Volume 18, February 2024
E-portfolios as Learning Tools for Applied Double Bass Study; a Research-Based, Practice Oriented Approach

by Mark Elliot Bergman

Volume 18 of the OJBR presents E-portfolios as Learning Tools for Applied Double Bass Study; a Research-Based, Practice Oriented Approach by Mark Elliot Bergman.

Abstract: Applied double bass teachers (or double bass studio teachers), including at the post-secondary level, typically engage one-on-one with students over the course of several years. Unlike their counterparts in post-secondary education who typically work with a student cohort over a more limited stretch of time (like a semester or trimester), applied double bass teachers have the pleasure of, and responsibility for, guiding learners through a multi-year process of growth and development. Employed in higher education since the 1990s, E-portfolios are a powerful pedagogical tool improving instructional efficacy and documenting iterative learning. The author offers several research-based, practice-oriented assignments for double bass instructors to use when employing learning e-portfolios with students. The suggested assignments help students develop a basic musical vocabulary through studying scales and bow articulations and curating video artifacts as part of an e-portfolio.

Mark Bergman's award-winning article examines the use of E-portfolios in double bass applied teaching on the college level. More importantly, the article offers practical lesson plans. Any bassist who is involved in studio teaching would be interested in this article, as would any studio teacher on any instrument.

The article was the winner of the 2022 ISB Research Competition, in the Professional Division.

Dr. Mark Elliot Bergman is the Director of Strings and Orchestral Studies at Sheridan College and the double bass studio instructor at the University of Wyoming. He is also the Assistant Principal Double Bassist of the Billings Symphony Orchestra. During the summer, Mark performs with Assisi Performing Arts in Assisi, Italy and the Peter Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon. He is the former Principal Double Bassist of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the Mato Grosso Chamber Orchestra in Cuiabá, Brazil. He formerly served as a Professor of Music History and Ensemble Director at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. With Wyoming Baroque, Mark released three CDs, two featuring his original compositions for historically informed performers. He received the 2018 Performing Arts Fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council to recognize his work as a composer and performer. Mark has published two books about popular music pedagogy. He earned his doctorate from George Mason University in 2015, and he also holds degrees from Yale University, the Eastman School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music.

1. Introduction

2. E-portfolios

3. Practice-oriented applications: The "basic bow stroke"

4. Practice-oriented applications: intonation

5. Practice-oriented applications: bow strokes

6. Practice-oriented applications: Mock Jury

7. Other considerations for e-portfolios in applied double bass study

8. References

9. Appendix A

10. Appendix B

11. Appendix C

12. Appendix D

13. About the Author