Introduction

Welcome to Bass Camp! This method is intended for high school and collegiate players, or those who are new to the bass clarinet. All of the exercises can be played on a low E-flat instrument. The goal of this method is to deepen the musicianship of the bass clarinetist.

Bass Camp contains three sections: Long Tone Warm-Ups, Scale Exercises, and Technique Pages. Long tone warm-ups are arranged sequentially, so you can start with the first one and continue on to the next one as you achieve proficiency. Warm-ups are a great time to focus on air, embouchure, and voicing/tongue position.

The second section, Scale Exercises, is intended to be used in conjunction with long tone warm-ups. The purpose of this section is to help you gain comfort and fluency in every major and minor key. There are also some examples using chromatic scales, blues scales, and other 20th- and 21st-century harmonic language. Depending on your level of experience, you may spend anywhere from a day to over a week with each page. The Scale Exercises include “Easter Eggs” which contain references to major works of solo and symphonic literature for the bass clarinet.

The final section of this book, Technique Pages, is useful for students who need an easy-to-reference source for scales, arpeggios, and scales in thirds.

The volume is 71 pages.

PDF Edition

Purchasing this item will give you access to download the music as a PDF. If you would prefer to purchase a hard copy, please click here.

About the Composer

Erin Cameron enjoys a diverse career as a clarinetist, composer, and educator. She serves as Assistant Professor of Clarinet at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Cameron has worked with young musicians and artists at the Arkansas Governor’s School, The Walden School in Dublin (New Hampshire), and as a Teaching Fellow at the University of North Texas. She is regularly sought out as a guest artist and clinician and has presented recitals and master classes across the United States.

An avid proponent of new music, she has performed over 40 world and regional premieres of new works. Cameron was featured at the 2021 and 2022 International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest Conference as both a performer and composer. She was the winner of the 2020 Victoria Bach Festival Competition in Victoria, Texas and presented a winner’s recital in November 2021. She has also performed at the International Music by Women Festival, the Darkwater Womxn in Music Festival, the Bowling Green State University New Music Festival, the Northwestern University New Music Conference, the University of Nebraska Kearney New Music Festival, and was an invited performer at the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Lucerne, Switzerland (cancelled due to COVID-19).

She is featured on three recent albums, Charm the Winds with chamber ensemble Sonoren, love songs/duets by Kory Reeder on Wandelweiser Records, and Hope with the North Texas Wind Symphony on GIA Publications. She is a founding member of the Bantam Winds, an all-female chamber ensemble in Jonesboro, Arkansas, which brings unique performances to international audiences and focuses on works by underrepresented composers for the instrumentation of flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, and horn. She is also a founding member of the free improvisation trio Sonoren and has performed with the F-Plus Trio.

Cameron’s recent article Free Solo: Concealed Treasures in the Solo Bass Clarinet Commissions of Harry Sparnaay was featured in the September 2022 issue of The Clarinet magazine, and her audio reviews are regularly featured in the International Clarinet Association’s The Clarinet [Online]. She holds degrees from the University of North Texas, Bowling Green State University, and Northwestern University.