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Double Bass Most "economical" way to play this?
- Thread starter Andy Mopley
- Start date
Play the low C with first finger (on A or E), then, in one position, play the upper C on the D string with 2nd, high G with 4th, E with 1st, C on the D with 2nd.
Starting from the FF part:
This is a bit tricky with the string crossings but places the shifts during open strings to give you a nanosecond more time to accurately place you left hand; and the thumb stays in the crook of the neck.
a minor - open A, C on the E-string with 2, E on the A-string with 1, open A.
B Major - pivot back to play the B on the E-string with 2, D# on the A-string with 1, pivot up to play the F# on the A-string with 4 and bar over with 4 to play the high B on the D-string.
e minor - low E on the A-string with 1, B on the D-string with 4, bar over with 4 to play the high E on the G-string.
d minor - F on the A-string with 2, A on the D-string with 1, bar over with 1 to play the D on the G-string then pivot up to play the high F with 4 on the G-string.
Play an open G to give you time to shift down to 1st position.
The C arpeggio bar play the lower C on the E-string with 1, the octave C on the D-string with 4, open the hand to play the high G harmonic (gasp!) with 3, the E with 2 on the G-string and the C with 4 on the D-string then open G, etc. This way the thumb of the left hand stays in the same spot and will spring back to the position it just left to play the E and C.
To work on the string crossings try this exercise. Play each eighth note three times as a triplet at a slowish tempo. When clean, play it again slightly faster until clean. Once it is fairly quick, play as written except instead of even eighths, play it dotted eighth-sixteenths, then sixteenth-dotted eighth; start slow and increase tempo as the shifts become cleaner. Then play it even as printed. Use a metronome!
Five minutes of this technique is worth 30 minutes of trying to crash through it. This is a magic formula to clean up any rapid passage.
This is a bit tricky with the string crossings but places the shifts during open strings to give you a nanosecond more time to accurately place you left hand; and the thumb stays in the crook of the neck.
a minor - open A, C on the E-string with 2, E on the A-string with 1, open A.
B Major - pivot back to play the B on the E-string with 2, D# on the A-string with 1, pivot up to play the F# on the A-string with 4 and bar over with 4 to play the high B on the D-string.
e minor - low E on the A-string with 1, B on the D-string with 4, bar over with 4 to play the high E on the G-string.
d minor - F on the A-string with 2, A on the D-string with 1, bar over with 1 to play the D on the G-string then pivot up to play the high F with 4 on the G-string.
Play an open G to give you time to shift down to 1st position.
The C arpeggio bar play the lower C on the E-string with 1, the octave C on the D-string with 4, open the hand to play the high G harmonic (gasp!) with 3, the E with 2 on the G-string and the C with 4 on the D-string then open G, etc. This way the thumb of the left hand stays in the same spot and will spring back to the position it just left to play the E and C.
To work on the string crossings try this exercise. Play each eighth note three times as a triplet at a slowish tempo. When clean, play it again slightly faster until clean. Once it is fairly quick, play as written except instead of even eighths, play it dotted eighth-sixteenths, then sixteenth-dotted eighth; start slow and increase tempo as the shifts become cleaner. Then play it even as printed. Use a metronome!
Five minutes of this technique is worth 30 minutes of trying to crash through it. This is a magic formula to clean up any rapid passage.
Thx Brian and Neil - Brian the exercise I'll add to the pratice regime!
I still don't get why they make the passage so complicated for DB players, though (of course complicated is a relative term..)
I still don't get why they make the passage so complicated for DB players, though (of course complicated is a relative term..)
Composers write lines with the sound of an instrument in mind. They may not know or care about the mechanics of the instrument. Come back to that passage in a year and you'll see it's not that difficult.
I guess I underestimate how well composers / conductors hear instruments of the orchestra, then Neil. It is not so much the technicality of the passage, rather how one particuar sound (say the high G in the arpeggio) can actually be "heard" within the context of this piece - if I am making sense...
In a lot of classical music, especially where the bass and cello line are in octaves, you often have to wonder what the composer heard in their mind. Particularly in busy passages with the tympani pounding away with you. It's up to the conductor to balance the orchestra so voiced can be heard. Many is the time I've been in a section hammering away at a Beethoven symphony wondering why I was there. If you sit in the audience you'll appreciate the effect more than when you're on stage.
- Jan 24, 2002
- 2,117
- 950
- Disclosures
- NS Design / AER Endorsing Artist
I've seen much worse. The bass has a particularly confusing range of strengths and weaknesses, and it can be very difficult to explain the idiosyncrasies to composers with no string-playing experience.
It's very rare to find a part which really highlights the instrument while still being relatively easy to perform. With new music, I tend to see parts which are either unbelievably difficult, or so sparse you could skip the rehearsals and no one would know.
I really try not to get in the composer's way, but occasionally I do have to show them why something is not physically possible. I'm usually fine with simply saying something is too hard for me but technically possible, but there are some things which will always be impossible (gorilla hand double-stops with no workaround, for example).
