First position?

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Originally posted by BLUE STRINGCHEESE


As we have enticed some DBers into the room, and are talking about being newbies I was thinking of another related question.

So - as a DB player - what if you saw some guy (or gal) playing DB in a non-Simandl (or any standard type) of fingering and doing alright, but moving about all over the place like a BGer?

Would you think -

ahh a newbie going from BG to DB

or how sad they could achieve so much more with correct fingering !

or would you not think about it at all as long as they were doing the job?

etc. etc.

If they sounded good and their intonation was solid, I'd think "More power to 'em". I do a fair amount of non-traditional fingering myself up in the higher positions right below thumb position, and I've seen and heard of others - including our own Ray Parker - playing in thumb position down lower on the bass where thumb position isn't even called for yet just so he can have more mobility.

I think that every person is different, as is every set of hands and ears. What matters is results. Where the grey area begins is when someone is doing something non-traditional and either struggling or semi-struggling at it...when this happens, you start to wonder if the technique is holding them back. I'm going to shut up about DB stuff now so I don't hijack the thread.