always have fun playing and practicing the bass.
These are the Missouri state requirements (note the district requirements are usually picked beforehand and you should ask your orchestra director. Prepare the district ones first of course).
These are the Kansas all state auditions. You are to prepare all and then they pick the day of the district auditions (so you will not have to play them all at audition).