Double Bass Vibrato

One that I do(which can be done with a metronome at about maybe 60 bpm) is go up an A major scale 2 octaves using only one finger, generally only pointer through ring though sometimes pinky too, doing vibrato to the sixteenth note pulse.

Vibrato is like dynamics, its part of the shape of the line. So it should always be considered, and so if you can't do it without consciously deciding to, that may even be a good thing. Try just deciding what kind of vibrato you're going to use on each note, and after a while that decision will start to come automatically.

a great way to open up your vibrato - getting it to sound more natural and round - is to put your metronome on any setting you want (maybe try quarter = 80) and do 4 oscillations of vib per note. you could do it in a scale, arpeggios, a vomit shifting drill. I especially like doing it on two notes, and concentrating on keeping the vibrato going from note to note.

I'm really sorry to do this, but one of the funniest exchanges I've ever seen in a bass forum was on this subject (it was the other forum, that I abandoned for Talkbass). I will now try to recreate it paraphrased as best I can for you. I hope you find it entertaining as well. Maybe even instructional.

Poster 1: My teacher once compared the motion required for vibrato to that of masterbation.

awkward pause

Poster 2: Just so I don't develop bad practice habits, is your teacher male or female?

TroyK said:

I'm really sorry to do this, but one of the funniest exchanges I've ever seen in a bass forum was on this subject (it was the other forum, that I abandoned for Talkbass). I will now try to recreate it paraphrased as best I can for you. I hope you find it entertaining as well. Maybe even instructional.

Poster 1: My teacher once compared the motion required for vibrato to that of masterbation.

awkward pause

Poster 2: Just so I don't develop bad practice habits, is your teacher male or female?

Click to expand...

HAHA

wow! haha...

here are a couple of things for you:

Vibrato is one of the hardest things to do well. Vibrato and shifting are directly related. Practicing correct shifting helps vibrato and practicing correct vibrato helps shifting.

1) place wrist next to the neck of the bass (side of neck). turn your wrist so the palm of the hand faces toward tailpiece. Practice moving up and down neck this way as though you were shifting. Make sure that your hand and fingers are relaxed. Start slowly then speed up the motion keeping the length of motion the same. Then decrease the length of the motion while increasing the speed of the "shift". keep hand and wrist relaxed. You should notice your wrist and fingers flopping. then as you do it, slowly isolate and control the amount of motion in your wrist. You should notice a pulsing effect in your fingers.

2) now move the hand back into playing position (I start with the 1st finger somewhere around A natural on the G str. Do the same thing as step 1 with the palm facing the tailpiece as much as possible. Make sure you do not press the string down at all. start completely relaxed in the hand and wrist. Start with a large shift then decrease the size of the motion. Control the wrist movement as you decrease the size of the shift while keeping the finger relaxed.

3) practice step two with finger slightly pressed then finish by adding contact with the finger and the amount of movement of the shift should diminish until you have vibrato.

The finger should always be as relaxed when doing vibrato.

hope this all helps.

To add, Thomas Martin said that the thumb should be so relaxed that he (or anyone else) should be able to walk behind you and pull it out with ease.