Double Bass Rosin you bow

[KSB - Ken Smith]

Simandl is even cherished on the BG side of TB;

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/search.php?searchid=1340749

and read here; http://www.talkbass.com/forum/search.php?searchid=1340761

and here; http://www.talkbass.com/forum/search.php?searchid=1340763

Simandl has stood the test of time. Let me know when Coca Cola or MacDonalds becomes out of date.....

 

[Shmelbee]

thanks, i began with the Karr books. I got the book of STorch and Hrabe etudes the other day and i love them. They are really fun to get into.

 

[Johnny L]

You know even if you don't dig Simandl, Stuart Sankey's edition has some nice secrets he shares on alternate fingerings there (like doing 1-3-4 on whole/half patterns near the heel rather than 1-2-4)...and Zimmerman's edition has his own fingerings for the 1st mvmt Tchaikovsky 4 (too bad no bowings though...maybe I'm wrong with the fingerings too it's been too long and my memory sucks).

Oh yeah and you get to see a very young Gary Karr pose for Sankey's edition to show you basic posture and bow holds and stuff. Check out the nut on his bass in that pic...ebony and ivory living in perfect harmony!

 

[kpo]

yeah...the bass rosin works well on beethoven
yes i was referring to Mr. Karr...he's a great guy.
well, since i was just practicing, and it was not good...any advice on the fast stuff in beethoven? (i play german and my teacher plays french)
the above teacher mentioned to focus on speed instead of weight for it...i could use a second opinion i guess.
any advice?

You really need to work on the bow stroke independent of the left hand stuff.

Doing slow scales (like 20 repeated "bounce notes" per pitch) in the lower octaves of the instrument will really get your arm IN TUNE with the requirements of playing in an orchestra.

You may at first find that each pitch requires a different speed *and* weight to get the right bounce; keep going with the repetitions... some people need to focus on speed, some on weight, it depends on how your body works. Try both extremes, then narrow in....

My first summer camp was with Gary Karr. He opened up huge worlds for me and my bass playing, but still, a few years later when I actually wanted to make a living *PLAYING*, I had to learn a different style of playing. I was lucky to study with Gary's teacher, Stuart Sankey, the very next summer, and that gave me a bit more "reality".

Orchestral bass playing often requires an extremely marcato style, and a great deal of truly stacatto playing. Sticky, glutinous, non-Gary Karr rosin works best for this. Carlson is a decent starting place.

To clean your bow hair, try running a dry, clean toothbrush through the loosened hair.
Better yet, get a "solo" bow and an "Orchestra" bow.

 

[Shmelbee]

kpo...i like your style...sorry ive been a jerk, all

 

[GirlBass]

while Gary is an amazing guy and an exceptional soloist, his technique is just not acceptable for orchestral playing. I did attend one of his camps many years ago, and his work on the left hand was very helpful; however, his talk of playing as close to the bridge with as slow a bow as possible, in an orchestral setting, is just impossible. You can not blend with your section and you will sound like ass.
Pops is great for orchestral work, if you raise your contact point so you're not on the bridge. But if you're in a high heat/humidity environment, pops may not be your best choice as it melts pretty easily. Carlsson I believe is a good choice for these environments.
I'm no soloist, so I don't know what to say about using cello rosin in that setting, but I have had bad experiences mixing rosins, and you can't really go in to an audition and ask the committee to wait while you switch rosins from solo to orchestral. It really just doesn't make sense to me to use CELLO rosin, when the set up of a bass is so different.

 

[Heifetzbass]

You might want to get your hands on some oak rosin. This has just come back on the market from being dead for 20 years. Do a google search for it or find the discussion in another thread. It is great stuff.

BG

 

[kpo]

Check this out:

There's actually a technique for rosining your bow that you should "study".

Instead of rosining your bow, try "bowing your rosin."

First, warm up for a few minutes, so the hair is warmed up and ready to accept fresh rosin.

Hold your rosin with the left hand, the bow in the right, and set the bow hair on the rosin right under the leather/silver wrapping. Now imagine that you're playing A Mahler Symphony and play a fortississimo Sfortzando, all the way out to the tip; really fast and tons of pressure.

You should get lots of little fuzzy "whisps" sticking out of the rosin cake after this, which means you've melted the rosin directly onto the hair, from frog to tip. You only need one, maybe two, swipes this way and You're Good To Go.

You might even try this with cello rosin, to get a stickier grab without goin Totally Gooey.

 

[Shmelbee]

WOW