Double Bass Bowing stuff

[Don Higdon]

it flows as extension of the shoulder, which is where all bowing must come from. Power and agility of are a function of shoulder.

Spine.

 

[Andrew McGregor]

David, I wouldn't have explained it quite that way... but I agree entirely. You're trying to put energy into the transverse vibrational modes of the string, without exciting the longitudinal modes. Longways vibrations of the string sound awful (try scraping your bow along the string a bit some time). So long as you achieve that, it really doesn't matter much what angle the bow crosses the contact point.

Waving the tip around all over the place is wasted movement, of course, and makes it harder to control the bow. It's all about having control of what is happening.

 

[David Potts]

The broad idea is that you can move the bow contact point in preparation for shifting any distances to a higher/lower note. Then you square up the bow at 90 degrees and continue bowing as normal when you reach your new note. Otherwise the best alternative is to already bow at the new contact point in advance of the shift and juggle bowing variables for the sound you want.

A small trick, worth adding to the collection?

DP

 

[Square Bear]

i don't know anything about transverse v. longitudinal modes, but i do know that when i started practicing in front of a mirror and got super fussy about consistency of my bow angle/placement, my sound got a lot better and more consistent.

 

[Andrew McGregor]

Yes, exactly... consistency matters, but the exact angle doesn't matter so much.

 

[Square Bear]

one thing worth mentioning is that it really depends on a lot of variables - what you're playing, the sound you want, the part of the bow/string you are playing on, what kind of strings you use, the quality of your bow, etc. some bows/strings are more picky about angle than others. also, some techniques are more difficult at less than a perpendicular angle. i can't really think of any techniques that are easier with an angle off straight though, it's just that after you know how the string and bow interact, angle matters less.