I recently bought Jeff Bradetich's new book, Double Bass: The Ultimate Challenge. So far, it's fantastic. A few things that I like about it:
1. Detailed descriptions of techniques with musical examples. Jeff goes to some pains to describe what the musical goal is and how the technique accomplishes that goal. His discussion of technique is quite rich on its own and not simply ancillary to long exercises. The technical exercises are a bonus.
2. Great pictures (e.g., bow holds, hand positions etc...)
3. Descriptions and pictures of common problems.
For me, the fingering section alone was worth the price of the book. For instance, I very much enjoyed seeing his ideas on where to incorporate shifts to best reflect the style of the music.
My quibbles: The sections on German bow technique do not sufficiently address Streicher's flexible wrist technique and in general, he could have gone into more depth on German bow technique. His descriptions of German bow technique appear to me to reflect only the fixed wrist method. Alternatively, he could have simply acknowledged that Streicher's technique is not discussed in detail (even though he does have pictures of the bow hold).
I would prefer that he make explicit reference to specific techniques advocated by Simandl, Portnoi, Rabbath etc... and compare them to his method At the end of the day, I don't think Jeff cares which method is used so long as the musical goal is achieved, but it is helpful, particularly to new students who are confronted with differing descriptions from multiple authorities. He often does such comparisons indirectly.
I always rather liked how Streicher entitled his books, My Way of playing the double bass, rather than The Way. Jeff's book doesn't have the same modesty of style, but I suppose that we are all the better for it, because it delves into technique in a fairly comprehensive way that is, in my limited review of method books, unique.
1. Detailed descriptions of techniques with musical examples. Jeff goes to some pains to describe what the musical goal is and how the technique accomplishes that goal. His discussion of technique is quite rich on its own and not simply ancillary to long exercises. The technical exercises are a bonus.
2. Great pictures (e.g., bow holds, hand positions etc...)
3. Descriptions and pictures of common problems.
For me, the fingering section alone was worth the price of the book. For instance, I very much enjoyed seeing his ideas on where to incorporate shifts to best reflect the style of the music.
My quibbles: The sections on German bow technique do not sufficiently address Streicher's flexible wrist technique and in general, he could have gone into more depth on German bow technique. His descriptions of German bow technique appear to me to reflect only the fixed wrist method. Alternatively, he could have simply acknowledged that Streicher's technique is not discussed in detail (even though he does have pictures of the bow hold).
I would prefer that he make explicit reference to specific techniques advocated by Simandl, Portnoi, Rabbath etc... and compare them to his method At the end of the day, I don't think Jeff cares which method is used so long as the musical goal is achieved, but it is helpful, particularly to new students who are confronted with differing descriptions from multiple authorities. He often does such comparisons indirectly.
I always rather liked how Streicher entitled his books, My Way of playing the double bass, rather than The Way. Jeff's book doesn't have the same modesty of style, but I suppose that we are all the better for it, because it delves into technique in a fairly comprehensive way that is, in my limited review of method books, unique.
