Double Bass Sevcik book on DB bowing

[koricancowboy]

I've been and am using Gajdoš edition of Sevcik's bowings, which is more complete book from @Michael Drost post #24 above. I believe I'm not violating any rules or copyrights by attaching it here.

Mr. Gajdoš is a virtuoso and one of the top teachers in Czech. The story says that as a youngster he studied violin, later switched to bass, and lacking a sensible bowing variation method, he edited Sevcik's bowings for the bas, for the use of his and his students. In the book there are bowing variations with prescribed tempo etc., and few progressive Sevcik etudes transposed to bass clef.

The book gives the most when studied with no rush. I don't really think it's meant to be learned and forgotten; rather, it's good to revisit it from time to time to clean up your technique and to put newly learned ideas into context. When I play it nowadays, I always repeat some excersise from etude 1 and then play some other from more advanced etudes. The format is such that you learn the etude quickly, and can play without looking into sheet, so you can focus on performing the strokes, or you can close your eyes and focus on tensions in your body. I recommend the metronome, in prescribed tempos, or lower.

The scan is meant to be printed on A3 both sides, and then tied in the middle.

I played a master class for him in college. He's a sweet dude but damn did he tear me a new one. Bach 3 Gigue or Koussevitzky Mvt. 1 if I recall. His methodology is amazing. My teacher was responsible for funding his first trip to the US. Humbling experience to say the least!

Video of him in Chicago

 

[koricancowboy]

I never worked with Zimmerman's bowing book for long, but looking through it, there's not much there there that can't be arrived at by writing out permutations.

First, there are string crossing paterns - I made a cheat sheet:

View attachment 1074504

Then you can focus on each one in a loop,
Combine them together in various permutations,
Add slurs, rhythms, articulations dynamics.
If you can repeat a pattern rapidly without strain or fatigue, then you're making the moves right.
I think pairing patterns with their inversions and reversed bowings is a good way to work out the kinks... Like drum rudiments.

I am skeptical of the real usefulness of Zimmerman's etudes. If it was a difficult passage from the repertoire your working, I can understand working on only the bowing, but Zimmerman's etudes can be composed by a random number generator.. you don't need to buy the book for that.

I know this isn't Sevcik , but I think Zimmerman was mentioned by someone.

According to my teacher, Zimmerman told him he wrote this prescriptively to address the transition from gut to steel strings. After playing with this book, I figured out that simply separating the bowings in excerpts from your left hand and isolating them using a perfect fifth like Zimmerman has us do in the book is equally effective and immediately applicable. If you are going to use Contemporary concept, I'd suggest moving the the exercises into other parts of the fingerboard and keys. Open strings, middle of the fingerboard, Octave, and the end of the fingerboard for example. It helps you understand the effect each part of the fingerboard has on the way strings bow. A super important piece of modern bass pedagogy.