Today is a product review day - maybe some day if I get truly organized I can have a regular product review day of the week. Wacky Wednesdays? Weekly Wednesdays of Wonder? Wow. I'll have to work on that. If anyone has a better suggestion I am all ears.
Enough with the word play, on to the review! Today we're talking about Sherman's Bass Rosin.
This is something I bought just out of a need (more like desperation, really) as I had zero rosin for my school's double bass. This became especially important when I had a student who was interested in playing said double bass - the first time since the instrument came to the school that someone other than me would be using it.
All of my experience with bass rosin prior to purchasing the Sherman's was with Pop's Bass Rosin - the stuff that comes in the little red plastic tub with the attached lid; you open it up and there is the rosin cake sitting in a little paper cup.
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| This stuff. Notice the paper medicine cup. |
I always had the feeling that this was someone's solution to dealing with the mess of making rosin who cared more about their post-production cleanup than the actual end user's experience. The paper cup is good in theory, but as you use the rosin you have to peel the sides down, which inevitably (for me, anyway) led to sticky fingers, the awful sensation of the bow scraping the paper, and a lot more mess than I felt was truly necessary. And heaven help you if you ever leave the rosin somewhere warm. Good luck prying it out of that cup. It's like trying to chip off an ice block without the aid of melting.
Enter the Sherman's rosin.
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| This stuff. In case you forgot. |
It comes in a regular wooden tray just like any other student rosin - almost like bass players are considered to be the same as the violinists, violists, and cellists! I know, crazy town. The nice thing about these trays is that they allow for true shadow bowing while you rosin. This is how I have students practice their bow technique - hold the rosin about where your bridge would be and bow, whether you're bowing a song or just back and forth. The idea is to reinforce the muscle memory on straight bowing, which is so wonderfully facilitated by the sides of the wooden (sometimes plastic) trays. The downside to the trays is also one of their strengths. The ends of the tray are open, so there is nothing holding the edges of the rosin back. This means that if you have a student who drops their rosin like one of mine did last week, it will not only chip and crack, but also start to fall out. So perhaps this isn't the best solution from a durability standpoint.
As far as performance of the actual rosin, I have not noticed any difference between the Sherman's and the Pop's rosin. I will be completely honest in that I have not really paid attention to the sound quality of the rosin in particular, but I have not noticed students having more or less issues using either rosin. At the very least I can say it does not cause any more issues that the Pop's rosin.
And now my favorite part of my Sherman's Bass Rosin experience: the price. Sherman's rosin costs $3.95 over at Johnson String Instrument (they also sell through Amazon), while the Pop's rosin is listed at $8.95. Now, I am all for paying extra for higher quality when necessary, but if you're in a situation like mine where students have far more important things to worry about than their particular grade of rosin, I'll take a major cost savings where possible. Like I tell my students - get to where you can play all of your notes and rhythms 100% correct 100% of the time and we'll worry about the tiny details then. Now that is not to say that I wouldn't attribute any kind of benefit to improving the quality of your rosin. Quite the opposite. If it helps you play better I am all for it. The thing is, I'm tired of hearing students talk about their playing difficulties like there is some magical accessory out there that will make up for their lack of consistent practice.
"No, really, Mr. Earley, if I get this $200 rosin that was pressed from old growth Douglas Fir trees in virgin forest land in the Pacific Northwest I'll totally be able to play everything perfectly. My fifteen minutes of practice a week might even be able to be reduced to ten!"
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| Not me. I am not an Asian woman. Just to be clear. |
Right. More like if you practiced five minutes a week it would be a 500% improvement over the current time spent with the instrument.
But that's the cynical music teacher in me that gets tired of being "fibbed" to on a weekly basis.
And I digress.
So my overall impression and recommendation?
Sherman's Bass Rosin is an excellent value for the money, especially for a student who doesn't have issues with dropping things. I would love to have a student who progressed far enough that I could hear a limitation of this rosin, but I teach 3-5 strings. Maybe if it was high school I'd have someone at that point, but not at the elementary level.
Also, as a side note - I am giving very serious thought to an experiment. I'd like to see if I could re-melt the rosin to get rid of the cracks from it being dropped. I watched a video of a guy making rosin, and have heard of folks who make their own regularly, so it looks to me like it's a question of getting to the right temperature, holding it long enough, then allowing the rosin to cool properly.
If any of you read a news story about a music teacher from Maryland getting killed by his girlfriend for messing up her oven, you'll know that's me.
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| Also not me. But the beard is at least heading in the right direction. |
But more on that later.
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