When I got the podcast going again in 2015, I knew that I wanted to do “round two” interviews with past guests. Los Angeles Philharmonic bassist and USC Thornton School of Music professor David Allen Moore was at the top of my list.
I had David on the show back in 2009, which has been one of the most popular interviews from the first-generation podcast episodes (nearly 14,000 downloads at the moment).
A lot has changed for David since we last spoke:
- He took a sabbatical and, after analyzing Edgar Meyer’s technique, developed the concept of fractal fingerings.
- He wrote a book on Fractal Fingerings.
- He became an ultra-marathon runner.
Several of my former students have studied with David over the years. When I asked them who had the biggest impact on them as a musician and as a person, David was the first person they mentioned.
I headed down to Los Angeles and we met up at his USC studio. Here’s a shot of us along with bassists Fernando de la Fuente and Dan Carson (another former student of mine!).
We dig into all kinds of topics, including:
- building an internal map
- how bass pedagogy is still catching up to reality
- analyzing Edgar Meyer’s bass playing
- the concept of framing
- Rabbath’s approach and the German bow
- how practicing is a creative process
- how running changed David’s approach to various aspects of life
- fractal fingering
- peak performance
- raising your floor as well as your ceiling
- reveling in your successes
…and much more!
Links to check out:
- David’s previous podcast appearance
- Videos on Musaic (New World Symphony’s great service)
- Domaine Forget (David teaches there in the summer)
- David’s LA Phil page
- David’s USC page
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