Hi all,

I just started playing upright bass and UEB 7 months ago, and I just started bowing about 4 months ago. I play mostly jazz and folk on these instruments but my question is a bowing one, so I'm posting here..

I use a French bow, and I just bought a German bow a few days ago. For the French bow, sometimes, I hold it with a german grip to get more grrrowl, and I'm wondering if experienced players do this too.

I just got the German bow, but it seems like I can hold it with a french grip if I need to. Does anyone do this once in a while to get some fancy string skipping stuff done?

thanks,

Very rarely will you see someone hold a german bow like a french bow or vice versa. The only time I can think of this happening would be if a teacher who plays french bow was giving a lesson to a german bow player and wanted to use their bass/bow to illustrate something.

However, there are numerous variations on the standard bow holds. Regional differences. A bass player in Germany will most likely hold his bow differently than a German bow player in America. I will sometimes change my bow hold around for what I'm playing, in regards to how far into my palm or fingers the frog is being held. I don't know how common this is though.

Within the basic principle of each bow hold, you constantly change the details depending on what you're trying to achieve, so yes, that is common and the right idea. But changing to the other grip isn't such a great idea (only exception I can think of is using German grip on a French bow if you have an injured thumb, but that's an emergency trick)

I seem to remember holding a soft note for about 127 bars in Wagner (Parsifal?). Apart from stopping the note alternately with every LH finger as each tired, I held my French bow a la German ! For that piece I'd try anything to endure !!!

Holding German bow French-style is tragic.

DP

I have held a german bow the french way, but it was just for finger exercises when I was beginning to play the double bass.