Toyota Matrix

Having earlier struck out on finding a new Matrix at a dealership, we tried a used model. I think it was a 2010. I don’t know if there are significant changes for the current or upcoming model year. (If you just have to know, check Cars.com)

The bass fit on the “60″ side of the folding rear seats, not only standing up, but even on it’s back. That is somewhat unusual, in my experience. There’s a reasonable bit of space left for some other equipment, as well. Of course the bass also fit on its side. But, too bad, it could not fit in the “40″ side of the split, even when on its side–that would have been quite handy.

The seatbacks folded down to make quite a flat surface, probably very handy when packing for other purposes.

Projection of the scroll into the driver’s space was minimal, although it’s possible that it could be irritating on a longer drive.

We took the Matrix out for a spin. In the end, it was not a car that we were fully comfortable with. The slope of the front hood was hard for us to get used to… it just fell away such that one couldn’t really tell where the front of the car was when parallel parking.

Mazda Mazda2

After trying the Matrix, we were standing in the dealership’s main floor near a Mazda2. It wasn’t a car that we had thought of putting in our consideration set. But I was there with my bass, and one of the salesman walked by and practically dared us to try it. He thought he was joking with us, but I took the challenge.

Lo and behold, it fit. It fit just about the same way the bass used to fit in my Volkswagen Golf. Of course, it fit easily with both sides of the rear seat folded down. It also fit on its side with just the “60″ side folded down. And in that position, the bridge faced away from the rear-seat passenger and any other equipment that might be stowed. In my opinion, that’s a good thing, as other gear shifting in the back would not hit the bridge.

Projection into the driver’s area is considerable, there’s no doubt about that. The Mazda2 is a smaller car than any of the others we tried. But as I said, I used to put this bass in a VW Golf, and this is exactly how it fit. From the picture, you might think that the scroll is very much in the driver’s way, but in practice, it is not. The peg box is actually so far forward that it does not impinge on the driver’s freedom of movement.

Granted, there is not a lot of room for additional gear, if one assumes three humans. But that is pretty rare for us, so it’s not a worry. That day when I’m playing a jazz gig (requiring an amplifier) and bringing my wife and daughter along, well, maybe I’ll just buy a smaller amp.

The Winner … for us … Mazda2

As illustrated by this and the previous car shopping posts (I’ve linked to it three times! go there!!) the fit of my bass was our primary concern. Others played a role: my wife refuses to drive a black, gray, white or silver car (“too boring!”) and I support her. We also had been looking to save some money by buying used and financing through a credit union of which I am a member.

I didn't park it next to the fire hydrant! And there's the old Subaru in the background

But in the end, when we discovered that Mazda was offering 0% 60-month financing on new Mazda2s, and that our local dealer had several in Aquatic Blue Mica and Spirited Green Metallic, we decided to go for a brand new Mazda Mazda2. After a longer-then-we-would-have-liked* negotiation and paperwork session, we drove home in our new car.

* Longer than we would have chosen, but far from being a horror story. I do recommend Autobarn Evanston for an overall good shopping experience. But don’t do your final shopping–at any car dealer–on a Saturday morning, if you can avoid it!

The event is presented locally by Rush Hour Concerts. Performances take place at a variety of sites around the city.

As I’m posting this on April 26, I haven’t chosen repertoire yet, but there are a couple of pieces that I hope will be ready in time: Harrison’s Clocks and Rocket Man, both composed by Tony Osborne, under commission from a big group of bassists and Tony Osborne fans, among which I and the Chicago Bass Ensemble number.

So as before, I’ll update this post as more details become available (time, location, music). If you want to be on our mailing list, to which I occasionally send announcements, sign up for our mailing list!

Mainly I’ve been

• getting the hang of a new day gig
• trying to arrange a music reading session
• attempting to woodshed material for the New York Philharmonic audition
• and shopping for a car.

It’s that last that is the subject of today’s post. How does a bass player find a car that fits him? You take your bass to the dealership, of course.

Thursday night, my wife and I did a whirlwind tour of four dealerships (well, three dealers, four brands actually) with bass in hand to see which of these–in hatchback body style–might be suitable for us:

• Nissan Versa
• Toyota Matrix
• Mazda Mazda3
• Honda Fit

Unfortunately, Chicago Northside Toyota/Scion did not have a Matrix on the showroom floor, so that one will have to wait.

The goal for my wife and I is to be able to fit the bass and three people (driver and two passengers) and still have some room left over for other things (small amplifier, collapsible music stand, luggage?). Although we didn’t specifically check it, keeping a relatively unrestricted view from the driver’s seat to the back window is also important.

For all these cars, we just went to whatever vehicle was on the showroom floor. I didn’t make note of whatever option packages and such were on the vehicles.

Mazda Mazda3

On its back, my bass fits in the "60" side of the split rear seats.

Enough headroom for the bass to be on its side, as well. But still on the "60" side of the split.

My bass fit neatly into the “60″ side of the split folding rear seats in the 2012 Mazda Mazda3 hatchback. The scroll and tuning keys rested on the center armrest between the front seats, so a little something placed under the heel of the neck will be a necessity in order to prevent damage to the tuning gears.

The bass fit both lying down on its back as well as on its side, but always on the “60″ side. The “40″ side of the split seats was not wide enough to accommodate the bass in either orientation.

The fold-down seats made a very nice flat surface. The lip of the trunk is not too deep; I had no trouble maneuvering the bass in and out by myself, using my usual grip-points on the case.

Since the bass fit on the “60″ side of the rear seats, there’s room for a passenger in the “40″ side, and next to the bass there remains room for some stuff. Not a LOT of stuff, but some.

Honda Fit

The bass fit in the Fit, no problem ... but on its back, the bass required that both parts of the rear seat be folded down.

The rear area of the Honda Fit, once the seats are folded down, is … huge! for the size car it is. The floor of the cargo area is very low compared to the Mazda3 and the Versa, and the seats fold quite flat. In spite of the deep lip, I still didn’t have a problem getting the bass in and out. But on its back, my bass required that the entire rear seat be folded down. This is of course a problem for the goal of fitting a third person into the car.

It was a tight squeeze for the scroll between the two front seats.

Up front, the scroll was very tightly pinched between the driver’s and passenger’s seats. A block of some sort below the heel would elevate the scroll by angling the bass upward. This might cause it to feel a bit close to the shoulders of the occupants, but would probably be workable.

On its side, the bass' scroll will tickle the passenger all the way to the gig.

Putting the bass on its side would allow the “40″ side of the rear seat to remain a seat, solving the problem of the third human occupant. But this position caused the scroll to angle into the front passenger seat in a way that would be quite uncomfortable for an extended trip.

There were other ways of getting the bass in. For instance, the front passenger seat reclines all the way back, to nearly flat. The bass can then ride cleanly on the passenger side, with only the “40″ side of the rear seat folded down, leaving the “60″ side for passengers. Technically that meets our 3-person goal, but for a long drive? Not really.

Also, the seat of the rear seats actually folds UP, allowing plenty of room for something fairly tall from the footwell-level to the ceiling. The salesman suggested for instance if you bought a tall plant a a garden center, it could ride home without bending over. I could also see my SWR Baby Blue amplifier fitting neatly there.

Julian Romane has a 2008 Fit and describes getting his bass, his wife’s cello and their daughter in their car “comfortably.” It didn’t look like that was going to be the case for me; it may be that the upper bouts on my bass are just enough bigger than his bass to change the dynamic. It could also be that the 2012 model has enough interior differences to account for the change. I’ll have to borrow his car someday to test out the theory.

Nissan Versa

An optional accessory container in the cargo area brought the effective floor level up to the seat backs.

The Nissan Versa’s cargo compartment was a little surprising to us. The area behind the rear seats goes down pretty far, but unlike in the Fit the seat backs of the rear seat do not match the level of the cargo floor. This means that the lower bout of the bass would be quite deep and the bass would angle up steeply. However, in the model we looked at, an accessory container filled the space to near-level with the folded down seats. For my bass, it was necessary to fold down both parts of the rear seat back in order lie the bass on its back. The projection of the scroll between the front seats wasn’t too bad, although I think we lost the use of a cupholder there.

The face of a guy who has to think about financing a car.

The rear area was tall enough to allow the bass to be on its side, and that meant that the “40″ side of the rear seat was usable. But in this position, the height and angle of the scroll projecting into the front seats might have been uncomfortable on a long trip.

It didn’t seem to us like the Versa was going to work for us. In addition, the cargo cover seemed insubstantial and cheaply attached. Our impression was similar in the rest of the car, sort of lightweight and plastic. Of course, it’s not an expensive car.

Dealers

A quick shout-out of thanks to these dealerships for humoring us on this expedition:

• Autobarn Evanston - both Mazda and Nissan
• Carr’s Honda
• Chicago Northside Toyota/Scion … hopefully we can come back to try the Matrix.

Other Resources

I’d be completely remiss if I didn’t point out that Cars.com is a terrific place to do your searching for a car online. Now c’mon guys, implement that “shopper’s helper” page that I sketched out! I need it now!

Now added: Part 2 of our car shopping journey.

I’ve received files from our performance at the Experimental Sound Studio, and will be posting them to SoundCloud sometime in the next seven days or so. I haven’t really listened to everything yet; it seems like life is just a whirlwind of all kinds of activity. If you haven’t listened to it already, the recording of Autogenous Mining from the Chicago Bass Festival is pretty good! When I post the files from February 3, we’ll be able to compare two performances, each with its own character.

I’ve received responses from a handful of local bassists and will soon be setting up a music reading session–probably right at the end of March. I still have a reasonable backlog of music I acquired at last summer’s ISB Convention which I haven’t heard yet.

Finally, I sent off programs from our January and February performances to the composers who were represented but were not present. I know if I were the composer, I’d be glad to learn something about the life of my music after it leaves my hands.

As the guy who’s been sending e-mails, scheduling rehearsals, attending rehearsals, practicing and generally worrying about as many details as I could handle for this whole thing, I’m super happy that it went so well tonight.

There’s a lot to say about how this was as an organizer — all the ‘-ing’ words in the previous sentence, what kind of plans I made, efforts in social media and in advertising, what plans I actually carried out, how much I spent (money and effort). But it’s late at night now, and I need to keep in shape for the climax of this several months work, our performance at the Chicago Bass Festival.

I also have to work out how I got two entire bars ahead in Ultra-Rondo tonight, and how I’m going to prevent that from happening on Sunday!

Cheers, everyone! Thanks to those of you who attended, and see you Sunday to everyone else!

There is still preparation to be done for our performances at the Experimental Sound Studio and the Chicago Bass Festival.

Done:

• Scheduled a couple of rehearsals to work on Autogenous Mining.
• Provided a more or less complete equipment requirements list to ESS, and
• a slightly less complete list to the Bass Festival.
• I’ve been working on my part … getting the locations of all those harmonics drilled into my fingers!
• Sent an e-mail to my “bass players” list, working on setting up a reading session in March.

I'm glad it's labeled "Double Bass Ensemble;" it's a better explanation of what we are, until we're world-famous.

I had a really great feeling of kind of “floating” through the performance. In the past, I’ve often felt that I had to be working really “hard” to perform successfully. I think that I didn’t really believe I was playing unless I was sweating bullets.

But I prepared a little differently for this performance. I spent a good deal of time, especially in the last week, practicing slowly. My goal for the week before the performance was to play each piece once each day at half tempo. The theory behind this is that if you can’t play a shift or a rhythm properly slowly, there’s no way you’ll be able to play it fast. Train your body to play accurately at a slow tempo and when the tempo is fast, muscle memory will take over for you.

I’m pleased at the outcome of the concert. I had worried that we hand’t truly had enough rehearsal time, and while there were a few slip-ups (you know who you are!), I think we played well. The concert was well-received by a good-sized audience. Ken Whitney, the Music Director and our contact at the church was pleased with our presentation and complimented us on Facebook. I was very happy to see work colleagues Vince Mease and Laura Claggett, and friends Ann Wilson and Dave Newcorn in the audience.

In an earlier post on this site, I discussed some of my thoughts on designing the concert experience. Here are a few reflections on what I set out to do about the design of the concert.

Understanding the Audience: I never did actually ask Ken what he considered to be the “demographic” of the audience for this concert. I played my hunch, and I think I got it right. I introduced most of the pieces with some anecdote or a bit of something to “hold on to” as the audience listened, and although I don’t have any proof, I believe that people appreciated that “softening” or “humanizing” of the concert experience.

Pacing: Good, but not great pacing, I think. The motets were possibly too lugubrious and softly played. rather than a chance to cleanse one’s sonic palette, they might have been a bit solemn. I didn’t get any specific reaction, but as we played Ultra-Rondo I wondered if I had kept my word that even the modern pieces we played wouldn’t be jarring. I certainly don’t consider that piece jarring–after all, it’s not atonal or serial music–but did it take the audience too far? Maybe someone will let me know.

Peak-End Effect: Here, I think I got it just right. Both halves of the program ended with exciting, upbeat pieces. A few people remarked to me that A Night in Compostela was their favorite piece, and in that case, they left the hall with it fully in their ears.

The bottom line? Success. I’m very pleased with the way this turned out, and I’m looking forward to our next two engagements. I offer my thanks to my colleagues Anton Hatwich, Julian Romane and Dan Thatcher as well as to Ken Whitney and the First Presbyterian Church of Arlington Heights.

If you missed us January 15, First Presbyterian did record the performance, and has made it available on through a webcast: Chicago Bass Ensemble performance part 1 and part 2. (Regrettably, the microphones were not well-positioned for our performance, so the volume is low, but you can at least get a sense of the performance.)

What do I have to do today?

• Remind all the players about what to wear, when we’re meeting, that kind of stuff
• Perhaps, send a note to the mailing list–for instance, only to those folks who have set “Illinois” as their location. But maybe not; I don’t want to wear out my readers, and I’ve already sent a number of messages this year.
• Practice! A slow once-through of all the pieces, at least once today, perhaps twice.
• And take a nap to allow neural synapses to connect that slow practicing in my brain.

And what do I have to do soon?

• Work on setting up two rehearsals (minimum) for Autogenous Mining, which we’ll play on February 3 (not that far away!)
• Hammer out details of our needs for performance February 5 at the Chicago Bass Festival

• Got the handout printed
• Some good slow practicing (half tempo) this week
• finalized the program order for January 15
• finalized the program order for February 3

Handout created by Anthony Ponchelle

• de Victoria (Cameron) Three Spanish Motets
• O quam gloriosum est est regnum
• O magnum mysterium
• Jan Alm Quartet #1
• Hadyn (Hatwich) Adagio
• Purcell (Stoll) Air and Dance

INTERMISSION

• de Victoria (Cameron) O vos omnes
• Russell Ultra-Rondo [U.S. Premiere]
• Simón García A Night in Compostela [U.S. Premiere]