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Originally Posted by Johnny L Here's a demo: http://www.uvm.edu/~mhopkins/string/...umbposmov.html
To reach the final D, E, F# and second G harmonic I typically shift from 3rd finger to the thumb on the D harmonic then 1-2-3 and back down with the same fingerings...as that prepares the left hand to get accustomed to the interval distances for the notes on that position. You could finger it differently though if your 3rd finger has difficulty stopping the note to get a clear pitch...experiment and have fun.
Good luck! 
PS I don't recommend collapsing the fingers and don't do that myself but many players do it and sound fine whatever |
Here's some things that you shouldn't do demonstrated in that video:
For now, do not collapse you fingers. That kind of goes for any playing on the double bass but especially in that range you do not want to be adding the extra motion of collapsing the finger while raising the chances of bad intonation. There are of course people that disagree like Rabbath who collapses his fingers often, but then again even Rabbath has some intonation problems even on his recordings. If you decide or your teacher decides that collapsing your fingers is an okay practice, then by all means do so. But for now your fingers aren't going to do too well in new territory when they're collapsing.
Make sure that you properly have space in between your fingers. In the video it seems as though the player does not have a very good understanding of the space in between notes and has very little space between fingers, especially when he does that shift to C# and D at the end. Your fingers shouldn't be touching at that part of the bass. I think the only part that they do is between the B and C at the very top of the bass. This might be because of the shape of my hands and it might not be true if you have really large fingers or something. If you need to sit down with a tuner and find where the notes are and mark them on your fingerboard with a pencil. The marks will disappear fairly quickly after you practice playing those notes but your muscles will remember where your fingers should go faster because you'll be hitting the exact location. Just go back and fourth between the notes and you'll be set after a while.
Don't bother trying to vibrato either when you're playing the scale as it can hide bad intonation and if your vibrato isn't that great it'll make your fingers not as sure as they could be when you're pushing notes down.
Also if you notice that because of the collapsed fingers the tip of the finger is pointed at a very awkward angle. The higher you go on the fingerboard, the more straight your fingers should become, but you shouldn't have any problem playing more from the side at that part of the bass.
When I go through my scales the fingering I almost always use for the third octave is, all on the G string:
T 1 2 3 T 1 2 3
You can take the harmonics or not, it doesn't really matter much. It's always good to get used to incorporating the sounds of harmonics and fingered notes to make them sound alike. You might want to push the thumb down just so you know exactly where the G is.
Figuring out where the notes actually are on the bass sounds pretty simple, but it's not, because really there's only one correct spot to put your fingers. But if you take it slowly and concentrate really hard you'll be suprised how quickly you can learn where these notes are on the bass and incorporate them into your playing.
