Notes on the bass

[mitra]

As ive started to play the upright bass about a month ago, i habe some issues with notes, that are above the starting position ( if you know what i mean ) so eg.: finding the A on the E strin or the C on the G string ) does anyone have a good idea or some suggestions on how i can train this more also regarding intonation? ( as i am a drummer and its hard for me to hear whether this tone is well intonated or not)

Greetigs,
Mike

[bassteban]

#1. Get a decent teacher- if nothing else, learn some basic form so you don't develop bad/harmful habits
2. Play w/a tuner until you develop some muscle memory

[Ant_C]

Running through your major scales while having a drone of the tonic pitch playing would help if you understand what it means to have a note sound intune. Using a tuner would help, and if you want just mark that spot on the bass with a little piece of tape so you have a little bit of a reference when wanting to hit that note out of the blue.

[Roy Vogt]

Here's an interesting clip of Francois Rabbath explaining how he developed his pivot technique to find the C note on the G string. There are 6 clips in all, and they are all entertaining and educational.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy-03jH_mrE

[mitra]

Hey thanks a lot! Jeah i have a teacher but i havent asked him aubout this yet because i havent made up my mind about this until now.

Thank you for the tips and ill definitely try these methods and watch the videos!

Greetings, mike

[dkazez]

I'd like to suggest that an iPhone app I have created might help you with intonation. (Disclosure: this is a paid app. It costs $.99.)

www.wittenberg.edu/music/intune

The app presents pairs of pitches that are progressively closer together, to help the listener develop a better ear...and thus better intonation.

[the_stone]

1. Get a teacher.
2. Use a bow.
3. Repeat.

[Turxile]

Originally Posted by Roy Vogt

Here's an interesting clip of Francois Rabbath explaining how he developed his pivot technique to find the C note on the G string. There are 6 clips in all, and they are all entertaining and educational.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy-03jH_mrE

Great stuff, very inspirational. Everyone should watch this.

Can't help making a cheeky comment though.. He says he never had a teacher; if he had asked any questions in the forum we would have fixed that wouldn't we :P

[tcl]

When I went through this, I typed in the Simandl etudes into Finale and played along with them with the bow, very slowly - 30 bpm. That helped me develop my ear to hear the correct pitches. I found that my ear was actually, naturally, sharp enough to hear the natural intonation of the 3rds and 5ths rather than the just-intonation - piano -intonation - it makes a difference. Later, I used the "vomit exercises" to make same string leaps successfully. You can Google the "vomit exercises" on UTube for an example. That, plus playing a lot of different scales all of the way up the fingerboard cured that bugaboo for me. Hope that helps you. Ultimately, intonation is just one of the first hurdles for upright bassists; the next step is hearing what's appropriate and playing that in real time. All do-able with work.

[jallenbass]

Click on the link in my signature and see if that would work for you.

[Jeremy Darrow]

Originally Posted by Roy Vogt

Here's an interesting clip of Francois Rabbath explaining how he developed his pivot technique to find the C note on the G string. There are 6 clips in all, and they are all entertaining and educational.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy-03jH_mrE

These are great videos, Roy. Thanks for sharing!