It vibrates on the horizontal, vertical, and each one in between. Hit your string and look at it. It makes a circle.
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Double Bass Dealing With the High Stuff...
- Thread starter SSHSBassman
- Start date
Actually, it's even more complicated than that...
Pluck the string one way and it starts by vibrating in a line, in the direction you pluck it, but then the shape fairly slowly transforms into an ellipse and gradually turns circular, and sometimes goes back to elliptical in the perpendicular plane; this is part of what makes 'mwah'. Or, another way you can get it to vibrate in a line that starts rotating clockwise, at a speed that you can choose (I guess this is what you're doing to see a circle if it rotates fast).
The different interactions with the bridge, the fingerboard, and the direction of the left hand pressure as the shape of the string vibration transforms gives you 'mwah', or the standard jazz pizz, or an orchestral pizz, depending on the combination of directions and how far up the string you plucked it. Add vibrato and it gets even more complicated.
Something similar happens with the bow, although because the bow drives the string along a line you don't get the same sort of evolution with time; however, a floating bow gives quite a different shape to a Gary Karr-style intense bow stroke, which is different from any off-the-string stroke.
Pluck the string one way and it starts by vibrating in a line, in the direction you pluck it, but then the shape fairly slowly transforms into an ellipse and gradually turns circular, and sometimes goes back to elliptical in the perpendicular plane; this is part of what makes 'mwah'. Or, another way you can get it to vibrate in a line that starts rotating clockwise, at a speed that you can choose (I guess this is what you're doing to see a circle if it rotates fast).
The different interactions with the bridge, the fingerboard, and the direction of the left hand pressure as the shape of the string vibration transforms gives you 'mwah', or the standard jazz pizz, or an orchestral pizz, depending on the combination of directions and how far up the string you plucked it. Add vibrato and it gets even more complicated.
Something similar happens with the bow, although because the bow drives the string along a line you don't get the same sort of evolution with time; however, a floating bow gives quite a different shape to a Gary Karr-style intense bow stroke, which is different from any off-the-string stroke.
Play as much Bottesini as you can get your hands on over the next 30 years and things will get better!
+1
From someone who is kind of still in your boat, I can definitely attest to this as true. I entered the bass stratosphere with his "Fantasy on 'La Sonnambula'' and it helped a lot with the problems you seem to be having. It at least gave me a foundation... plus, the whole thing seems to be scales anyways, kinda like an etude... check it out!
Also, you should look into the 3rd movement of the Jean Francaix Concerto for DB... there's no way to play that high without the "pull-the-string-to-the-side method" advocated earlier in the thread. I can't play it but it's interesting to look at
You can try what I did in my Tech. Foundation Studies, vol. 2 - the thumb positions. I started with the left hand covering a minor third - G to Bb - T,1,2,3. After a page or so of that, I wrote studies that covered a Major third - G,A, Bb, B or G,G#, A, Bb - still T,1,2,3. Then came a perfect fourth G, A, B, C. Later comes the thumb below G - very useful.
Trying to do everything at once gets confusing and can cause intonation problems. Take one hand position at a time.
Tom Gale
Trying to do everything at once gets confusing and can cause intonation problems. Take one hand position at a time.
Tom Gale
You can try what I did in my Tech. Foundation Studies, vol. 2 - the thumb positions. I started with the left hand covering a minor third - G to Bb - T,1,2,3. After a page or so of that, I wrote studies that covered a Major third - G,A, Bb, B or G,G#, A, Bb - still T,1,2,3. Then came a perfect fourth G, A, B, C. Later comes the thumb below G - very useful.]
I am sorry I was not clearer. My Tech Foundation Studies - vols. 1&2 - deals with what we call the "Triangulation of Fingering Systems" - the open hand, (1,2,3,4) closed hand (1,2,4) and thumb positions. All nine etudes deal with combing ALL three techniques learned in the two volumes. If you want a book on JUST the thumb positions, this is NOT the book for you.
Sorry if I didn't make it clearer.
Tom Gale
+1 and +1 for Bach at pitch. I am not a classical player but those two things and doing traids chromatically across two strings in thumb position like in the Bradetich video has worked wonders for me.
Two other things, practicing some phrases pizzicato can help build strength a little quicker and the Rabbath thing of laying the neck on your shoulder really makes things easier.
I've found playing long ( really long) tone scales in the upper range of the instrument helps. The bow is usually my problem in making the top part of the instrument speak--- it takes an entirely different touch then the lower half of the instrument.
I would add to do longtones for every register on all the strings. Find the sweet spot, then focus on getting a clean sound with all bow placements from ponticello to tasto. Whenever posible, let the vibration of the string push the bow.
