True, but if you spend time developing that, your intonation in thumb position will be dramatically improved.
I can think of few things more valuable for learning the fingerboard of a bass than spending time on harmonics & false harmonics.
-dh
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Double Bass Harmonics
- Thread starter aliasneo
- Start date
True, but if you spend time developing that, your intonation in thumb position will be dramatically improved.
I can think of few things more valuable for learning the fingerboard of a bass than spending time on harmonics & false harmonics.
-dh
On the subject of horrid squeeks and groans, I find that bowing closer to the fingerboard helps. Sometimes, the bow can catch its own harmonic together with the one played off the G string with the index finger. lifting the bow higher up the string should stop the squeeks and give a pure tone. For practise using harmonics you may want to study Gordon Jacobs 3rd movement of the "little concerto for double bass" and possibly Franz Keyper's "Romance and Rondo" - very entertaining once the squeeks are overcome.
McAllister is spot on. Please don't yell at me, I know I don't play DB yet, but BG uses false harmonics relatively frequently (Jaco)(granted, it's probably much harder to pull off on an instrument with a scale length nearly 10" longer than BG). But that's another way to go about doing it. I don't recall a natural F harmonic within the first two octaves of a normally tuned bass, but I could be wrong. As far as what a composer means with his/her notation, (this is going to sound extremely obvious. I hope I don't offend anyone) just play it! If you know what key it's in and where the piece is going, you should be able to tell whether it is actually an F or whether it is the "tab" version.
Notably the entire family of viols, including the "bass viol" pretty much died out at the begining of the baroque period with the advent of the violin. Needless to say, I'm sure many period groups still perform on viols but, seeing as this forum is generally occupied by those of us who perform on the modern double bass, I would try to stick to said instrument.
