John Goldsby
Supporting Member
- Mar 4, 2003
- 1,172
- 2,160
- Disclosures
- Bassist @ WDR Big Band Cologne, Discover Double Bass, Conservatorium Maastricht, NL
When I took lessons with Michael Moore in the early '80s, it was before he came out with his thumb position book—Melodic Playing in the Thumb Position — which I now highly recommend. Michael liked the +, 1, 2, 3 (G, A, B, C) fingering, which is the third fingering in the Petracchi system. But, he would also use the chromatic fingering +, 1, 2, 3 (G, Ab,A,Bb), and the extended fingering +, 1, 2, 3 (G, A, A#,B)
Some classical players who I know here in Europe (Christine Hoock, for example) studied with Franco Petracchi, and from what I can tell — the approach is similar to Michael Moore's approach, just applied to a different style of music.
Michael taught me to think from the top of the chord down, so he would play CM7 and target the high B with 2, G with +, E (on the D string) with 1, and C (on the A string) with 2. He would use those exact same notes to target an Am9 (high to low: B, G, E, C, B, A); Dsus (high to low: B, G, E, C, B, A); or use variations like Cm(maj7) (high to low: B, G, Eb, C); B7(b13) (high to low: B, G, D#, B), etc. All of those targets are movable, so you can target the top note of any chord (usually the 3rd, 7th, 9th, 11th, #11th, 13th of an arpeggio) and then play the arpeggio *down* from the top note, across the strings. It's a very melodic approach to finding the "pretty notes" of a chord and connecting those using voice leading, rather than (typical bass style) finding the root first then playing your lick
The G harmonic under the thumb is a convenient way to learn and teach the concept, but since this is a movable system, the thumb can play any note, for example DbM7 = C (2 on the G string), Ab (+ on the G string), F (1 on the D string), Db (2 on the A string).
I was also encouraged by Michael to practice the symmetrical scales in thumb position: half-whole diminished scale over altered dominant chords; whole-half diminished scale over diminished chords; diminished arpeggios using +, 3 across the strings (shifting a half-step up or down on each string crossing); whole-tone scales using + 1 3 across the strings (shifting a half-step up or down on each string crossing), and the modes of the melodic minor over various chord sounds. In addition: pentatonic scales and blues scales.
Here comes my shameless plug (which I think contributes to the topic being discussed here): I cover a lot of this material in my Discover Double Bass Course, Tell Your Story.
Some classical players who I know here in Europe (Christine Hoock, for example) studied with Franco Petracchi, and from what I can tell — the approach is similar to Michael Moore's approach, just applied to a different style of music.
Michael taught me to think from the top of the chord down, so he would play CM7 and target the high B with 2, G with +, E (on the D string) with 1, and C (on the A string) with 2. He would use those exact same notes to target an Am9 (high to low: B, G, E, C, B, A); Dsus (high to low: B, G, E, C, B, A); or use variations like Cm(maj7) (high to low: B, G, Eb, C); B7(b13) (high to low: B, G, D#, B), etc. All of those targets are movable, so you can target the top note of any chord (usually the 3rd, 7th, 9th, 11th, #11th, 13th of an arpeggio) and then play the arpeggio *down* from the top note, across the strings. It's a very melodic approach to finding the "pretty notes" of a chord and connecting those using voice leading, rather than (typical bass style) finding the root first then playing your lick
The G harmonic under the thumb is a convenient way to learn and teach the concept, but since this is a movable system, the thumb can play any note, for example DbM7 = C (2 on the G string), Ab (+ on the G string), F (1 on the D string), Db (2 on the A string).I was also encouraged by Michael to practice the symmetrical scales in thumb position: half-whole diminished scale over altered dominant chords; whole-half diminished scale over diminished chords; diminished arpeggios using +, 3 across the strings (shifting a half-step up or down on each string crossing); whole-tone scales using + 1 3 across the strings (shifting a half-step up or down on each string crossing), and the modes of the melodic minor over various chord sounds. In addition: pentatonic scales and blues scales.
Here comes my shameless plug (which I think contributes to the topic being discussed here): I cover a lot of this material in my Discover Double Bass Course, Tell Your Story.
