Double Bass The most difficult moves?

[David Potts]

What do you consider are the toughest challenges when moving around the bass? The sorts of combinations of bowing,shifting and changing strings all at once? Perhaps with examples from the repertoire and your solutions.

For instance, I was always taught that shifting up the string on the pinkie was a no-no because the finger is not strong laterally. Even if you did hit that note in tune your hand has closed up too much and your other fingers would be out of tune, not immediately ready to use. I can understand that shifting down on the pinkie will naturally open your finger spacing and be more controllable. The 1 - 1 going up and 4 - 4 going down seems to be used in the Lucas Drew edition (IMC) of Simandl, eg A - B - C# - B - A = 1 - 1 - 4 - 4 - 1

I always found the up-bow slurred passages like the opening bars of Richard Strauss "Heldenleben" tough. Yet Tom Martin proved they can be clear and powerful by using the faintest portamento (separation of notes) with up bow, caused by tiny twitches in the biceps that he invited me to feel as he played the passages perfectly. It looked like he was slurring but he wasn't.

DP

 

[Les Fret]

to me shifting up with the 4th finger seems more natural than shifting down.
With plain up and down bowing the above passage is easier for me 1-4-4-1 or 1-1-4-1

 

[Simandl Fan]

I was taught to avoid that 4-4 shift at all times, and I'd finger that passage 1-1-4-1.

 

[Les Fret]

That's how it is taught in the books. But 4-4 shifts occur all the time. Sometimes it is better for the articulation to shift with 4. If it works and sound good why not?

 

[CQuillen]

It will be different for everyone. You should record your practice with some of these problems. If it sounds good then it's probably fine. Your body works differently then others.

 

[Rockmusician]

I honestly do not find anything to be difficult, but I have been playing for over 30 years.

 

[derob]

I honestly do not find anything to be difficult, but I have been playing for over 30 years.

That is because you don't play the real bass.

 

[bassramos]

That is because you don't play the real bass.

Thats right.... Upright REQUIRES lessons and a teacher in order to learn profficiency. There's no skating with the upright!

 

[Phil Smith]

Thats right.... Upright REQUIRES lessons and a teacher in order to learn profficiency. There's no skating with the upright!

I once saw a guy in NYC skating with an upright.

 

[bassramos]

There's no skating with the upright! It's not allowed!!!!

 

[bassramos]

Zea eez no Skating vit zee upvight Vase!

 

[Simandl Fan]

I honestly do not find anything to be difficult, but I have been playing for over 30 years.

I've been playing the bass since 1966 (45 years) and there are still many challenges for me. For example, the Suites, the standard concerti, the excerpts, the etudes, and of course, the orchestral rep. I'm 60 now, and I hope to still be playing and finding more challenges for years to come.

 

[Les Fret]

Here the things that I can consider the most difficult about playing classical double bass:

1) getting a good and even bowing sound and control over the bow especially in the extreme low and high register.
I consider the right much more difficult than the left hand

2) getting a nice and smooth vibrato in thumb position

3) getting a good intonation on wide intervals in thumb position where you have to hold one finger.
eg: playing slurred Bb-Dd-Bb on the G-string in TP with 1-3 and then holding the Bb (Chanson Triste). It is hard to het a good spread in TP

or: A-C-B-G (A-C slurred) in TP (Dragonetti concerto 3rd movement).

 

[fergus currie]

strangely enough, I find that seemingly simple shifts between 1/2 and 1st positions can be total pitfalls. At the end of Act I in Paliacci there is a soli passage E D# G# B E which can be played starting on the D string with 2nd finger but the shift to G# on the E string is just a nightmare. I could play it on the Astring with 4-4 then on the Estring 1-4 with something like an extention.

The point is that shifts in these low positions on lower strings with small shifts between string crossings can always test your intonnation a fair bit. If you play in a small section you will have to do a lot of one on one work with the principal to get things bang on.
We are a six man section (with me playing inside front desk) in the opera band and we spend a bit of time with the principal getting things nailed before getting into full rehearsal.

 

[jallenbass]

16th notes that are bowed 2 slurred and 2 seperate with a string crossing ala Haydn 88. Also, dotted eighth - 16th hooked at a fast tempo like Schubert 9.

 

[Tom Gale]

What do you consider are the toughest challenges when moving around the bass?


How about playing musically! That's the end purpose of all that other stuff..........
TG

 

[Johnny L]

Playing in tune perfectly at all times. That's a challenging move I'd like to make always.

And notes that speak clearly all the time when they can't be slurred through at ridiculously fast tempos.