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Lessons
 

I have been teaching electric bass, double bass and music theory for more than 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 number of 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 teach to both single individuals and groups of students. My school is in Bologna, in a newly refurbished building near the city centre.


Courses overview
 My electric bass and double bass courses are structured into 3 levels. Each course analyses 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 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).

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

A lesson can last from one to two hours, according to how much time and effort the student can dedicate. Basically I believe that one lesson per week is the best but in some cases (i.e. before an exam or a concert) it may be useful to meet at least twice a week.

Before starting the lessons, I arrange a preliminary interview and in some cases a sort of practical test with the student, so as to identify his/her objectives and assess their proficiency level.

I generally advise my students to begin from the very first unit of my book, even if they might already know what it talks about. Since my method does an in-depth analysis of every subject from a theoretical and practical point of view, I want to ensure there are no "untapped" areas. In case a student has a good level, we can decide to study a few units simultaneously.

From Level two, I suggest that my handbook is complemented by other texts for further progress.

Any complementary subject is agreed beforehand with the student according to the specialisation they want 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 developed simultaneously:

  • Aural: using the instrument to reproduce what is being played by other musicians or one's own musical idea while it is being sung.
  • Visual: being able to visualise scales, arpeggios, positions on the keyboard while playing.
  • Kinestetic: using the instrument with the highest possible control and as fast as possible.
  • Semantic: expressing personal emotions, meanings and ideas through music.
  • Syntactic: this is especially relevant for composers, arrangers and improvisers, because they have to combine personal sounds and symbols to organise and synthesize rhythm, melody and harmony into a music product.

Kinds of exercises
To help students reach the aims above, I have organised exercises and drills into three categories:

  • 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 equally needed to develop a good music culture.
  • Music tradition and the imitation principle (especially at a beginner's level) are very useful to develop new ideas.
  • The repetition of passages on the instrument makes them automatic and instinctive.
  • Positive approach: I constantly work to eliminate my students' doubts regarding their instrumental and compositional skills, or their talent.
  • Endless search for a balance between instrumental-compositional technique and artistic creation.
  • An instrument should become an extension of one's own body, physically at one with the musician. For a musician, to study means to tune their own body to their 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 the 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 of teaching.

 

 

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