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Double Bass Practicing Technique?

E

Eman Resu

Jun 2, 2011
2
0
#1
I am a recently graduated high school bassist, soon to be a Music Performance Major.

I consider myself to be a fairly talented bassist (for my age, at least), having been accepted into some of the top institutes for bassists in the United States and doing well in competition. I do, however, feel that some of this success may have been based a bit on luck.

I come from a fairly small town and was lucky to have a bass instructor at all. I passed him in ability fairly quickly and had to teach myself many things. I never developed a strong practice routine and anxiously believe that I will suffer because of it now that I am moving onto the next step. I do not feel that my current style of "just dive into a piece and hope that it goes well" will be a successful technique anymore.

Here is my question: How should I practice? What do I do to study a piece/excerpt/etude? What kind of scale work or basic exercises should I do before I go into my main target? How do you practice difficult spots? Anything else that relates to practicing would be happily accepted!

I know that the instructor that I will be under next fall will tell me his opinion on the above questions, but I would like some kind of foundation for the next year. I have not had any substantial guidance for my questions, I hope that I can find some thing here.

Thank you!
 
#2
Well, here are some things that you could do to guarantee improvement.

Start with open string exercises. This means using the full bow at forte. Put your metronome at 50 or 60 and keep an even sound and volume several times for each string. Put it at 50 and do forte (always full bow) changing strings in eighth notes (still four beats to a bow) (Ex. gdgdgdgd) and do this for all strings that are next to each other. Do more long tones in a controlled and even piano for each string as well.

Do slow and smooth vomit scales two octaves with each finger for two octaves.
Do long tone scales at Forte (whole bow) for four beats a note for three octaves. Then keep four beats a bow and do half notes (that means there is a slur), then quarter notes (4 notes to a bow), eighth notes (8 notes), triplets (12 notes a bow)… You get the idea. Don’t just play fast because you can!!! Trust me, you want to have lots of quality sounding and even notes across the whole bow. Trust me, when you get to 16th and 16th note triplets you will be going fast enough. Do each several times before moving on to more notes in a bow.

Do 5 notes at a time over and over and over, then go up a note. Do this until you have gone up and down the scale. Make sure you use the same finger for each note that you would if you played the scale straight. (Ex. E F# G#A B [repeated] then F#G#ABC# [ect...]) do it as eighth notes around 100 separated.

Then do scales separate bows, many rhythms and bowings and articulations. Also, do arpeggios!!

That right there will probably take you about 3 to 4 hours to do if you work hard on it every day. Don’t do a ton of different scales every day (unless you want to quiz yourself). One scale a day with this is enough. Or, you can do the same scale for a week (though a daily shift between the major and relative minor will do you some good). Don’t worry about time, this takes a while but I promise you it will pay off. I do this every day and I don’t necessarily notice a huge difference that day (though it happens). But, I do see things become more in tune (BTW never settle for out of tune notes, just because you play the bass doesn’t give you the right) and easier over time.

Also, there are tons of Petracchi drills that you should do every day!

After this spend the rest of your practice time on things you enjoy like Bach, or a concerto, or excerpts.

Have fun

Max
 
#3
may I make suggestion. work out of the Franz Simandle Books

Simandle Book 1
at

Amazon.com: New Method for the Double Bass/Book 1 (English and Japanese Text) (English and Japanese Edition) (0798408001520): F. Simandl, F. Zimmermann, Lucas Drew: Books

Simandle Book 2

Amazon.com: O3567 - New Method for the Double Bass Book II (9780825802324): F. Simandl: Books

Simandle Etudes for Bass

Amazon.com: 30 Etudes for the String Bass (9780825829314): Franz Simandl: Books

Fredrick Zimmerman Bowing

Amazon.com: A Contemporary Concept of Bowing Technique for the Double Bass (9780793518227): Frederick Zimmerman: Books

and if you want to do jazz with it

the Evolving Bass by Rufus Reed

Amazon.com: Evolving Bassist (9780967601502): Rufus Reid: Books

Then Oscar Zimmerman Bass Solos,

Just work out of the Simandle though, and those are the standrds for bass books.
 
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#5
The question is not what to practice, but rather how to practice. There are many technique books and exercises, and most of them are worth investing in, but that's a different topic.

To answer the OP: there are many approaches, each valid in its own way. Developing a practice routine is a life-long task. As it will comprise the majority of your time as a bassist, try to see it as an exciting and rewarding process. Try as many things as you can and see what works for you. Variety in the practice room will expand your abilities and keep things interesting.

The first thing to do is to identify your goals as a musician. Short, medium, and long term. Your goals may change over time, but this will give you a clear point of departure. List what repertoire you know and find the gaps (perhaps you know plenty of modern and romantic repertoire, but nothing baroque or classical). Identify pieces you want to learn. Techniques and strokes you want to master. Methods you want to explore.

Name teachers you would like to meet and play for. Music festivals you'd like to attend. Competitions you'd like to win. If you want a career in music, what do you want that career to look like? If you don't want to be a professional, what do you want this hobby to look like? What kind of equipment do you eventually want to own, and how will you get the money to buy it?

Once you've written these things down for yourself, you can begin to see a logical progression of what you need to work on. Perhaps the pieces you would like to play are above your level now, but you can find repertoire and exercises which will move you forward and enable you to approach the music you really want to play.

Many of my friends keep practice journals. In these, they record every minute of their practice. It keeps them focused on their objectives, and allows them to see if they're spending their time efficiently.

You need a metronome, a tuner, a recording device, and something that produces a drone for intonation practice. These will be your friends. Use them often. You should be recording yourself very often, preferably with video. It's the most honest route for self-assessment.

Speaking of honesty, don't let yourself get away with anything. Use your ears and be true with yourself if something doesn't sound right. Don't waste your time playing through things without stopping to focus on individual phrases and motions which are challenging you. If something is out of tune, slow it down with a metronome and turn on a drone until it's tuned. As good as it feels to play things that are easy or already polished, 90% of your practice time should be spent on things which make you sound terrible. You shouldn't be afraid to sound awful in a practice room.

Lately, I've gotten really into accompanied practice. If you have a program like Sibelius or Finale, you can enter piano accompaniments for any solo pieces you're working on and set them to any tempo. This will force you to play in equal temperament, which is not always desirable, but is an excellent tool when you know you will be playing with piano.

Generally, I like to split my time between purely technical studies and repertoire. Scales and arpeggios are one of the best "shortcuts" we have, and I can't stress enough how important it is to spend time on them. Learn them in every key, with as wide a range of fingering options as possible (Rabbath Book 3 is a great resource for this).

I've found that the more time I spend on technique in the long term, the less time I need to spend on repertoire in the short term. That's because the things which make specific pieces challenging have often already been addressed. If you have a piece which challenges you, it's good to break it down to its bare elements and work on those techniques out of context, perhaps in a scale or etude.

Sometimes you will need to write your own etudes. They needn't be particularly interesting or musical, but they should directly address the problem you have.

Play for people often. Give recitals you don't need to give. Retirement communities, hospitals, churches and community centers all love to have people come and play for them. You could even give a recital in your own living room, it doesn't matter. Set up mock auditions with your friends. If you have a chance to play in a master class, do it. Ask people into your practice room every chance you get.

Lastly, you should think about how you will develop your musicianship away from the bass. Listen to recordings with a score, study theory, do ear training, write out transcriptions, read treatises and musician biographies. Go to concerts! Listen to your friends and colleagues, and don't be shy about giving advice if you have some.
 
#6
There is some great advice above. OP, have you ever attended a good summer music festival/school? It sounds like you received your training in a very isolated place, so there was no structure of peer feedback. This is where you get a lot of ideas on how to practice, from seeing and hearing what others do to prepare, but that is only possible when there are enough serious bass players running around. Maybe it is not too late to see if there are any spots open at major summer music camps for bassists your age.
 
#7
PaulCannon said:
Lately, I've gotten really into accompanied practice. If you have a program like Sibelius or Finale, you can enter piano accompaniments for any solo pieces you're working on and set them to any tempo. This will force you to play in equal temperament, which is not always desirable, but is an excellent tool when you know you will be playing with piano.
.
Click to expand...

Is there a site where you can download these piano accompaniments for the most played pieces (like for example Dragonetti or Koussevitsky)?
Or does someone have them to share?
 
#11
Thank you very much for all of the wonderful advice so far! Most of it is certainly an eye opener for me.

ILIA said:
There is some great advice above. OP, have you ever attended a good summer music festival/school? It sounds like you received your training in a very isolated place, so there was no structure of peer feedback. This is where you get a lot of ideas on how to practice, from seeing and hearing what others do to prepare, but that is only possible when there are enough serious bass players running around. Maybe it is not too late to see if there are any spots open at major summer music camps for bassists your age.
Click to expand...

I would truly love to participate in such things, but I am very financially limited. Just to audition last year, I spent many months saving up! Maybe in the future I will. What festivals/schools would you suggest to attend during the summer?

jallenbass said:
Where do you live? You may have to drive some distance to study with a good teacher.
Click to expand...
I would rather not be specific, so allow me to put it this way: The closest audition that I had last year was over 1,000 miles away and the place that I will be attending this fall is 1300+ from where I am now. Also, many of the cities that I auditioned or competed in last year had populations well over 100 times my own towns population.
 

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