Double Bass I find playing solos boring.

[manutabora]

I play classical violin and my teacher has me constantly working on some Bach, so even though I don't play double bass, I think I know a little bit about Bach.
With the Cello suites, as with the Violin partitas, there are often multiple voices going on throughout the piece. If you can discover those and experiment with how to interpret them (where is the line going, which line is more important, etc), I guarantee Bach will not be boring... or easy...
Just my $0.02

 

[von buck]

I know a lot solos, especially Bach's cello suites, are mainly straight 8ths and 16ths. I enjoy listening to them, but when it comes to learning them... It seems like I have no will to just play straight notes without rhythm variations. My teacher thinks I'm crazy. Perhaps I'm approaching these solos the wrong way? He wants me to learn things like Bach's Prelude from 1st cello suite and Bourree from the 3rd. I've got the talent to do it, I just don't have the willpower... I really want to learn them but they bore me to death. What's wrong with me?

The purpose of this is to get you reading music as it is written, not how you think it should be. By rhyhm variations I assume you mean "jazz eight-notes" Learn to play it straight first, then interpet. Punching up straight 8th notes is fun, but save the fun for latter. This is work time.
In most case when reading in involved, you'll be required to play "as written"
Andy

 

[JayR]

With the Cello suites, as with the Violin partitas, there are often multiple voices going on throughout the piece. If you can discover those and experiment with how to interpret them (where is the line going, which line is more important, etc), I guarantee Bach will not be boring... or easy...
Just my $0.02

This guy nailed it right on the head. Bach's music, especially the cello suites, is never just one single line. When you see nothing but straight 8th notes/16th notes on the page, generally what's actually going on is far more complex. The individual melodic lines conversing back and forth actually have their own rhythms which are far more exciting than the straight stream of notes you see it as. Just as an easy example, go listen to the Bourrees from the 3rd suite and try to hear the different voices, there's a top melody, a bass line, and in many parts a middle voice. Or listen to the Sarabande from the first suite; when a "voice" finishes a fragment of its phrase, imagine the note holding itself as the next idea comes in. If you give yourself some time and approach the cello suites in this way, you'll quickly realize that it's the closest solo thing you can do to being a full ensemble. One-Man-Band music, if you will.

 

[David Potts]

Listen to the Jaques Loussier Trio playing their jazz trio versions of Bach - his music is indestructible.

 

[mattfong]

I'm not an orchestral player at all, I play jazz, and my arco is abysmal, but I've played the first suite (pizz, yeah don't shoot me!) and a few Bach pieces on piano (I'm getting my grade 8 RCM in June) and as others have said, it is ALL about interpretation. With the right amount of rubato, dynamic variation, and accents and all that, you can get a hell of a lot of feeling into them if you can get into it while playing. Listen to the pros, and try and get into it and feel it when you're playing.

This may seem weird, but if you have good enough technique that you don't have to look at the fingerboard (and have the song memorized), try playing with your eyes closed. Visual distractions will be eliminated, allowing you to focus more on listening to your playing and trying to put more emotion in. I often close my eyes for a bit when soloing with my jazz trio, it helps.

 

[mattfong]

Listen to the Jaques Loussier Trio playing their jazz trio versions of Bach - his music is indestructible.

Just saw this. I have the second album in that series, it's fantastic! It's kind of odd how Bach is sometimes very 'swingable.'

Cool stuff.

 

[David Potts]

It disturbs me to hear so many of you preaching Bach. Sure, his Bourees often appear in auditions.Certainly he is more interesting than grinding your way through Simandl Gradus ad Parnassum and Findeisen studies. I prefer Kment, Sturm, Slama and Lee studies because the exercises are short and in a wide range of keys with interesting bowing challenges. They also reflect the sort of difficulty you find in real-life orchestral parts. To me it is better to play these moderately difficult studies really well than cracking your knuckles and banging your head on perfecting Bach.

Pablo Casals, the famous cellist, practiced the Bach cello suites for ten years before he allowed himself to play them in public.If you must do Bach then you need to reward your hard work with some fun.

Try Bert Turetsky's "Segovia", followed by Norman Hester's "The Bull Steps Out" and Rabbath's "Ode d"Espagna" to break up your practice. As well as being tuneful and interesting they also shine a light on different aspects of technique.

 

[Jimmyplaysabass]

*cough* jazz *cough*

 

[longfinger]

Hey, like others said in replies. 1) play music you enjoy and are excited about. so if Bach suites are not moving you, explore and find music that is moving you.

2) Bach suites for solo violin or cello may look like running 8th notes or 16th notes with no rhythm variation, but that an illusion. It's only how it's written not how it's supposed to sound. Those pieces are compound melodies. Many parts in one melody. There is a soprano, a bass and inner voices all together.
2a) try the following, go get a guitar transcription of the same piece your looking at. (it likely is transposed for guitar). Here you'll see the compound melody broken up from straight running notes into it's separate parts. Stems pointing up for the soprano, stems down for the bass, and middle voices with their stems either up or down, depending on space.
2b) Go back to the piece you're learning and with a fresh manuscript, understand the parts and then rewrite the beginning in a similar way as the guitar part but in bass clef.
2c) With your new chart, play just the 'bass' part, leaving spaces where the soprano is. Then play just the soprano part, leaving out the bass. (you'll likely be able to do these at tempo) Then put the two together at half-speed and build up from there.

If it's still not inspiring, then move on to other pieces that move you now. You can always come 'back to Bach' later in your life.

 

[futurebass77]

write your own solo