Upright bass method, suggestions ?

[The Unknown]

Hi !

 

I'm looking for an upright bass method (book) and only saw Rufus Reid's "Evolving Bassist" book yet.

 

A good choice ? Anything else I should look for instead ?

 

 

Thanks !

[bassgirl9]

If it's slap bass you want to play,

 

Pete Turland's video/ dvd is supposed to be great.

 

Rockabilly Slap Bass with Pete Turland.

 

As to other methods, I can be of no help.

[The Unknown]

Originally posted by bassgirl9 If it's slap bass you want to play, Pete Turland's video/ dvd is supposed to be great. Rockabilly Slap Bass with Pete Turland. As to other methods, I can be of no help.

 

Actually, I'm thinking more or less of jazz bass... Thanks ! And I prefer books...

[paulodumb]

A lot of people seem to recommend Simandl and a teacher. I haven't tried either, but was thinking of picking up the Reid book + dvd.

[catphish]

I've been using the Simandle book. I don't know any better, but it seems good so far.

[LittleWoodenBoy]

That Rufus Reid book is good. My teacher uses it a lot.

[Fran da Man]

I ran across a good website of hand positions a while back...it may have been linked from this site.

http://www.gollihur.com/kkbass/basslink.html

 

EDIT: heres a little interactive fingering chart.

 

http://www.musicked.com/musicked/pages/instruments/orchestral-strings/Double-Bass/Double-Bass-Fingerings.htm

[One Bad Monkey]

Simandl is a really good traditional book for upright bass; that's the first book I learned from. After you get a little familiar with it, try the Petracci bass method, which is really good too.

 

As for jazz books, either the Ray Brown method or the Chuck Sher (I think that's it) bass method (it should have an outdated pic of an upright and electric headstock on the blue cover) are excellent.

[bd's_bass]

Originally posted by paulodumb A lot of people seem to recommend Simandl and a teacher.

 

+1 It is sound advice. In fact, I would recommend a teacher first, then get a book. That way you won't have to undo too many bad habits.

[NeonVomit]

Any good books for bowing technique? I play classical on upright about 99% of the time, and can't really afford to have lessons

[One Bad Monkey]

Originally posted by NeonVomit Any good books for bowing technique? I play classical on upright about 99% of the time, and can't really afford to have lessons

 

Arm straight (from the player's viewpoint, it always looked to me like it was crooked, but that's not the case), keep it closer to the bridge than the fingerboard, and enough rosin to make it glide easily.

[Bassius]

the simandl "new" method book 1 is over 100 years old.

 

if you're a german bow cat then i recommend the ludwig streicher "my way of playing the double bass"

 

as far as string players go, we have a student teacher lineage. Ludwig is my grandpa, per se...

 

franz simandl is my great great grandpa...(does that make sense) in other words, my teachers on one side descend directly to franz simandl and josef harabe of the prague school. streicher's method is new and not 100 years old either HAH.

 

if you play french bow, check out franscoi rabbath's methods.

 

 

i have three lineages that meld together to create my own kind of method. Streicher's bowing techniques and rabbath's fingering methods...man i need to write a book...

[bd's_bass]

Originally posted by One Bad Monkey ...and enough rosin to make it glide easily.

 

Actually, the rosin makes the bow sticky so it grabs the strings and makes them vibrate.

[takeout]

Okay - so the Rabbath method is simply a fingering method, right?

 

For anyone looking at the Reid DVD - there's not a lot of technique in it... more "how to be a jazz bassist" (composition, feel, rhythm section work, etc.). I think the book covers technique and ergonomics in more depth.

[One Bad Monkey]

Originally posted by bd's_bass Actually, the rosin makes the bow sticky so it grabs the strings and makes them vibrate.

 

Of course it does. But putting too much on the bow (which a lot of newer people do) makes it stick more than grab, which will not allow your bow to glide across the strings and still give it a good tone.

[Bassius]

 

Originally posted by takeout Okay - so the Rabbath method is simply a fingering method, right? For anyone looking at the Reid DVD - there's not a lot of technique in it... more "how to be a jazz bassist" (composition, feel, rhythm section work, etc.). I think the book covers technique and ergonomics in more depth.

 

 

rabbath basically is a finger method, there are bowing techniques too...

i mostly incorperate the fingerings....there are some mods that i have made to his method to fruther accomodate modern students.