Double Bass Getting an even, consistent tone while bowing quickly

[Meddle771]

One of the most important lessons i ever learned from my teacher:

I asked "i feel like i don't have as much control playing at the tip compared to the frog, do you have any good exercises for that?"
He responded "yes. Play at the tip."

If when your practicing faster right hand stuff it sounds uneven and scratchy, slow down until you can play cleanly and slowly work up from there. People spend decades on this type of thing. take your time. My most (un)helpful advice: "how do i play cleanly?", by playing cleanly...

Other factors:
Bow placement from bridge
Amount of rosin
Hair tension

 

[Portphilia]

I can't thank some of you enough for the great responses. This thread has some really good discussion on bowing technique. A few of you said to mind the amount of rosin on your bow; I think is definitely what was slowing me down (in more ways than one). My bow is rather cheap and doesn't hold rosin well. What I did was rosin the crap out of it (that may be a bit of an exaggeration.. I'm never rough with my equipment), and now I'm having much more success with faster bowings. Still, there is much practice to be had "sawing away" as some of you put it. Thanks again to all!

 

[David Potts]

The conventional wisdom is upgrade your bow before your next bass. Lash out $340 for a Finale bow. It does almost all that a bow should do for a fraction of the cost of a pernambuco bow. Suddenly bowing becomes easier!!!

Best Wishes,

DP

 

[bejoyous]

+1 on getting a better bow.

Here's a 3 minute exercise I do which improves the sound of my bowing if I haven't played in a while:

-Set the metronome at 90

-pick an open string, I usually start with the D-string

-for all the bowing listed below, use the whole bow. Be sure to go from the frog to the tip.

When you change directions, be sure there are no scrapes, pops or other extraneous noises.

Don't go on to the next number until you can change directions without noises.

Be sure to bow in the sweet spot nearish the bridge for maximum resistance and biggest sound. It should feel similar to the feeling of walking through mid-calf deep water along a beach.

- go back and forth for 2 clicks for few times until the rosin is warmed up (I sometimes wait a couple of clicks between stopping the bow and going the other direction to make sure the string releases smoothly in this stage) then:

- 2 clicks four times
- 3 clicks four times
- 4 clicks four times etc
- etc 5, 6, 7, 8,
- then work backwards - 8 clicks, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
-if you can get it to two, three or four bows from frog to tip per beat, the whole bass should be blasting out huge notes.

Now, when you go to playing regular quick notes that use 4-8 inches of the bow, you'll find change in direction much cleaner and you'll have a bigger more beautiful tone.

Do this for all strings.