Double Bass Simandl is Borring¿?

[prelims222]

Samie,

You didn't enjoy the Montag? In general, I thought it was a nice step up in terms of musical content from Simandl - I like that Montag applies concepts to orchestral excerpts early on.

Maybe I'm revealing something about myself, but I actually did study through the first 1.5 volumes of Simandl almost exclusively. It was only after I really had left simandl as well as an almost exclusive left hand focus that I started to develop as anything of a player. It organizes the fingerboard according to a very linear way of thinking, but really, doesn't make sure the student gets it accurately. I think that if it were called 'simandl school of left hand technique' it would be far better, as teachers would make it a point to look at Right hand technique in more depth.

Jason - you like the Streicher book - do you actually hold your bass like he does?

 

[Samie]

Samie,

You didn't enjoy the Montag? In general, I thought it was a nice step up in terms of musical content from Simandl - I like that Montag applies concepts to orchestral excerpts early on.

Maybe I'm revealing something about myself, but I actually did study through the first 1.5 volumes of Simandl almost exclusively. It was only after I really had left simandl as well as an almost exclusive left hand focus that I started to develop as anything of a player. It organizes the fingerboard according to a very linear way of thinking, but really, doesn't make sure the student gets it accurately. I think that if it were called 'simandl school of left hand technique' it would be far better, as teachers would make it a point to look at Right hand technique in more depth.

Jason - you like the Streicher book - do you actually hold your bass like he does?

Yeah, I enjoyed Montag a lot. In fact I finished it. But just as the book recomends, I must restart again from the begining. My Montag book only goes to 4th position.

I still need to work on make my bowing sound like music.

 

[Rob W]

I still need to work on make my bowing sound like music.

Samie, here's a very quick overview of the bow - forgive me if you already know this stuff.

In order to achieve muscial results, you need a variety of bow strokes, volumes and colours. First off, learn to vary your bow speed during single bow strokes - playing with the same bow speed throughout will make the note sound very even - which sounds good on the surface, but a sucession of VERY even notes will sound very square and UNmusical. Of course, the trick is to know when and how to vary your bow speeds so the overall effect is musical.

The quick guide:

1. short (staccato) notes are produced by stopping the bow very suddenly

2. longer (legato) notes are produced by stopping the bow very gradually

3. accents are achieved by starting the bow very suddenly

4. crescendos are achieved (most easily) by speeding the bow up

5. diminuendos are achieved by slowing the bow down

This is just a starting point, but these are some very basic truths about how to achieve some of the basic articluations and volume changes. Of course you can introduce many other variables, such as how close to the bridge you play which will dramatically affect both tone and general bow speed.

Anyway, if I were you, I'd spend a lot of time working on learning to slow your bow down at the end of a stroke, in such a way that it fades out very naturally. This is an incredibly useful skill - for example, that's a very common way to end a phrase or piece, rather than just stopping your bow dead in its tracks. Unless the last note is supposed to be short, your ending will sound very cut off and 'unfinished'.

Perfectly even bow speeds are a good thing in theory, but in the practical musical sense, they can often lead to VERY square sounding results. In short, spend way more time listening to the ends of your notes - in a sense, they are almost more important.