Marcos Machado is in the middle of launching his excellent and fascinating series Tao of Bass. I saw this book pop up in my Facebook feed in the fall, and I got in touch with Marcos to do an interview about this project.
We dig into topics like:
- how 20 years of scratching his head about bass technique led to this series
- why he settled on Tao of Bass for a title
- the wild mix of pedagogical styles that Marcos draws from
- how important supple technique is for sound
- how the 3rd finger is a secret weapon
- taking a non-dogmatic approach to bass technique
…and much more!
Links to Check Out:
- Marcos’ website
- Tao of Bass website
- Q&A blog on Tao of Bass
- Marcos demonstrates the pivot technique (YouTube)
- Marcos’ Tao of Bass YouTube channel
More about Marcos:
Marcos Machado is the only South American to have earned both the “Teaching” and “Performance” diplomas from the L’Institut International de Contrebasse de Paris where he has studied with renowned double bassist François Rabbath.
While in Brazil, Machado began his double bass studies with Uruguayan professor Milton Romay Masciadri (1931-2009), the former principal bass of the Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra.
Machado later moved to the USA and earned his BM and MM degrees at the University of Georgia, where he was a student of Dr. Milton Walter Masciadri. Marcos holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studied with Professor Michael Cameron.
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