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Double Bass When learning a new piece

Andy Mopley

Andy Mopley

Sep 24, 2011
1,335
318
#1
Is there ever a point where you feel satisfied you can actually move on from it? To me, it feels like it is aways a work in progress, no real end point as you can always find little things (bowing, articulation, interpretation) that add a slight different aspect to the performance.
However, i did read somewhere that as a general rule if you can play it without mistakes for 3-4 consecutive times, then you pretty much have the most of it covered...

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading
 
#2
Whenever I'm working on something I study it know it and when I feel like I can move on from it to harder stuff I do. But it's gradual. And I still go back to playing stuff I did when I started playing. For example I'm into to playing a lot of entwhistle pentatonic sounding lines but I still love going back to playing oldie 4 chord stuff because that's where the base of my playing is. If you feel like you can move on from a piece do it and never stop practicing. And as many mistakes doesn't matter to me as much. If I know that I know it inside out and confident with it, then I'm going to move on and besides a piece isn't a piece without of couple little mistakes. IMO I don't like perfect sounding songs. I like a few minor super little mistakes to make the song the song. Something I can only point out. That's just me though.
 
#3
I think the answer might depend on the style of music and your goals. 3 - 4 times through at tempo, perfectly, sounds a little light to me. I've often heard 10 times.
Regardless, there does come a time when I have the piece memorized, have studied many of the definitive recordings, and learned to play it in a variety of ways at a variety of tempos and I can't think of anything more to do with it. That's when I set it aside for some time. When I come back to it, I can nearly always think of more to do with it.
I think that means that when I think I'm done, I've just exhausted my imagination.
 
#5
I would add two nuggets of wisdom that felt important to me and which I have mentioned here before.

There is little worth in practicing what you can play and it's a far better use of practice time to go through things you can't play.

However there is a saying that amateurs practice until they can play something right - whereas professionals practice until they can't play it wrong! ;)
 
#6
I suppose it depends on where you set the bar, Bruce - practising things you can't play might just lead to frustration but I must admit I try to look at at least a "new" moderate to difficult piece, to play and read first time, as part of my routine.
 
#7
I was being slightly jokey - but to be serious - the point that was made to me by a teacher, was that he often went round practice rooms and heard people running through things that they could easily play - presumably as it felt comforting to play something that sounded good?

Whereas it would have been better if they had used that practice time to work on something that they were struggling with and get that right..?
 
#8
You should always be pushing your limits in as many ways as possible. When you're learning something for an upcoming performance, you really want to strive for something close to perfection. In the early stages, this just means choosing your moves and working them up to tempo until you have all the notes comfortably learned. The longer you spend on it, the more you will focus on both technical minutiae and musical ideas. Ultimately, you should have a crystal clear conception of the piece registered in your mind. Even without the bass, you should know exactly how you want the music to sound in terms of phrase, dynamic, tone color, articulation et cetera. And you should have a clear conception of how each physical motion feels as you play it (fingerings, bowings, shifts, vibrato, hand shapes, posture, et cetera). When you're able to play everything precisely as you have conceived it, then your work is done.

Obviously, your work will never be entirely finished. At some point, it's best to move on. You can always come back to things you want to revisit, but there's so much material out there for you to learn. Getting stuck on something produces diminishing returns. Keep moving, keep learning. What's hard for you today might seem like the easiest thing in the world next year.
 

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