Weird, Wacky, and Potentially Dangerous Ensemble History page.
I’ve put this page here to document the past 14 years of making these wonderful crazy plays with all the bass players across the country. It is my hope that all of you find this page and it helps bring back fun memories of your bass family no matter where you are in your life right now (yes even if you don’t still play the bass all the time). Please send me any pics or vids or a message about your memories and I’ll include them here. This of course includes the parents who helped out or just watched in amazement/horror….. So It was a whirlwind for me but, I have almost all of the scripts but, it would take a lot of work to put who was in the groups and what year… So I’ll let this page work a bit like Wikipedia and let you guys tell me and I’ll update it as we go.
For those that didn’t take part What are we talking about???? This is the dangerous part and I need you to sign the waiver before you continue reading….. Haha. This was the ensemble at the Kcbassworkshop mainly for the youngest/beginning/or possibly very overwhelmed by the week of bass….. I also like to call it Disneyland for Bass players. I do teach kids 3 and up and very much want/expect them to come to the week long camp. I had one of my early parents say to me….You tell me that my kid only practices the bass a lil each day and you want him to come to this week long event…. He’s not ready for that… I said in response… You’d take your kid Disneyland and he’s not ready for that all day or multiple day long…. So that made me dig deep and create a place for all the kids at the camp. So I decided we’d create a play that was all improvised at the camp and use the music from the large Bass Orchestra as our sound track. I was able to practice with them to make them ready for the sometimes overwhelming bass orchestra pieces but, also let them become themselves and feel more comfortable. The amount of Creativity and fun that was unleashed was way beyond my expectations. My main formula is to ask random questions to the kids that are really weird and wacky…. Then sometimes almost randomly put together some kind of script for the final concert. I usually had 5 days but sometimes less.
It’s a week of pure creativity and every time the beginning kids blow the advanced kids off the stage at the end of the week. We rehearse one hour each day while we play games that reinforce the music fundamentals… Whistle while you work!
It was my fellow bass teachers that encouraged me to publish this script and score. They inspired me to give this lecture at the International Society of Bassists convention June 6th 2023. Here is my handout for that hour for anyone who would like to know the pedagogical reasons to be potentially dangerous.
The published script. Score can be purchased in the store for 10 billion girly giggles….
Here’s the play from 2013.