 |
John Lockwood, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Bass Department"I basically learned on the bandstand. I got called for these gigs that I shouldn't have taken, I suppose, looking back. People just proceeded to shout and scream at me, and that's how I learned. Piecing things together. So when I teach it's the same thing. A student walks in, I teach them the tune, and—bang—we're off. It's pretty much playing all the time. Once we get into it there's sheets and things like that, but it's mainly playing and then talking about concepts. To me, it's the best kind of learning. You learn fast."
Read More |
Ed Lucie, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Bass Department"I use a sports analogy all the time. Let's take a great baseball player, Kevin Youkilis. You rarely see him disappoint anybody. But just think of how many times he gets up and practices batting. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of times. What does he do before the game, even when the season's in full spring? He goes to batting practice. Now it's the game. We're in the bottom of the ninth, there are two outs, bases are loaded. Kevin Youkilis comes up. The last thing he wants to think about is his swing. He has to just stand there and trust all of that preparation, that he can react creatively to the next pitch. And that's kind of how we have to play. We have to practice and practice and practice and practice, and now in the moment we have to let everything go and just play."
Read More |
Daniel Morris, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Bass Department"The typical bass student at Berklee is very much a novice when it comes to understanding the role of the bassist in a group. Many of them have developed skills, flashy skills, what I like to refer to as 'music store chops.' These musicians sound great in a music store. They do some very fast playing, very exciting stuff that you can actually use at the end of a solo and the crowd will go nuts. But they're spending way too much time on that, and they're not spending enough time on the fundamental maxim of bass, which is: The bass player's role is to keep time and to address the tonality of the moment."
Read More |
John Patitucci, Artist in Residence
DEPARTMENT : Bass Department- Three-time Grammy Award winner
- Fourteen Grammy nominations
- Played on many Grammy Award-winning recordings
- Thirteen solo recordings
- Latest CD, Remembrance, features saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Brian Blade
- Performed and/or recorded with jazz giants such as Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Haynes, Wynton Marsalis, Michael Brecker, Kenny Garrett, Victor Feldman, Nancy Wilson, and countless others
- Latest instructional book, Melodic Arpeggios and Triad Combining, published by David Gage
- Formerly the artistic director of the Bass Collective, a specialized school in New York
- Professor of Music at the City College of New York, 2002-2012
- Performed bass concerto A Prayer Out of Stillness by British composer Mark Anthony Turnage with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (featured on a live broadcast by the BBC), the Trondheim Symphony of Norway, the St. Louis Symphony, and the London Symphony Orchestra
- Launched interactive online bass school through ArtistWorks.com in 2013
 |
Joe Santerre, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Bass Department"My approach to teaching is tailored to the individual student. Each student is unique in his or her strengths, weaknesses, goals, and desires. Therefore, I try to custom design each individual's private lessons, so that strengths are reinforced, weaknesses are strengthened, and every student's goals and desires are reached, or at least moved closer."
Read More |
Barry Smith, Assistant Professor
DEPARTMENT : Bass Department"One of the main things I see the students need is to be able to play the instrument well. Their improvising will be limited to what they can do as far as getting around the instrument, so I'm concentrating on making sure they can comfortably play whatever they need to play—all the different scales and chords, how to arpeggiate their way through chords, the inversion of chords, that kind of thing. I get them started on that, then try to apply it to their playing, whether they're playing bass lines or soloing."
Read More |
Oscar Stagnaro, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Bass Department"Most of the people who come to my classes have little knowledge of what I'm teaching, so I try to open the door. I try to make it as simple as I can so they can feel close to the material, so that it's not impossible for them to learn. If I learned it, they can learn it. I have to prepare them for the real world. That's why I'm there. I always tell them, 'If you want to study with me, I'll prepare you, so when you leave here, you'll work.' That's my mission. You're gonna work. I play a lot of different styles, so I try to teach my students a little bit of what I do, music from all over the world. If they only play blues when they get out of school, for example, it'll be much tougher for them to find a gig."
Read More |
Anthony Vitti, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Bass Department"Between Berklee and summers hanging with legendary artists, all my learning was about being a great rhythm section player. And that totally translates into how I teach today. I want my students to have the solid fundamentals to be great working bass players for all styles. The top things I focus on are time, note placement, the length of their notes, note selections, and consistency. I also want them to concentrate less on how many notes they're playing and more on rhythmic depth, to be a more supportive player—yet to be able to do their individual thing, shine through, and play with confidence."
Read More