“Bass Shopping on a Saturday”, for Vocals, Banjo, Guitar, Trombone, Tuba, Drums, Sarah Houle, 2021.
Cute and fun, “Bass Shopping on a Saturday” captures a glimpse into the small music store scene.
The scene elaborated: String basses are large – there is a storage space issue. String basses, especially new ones, can be expensive inventory to carry. String basses, are not a typical daily sale – they often will sit for months waiting for the right buyer to come in. And finally, many music store employees specialize in a main instrument or instrument family and essentially, become a salesperson for their specialty.
“Bass shopping on a Saturday” features a vampy and mildly annoying motive that resembles typical ‘mall muzack’ often heard over the sound system at shopping centers. The lyrics over the head section depict a customer-employee interaction of the event.
“Bass shopping on a Saturday.
“By appointment only,” that is what they’ll say.
They’ve got two or three or four to play.
Bass shopping on a Saturday.”
Interspersed with the vampy ‘mall muzack’ are three solo sections featuring fun bass lines. Imagine the player demo-ing each bass in a practice room. The piece returns to the vocal section and ends as our shopper leaves the store.
Euphonious Music 