Donovan Stokes Articles
Upright Slap Bass (Rockabilly/Psychobilly): Instrument Setup and Equipment
This is the final installment of Dr. D’s 3-part Slap Bass series. Check out part 1 and part 2.
In addition to having its own specialized musical and technical considerations, Playing Upright Slap has its own particular instrumental setup issues. Here are some basic things slap players need to think about when customizing their bass [...]
The Lowdown with Dr. D.: Upright Slap Bass: Starter tips and etudes
This is part 2 of the Upright Slap Bass series by Dr. D.
Here are a few etudes to help you improve your slapping. We will use a two octave G blues scale (6 note version) as our starting point. You can use any scale, arpeggio or lick you want, but this is as good [...]
The Lowdown with Dr. D.: Upright Slap Bass (Rockabilly/Psychobilly etc.) – Intro: part 1 of 3
In my opinion, one of the more interesting things you can do on the Upright these days is Slap it! Beyond it’s hipitude, it is a legitimate technique, just like arco (bow) and pizzicato (plucked), and it can make you more employable if you master it. So let’s take a look at the technique.
What [...]
The Lowdown with Dr. D.: Three Requirements of Attainment: The Student
Note: This is part 3 of 3 of Dr. D’s current series. See part 1 and part 2.
The Student
The most important ingredient needed to acquire a skill is not a good Method or a good Teacher, but rather a good Student. Even with the highest quality Method and Teacher, a poor quality Student will not [...]
The Lowdown with Dr. D.: Three Requirements of Attainment (Part 2 of 3: Teacher)
The Teacher
The second requirement for the attainment of any skill is a teacher. A good teacher can enhance learning efficiency, streamline progress and illuminate method.
You can certainly learn without a teacher and there is a vast amount of information available to us: DVDs, video demonstrations, books, columns, articles, etc. While these can be valuable resources, [...]
The Lowdown with Dr. D.: Three Requirements of Attainment (Part 1 of 3: Method)
Presumably we are all searching for mastery on our instrument, and yet some people spend years playing and studying the Upright Bass and achieve very little, whereas others spend a quarter of the time and achieve a great deal. In keeping with my “getting started” theme of late, and to ensure that we fall into [...]
The Lowdown with Dr. D.: Making the Switch from Electric to Upright (part 3 of 3)
The Left Hand
Contrary to what many of us expect when we hop on over from Electric, effective and reliable left hand technique can be one of our more formidable challenges as a switcher. We will be learning a new way to use our left hand on an instrument that seems so similar to one [...]
A review Donovan Stokes’s “Gadaha”
Many things come to mind with the upright bass. I guarantee that Donovan Stokes will prove to you that this instrument is more than what you think it is. Gadaha is an acoustic solo bass album – and it’s awesome. That’s right young travelers, there is an acoustic no-overdub upright bass album that that will [...]
Bass, Bass, Bass, Bass, Bass and Bass
Our very own Donovan Stokes posted this video, featuring his bass studio at Shenandoah University.
The group, performing “Bass, Bass, Bass, Bass, Bass and Bass” by Christian Gentet from L’orchestre de Contrebasses (France), includes Dr. Stokes, Allegra Hale, Eric Price, Kevin Johnson, Robin Rhodes and Maya Jones.
The performance gets the big No Treble stamp of approval.
The Lowdown with Dr. D.: Making the Switch from Electric to Upright (part 2 of 3)
Last time we talked about some of the general concepts involved in making the switch from Electric to Upright Bass. It’s a fairly big subject, so we are going to continue down this road for the next several installments.
As I mentioned last time, an accomplished Electric player can often pump out a [...]
