Double Bass Bowing legato across strings

[Andy Mopley]

Hi guys

what's a good way to practice/improve above, using German bow, at moderate speed? Think for example Marcello sonata in E minor, A & D notes ...

Thanks for reading!

 

[avantflow]

I think like always bowing scales is the best place to start. First 2 notes on one bow than 4, 8... Doing this with metronome at different tempos.
When I practice whole scale on one bow (very hard), I always have the same problem I lose volume and come to the end of the bow too fast.
Because of that I think is good to play as close to the bridge as possible with very slow bow.

Its good to practice bowing across open strings also to understand how bow works.

 

[MikeCanada]

Joel Quarrington does an open string exercise where you start with a bar of slurred 8th notes alternating between your top string and your D string, you repeat it down bow and up bow, and then move on to the next two strings, and turn around when you get to the bottom and come back up. Then slur two beats, one beat, separate 8th notes, and you can do it over and over with triplets, skipping strings etc.

Focus on getting an even sound from frog to tip and not running out of bow, but also on keeping the movement as small as possible.

Adding scales or left hand exercises helps, but you can accomplish a lot on open strings.


Mike

 

[Andy Mopley]

Thanks all - I have also been practicing using Sevcick's book (N Tarlton edition) recommended by some folks here, which is helping.
When it comes to fourths, though, what's the rule of thumb, do you use the one finger or two, if sixteeen notes? Eg bowing A note on D string and D note on G string.
Thanks again.

 

[neilG]

Thanks all - I have also been practicing using Sevcick's book (N Tarlton edition) recommended by some folks here, which is helping.
When it comes to fourths, though, what's the rule of thumb, do you use the one finger or two, if sixteeen notes? Eg bowing A note on D string and D note on G string.
Thanks again.

When playing fourths I consider four choices, in no particular order:
1-a barre. I use first or fourth finger, two is awkward for me, but try it.
2- a parallel fingering, ie. 1 on the A and 2 on the D, not shifting.
3- shift to a different finger in a new position, ie, 2 on A to 1 on D with a shift.
4- move the same finger to the next string. Although the most intuitive, this is the most difficult to play smoothly but it's possible and you will definitely use this a lot.
All four should be part of your fingering arsenal. Context will determine which one works the best.

 

[Andy Mopley]

Thanks as always nG - good advice.

 

[David Potts]

As well as listening carefully also look down at your bow as it moves from string to string and observe how to pass it across without running two lots of vibrations together and blurring the sounds. Using the same finger crossing to the next string when playing fourths can also allow your bow stroke the slightest of breaks as you do so. This works for crossing from open string to open string too. During this tiny break in the bow movement the old note is still decaying in the body of the bass and tends to cover the break. You become an acoustic magician, hating that the bass is slow to speak but blessing it for being slow to stop speaking in this case.

Cheers, DP

 

[Andy Mopley]

Sounds, good, David, thank you.

 

[Bobby Scharmann]

Here's what I like to do:

Practice starting with open G and D. I start with groups of three, like (down) G D G (up) G D G, and groups of four, and so on. You can then make a scale pattern out of it. GDG ADA BDB GDG - ADA BDB CDC ADA - etc. You can try different permutations of this on all strings.

The opening exercise in Simandl's Gradus Ad Parnassum (among others in this book) is really good at targeting this as well.