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Double Bass Method Book to learn the Pivot/Four Finger Technique WELL

#21
Calvin,

Years ago I had a copy of Ludwig Hegner "Tutor for the Double Bass", published by Wilhelm Hansen Edition, Denmark, that was devoted to 1-2-3-4 fingering. It was a bit like Simandl, rather simply laid out but not quite as boring. My student departed with it , never to be seen again!

DP
 
#22
Another aspect of this in lower position playing; Using the open hand ( 4 finger) technique down in the low positions - 1/2, 1st, etc - can lead to some bad injuries but pivoting down there is really useful in cleaning up some nasty spots. Take a rapid figure of [[: Bb, C, Db, C, :]] with no time to shift. Bb 1, (pivot) C 2, Db 4, C 2, (pivot back) Bb 1, etc...
Very easy to learn and very useable under many conditions.
Tom Gale
ASODB.com
 
#23
The trick to playing a four finger technique in all the positions, especially the lower ones, is to keep your hand and fingers very relaxed. You can not play with each finger rigidly positioned over each half step like we are taught with Simandl technique. You have to pivot slightly and keep the fingers spread - but relaxed. Check out Michael Wolff or Silvio dalla Torre's books. Talk to some cellists, the good ones understand this concept of each finger being "independent". The four finger technique requires learning a completely new finger spacing/ hand shape. Learning this technique will only add to your arsenal of possibilities, it wont make you unlearn the Simandl technique you already have.
 
#24
+1.

I remember a former teacher, in the NY Phil for a long time, showing me, how he played the trio in Beethoven V at the blistering tempi that some conductors dig...one finger per note, pivoting his hand slightly as needed. He showed me this in 1979, had been doing it that way for years, and had learned it from his teacher...

This fellow also used a 1-2-3-4 extended fingering with a very relaxed (but accurate) hand combined with with 1-2-4 fingerings as appropriate - the two approaches were complementary, not competitive. It was about what made sense for each passage.

None of this is new, but being able to talk about it with other bassists so freely certainly is. Bless the Internet, and those, like Tom Gale, who have taken the time to explain and codify this option...:)
 
#25
Eric Swanson said:
+1.
This fellow also used a 1-2-3-4 extended fingering with a very relaxed (but accurate) hand combined with with 1-2-4 fingerings as appropriate - the two approaches were complementary, not competitive. It was about what made sense for each passage.

None of this is new, but being able to talk about it with other bassists so freely certainly is. Bless the Internet, and those, like Tom Gale, who have taken the time to explain and codify this option...:)
Click to expand...

Thanks - I've spent a lot of years trying to explain the two are complementary AND not competitive. Well said..
Tom Gale
ASODB.com:bassist:
 
#26
kpo said:
Most books dealing with "four-finger" playing are really SCALE METHODS and don't really teach you anything, they just say "Here are my fingerings. *PLAY* my fingerings!"

I recently went through Tom Gale's "Technical Foundation..." volumes 1 and 2, and I-Kid-You-Not, they do a Good Job.

The books are actually Pedagogically Useful - as in, you could teach from them and your students wouldn't be confused as soon as the door closed, and you personally could pick them up and read them and actually be guided through a well-thought-out way to figure out "four-finger" technique (instead of just blasting through scales and turning up the metronome, hoping to "get better at it").

All the other "extended technique" books I've seen, while doubtless Well Meaning, are really just scale methods, and go from bottom to top, begging you to Hurt Yourself, but Gale's books are actually teaching tools. Volume One takes time to explain what to do and why, what the physical motions could/should be, how to start in small doses - and then he takes his own advice and starts in the middle of the bass, in small doses!

Hey! I forgot to say "Thank you" Its nice when someone out there gets it and comments also! Thanks KPO!
Tom Gale
ASODB.com
Click to expand...
 

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