Double Bass Verdi Forza del Destino extract

[Andy Mopley]

Hi all
looking for some advice here. These 3 bars are played at speed, as you know.
What is the best approach (bowing, fingering etc) to tackle it?
At the moment I am using very short bows, and 12 24 44 (sliding b to c) fingering, but no quite getting the clarity of sound I am after.
Regards to all

 

[elberon]

How about trying 1-2 (G#-A), 2-2 (A-B), 2-4 (B-C)? Slur two throughout.

 

[David Potts]

Or 12 14 24 ( 1/2 tone LH shifts)
12 14 12. (consistent 1st finger, rather more florid and dancing with bigger LH travel)
24 (on D string) 41 12. (using pivot)

The first two possibilities group fingerings into pairs so that LH shifts happen with bow changes and are easier to coordinate and articulate. The third enables the LH to pivot and keep to 1/2 tone shifts. Perhaps practice all three slurred patterns dotted, reverse dotted then straight to encrypt the brain clearly.

In fingering theory I generally have a problem with moves upward like your B to C 4-4 because the pinkie lacks both vertical and sideways strength, articulates poorly and bunches up the hand whereas 4 - 4 coming down is better. The drag tends to increase the span that fits with the increasing distance between "frets" and helps intonation. IMO 1 - 1 and 2 - 2 shifts can work in both directions because the fingers are strong enough to maintain spacings. I would prefer to keep changing fingers (like a pianist?) even if it means repeating a note with different fingers hence my preference for the first patterns above.

 

[Malten]

Playing this overture next week. My first thought was to do as David suggests; 12 - 14 - 24. That is what seems logical to me, that is what I would like to do - but trying it at speed I actually think that 12 - 2-2 - 24 works better for me.

 

[Andy Mopley]

Playing this overture next week. My first thought was to do as David suggests; 12 - 14 - 24. That is what seems logical to me, that is what I would like to do - but trying it at speed I actually think that 12 - 2-2 - 24 works better for me.

Where did you land, out of interest? Thanks

 

[Malten]

Where did you land, out of interest? Thanks

I am doing 12 - 2-2 - 24. As I said 12 - 14 - 24 is probably the most clean sounding but at a very fast tempo the other fingering seems like a good compromise. Works for me anyway.

 

[ILIA]

Or 12 14 24 ( 1/2 tone LH shifts)
12 14 12. (consistent 1st finger, rather more florid and dancing with bigger LH travel)
24 (on D string) 41 12. (using pivot)

The first two possibilities group fingerings into pairs so that LH shifts happen with bow changes and are easier to coordinate and articulate. The third enables the LH to pivot and keep to 1/2 tone shifts. Perhaps practice all three slurred patterns dotted, reverse dotted then straight to encrypt the brain clearly.

In fingering theory I generally have a problem with moves upward like your B to C 4-4 because the pinkie lacks both vertical and sideways strength, articulates poorly and bunches up the hand whereas 4 - 4 coming down is better. The drag tends to increase the span that fits with the increasing distance between "frets" and helps intonation. IMO 1 - 1 and 2 - 2 shifts can work in both directions because the fingers are strong enough to maintain spacings. I would prefer to keep changing fingers (like a pianist?) even if it means repeating a note with different fingers hence my preference for the first patterns above.

I do David Potts's finger replacement fingering (the first one), for all the reasons that he mentioned.

 

[Notaluthier]

I would do 12 13 34.

 

[Andy Mopley]

It worked for me using 12 24 (shift) 24..

 

[ILIA]

It worked for me using 12 24 (shift) 24..

Andy,
Does your private teacher have an opinion about the best fingering for you? I'm curious.

I'm also curious about something else. You ask a lot of questions here, but I've never seen you mention what your private teacher has to say about many of the questions that you ask. (I'm curious as to why . . . do you have a private teacher? It's cool if you don't.)

I'm not opposed to you asking a lot of questions about classical double bass technique. In fact, your curiosity will make you a better player (whether you have a private teacher or not). However, when harvesting "answers" from places like talkbass, youtube, Fb, social media, etc., it's always a good idea to take your independent research back to your main private teacher or similar type of expert, to help you sort through what you find.