TizianoZanotti.com

 

 


oHome
oNews
oDiscography oProjects
oWho I am
oLessons
oBooks
oReviews
oAudio
oVideo
oPhotos
oLinks
oPress Kit
oContacts

 

Lessons
 

I have been teaching electric bass, double bass and music theory for nearly twenty-five years. I have worked with both beginners and advanced students, as well as with professional musicians across styles as diverse as rock, jazz and classical.

My programme is based on a series of original manuals I have personally developed and tested, which include both practical and theoretical units. The purpose of my courses is to eliminate any technical, theoretical or musical doubts in order to enable all musicians to achieve their best results according to their individual talents.

I live near Bologna and teach to both single individuals and groups of students.


Courses overview
 My electric bass and double bass courses are structured into 3 levels. Each course analyses in detail the elements that are needed to build both accompaniment and solo lines. A lesson is an ensemble of interconnected subjects that include practical drills, instrumental technique, music theory, sight reading and ear training.

At level One, you will learn the hands technique and how to build accompaniment lines (chords, arpeggios, exercises on the major and blues scales, sight reading).

At level Two and Three, you will learn how to play as a soloist and how to interpret different music genres like rock, funky, Latin and jazz (extended chords, principles of harmony analysis, modes of the minor melodic, harmonic, diminished and hexatonal scales, substitutions, melody harmonization).

The lessons
I provide personalised lessons, this means that although a musician needs to acquire many different skills (reading, improvisation, harmony, rhythmic divisions, capacity to play different styles and to use different techniques...), the learning process can vary from one person to another depending on several factors, such as time availability, prior experiences, clarity about aims, and ability to organise one's own work.

A lesson can last from one to two hours, depending on how much time and effort the student can dedicate. Basically I believe that one lesson a week is the best way but in some cases (i.e. before an exam or a concert) it might be useful to arrange more than one session per week.

Before starting the lessons, I need to arrange a preliminary interview and in some cases even a practical demonstration, so as to identify the student's objectives and assess his/her proficiency level.

I generally advise my students to start from the very first unit of my book, even if it might contain topics they presumably know. Since my method analyses in detail every subject from a theoretical and practical point of view, I want to ensure that there are no "untapped" areas. In case a student has a good knowledge, we might decide to use a few units at a time.

From level two, my handbook should be complemented by other material to enhance further progression.

Any complementary subject is agreed beforehand by student and teacher according to which specialisation the student wants to get. Main subjects are: ear training, tonal harmony, jazz harmony, contemporary harmony, piano practice, hands coordination, listening guide, music history, sight reading, style and technique analysis.
 
Electric bass


Programme

Course textbooks

Table of contents Volume 1

Table of contents Volume 2

Introduction to the Electric Bass Course

 
 

Double bass

Programme

Course textbooks

 

 

 
 

Theory and Harmony

Programmes
 

 

  

My methodology
 I have identified five general aims to improvement. They are all equally important and should be handled simultaneously:

  • Aural: using the instrument to reproduce what is being played by another musician or to reproduce one's own musical idea as it is sung.
  • Visual: using the instrument while visualising scales, arpeggios, positions on the keyboard.
  • Kinestetic: using the instrument with the highest possible control and as fast as possible.
  • Semantic: considering personal emotions, meanings and ideas, as filtered by individual culture, to express one's own musical world.
  • Syntactic: this is especially relevant for composers, arrangers and improvisers, who have to combine personal sounds and symbols to organise and synthesize rhythm, melody, and harmony into their music product.

Kinds of exercises
Electric bass and double bass drills are organised into the following 3 categories, to help students reach the aims above:

  • Theoretic exercises, to write down on music paper or develop mentally.
  • Written practical exercises, to play with the highest possible rhythmic precision for dexterity development.
  • Improvisational exercises, to unleash creative spirit and explore the instrument's potential.

How I teach
A few tips from my teaching method:

  • To study music means to foster one's own cultural, physical and spiritual development. I recommend a global approach to music: ear training, history, instrumental skills, compositional skills are the foundations for a proper music culture development.
  • Music tradition and the imitation principle (especially at a beginner's level) are essential to develop new ideas.
  • The repetition of passages on the instrument makes them automatic and instinctive.
  • Adopting a positive approach: I constantly work to eliminate my students' doubts regarding their instrumental and compositional skills, or their music talents.
  • Endless search for a balance between (instrumental-compositional) technique and study as artistic creation.
  • The instrument should become an extension of the body, physically at one with the musician. Studying is meant as a tuning of the musician to his/her music and instrument.
  • Singing and hands coordination as a first step towards music achievement.
  • Pathways are flexible to meet the students' actual needs, but at the same time they are well planned. With planning I mean that course content is clarified in advance and teaching is never left to the teacher's extemporaneous improvisation.
  • I have being collecting and analysing information on the quality and effectiveness of my methods ever since. I use such data to reorganise and improve my way to teach.

 

 

Back to top