Fundamentals of Double Bass Technique Technique with Jason Heath
How to Use This Book After interviewing hundreds hundreds of bass performers performers and teachers, teachers, I’ve learned one thing:
There are countless ways to approach learning the double bass. This book contains some some of my favorite double bass bass exercises. I keep coming back back to these time and time again over the years, and I’ve used them with hundreds of students.
I learned every single one of these exercises from somebody somebody else. else. Like everyone, my playing and teaching is a mixture of ideas from all the great teachers and performers with whom I’ve worked. When possible, I’ve given credit to the person from whom I learned the exercise. I hope you find this book useful, and please share it freely with friends and students!
Jason Heath contrabassconversations.com
Table of Contents Principles to Keep in Mind Part 1: Left Hand Fundamentals
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Part 2: Bowing Fundamentals
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Part 3: Developing Thumb Position
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Part 4: Making Connections
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More Books for Your Library
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Part 5: Articulations
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Bouncing the Bow
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Part 6: The “Daily Dozen”
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Navigating the Bass
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G Major Three Octave Scale
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Shifting Drills
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Max’s Magic
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Progressive Progressive Scales
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Part 7: Scales
Next Steps About the Author
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Principles to Keep in Mind 1. When playing the bass, bass, don’t don’t do anything that you wouldn’t wouldn’t do in “real life.” Your hands hands should look like… your hands! hands! This is a concept that that Rice University bass professor professor Paul Ellison talks about quite a bit. 2. Work to keep keep both left left and right right hands hands as close to your your center center of gravity gravity as possible. possible. When you’re in playing position, are your hands centrally located in front of your body, or are they o$ to the side? Work to keep them in front of your chest. 3. Whether Whether you’re you’re sitting sitting or standing, standing, develop develop an “active “active stance” stance” when you’re you’re playing playing the the bass. Have a slight bend in in the knees and a bit of a forward lean lean to your posture, as if you’re about to take a leap.
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Part 1: Left Hand Fundamentals There are so many ways to approach the left hand! We’ve got Simandl, Bille, and countless other classic texts. texts. In fact, I’ve got a page page of them up on my my website for you to check check out. My favorite system for learning left hand fundamentals is George Vance’s wonderful Progressive Repertoire Repertoire series. I love it so much, and and I use it with every single single young student. George brilliantly brilliantly combined the teachings teachings of François Rabbath and Shinichi Suzuki Suzuki to create this unique unique approach to the left hand. These books are a must-have for any bass teacher or young bassist. Also, double bassist and educator Yoshi Horiguchi put up a post on my blog covering research that he did about Progressive Repertoire Book 1, and I included videos of me playing through these pieces. You can learn more about the specifics of approaching these books in this wonderful resource. resource. One of the first pieces learned in Progressive Repertoire Repertoire is Shortnin’ Bread. Bread. Here’s Here’s the piece —notice that we’re starting up in Simandl’s fourth position (this is third position in Vance/ Rabbath pedagogy):
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I love starting in this position for several reasons: 1. You’re at the neck block block or “heel” “heel” of the bass as my friend Lauren Lauren Pierce calls it. This is one of the easiest places to find on the bass from a tactile perspective. 2. The spacing spacing is is smaller smaller for the the left hand. hand. It’s It’s much easier easier for beginnin beginning g bassists bassists to make make this hand span work work at first. Once you learn the spacing spacing up here, you can move down to first position quite easily. 3. You’re able to to play bigger intervals intervals starting starting in this position. position. Shortnin’ Bread uses the the G pentatonic scale, and it’s it’s easier for young ears to di$erentiate these wider intervals (that’s how it seems to work to me, at least!). After establishing this this neck block position, position, I typically move down to first position and teach teach students some simple tunes like Mary Had a Little Lamb: Really, Really, any simple tune like this will work. I like to teach familiar tunes like this because because it
seems to hook the students. Grinding away on first and half position Simandl Simandl exercises has never worked well for me! George Vance Vance saves half position for later in the Progressive Repertoire series, but I have found it helpful to introduce introduce it after first position. After all, bass students are usually playing playing in some sort of ensemble early on, and half position rears its head early in their journey jour ney.. I don’t dwell on it a lot—just a few simple exercises to set the student up:
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Next up for me is a basic introduction to thumb thumb position. I like to start with harmonics to set up the basic left hand shape. It’s fun to see students light up when they realize that they can make these resonant, flute-like sounds so easily:
So far, far, everything we’ve done has been in one position: fourth, fourth, first, half, or thumb. This allows us to focus on getting a quality sound without the added variable of shifting. Of course, shifting is a way of life for bass players, so getting introduced to it early on is important. I start o$ by moving from two of our “home bases,” namely first and fourth position. I’ve found that repeating notes four times each in the lower-to-middle part of the bow is a great way to develop confidence confidence and tone. The four times per note approach creates creates a solid rhythmic foundation, so the student isn’t slipping and sliding all over the place out of rhythm. It also allows the student more time time to think about the upcoming shift: shift:
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I have them repeat this in an infinite loop, focusing on smooth shifts and organic arm motion. We start with the larger muscles and follow through with the hand, much like throwing a ball. After this shift gets stabilized, stabilized, we move on to a 1-4 shift. For me, this shift shift is actually a 1-1 shift from A to D, followed by the 4th finger and supporting fingers closing on the E:
After establishing that that 1st position to neck neck block position connection, connection, we make the connection between between the neck block and the octave octave harmonic. This is the range encompassing the Vance/Rabbath 3rd position, and making this connection early has proven helpful for me when teaching:
Next, we connect these three major landmarks: first position, neck block position, and the octave harmonic. harmonic. We play the following following exercise on the the G string:
Throughout all of this, I’m teaching my students pieces from Progressive Repertoire and working on their school orchestra or youth orchestra music. Now I like to “fill in the the gaps” between 1st 1st position and the neck neck block position. In traditional fingering systems, systems, these are 2nd and 3rd positions. positions. In the Vance/Rabbath Vance/Rabbath fingering system, they’re a part of 1st position and 2nd position.
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My good friend Peter Tambroni Tambroni has a great exercise for finding these intermediate positions: play G - A - B in 1st position on the G string, then replace 1st finger with 4th finger:
This lets the student go from familiar familiar territory into new territory with a nice safety step. We then practice that same type of motion in di $erent sequences until it starts to become more familiar:
I’m never sure exactly what to call this area of the neck with students . To me, it’s it’s an “intermediate zone” between between 1st position and the neck block, so I think of it as one general region. If hard-pressed, hard-pressed, I’d probably separate it out into traditional traditional 2nd and 3rd positions, but I tend to shy away from giving it a name at all with students. Around this time, time, I teach students students how to use the the 3rd position tuning tuning harmonics to tune tune the bass. I teach them how to do it, but we still tune with open strings as well. It’s just to get the concept down and also to introduce introduce the idea of this being a position. In fact, I often call it the “harmonic” position. We work through a few simple “Simandl-like” “Simandl-lik e” sequences. I usually teach these by rote as warm-ups during the lesson. lesson. I introduce these while while we’re still early on in the Progressive Progressive Repertoire books, books, mainly to help with school music. I don’t dwell dwell on it or make a big deal about it, but I find these to be helpful for developing a good technical foundation:
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Part 2: Bowing Fundamentals Fundamentals I’ve always found teaching bowing fundamentals to be more challenging than left hand fundamentals. fundamentals . To me, the left hand is more objective. You’re either on the right finger or you’re not. The left hand functions functions as a “measuring device” with results that that can be clearly seen. For the first few lessons, I always start with the D harmonic in the neck block position on the G string:
If I’m starting a student who is totally new to the bass, this is actually the very first thing that we’ll play with the bow! It’s It’s easier to get this harmonic to speak than to get an open string to speak, and it begins to set a student up with a goof neck block hand position from day one. We’ll play the same harmonic on the other strings, always repeating things four times to allow for the concept concept to sink in. Then we’ll alternate open open strings with this harmonic. harmonic. After the early weeks, weeks, we may not always always play this harmonic exercise, exercise, but we’ll we’ll do some kind of connected connected open string exercise exercise every lesson. I’m always working to to keep the focus on making a beautiful sound above all else. Progressive Repertoire Repertoire is wonderful for developing those foundational foundational bow strokes. I really try to focus on making short notes crisp and quite di$erent from connected notes. George Vance builds each new bow stroke in such a logical way. I’ve yet to find anything better than Progressive Repertoire for developing right arm fundamentals. fundamentals. I’ve found reviewing reviewing past pieces is key for developing tone. Students love seeing how much much better they’ve gotten on pieces pieces that they learned in the past. It’s It’s a great feeling of accomplishment accomplishment for them, and it’s it’s a great way to go deeper and dig into more details, particularly those revolving around tone, shape, and line. Every once in a while, we’ll go all the way back to the beginning of book one and play as far as we can in one lesson. It’s a great way to keep those fundamentals in mind, and it’s a
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wonderful way to solve various technical problems that may have crept into a student’s playing. Early on, I don’t do much beyond Progressive Repertoire to develop the bow arm. Eventually, Eventually, I add in a few basic exercises for developing slurring and string crossings. crossings. I almost always teach these by rote:
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Part 3: Developing Thumb Position The idea of 1st position and thumb position being close cousins is a crucial concept for me to get across to students. students. Progressive Repertoire Repertoire does a wonderful wonderful job of this, covering the the same piece in multiple positions. By the way, having students of di $erent ability levels play the same piece in di $erent positions is great for for a group class with bass students at multiple multiple levels. Suzuki bass teacher extraordinaire extraordinaire Kate Jones does a masterful job of this!
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Here’s a series of exercises that I use to reinforce the similarities between 1st position and thumb position. position. All sorts of simple songs work well well for teaching this concept. concept.
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Franco Petracchi covers the concept of chromatic, chromatic, semi-chromatic, and diatonic thumb position hand shapes brilliantly brilliantly,, as does UK-based teacher Chris West. West. Progressive Repertoire starts o$ with the semi-chromatic position and eventually introduces the concept of diatonic spacing. Here are a few exercises (again, taught by rote during lessons) that I use to reinforce these two basic thumb position hand shapes:
Another basic thumb thumb position concept concept I cover is opening the the hand to reach reach the D harmonic harmonic on the G string:
I’ll have students do the same exercises on the D string as well.
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George Vance uses familiar folk songs in thumb position throughout Progressive Repertoire. It’s It’s a wonderful way to get students familiar with this this region of the bass. Here are a few folk songs that I teach by rote to my students:
We’ll work on di$erent articulations, articulations, dynamics, and and phrasing with songs songs like these. I’ll have them play the song while I play a simple accompaniment. accompaniment. Also, we’ll practice ensemble skills like bringing each other in with visual cues, learning how to end phrases, and other important musical elements. I continue working through the Progressive Repertoire books with students, and I find the alternation between 1st position, neck block position, and thumb position to be really e$ective in establishing a secure foundation. In Vance/Rabbath pedagogy, the thumb position with the thumb on the octave harmonic is known as 4th position. I refer to this as both “basic” thumb position and Vance Vance 4th position to get students accustomed to the di $erent labels commonly used.
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The next Vance/Rabbath position—5th position—is located between the D and G harmonics in thumb position of the G string. We’ll work on exercises like this to establish this position: position:
We’ll also learn the harmonics in Vance/Rabba Vance/Rabbath th 6th position around the same time. It’s great watching student’s eyes light up as they realize that they can create melodies easily using these 6th position harmonics:
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At this point, I have have students connect connect the 5th and and 6th Vance/Rabbath Vance/Rabbath positions positions into a one octave G major scale. Descending is typically more challenging for students, and we practice making the tactile connection between the thumb harmonic on the D into the “all fingers down” C natural. Understanding how to make that “hando $” is important for developing a smooth thumb position technique:
We’ll also practice a G major arpeggio in thumb position. I typically have students play the B with the 3rd finger even though though we played it with the 2nd finger in the scale. scale. I find that to be more dependable for most students:
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Part 4: Making Connections Connections After establishing some some familiarity with thumb position, we start connecting all all of these regions of the bass together and peppering in some important additional skills in the process. We’re continuing continuing to move through Progressive Progressive Repertoire as we develop these skills. I view these exercises as supplementary devices to strengthen that “connective tissue” in the student’s technical skills. First o$, we practice moving from the neck block position (Vance/Rabbath 3rd position) into thumb position (Vance/Rabbath (Vance/Rabbath 4th 4th position). I find that practicing D - E - G and alternating between 3rd finger and thumb for the top note helps to develop this connection:
I find that students tend to “undershoot” that G harmonic with both the 3rd finger and the thumb. Also, it can take some time to develop the body mechanics to gracefully gracefully move into thumb position. Next, we practice adding a few notes in thumb position once we arrive:
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I find double stops to to be really helpful helpful for tone development development and bow arm control. control. I like having students separate the two notes of the double stop and then play them together:
Getting a good balance between the two strings and listening critically to make sure that these intervals are in tune can have a big impact on overall tone quality. I also run a few additional exercises in di $erent parts parts of the bass. bass. The octave can be a little more challenging challenging to balance at first due to the di $erence in string lengths:
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So far, far, we’ve been balancing a closed note against against an open string. Playing two closed notes can up the challenge factor for double stops. I start by having students play fifths across the string, with the first finger on the low note and the fourth finger on the high note. note. I tell students to “trust the low note” and tune tune the top note to the low note. note. Wiggling both fingers around around to try to get the double double stop in tune doesn’t produce produce good results. Also, I have the students keep their second second and third fingers on the top string behind the 4th finger:
I’ll have students practice this on all strings, in di $erent parts of the bass, and using di $erent intervals like major and minor thirds. Gary Karr once told me how important practicing practicing thirds is for developing developing a good sound. He uses them to “break in the bass” and really really get it to resonate. Double stops are great! great!
More Books for Your Your Library Library Philadelphia Orchestra Orchestra principal bassist and Curtis Institute bass teacher Hal Robinson has put out two magnificent magnificent technique books: Strokin’ Strokin’ and Boardwalkin’. They are both available for purchase from Robertson & Sons, and they’re an essential part of any bassist’s bassist’s library. Boardwalkin’ Boardwalkin’ takes the Rabbath fingering system and applies it to scales and arpeggios across the entire entire register of the bass. I have all of my college students work through Boardwalkin’, Boardwalkin’, and it’s remarkable to see how it transforms their understanding of the bass fingerboard. Strokin’ is an adaptation adaptation of part of the Sevcik Opus 2 bowing bowing technique book. I also have all of my college students work through this book, and it’s it’s transformational for their bowing technique.
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Hal Robinson has two etudes that that he uses for teaching string crossings. They’re great etudes and really help help develop string crossings. I have my own (much lower quality!) quality!) etude that I use with my students:
Try this etude out as a warm-up exercise. We’ll build upon this in the next section.
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Part 5: Articulations George Vance Vance includes articulations from the very beginning of Progressive Repertoire, and highlighting these for students from the very first lessons can really help to develop a sophisticated articulation palette. In addition to what we learn organically through this progression of pieces, I have students practice scales with various articulations. Doing staccato bowing bowing with four notes per bow is a fantastic exercise on so many levels. It teaches students how to divide the bow precisely, precisely, make clean stops and starts in various parts of the bow, bow, and develop consistency of tone throughout the bow:
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We’ll then work on portato bowing, showing how the mechanics relate to staccato bowing:
We’ll do this on open strings and also over scales. After that, we explore explore legato, detache, detache, and martele playing. playing. I try not to get too geeky with with this and keep the strokes as simple as possible. possibl e. Here’s how I explain it: 1. Legato: total connection between notes - no discernible space:
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2. Detache: a slight re-articulation - I call it “standard bowing” for lack of a better term:
3. Martele: a noticeable bite at the beginning of each note and a slight space between each note:
Bouncing the Bow I’ll have students experiment experiment with bouncing the bow fairly early in their their lessons. We’ll start by letting the bow naturally bounce bounce in the middle of the bow, bow, then start to control it. I try to make spiccato development an organic part of the learning process and revisit it every few lessons in our warm-ups. By the time we’re learning the articulations we’ve covered so far (which are, of course, all on-the-string articulations), articulations), we start to explore di $erent o$-the-string stroke lengths. I’ll start by teaching three basic o $-the-string stroke stroke lengths: short, medium medium and long. I refer to these as Mozart, Beethoven, Beethoven, and Brahms Brahms strokes. As I’m demonstrating, demonstrating, I’ll describe the Mozart stroke as a V shape, the Brahms stroke as a saucer shape, and the Beethoven stroke as something in between:
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Let’s Let’s revisit that string crossing etude etude from the previous section. section. I’ll have students run through this etude while practicing the various articulations we’ve explored:
Typically, I’ll have students do one type of articulation per lesson, but I’ve also experimented with alternating between two or more with each new bar. bar. Have fun and explore, and you’ll be well on your way to helping students develop a rich articulation palette!
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Part 6: The “Daily Dozen” I think of the exercises in this section section as “intermediate level” exercises. exercises. I’m not introducing introducing them when a student is starting out, but by the time we get to the second volume of Progressive Repertoire Repertoire I’m beginning to add them in. I like to call these exercises the “daily “daily dozen.” There aren’t aren’t a dozen of them, but I like to touch upon all of them each day, day, even if only for a few seconds. All of these exercises exercises are simple but deep, and they they touch upon fundamental fundamental principles principles of quality bass playing. playing. Most of them have endless endless varieties to them. them. They can be learned learned on di$erent strings, in di$erent keys, with various bowings, dynamics, and articulations. I’m presenting only one version of each of these, but use your imagination and find ways to alter them. Also, I have invented invented none of these exercises, exercises, so I attempt attempt as best as possible to give credit to the great teachers from which I learned these!
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Navigating the Bass Most days, I’ll “reacquaint” “reacquaint” myself with the instrument by gently sliding between the various harmonics that outline the Vance/Rabbath positions. positio ns. Something about this exercise grounds me physically physically to the instrument. I find my hand gravitating naturally naturally to these positions if I spend a few moments dusting them o $:
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G Major Three Octave Scale What can I say? I love the G major scale. While I certainly practice other scales, the way in which it lies on the bass is so great for warming up and getting the instrument instrument ringing. If I only have time for one scale, it’s it’s this one:
I’ll practice it with and without vibrato, slurring two, three, four, or more notes per bow, and with various articulations. articulations. I always progress from slow to fast, and simple simple to more complex, with emphasis on the slow and simple.
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Shifting Drills Gary Karr famously refers to these exercises exercises as vomit exercises. I’ve been told that it’s it’s because: A. you “throw” your arm up the bass B. doing doing thes these e makes makes you you want want to vomi vomit! t! Regardless, they’re fantastic exercises, and they’re actually more bowing exercises than left hand exercises. It’s hard to believe upon first glance, but it’s it’s true! These are the ultimate ultimate “simple but deep” exercises. exercises. Practice them with every conceivable conceivable fingering combination, combination, extend them to two octaves, play them on other strings, add crescendos and decrescendos, decrescendos, and move them to di $erent keys. I have to give a huge shout-out to Je$ Bradetich, from whom I initially learned these exercises. Je$’s book Double Bass: The Ultimate Challenge is Challenge is a comprehensive look at this exercise and so many other other key aspects of bass playing. It’s It’s another must-have for any bassist’s library. Here’s the most basic shifting drill exercise. Be sure to repeat each bar twice, and focus on smooth shifts and good bow placement throughout the exercise:
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Max’s Magic This finger dexterity exercise, named for University of Michigan bass professor and Cleveland Orchestra principal bassist Max Dimo$, is awesome. It’s another “simple but deep” exercise that can be learned going up one half step at a time. I start students in half position, playing separate separate bows very slowly. slowly. We climb the bass one half step at a time, typically ending when we reach the G octave harmonic:
We’ll then add in slurs and start to increase the tempo. tempo. After that, we’ll do it on all the other strings. It’s a great way to develop strength and dexterity, dexteri ty, and it’s it’s a great warm-up exercise.
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Progressive Scales Here’s another exercise I learned from Je$ Bradetich. Each and every day, day, I try to do a shifting drill, Max’s Max’s Magic, and a progressive scale. I’ve been doing these for decades, and I find them to be helpful in maintaining my skills. In the progressive progressive scale, we climb the scale in four note sequences. sequences. Each position gets two notes. Here’s Here’s a one octave A major scale as an example. As we did with the shifting drills, be sure to add slurs, change the key, learn it in two octaves (Je $ has great fingering for this in Double Bass: The Ultimate challenge ), do di$erent rhythms. The sky’s the limit:
After learning the pattern, pattern, I find slurring four notes per bow to be the most useful useful variant.
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Part 7: Scales I’m often asked about what scales to learn and in what sort of sequence. Typically, I start by focusing on two octave major scales only up to two sharps and two flats. That’s what’s typically required for my student’s school and youth orchestra auditions and I find that it establishes a healthy foundation. We’ve already learned the G major three octave scale. In addition to that, we dig into C, D, A, F, F, and Bb major. major. The finger pattern for C major is quite similar to G major, major, and since we’ve already learned the three octave G major, major, C major is fairly simple to learn:
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I teach D major two di $erent ways. First, we drop down the the octave after the the open D string:
Next, we go up into thumb position. Finding the C# up in thumb position can can be a challenge early on. I typically have students students play the top D as a harmonic, some of them find it simpler simpler to play the D closed:
I’m always surprised how how easily students students seem to learn the A major scale. scale. The challenge is often finding the G# in thumb position (and sometimes the low G# in half position):
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F major is relatively relatively simple for most students students to learn. The biggest challenge challenge for me is keeping the student student in half position until its time to shift. I find that a lot of students unconsciously switch to 1st position once they get to the D string:
Bb is quite simple for most students after they learn F major. major. The Eb - F on the G string can be a bit of the challenge, but otherwise the scale fits under most student’s student’s hands quite well:
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Up to this point, I’ve kept kept the 3rd finger finger out of the lower positions. positions. This is when I like to introduce the the concept of “shiftless” scales and one finger per half-step. half-step. Anyone who has played electric bass bass will be quite familiar familiar with this pattern! Hat tip to Je$ Bradetich for teaching me this pattern when I was in high school:
After learning the F major major shiftless scale at the neck block, I have students students move it around around the bass. It’s a great fingering template that can make faster passages much easier. easier. I mentioned Hal Robinson’s wonderful book Boardwalkin’ Boardwalkin ’ earlier. earlier. This book runs scales up and down each of the Vance/Rabbath positions. positions . It’s a fantastic way to improve a student’s student’s technique, and I find that it’s really helpful for developing the ability to sight-read as well. Here’s Here’s an exercise that I use to familiarize students students with each of these positions. I start by teaching them G major, major, and then I run through Hal’s great book with them. The dashes indicate a pivot:
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Hal’s book Boardwalkin’ continues into the Vance/Rabbath 6th position, but I usually hold o$ on that until students are a little little more advanced. Stopping in 5th position works well because it covers the range of that G major three octave scale.
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Next Steps I really hope that you enjoyed this this book and got some value out of it! I’ve been teaching bass for a long time, and these are the exercises that I’ve found to be the most helpful for my students. There are galaxies galaxies of technical material out there, there, of course. I’ve got a list of what I like to use at contrabassconversations.com/teachi contrabassconversations.com/teaching. ng. Thanks again for reading this, and and feel free to share this with anyone that might find it valuable. Sincerely, Jason Heath
[email protected] jason@contrabasscon versations.com
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About the Author Author Jason Heath is the host of Contrabass Conversations, a podcast devoted to exploring music and ideas associated with the double bass. His blog and podcast are highly regarded in the music world and have been featured as top o$erings in the world of arts and culture for the past decade. Jason serves on the Board of Directors for the International Society of Bassists and is the Double Bass Product Manager for Eastman Strings. He also serves on the advisory boards of Musician’s Toolkit and Be Part of the Music, and he is internationally active as a clinician and consultant. Jason is also past president of the Illinois chapter of the American String Teachers Association. A highly decorated veteran veteran teacher, teacher, Jason is a past faculty member at DePaul University, University, the University of WisconsinWhitewater and Trinity International University. University. His former students hold positions in the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and Philharmonie Südwestfalen.
Photo credits: Peter Tambroni and James Coyne
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