Playing Bass in Musical Theatre

Welcome to my new blog, specifically to do with the bass in musical theatre.

I’ve been playing bass for nearly 35 years, and in the past 5 years I’ve been working a lot in musical theatre. Bass parts in musical theatre scores fall between mere sketches of rhythm and chord changes to fully realized orchestra parts. It also forces you to be versatile and to throw away your prejudices. Not a pop and slap person? You need to learn. Picks are for our shorter neck higher pitched relatives? Sometimes they are the only way to cut through.

During a recent production of Hair, my guitarist friend Don Reese (proprietor of Stuart's Music in Lansdale, PA) and I got to talking about the lack of resources for bassists who want to play in musical theatre pits. I'd also noticed that no-one around the blogosphere really discuss the bass in musical theatre.

So, this blog will be a place to put some of these things right, spread the word about the particular disciplines of playing bass in musical theatre, and share some of my insights into how to actually perform some of the parts I’ve come acros…

Enjoy, and please send any feedback, comments, tips or suggestions…