Double Bass German

[jallenbass]

Holly - my advice to you is that without a teacher the switch won't do much for you. Like you can have pain in your arm and develop bad habits, you can develop them very easily with German bow. Without a teacher it is going to be very hard to learn any bow technique. I said it in a previous forum, when approaching bow technique on your own, proceed with caution. Just because there is no pain doesn't mean you are more comfortable doesn't mean you are doing anything right.

With a German bow you can still squeeze and you can still tighten up.

Agreed. My technique on both bows is exactly the same. The only thing different is the bow hold. For that I give credit to a very good teacher.

 

[Snakewood]

I changed to German for a few reasons:
1. The pain in my bowing arm was terrible (my first concert involved long ff tremelos on some Beethoven piece). I also wasn't getting enough power/dynamic variation.
2. I found a DVD of the Berliner Philharmoniker playing under Karajan. The entire section was using 5 stringers (except the solokontrabass, Rainer Zepperitz) and german bows. Right then and there, I fell in love with the bow.

I still have that an old french bow.. still hurts tremendously when I play nearly anything.

-Alex

watching vienna and berlin play is really the only thing that tempts me to learn german bow, it just looks better on a bass.