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Double Bass Good Methods?

edfriedland

edfriedland

Sep 14, 2003
974
1,246
Tucson, AZ
www.edfriedland.com
#1
I need to find a good method book to use with young adult beginners. I am not a classical musician, though my earliest training on DB was "legit". I believe it's important for a new student to get on the bow asap, even if they want to play jazz or country or whatever. The problem is... Simandl is too intense, dissonant, and drawn out for most of these students, and I'm not the guy to give them a serious "legit" background. I just want to get them learning the fundamentals - scales, arps, bowings, positions, etudes, etc.

So, anyone know of a good old-school method that is geared toward High School age or young adults?
 
#2
edfriedland said:
I need to find a good method book to use with young adult beginners. I am not a classical musician, though my earliest training on DB was "legit". I believe it's important for a new student to get on the bow asap, even if they want to play jazz or country or whatever. The problem is... Simandl is too intense, dissonant, and drawn out for most of these students, and I'm not the guy to give them a serious "legit" background. I just want to get them learning the fundamentals - scales, arps, bowings, positions, etudes, etc.

So, anyone know of a good old-school method that is geared toward High School age or young adults?
Click to expand...

Hey Ed -- can't believe I'm giving you advice!

I know it's primarily aimed at jazz, but Rufus Reid's The Evolving Bassist makes a great general/"legit" method in my view. It emphasizes arco playing early, getting good tone, positioning, scales etc, before embarking on walking lines and the like.

Hope that's of some use to you :).
 
#3
well.... Simandl is boring etc. etc. But it's pretty darn good method. I remember having a hard time getting into it, but also every time I managed to put work into the method I sure got a lot out of it.
I too have looked for a lot of other methods, and I end up always going back to Simadl.
I am curious to see what other methods people are using these days.
Good luck with your search.
 
#6
edfriedland said:
Growler - I have Rufus' book, guess I need to take another look at it.
Click to expand...

I've recently gotten into Rabbath's books. I've been focusing on jazz for the last 20 years or so but wanted to get back into the classical studies. The Simendl book is just boring to me. Rabbath's exercises are much more interesting to me. I've also tried George Vance's Bk 1 which uses Rabbath's methods and really liked it. If you just glance at it it looks really elementary but when you dig into it there's some really cool stuff to keep beginners to intermediate plays interested. Book 1 starts with Rabbath's 1st position and in 30 pages your playing on the harmonics off the end of the fingerboard.
 
#7
So, anyone know of a good old-school method that is geared toward High School age or young adults?[/QUOTE]

And NOBODY happened to mention my "Practical Studies for Double Bass"??? Thanks alot.......

Tom Gale
ASODB.com
 
#9
I'm using the Vance Progressive Repertoire books for my students, may of whom are high school or college-age "crossovers" from bass guitar. It works because the method starts out in the middle of the neck, where the hand position if more comfortable and there are more tactile landmarks.

The trick is to get them into the thumb position before they find out its "supposed" to hard. The Vance books get into thumb position, I think, by the fourth or fifth exercise. Vance also espouses the pivot.

The only drawback is that Vance used "familiar" nursery-rhyme and folk tunes that the student presumably already has in his or her ear. But if they're under age 20 or so, I've found that they have never even heard of "Shortnin' Bread" or "Reuben and Rachel." What the hell do they teach these kids?!?!

Once they get through the first couple of Vance books, I start looking at Simandl and/or Hrabe
 
#10
I'm not sure I agree with getting students into thumb position that soon. I'm sure this has been debated to death already by serious legit folk, so I'm not inviting a discussion about it. But, it doesn't sit right with me. My goal is to help these players become functioning members of society - aka: rhythm section players. Thumb position is not a significant part of that role.

Anyway... thanks for the tips, I'm going to check out Tom Gale's book and My First Simandl. If I don't find a book that suits me, then dang it, I'll just have to write one, that's what I wind up doing most of the time.
 
#11
FWIW, as an adult bass newb, I'll just put in a vote for good ol' Simandl.

It's not the only book I'm working out of, and I'm not playing each and every exercise, but it's solid and, IMO, extremely valuable.

The other things my teacher has me working on are some sections of Rufus as well as blues tunes and standards. It's a good mix; I'm able to immediately apply the knowledge of the fingerboard I'm gaining from Simandl to the other areas of my playing.
 
#12
I grew up on Simandl, but a series of method books that is often overlooked are the Montag books. Same method as Simandl, but with a little more detail. Instead of just scales and exercises in each position, you also get arpeggios and orchestral excerpts.

The last two books are thumb position where he takes you up the fingerboard a half-note at a time and does the same thing he does for the lower positions.

Probably too tedious for a lot of people, but another approach.
 
#13
edfriedland said:
My goal is to help these players become functioning members of society - aka: rhythm section players. Thumb position is not a significant part of that role.
Click to expand...

I am trying to become one of the 'functioning members of society' on the upright, after several decades of being so on bass guitar.

Ed, as a teacher you probably already know the importance of knowing the full range of your instrument, so I have to agree with getting them into thumb position asap. At least touching on it if for no more than that reason alone.
 
#16
If you're looking for a double bass method that includes arco and uses traditional Simandl position numberings with training jazz bassists in mind, you'll probably want to take a look at Lew Berryman's Intonation Plus: A Comprehensive Method for the Jazz Double Bass Player. It seems to be hard to find at the moment, but these websites at least claim to have it in stock:

Bass Books: INTONATION PLUS: Lew Berryman
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f25/intonation-plus-book-question-639680/
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Amazon appears to be out of it at the moment, but it still lists it with a Look Inside! feature which at least shows you the table of contents and a few sample pages—although not the pages I would have chosen. They don't show any typical arco pages or pages emphasizing shifts.

I not a teacher. I'm not even a double bass player, and I never play arco, so I'm only suggesting that you take a look at this one yourself. As a beginner, I use it with my odd bass and I especially like the way the exercises cover shifts. There's a bit more discussion of this book at the following short thread:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f25/intonation-plus-book-question-639680/
 

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#17
I am using Evolving Bassist along with "My First Simandl". You can build some pretty good routines between the two.

I would definitely suggest the newer additions of Evolving Bassist. Some of the stuff in my older copy was probably edited for clarity.
 

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