Double Bass As a jazz player, what do you practise with the bow?

[Ben Harris Jzz]

Ed very nice bow work on your videos!!! That is what I love man keep moving it forward!!

 

[Ed Fuqua]

Ed very nice bow work on your videos!!! That is what I love man keep moving it forward!!

?? If you're talking to me, that's NOT me, that's Alex Spradling. And, as it says in my STATUS, I'm no Alex Spradling...

 

[Who da Ville]

IMHO. I find most jazz arco bass solos put me off,

I agree; but most jazz pizz solos put me off too. IMHO, all too often both contain too much 'aimless noodling' (compared to 'musical direction'). Pizz solos probably are more 'traditional' for jazz music, but I believe that arco has more potential for sonic richness and variety. As always, the quality of any individual solo is mostly dependent on the skill and vision of the individual player.

To answer the original question, my latest jazz arco study is "Black Orpheus". The melody of this tune absolutely comes to life under the bow. Ironically, I stated working on this tune after recently viewing a talk bass post showing an excellent Ron Carter pizz solo recording of this song.

 

[matthewbrown]

I agree; but most jazz pizz solos put me off too. IMHO, all too often both contain too much 'aimless noodling' (compared to 'musical direction'). Pizz solos probably are more 'traditional' for jazz music, but I believe that arco has more potential for sonic richness and variety. As always, the quality of any individual solo is mostly dependent on the skill and vision of the individual player.

To answer the original question, my latest jazz arco study is "Black Orpheus". The melody of this tune absolutely comes to life under the bow. Ironically, I stated working on this tune after recently viewing a talk bass post showing an excellent Ron Carter pizz solo recording of this song.

I love that tune; I play it regularly on the flute and on my 5-string EB. I'm thinking of working up a chord solo version the 5-string (it's a 2-octave neck with a high C string, so why not?). I'm ambivalent about URB solos. I agree about the aimless noodling. When I get a solo on any bass, my first inclination is to play the melody, or a close variation of it. It helps that i read treble clef and have that high C on both URB and EB...

 

[The Biz]

Ray Brown pretending to be Slam Stewart:



(from Ray Brown Trio EP...see seperate thread)

 

[matthewbrown]

Ray Brown pretending to be Slam Stewart:



(from Ray Brown Trio EP...see seperate thread)

A "shout" chorus with a bow makes perfect sense, especially when it swings like this one.

 

[Who da Ville]

So far I haven't heard any bowing that speaks like a bari sax

For me, the ideal arco DB tone probably would be something close to Bobby Key's alto sax (for example 2:37 on the attached link). But having said that, the bowed DB has much more sonic potential than any sax.

I think the Slam Stewart videos available on youtube also have a very sax-like sound.

 

[Wasnex]

For me, the ideal arco DB tone probably would be something close to Bobby Key's alto sax (for example 2:37 on the attached link). But having said that, the bowed DB has much more sonic potential than any sax.

I think the Slam Stewart videos available on youtube also have a very sax-like sound.

You might want to check out some Major Holley as well.

 

[garrett2]

This exercise will get your fingers working. Harish Raghavan is offering online lessons -- I might take one to get walked through this:

 

[amusicbass123]

Last week's quarantine project!

 

[Keith Rawlings]

Last week's quarantine project!

Sounds great!

 

[Krantz]

I really appreciate your inspiring jazz bowing videos Alex Spradling. I also appreciate the high bar you set and I can't identify any other bassists right now that can play these horn solo transcriptions as well as you. I understand that you arrived at this level of Bass bowing profeciency by transcribing Jazz solos. Are there any other suggestions you might share including continued ongoing technical work that help you achieve these amazing displays of artistry? Thanks again for your thoughtful videos.

 

[amusicbass123]

I really appreciate your inspiring jazz bowing videos Alex Spradling. I also appreciate the high bar you set and I can't identify any other bassists right now that can play these horn solo transcriptions as well as you. I understand that you arrived at this level of Bass bowing profeciency by transcribing Jazz solos. Are there any other suggestions you might share including continued ongoing technical work that help you achieve these amazing displays of artistry? Thanks again for your thoughtful videos.

First of all, thank you!

Second, I see music and technique as being kind of inseparable, which is to say that the music informs the technique. I just try to learn music that I like and teach myself little technical lessons in the process. If there's a phrase that's hard I'll break the phrase down into smaller and smaller chunks until I find the sticking point and then I'll just isolate that movement, and work on clarity, efficiency and sound until it feels comfortable. Along the way I'm trying different combinations of fingerings or bowings. I definitely don't sit down and play gnarly fingering or bowing exercises or anything like that. I just play bass for fun and grinding through some awful sounding thing sounds too much like work. Transcribing a nice solo is like playing a Chopin etude, you can learn important musical and technical lessons at the same time, so you get a little bit more bang for your buck.

and again, I truly appreciate the kind words! I've gotten pretty far away from music over the last few years but playing my bass again has helped immensely while I'm stuck in my tiny apartment in these anxious times.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I see music and technique as being kind of inseparable, which is to say that the music informs the technique. I just try to learn music that I like and teach myself little technical lessons in the process. If there's a phrase that's hard I'll break the phrase down into smaller and smaller chunks until I find the sticking point and then I'll just isolate that movement, and work on clarity, efficiency and sound until it feels comfortable.

This is such universal musical truth - bow or no bow, or on any instrument I've ever come across - that I feel it deserves to be posted twice.

It was 35 years ago now that my greatest musical mentor first asked me the question that forever changed my life: "What does the music want from you?" She went on to say that until you have an answer to that question for any passage you can't do anything meaningful, but once you have an answer you just follow the path it lays out.

 

[Keith Rawlings]

My goal with a bow is to learn how to play Russian Lullaby. Milt is amazing!

 

[Wasnex]

Heard this jewel today and it made me want to bump the thread. Credits say it Slam Stewart sawin the log .

 

[shepdave]

Yeah, this is a good one. I was transcribing Slam’s solo on this just a few weeks ago.

 

[fdeck]

Nice work @amusicbass123. What an inspiration.

Granted, I'm not nearly at the level of y'all. I'm just a day jobber and "serious" amateur. I played cello through high school, then took classical bass lessons in college while studying math and physics. So I was already comfortable with the bow, but not destined for a professional music career.

When my kids started taking music lessons, I decided to get my arco back in business. This led to goofing around with jazz soloing. I don't have a teacher or any jazz-specific training, so I've worked on my arco soloing by just doing a lot of it at home while trying things out in reasonable moderation on gigs.

At this point I'm aiming for equal *quality* of soloing on pizz and arco, regardless or which one is more *useful*. On the bandstand, I choose my battles in terms of what I think is going to work for a tune, and which bands are likely to be receptive. I'm willing to wait until I've earned the general confidence of a band before trying anything that is still considered to be a bit weird. I listen, and I read the band and the audience carefully to get an idea of what's working.

Despite having no teaching credentials, I think I can confidently say that arco soloing will require the same kind of determination as you put into pizz soloing, for a reward that you might not reap on the bandstand. As an amateur, I'm OK with that, as I spend most of my playing time at home or in informal gig/jam settings anyway.

 

[fdeck]

The other thing I forgot to mention is that unless your arco technique is a lot better than mine, you might need to try something other than Spirocores.

 

[statsc]

What I’m finding helpful to practice is to pick a jazz standard, improvise one phrase pizzicato as I would play it in a solo, then work on reproducing it as exactly as possible arco, especially trying to match the sense of swing of my pizzicato phrase. This is the challenge for me. It seems to help to start the phrase on an up bow, and to focus on accentuating the time difference between the swing eighth notes. Wash, rinse, and repeat.