Double Bass off or on the string?

[mike_odonovan]

how do you know when to play a stoccato note with a bouncing bow vs. just stopping the bow to create the shortness of the note?

 

[Johnny L]

It depends ultimately, I think, on what you are capable of and how the leader (composer, conductor, principal, musicologist, your favorite player's style, you?) wants it to sound.

Mozart? Bounce that bow like a basketball and wow the crowd!

 

[a. meyer]

It also depends on the tempo. If the music calls for, say, piano staccato eighth-notes separated by rests at 50 b.p.m., a bouncing bow will be wildly inappropriate. On the other hand, there's a limit to how fast you can produce staccato by lifting the bow.

 

[mike_odonovan]

now i'm a bit confused. is off the string (bounce) better for slow or fast passages of stoccato?

 

[a. meyer]

Off-the-string works best for fast passages. If you're trying to play slow and piano with an off-the-string stroke, you add the "thump" of the bow hitting the string to your sound and then you ain't playing piano anymore.