Double Bass How to shift, or, How were you taught to Shift?

[Bruce Calin]

I was also planning on throwing the arm weight concept in the Kind article out there for discussion. There are a few references in it that show he is not actually a bass player(German bow hold and "overhand" bow hold among others. Still a useful article, I think.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Thanks @LouisF. I agree with @Bruce Calin as well - it's flawed because of the lack of specific bass knowledge in the specifics, but as a general principle I think there is a lot of really on point stuff in there that can help a lot of people.

Even for guitar, though, I think there is a missing core component in his left arm/shoulder/core take on things. In my experience - admittedly some decades ago since I was active on that instrument - the thumb acts as a pivot/fine-tuning mechanism, but the core moves the shoulder, which moves the elbow, which moves the fingers around the thumb pivot. The weight of the arm still comes into play even slightly there, since moving the elbow away from the body involves muscle while moving it toward the ribs is mostly gravity. So from that lateral guitar perspective, shifting upward is still a more organic and effortless motion than shifting downward; in this regard it is still similar to the bass paradigm.

 

[Wasnex]

In short, there are two ways to move a finger into position to make a string stop: either move the finger, or move the arm from the core, which moves the finger along with it.

The approach I adopted would be more like the second approach you describe. I.E. move the arm from the core, and the fingers move into position along with it. The difference with me, is I often do maintain just enough tension to keep my fingers spaced into a stable claw. Otherwise you are moving your fingers into position when you need them.

It really depends upon what the music requires in the moment. I will definitely let me hand totally relax if there is no immediate need to use my fingers, but if all fingers will be used in short order, spacing is maintained over the notes so I just have to move my hand into position and press the strings. It's sort of like moving my hands over the keyboard of a piano, except the spacing must be adjusted as I move up the neck.

And of course none of this is relevant if a deep vibrato is to be used, because that requires a different approach where I tend to pivot my hand around the thumb, depending upon which finger is stopping the string.

I am not 100% satisfied with my vibrato technique. The sound and range of vibrato is fine, but there have been times when I struggled to pull passages off. I tend to use very little thumb pressure when I use the claw, and much more thumb pressure when I use a deep vibrato. I sometimes find shifting between fingers to be challenging in bowed legato passages, especially if my left hand has become a bit fatigued.

 

[David Potts]

I credit John Gray, the bass player in the original Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields group in the early 70s, with giving me fresh ideas about shifting that worked for me.

His basic idea was to flatten out the arc travelled by the hand as it "stabbed" downwards and upwards. Picture holding a small bottle or test tube in your LH with your thumb over the top and shaking it up and down while your elbow is raised into sort of playing position. Your upper arm rotates in the shoulder to make the motion and your hand moves in an arc around your elbow as the centre of a circle. Your elbow might counter balance by lifting as you hand drops and vice versa. Or pick up your Mum"s favourite French cooking knife and stab the kitchen table (Shock, Horror!!). This is the fastest way to change positions but the arc takes the hand away too much then pulls it back hard into the strings. John showed me that by dropping or raising the elbow slightly just before you stabbed this moved the centre of the circle enough to flatten out the arc and shift freely between positions while holding the string almost to the fingerboard.

At first this leading with the elbow was very relaxed and done quite slowly and deliberately then the hand caught up with and passed the elbow in the stabbing motion without any jerk or stiffness. As I got used to this the elbow and hand movements started to blend more but the flatness and ease of shifting remained. Now I am not conscious of separating the movements.

The good thing this way for me is that each direction of the shift leads so naturally into a relaxed vibrato. The nipping to stop the shift causes the forearm and wrist to continue and roll over into its start. This is one of the ways that I introduce students to the mechanics of vibrato and steer them away from rotating the radius and ulna (turning a door knob). Try this with the second finger travelling opposite the thumb.

 

[Bruce Calin]

Hello, David,
I was at an ISB convention several years ago and overheard two of the presenters discussing shifting as an extention of vibrato. I didn't really understand what they meant and was too intimidated to ask them. Does this relate to what you are describing?

 

[David Potts]

Good question, Bruce. I hadn't thought of it that way but it might relate because IMO the shift should be a rapid darting movement with springs, not tension, at each end. Ideally vibrato could be turned on and off like a springy but relatively relaxed tap, or increase/decrease in speed, width and intensity like crescendo/diminuendo.

Because I am 5' 7", chubby (!!!) and a seated classical player I have ended up with a package that works for me. From the picture on the left you will just see that my forearm is approximately at right angles to the neck when I have comfortably placed all four arched fingers on the string. This is the way that my hand falls when I raise my arm from relaxed by my side. The nut is a little higher than my L ear and the neck is forward, level with my face. There is room between the neck and my shoulder to use the stabbing action comfortably that I have described above and, for me, easy to go into vibrato at each end.

But that is me and my bass. Each of us will come up with our own package according to our differences but I think that the "stabbing" concept has some merit.

 

[Bruce Calin]

I can recall several conductors over the years who were very particular about when the basses should and should not use vibrato. Sometimes it seemed that it was one of the few things we would get any guidance on(Basses! No vibrato! Basses! Too loud!) That was pretty much it. Kind of off topic, but hopefully not too much.