Double Bass fine tuning in Bottesini's Allegretto Capriccio

[fergus currie]

I have spent the last four months working on some new repertoire. Amongst the new pieces is Bottesini's Allegretto Capriccio. I was always trying to get so many things in tune in this piece but I could never get everything in tune at once. That is until now... Instead of tuning the bass's open strings correctly using the second and third harmonics (D and high G on the G string etc.) that we use normally, I tune the fourth harmonic to the piano! That is the B on the G string and the F# on the D string then I tune the fifth harmonic on the A string to the piano too with out reffering it to the other strings on the bass. This sound utterly crazy but I couldn't believe the difference it made. Suddenly everthing was pinging out of the bass like magic. I was using less pressure and freer bowing and the dynamics improved too!

I think the reason for this is that the piece is very well centred in e minor (for the bass) and the gain of having the Bs and F#s in tune outweigh the other short comings of this system.

Does anyone else do the same or is this my own little discovery?
I feel very proud of having found this on my own even if it might be standard practice. Is it?

 

[CT DB]

Since the open strings are the only notes on which you can't adjust the tuning by moving your finger, wouldn't they be the most important to have in tune?

 

[fergus currie]

There are not too many open strings in this piece. There are however a great deal of harmonic Bs which come at the end of phrases and it was these that always sounded out of tune. The rest is just about adjustable enough, or it moves too fast to register the minute differences. The impression is that the piece is in tune like this, especially the last couple of lines which consist of a high e minor arpeggio finishing on the B 3 and a bit octaves up the G string. If you've got the chops try it and see!

 

[fergus currie]

Any takers on this experiment? I somehow wonder why a thread about tuning the bass like a cello gets a lot of traffic. It's not like everone is on the verge of changing their whole technique. So why can't I get a little feed back on this seemingly simple experiment?

 

[DonQuartz]

I learned that way of tuning the thirds (fourth harmonics) from my teacher, Joel Quarrington who learned it from Ludwig Streicher. It is especially important to tune that way in Bottesini's pieces. If you tune the third completely "in tune" it will make the open string way too high so you might want to find a compromise; I have experimented with a tuner and found that if I am playing with a piano that is at 440, tuning to 442 will sound OK. Another way to get the string high enough is to tune the ninth partial (A on the G string, in between the third and fourth harmonics). Putting that one right up to pitch can be a good compromise.
I am sure you are right that your tuning method is working especially well in e minor.
In any case, better sharp than out of tune!

 

[fergus currie]

Better sharp than out of tune! That's what my teacher Robin McGee used to say - best advice I ever got from him!

That's some mighty pedigree! Quarrington is one of my 'gods' and it's interesting to think that it was hearing his recent recordings of Bottesini (Naxos Volume 2, actually) that started me working on this problem. I feel realy good that I got this all on my own.

The sharp g (3rd in e minor) is especially nice in this tuning. I will try the ninth tuning but up above the sopra g to get it clear enough to tune. But I found that in this piece in particular the 4th harmonic bang intune with the piano on both the D and G strings and the E (5th harmonic) on the A string a nice fat fifth below the B (fourth harmonic) on the G sounds great in practice. I will start looking around for other places where this might be advantagous and if I find enough I'll post a list here!
Cheers
FC