Double Bass Petracchi - exercise 9 in D major - question on left hand stretch

[TonyD]

Hi,

found this vid on Youtube demonstrating Petracchi's exercise 9:



Question is - how do you cope with the double stop (F# - A)? I really need to stretch my left hand and I can hardly make it. I have a bass with swinging length of 107.5 cm (42,3 inch), but have long fingers. Just makes me wonder how anyone would do this on even a larger scale bass....

 

[neilG]

Do you mean the second measure? If can't play that double stop you need to re-assess your hand position. Make sure your thumb is low, about behind your second finger. The higher (toward the nut) your have your thumb, the more difficult it is to point your first finger back to make the 1-4 stretch. Ideally, it shouldn't be a "stretch". It needs to be a natural lay of the fingers.
Also, you should play your fifths better in tune than the dude in the video.

 

[TonyD]

thanks for your reply neilG,

yes I meant second measure: 1st finger on A and fourth finger on F#

I will try again with a lower thumb, still difficult to achieve a natural lay of the fingers, I think this is because the larger scale bass I have

BTW: I could not hear any fifth being out of tune in the above vid....

 

[Robert Strickland]

Pretty cool exercise!

I don't think the 5ths sounded bad. The 3rd one was slightly off, and the 4th one was a bit off, but neither so bad as to be a big issue. Overall, he sounded good I think.

Agree with Neil on that stretch. That's no stretch at all, it should be very natural and easy. Keep experimenting with your hand position as he suggested. You'll get it.

 

[neilG]

Tony, 42.3 inches is not a particularly long scale. I think average 3/4 bass scale is around 41.75. Post a photo so we can see what you're doing. And sorry guys, those fifths are out of tune.