Senior Ian Ferguson has been playing the double bass since sixth grade when his teacher told him he was too short to play the instrument.
“I figured I’d spite him and I picked the bass,” Ferguson said. “I’m still not that tall.”
Despite rocky beginnings, Ferguson has grown to love the bass and even plans to pursue it as a career through teaching or performing.
“Whatever I can do to be playing the bass when I’m older, that’s what I’m doing,” Ferguson said.
The bass is where Ferguson’s music journey started, but it is not his only instrument anymore. Sophomore year, he learned the saxophone and this year, he’s learning the violin in Panther Beginning Strings (PBS), a class where students can learn violin, viola, bass or cello. No prior knowledge or experience is required for the class. He is one of four students in the Chamber Orchestra – the highest orchestra at Kingwood Park – who is also in the beginning strings class on campus.
“[Orchestra director] Mr. [Evan] Farmer approached me and he was like, since you’re thinking about doing a music degree, you got to know other instruments,” Ferguson said. “He was like, ‘You’re going to learn violin.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’”
Junior Isabella Garcia, a chamber violinist, decided to transition from the smallest and highest instrument to the biggest and deepest.
“I wanted to play the cello at first because the cello is the closest to the human voice and also just sounds very pretty,” Garcia said. “But then Mr. Farmer was like, no, you should play bass. So I just changed my mind.”
Garcia also wants to pursue a career in music, so she started to learn piano last year and plans to learn the viola next year. While her violin background has helped her to adjust to playing the bass better, there still remains some difficulties.
“I really like it. The only thing that I don’t like about it is that I have to literally dig my fingers into the strings and it leaves dents in my fingers,” Garcia said. “It hurts. In violin, I don’t have to dig my fingers into the strings as hard.”
Junior bassist Amerie West decided to learn the violin when she had an open elective and added PBS at the last minute.
“I just wanted to try the violin,” West said. “Like, I thought they’ve always had the coolest parts besides the bass.”
For Eden Rotberg, learning the viola in PBS has fulfilled a childhood dream. When she was 8 years old and decided to learn an instrument, she initially planned to play the viola but the shop did not have any, so she played the violin instead.
Rotberg has found playing the viola an easy transition. Violin and violas are in the same instrument family, and are very similar except for the viola’s slightly larger size and lower pitch.
“You hold it the same, you hold your bow the same,” Rotberg said. “It’s just kind of deeper, and I like the rich tone it has.”
