Double Bass How hard is it to learn

[6stringbassist]

But what if not doing it that way means you get injuries, repetitive strain etc. ...

There are good reasons why people say you should play a certain way - as I was saying, DB requires far more physical effort to get a good sound and the chance of damaging yourself goes up!

Do you want to be giving this advice and then having it on your conscience when that person ends up maybe with a wrist inury that means they can never play any instrument again?

Erm, that's why I said that I always recommend people to have lessons, you didn't read all of my posting.

My whole point is that the original poster, didn't want to learn to use a bow, learning to use a bow won't stop you from getting RSI, I was merely agreeing that he shouldn't have to if he didn't want to.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Well I think you need to be careful what you say when giving advice - you didn't say these comments refer only to bow.

And somebody new to DB, when reading this :

I think that with DB there are far too many people saying you need to do this, and you need to do that, that puts a lot of people off the instrument, which is a shame, because it's a beautiful instrument.

My whole point was that telling people that they need to do something, that they don't want to do puts them off playing in the first place, and they miss out on something that's fantastic.

Could take it that they don't need to do what their teacher tells them and could end up injuring themselves - better safe than sorry!

 

[Rick McLaughlin]

I completely, wholeheartedly, absolutely agree with Damon that arco is an integral aspect of learning double bass technique. Few - if any - of my students go on to be completely burning arco players, but all of them play in tune. There simply is no replacement for arco when it comes to learning great left hand technique. I know that may seem strange, but it's the truth (IMO).

I teach Simandl, and because virtually all of my students are interested in jazz, we also use the Charlie Parker Omnibook (playing the heads as etudes - arco), and the Paul Chambers book of arco solos (transcribed by Jim Stinnett). I also like John Goldsby's book on arco soloing. But anyway, the point is that - again, IMO - if you want to learn to play an instrument that requires double bass technique, there is no replacement for the traditional approach, which comes from arco.

It is also crucial to have a great teacher...
Good luck,
Rick

 

[damonsmith]

I have had the Omnibook for years and I just started working out of it, it is just great. I have that Chambers and the Goldsby, I spent a lot more time with both of those.

The arco thing has more to do with original question, yes it is fairly easy to learn if you practice the right things arco - otherwise it is hard, time consuming and uncertain.
I took the route I did because I am pretty damn lazy. I have musical ideas I feel I need to realize and I don't want to have to struggle with them.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

I was having a discussion with my teach during my lesson yesterday. He brings up an extremely valid point: arco teaches the left hand something about feel that you cannot get from doing just pizz. IMO, certainly, nothing advances left hand stamina like arco can.