Thumb position: please explain!

[vier-personen]

thank you very much for the link, damon!
cunningham is the choreographer who worked with cage? I remember seeing him in a documentary about cage...

[damonsmith]

Originally Posted by vier-personen

thank you very much for the link, damon!
cunningham is the choreographer who worked with cage? I remember seeing him in a documentary about cage...

- Yes not exactly "about" architecture, but you get the idea...

[damonsmith]

Originally Posted by Bass

Many thanks for the tips. So let me get this straight: I can lean the bass on my shoulder to make it easier to get at the notes. Otherwise everything else is pretty much the same.

It still feels very awkward reaching the upper registers. I feel like I'm bent over the bass, and I'm gonna give myself a backache and sore arms / shoulders reaching for the notes.

-It is legit technique, for me it is best. It feels very free. As much as I love Simandl, I don't think Book 2 is the best thumb position method. I actually prefer book 1 exercises an octave or two up with modern fingerings.

My rule is don't bend over until you have to, I play the whole instrument so there is a point where I can't reach without bending, I try to avoid bending over until that point.

[jazzbass72]

Originally Posted by vier-personen

(I have to apologize for my english, it´s still hard for me to formulate complicated thoughts)

I think your English is excellent ;-)

[damonsmith]

Originally Posted by jazzbass72

I think your English is excellent ;-)

It is a lot better than my German, that is for sure! Ich bin Kontrabaßist!

[bill_90125]

I was lost in TP until I was recommended Michael Moore's book on this forum. I now consider that book my bible of the upper register. It really clicked with me once I understood his method, and I'm now venturing up the fingerboard much more often. I still do Simandl exercises in the upper register, but I play them all with Moore fingerings.

Bill W.

[damonsmith]

Originally Posted by bill_90125

I was lost in TP until I was recommended Michael Moore's book on this forum. I now consider that book my bible of the upper register. It really clicked with me once I understood his method, and I'm now venturing up the fingerboard much more often. I still do Simandl exercises in the upper register, but I play them all with Moore fingerings.

Bill W.

-I saw that book before, it was expensive but looked solid. He is a great player.

[vier-personen]

Originally Posted by jazzbass72

I think your English is excellent ;-)

Originally Posted by damonsmith

It is a lot better than my German, that is for sure! Ich bin Kontrabaßist!

you guys are too kind!

[vier-personen]

Originally Posted by bill_90125

I still do Simandl exercises in the upper register, but I play them all with Moore fingerings.

Simandl fingerings:

I am working on Simandl book 2 myself right now, my take on the fingerings is that I practice them, but then often I find my own fingerings that work better and "correct" them in the book. Might be heresy, but I don´t care. But the idea is too have the Simandl fingerings worked out as technical training, then work my own fingerings out too have another techincal training + creativity and to check out how other fingerings sound on the same notes.

And then I play the stuff with different ryhtms - say a bar in 4/4 with 8 8th notes I play with 8 16th notes slured, followed with 2 quarter rests. Or followed with 1 quarter rest resulting in 3/4 - you get the idea. If you play the etude with eight notes only you learn the new tones with one rhythm only, which is only half the work. It also means that it takes long to finish a book, but you really have learned it.

[damonsmith]

Originally Posted by vier-personen

Simandl fingerings:

I am working on Simandl book 2 myself right now, my take on the fingerings is that I practice them, but then often I find my own fingerings that work better and "correct" them in the book. Might be heresy, but I don´t care. But the idea is too have the Simandl fingerings worked out as technical training, then work my own fingerings out too have another techincal training + creativity and to check out how other fingerings sound on the same notes.

And then I play the stuff with different ryhtms - say a bar in 4/4 with 8 8th notes I play with 8 16th notes slured, followed with 2 quarter rests. Or followed with 1 quarter rest resulting in 3/4 - you get the idea. If you play the etude with eight notes only you learn the new tones with one rhythm only, which is only half the work. It also means that it takes long to finish a book, but you really have learned it.

- I actually think there is some kind of magic in the music, it might be boring, but it really gets you in tune somehow. I always learn his fingerings then use my own, Rabbath's, Petracchi's and any others that work.
I don't think it is heresy because it is exercises, not composition.
Anyway, I love Simandl.

Have you ever been to the Czech village where he was born? Apparently it is near the Austrian border.
I had an Austrian girlfriend (Even reading every single translated Thomas Bernhard work didn't prepare me for that! Maybe now that I have studied the Vienna Aktionists..) for a while and we were going to go there, but it did not happen.

[vier-personen]

Originally Posted by damonsmith

I don't think it is heresy because it is exercises, not composition.
Anyway, I love Simandl.

Have you ever been to the Czech village where he was born? Apparently it is near the Austrian border.
I had an Austrian girlfriend (Even reading every single translated Thomas Bernhard work didn't prepare me for that! Maybe now that I have studied the Vienna Aktionists..) for a while and we were going to go there, but it did not happen.

I was saying "heresy" because I had some teachers in the past, that would say the written fingerings are the only way, and I didn´t agree with them which led to conflict. But you understood what I meant I think.

I haven´t been to Simandl´s birthplace, but AFAIK he teached at the vienna conservatory - that´s were I was studying, 100 years later though.

If Bernhard was not enough, see if you can find "Herr Karl" by Qualtinger and Merz. I´m not sure if it´s translated yet or if it ´s even possible to translate that ; )