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Double Bass jazz arco technique
- Thread starter oliebrice
- Start date
Ok -- back on topic...
Rainy night, Brooklyn, not much to do have my fiddle, a PC, Band in a Box, a good recording mic, slight case of cabin fever as it's August in NYC and this is what you get:
Link Removed
A bit on the silly side, agreed, but with BIAB you're going to lose if you're hoping for a hip band behind you...
Rainy night, Brooklyn, not much to do have my fiddle, a PC, Band in a Box, a good recording mic, slight case of cabin fever as it's August in NYC and this is what you get:
Link Removed
A bit on the silly side, agreed, but with BIAB you're going to lose if you're hoping for a hip band behind you...
Here is an exercise I find pretty useful. Of course you can start really slow, using maybe 4 notes per bow.
Laurence
Laurence
Hey that was nice, man. I really dug the "stylised" elements (for lack of a better term) - the hammer-ons, slides, and other nuances which really add to the expressiveness and personality to the playing.Ray Parker said:
Some ?'s: 1. French or German? 2. What kind of hair? 3. There are spots where it sounds like you play one note per bow on a string of eighth notes (if I'm not mistaken). Is there a strategy you employ to avoid having the second eighth note of every pair stick out? (other than practice) I'm wondering about the technique and/or exercises to implement it. I would assume it involves less pressure on the second (shorter) note, but in my occasional half-hearted attempts I don't quite get the hang of it.
Thanks!
German and white hair. I use almost no rosin or pressure, which has been taking me some work to get this going so that I don't squawk (and believe me it spills coffee cups when I lose it!). For the recording I was also using pretty slow bow speed nearer the fingerboard than I might often play so as to soften the tone up for the mic. In the room I never got above MF. (Now THERE's a statement!)
I play the middle of the bow when doing that eighth note stuff so that ups and downs are more similar, but don't give it much thought, really. I've been working on getting a hold of bowing-to-articulation and phrasing a la a tenor sax, but tenor players tend to lightly tongue most of what they do at a slower tempo which I've been emulating by working on softer attacks on notes (as well as stronger), so I should probably also look elsewhere for influences.
The recording project will be continuing as in the couple of hours of microscopic critique that the micrphone allows cleared up a bunch of things immediately and has inspired me to get to work!
German and white hair. I use almost no rosin or pressure, which has been taking me some work to get this going so that I don't squawk (and believe me it spills coffee cups when I lose it!). For the recording I was also using pretty slow bow speed nearer the fingerboard than I might often play so as to soften the tone up for the mic. In the room I never got above MF. (Now THERE's a statement!)
I play the middle of the bow when doing that eighth note stuff so that ups and downs are more similar, but don't give it much thought, really. I've been working on getting a hold of bowing-to-articulation and phrasing a la a tenor sax, but tenor players tend to lightly tongue most of what they do at a slower tempo which I've been emulating by working on softer attacks on notes (as well as stronger), so I should probably also look elsewhere for influences.
The recording project will be continuing as in the couple of hours of microscopic critique that the micrphone allows cleared up a bunch of things immediately and has inspired me to get to work!
Ray have you been working on that tune for a while now? What other things do you practice (etudes, tunes, transcriptions) with the bow? And finally how do you divide time between arco and pizz practice?
The last question is the one that plagues me the most.
The last question is the one that plagues me the most.
Well that's impressive. Let's see, no rosin, no pressure, middle of the bow at the fingerboard. If I were to try that I think I'd get a sound similar to the air whooshing through my nose when I exhale.Ray Parker said:
Do you bow much on gigs, and if so have you found an improvement on amplified arco sound using the Full Circle?
Right on Man, that sounds great.
What strings are those? and do you have a recording to recommend of you playing arco? also I am looking for a lynn seaton recording with lots of arco bang for the buck if anyone has recommendations.
By the way I just got a claro walnut mike pecanic tailpiece on my 1943 kay and I am amazed at the difference in volume and improved arco tone! It completely eliminated my wolf tones and my pizz tone is louder also. The compensated-ness also balanced my string to string balance/volume by inreasing the tension of the E and A.
What strings are those? and do you have a recording to recommend of you playing arco? also I am looking for a lynn seaton recording with lots of arco bang for the buck if anyone has recommendations.
By the way I just got a claro walnut mike pecanic tailpiece on my 1943 kay and I am amazed at the difference in volume and improved arco tone! It completely eliminated my wolf tones and my pizz tone is louder also. The compensated-ness also balanced my string to string balance/volume by inreasing the tension of the E and A.
Not really. I just like the tune and 'kinda' played it from what I remembered of a Julie London CD that I have. I broke one of my own cardinal rules and didn't confirm that I had the melody right before I presented it. If I ever were to record it for real I'd definitely look it up first. I practice mainly bow. Time is pretty evenly divided between melodies to ballads, etudes, long tones and articulation, and 'free time' (where I will also work on my nut-job fingering theories and the like).mike da mook said:
I practice pizz, usually free form but will also fix habits that I find myself reaquiring (double fingers, lack of hand separation, etc.) to break the frustration if the Stick is kicking my ass too hard. I've played a lot of pizz in the last 23 years, so I can change things pretty quickly by spending just a few minutes with them daily for a few days.
Very recently, this clip being an example, I've gotten to stomach together to start recording my arco efforts for serious critical study. This is the best tool to improve yourself: Making you listen to your own self! I should have actually been on this a lot sooner, but wanted to get some confidence, feel and chops up first so that I'd have the ability to change things that I want to hear different. A little ass backwards, perhaps, but after some inital recordings early on in the process I was concerned that hearing myself too much sounding that rotten would dissuade me.
I cross posted this in the 'Recordings/Sampler' forum with all of the recording specs if you're interested, but this was done on Spirocore Solos at orchestra pitch.jflojazz said:
I've been bowing more lately. I'll sneak a bit in when it seems no one is paying attention and if the leader seems to like it I'll try to sneak it in more. I have a few gigs of my own where I'm practicing presenting myself in a bit more leaderly/spotlight role and I've been playing arco quite a bit with that. (It's GOOD to the the King...)T-Bal said:
I haven't had much chance for the bow and FC in action yet, but I suspect it'll be at least as good as the Realist with far less of feedback and boominess issues that I was experiencing.
