Double Bass Left hand/Right arm independence?

[DCbassist]

Hi all,

I just joined and I'm looking forward to learning from my fellow bassists. Lately I think I've come to identify a potentially harmful habit in my playing that I'd like to put out there. I've been doing a lot of thinking about relaxing, in my left hand and my bow. I find that whenever I try to focus on loosening up my l.h., especially for vibrato, my bow articulation is shot; likewise, when I focus on my bow articulation, my l.h. tenses up. I have this issue on a very basic level. For some reason my vibrato doesn't want to happen during bow changes - if I play a long note and try to have a continuous beautiful vibrato, the vibrato stops whenever I have a bow change!

It seems like I need to train my left hand and my bow arm to move independently of one another, so I can have a continuous vibrato enriching the sound, while my bow plays short notes or something. Has anyone else had this issue of independence of limbs? Any comments or help of any kind would be appreciated!

Dan

 

[PaulCannon]

Give it time. I think everybody goes through a similar phase at some point, and what you're describing is always an issue in some form. It's not so much that your hands have to be independent, but that they perform different tasks in combination with each other.

There are probably hundreds of unique exercises which could address the issue, but certainly the best is to regularly play scales and arpeggios with a large variety of bowing patterns.

There is a scale "process" which is used each morning at Domaine Forget. The idea is to pick a key and one or two fingerings and one or two bowing patterns, and begin playing without any breaks in the sound. From there, you will play the scale at least five times while focusing on different issues each time as follows:
1. Focus on the left hand/arm. This means learning the fingering pattern, using good hand shapes, intonation, shifting, etc.
2. Focus on the right hand/arm. Get comfortable with your chosen bowing pattern. Think about bow changes, string crossings, volume, tone, contact points, bow speed, position, strokes if applicable, etc. etc.
3. Focus on right/left coordination. As you play, think about how your hands must work together. When you shift, do you change the bow first with the left arm following, vice versa, or simultaneously? What is your left hand doing when you change strings?
4. Relaxation / Posture / Body Awareness. This is your chance to ignore your sound completely and just think about how you feel when you're playing. If you've been going non-stop, by now you will likely feel tired in specific places, or possibly some aches and pain. See if you can relax those muscles as you continue (WARNING: if you are feeling a sharp or otherwise unbearable pain, stop immediately and take a break). This is also a good time to think about your breathing and your posture. For this segment, I generally recommend playing quite softly (although it can be interesting to try playing loudly while completely focused on relaxation!).
5. Musicality / Vibrato. Forget everything else and just play as musically as you can. Add in some vibrato and just pretend your G major scale is your favorite part of a concerto.

The non-stop idea is not critical here, although it can be really illuminating to see what parts of your body give up first. The most important thing is that you're really focusing on details as you work through the scales, rather than mindlessly repeating a series of notes.

 

[DCbassist]

Give it time. I think everybody goes through a similar phase at some point, and what you're describing is always an issue in some form. It's not so much that your hands have to be independent, but that they perform different tasks in combination with each other.

There are probably hundreds of unique exercises which could address the issue, but certainly the best is to regularly play scales and arpeggios with a large variety of bowing patterns.

There is a scale "process" which is used each morning at Domaine Forget. The idea is to pick a key and one or two fingerings and one or two bowing patterns, and begin playing without any breaks in the sound. From there, you will play the scale at least five times while focusing on different issues each time as follows:
1. Focus on the left hand/arm. This means learning the fingering pattern, using good hand shapes, intonation, shifting, etc.
2. Focus on the right hand/arm. Get comfortable with your chosen bowing pattern. Think about bow changes, string crossings, volume, tone, contact points, bow speed, position, strokes if applicable, etc. etc.
3. Focus on right/left coordination. As you play, think about how your hands must work together. When you shift, do you change the bow first with the left arm following, vice versa, or simultaneously? What is your left hand doing when you change strings?
4. Relaxation / Posture / Body Awareness. This is your chance to ignore your sound completely and just think about how you feel when you're playing. If you've been going non-stop, by now you will likely feel tired in specific places, or possibly some aches and pain. See if you can relax those muscles as you continue (WARNING: if you are feeling a sharp or otherwise unbearable pain, stop immediately and take a break). This is also a good time to think about your breathing and your posture. For this segment, I generally recommend playing quite softly (although it can be interesting to try playing loudly while completely focused on relaxation!).
5. Musicality / Vibrato. Forget everything else and just play as musically as you can. Add in some vibrato and just pretend your G major scale is your favorite part of a concerto.

The non-stop idea is not critical here, although it can be really illuminating to see what parts of your body give up first. The most important thing is that you're really focusing on details as you work through the scales, rather than mindlessly repeating a series of notes.

Paul, thank you so much, this is great.

 

[David Potts]

Hi, you may also get some help from an old thread started by dirtdog792 in January, 2011.

Cheers, DP