Learning Together: Bass Book & Online Audio

The sequential design lets you build from simple unison repertoire into genuine ensemble work without overwhelming students. Scott, Crock, and Dick wrote this from decades of classroom experience, so every piece balances musical integrity with realistic student capability. The flexibility to perform with harmony parts, bass lines, or piano accompaniment means one book serves your mixed ensemble, sectional rehearsals, and solo development all year long.

These pieces feel approachable yet musically complete. The unison writing lets young players find their voice without the weight of harmonic responsibility, while the included bass lines and harmony parts transform simple melodies into rich, satisfying arrangements that sound like real music making.

This book belongs in the hands of any bass player entering string class, working through private lessons, or joining an ensemble for the first time. It also serves experienced players who need focused material for developing solo technique and learning to read within ensemble contexts.

• Listen to the solo performance track first as a class to establish tone quality and phrasing before adding harmony parts.
• Use the string ensemble recording to help students hear their part's role within the fuller texture, especially when introducing bass lines for the first time.
• Blend the piano accompaniment during rehearsals if students are learning to balance with keyboard; remove it for performances once ensemble independence develops.
• Record your students performing unison passages before adding harmony so they can hear their own progress and identify intonation adjustments needed for chords.

Use this as your primary string class method book from September through May, moving sequentially through the pieces. The solo tracks work beautifully for solo and ensemble festival preparation, and the varied instrumentation options let you program the same piece differently across concerts (unison with strings in fall, fuller arrangement with piano in spring).

• Reading bass clef with fluency and confidence
• Intonation and blend in unison and harmonic contexts
• Listening to and balancing with other instruments and harmonic parts
• Solo technique development through featured melody lines
• Foundational ensemble skills without overwhelming complexity
• Aural understanding of how melody, harmony, and bass lines function together