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Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog
An Introduction to Double Bass Playing - my book
The Rhythm Ruler - a tool for educators
TONE PRODUCTION | JAZZ PLUCKING
Tone. First start with a RELAXED bow hand and arm that allows transfer of WEIGHT to the bow and string. You must let gravity do its job by letting it pull your arm into the string. The bow should 'bite' the string - not skate or slide across it. There should be a feeling of the bow 'digging in' to string - yet retaining a relaxed sense in the arm.
Exercises to help with tone production:
To help feel this bite or digging in sensation try this exercise:
1. Place bow on string, let arm weight fall into string, move string with bow.
2. Do not play or move bow across string.
3. Just try to move the string about 1/8 inch back and forth.
Another concept of tone production when standing is to keep bass almost completely vertical the bow and lean the bass into the bow. This is sort of a reverse concept of bow weight.
Teacher: Hold the bow with your right hand at the tip end of the bow. Have the student hang their right hand from the bow using their fingers at approximately the same place where one would normally hold the bow. This helps the student to feel the 'hanging weight' of the arm. This works well for French bow. For German bow, tone is generally much easier to produce.
The student should first have a concept of WEIGHT going in to the string. This can be accomplished without the double bass.
Also, play in the harmonics - that's where the bow goes and why it must be moved closer to the bridge. When playing an open E - you can play over the fingerboard because of the G# harmonic there and the thickness of the string. The bow will ride in those nodes and give the best sound. When playing higher on the fingerboard, a new string length is created with the harmonic series moved close to the bridge. Therefore, bow placement needs to be adjusted.
Placing your thumb on the side of the fingerboard is good! Generally place it toward the bottom of the fingerboard and on the side, not underneath. Pluck over the fingerboard, toward the end of it. Any lower (between the bridge and fingerboard)gets awkward and if ever using a bow will get rosin on you. Use the SIDE of your first finger. This pulls the maximum amount of tone from the instrument. Use the weight of your arm to fall and pull the string. Keeping the finger / hand / arm RELAXED (of course). It should be one motion with the arm and everything. Don't use just the base joint of the finger, although it should be relaxed and may bend, just don't initiate the pluck from that joint. This will use the greatest amount of weight possible for volume and after practice speed will not be an issue. Most students think that 2 fingers is optimal, and for some extremely fast pieces this is used, but 1 finger used this way will get a great sound.
Think of the arm as falling (gravity pulling it) down and bringing the finger with it which pulls the string.
This concept is much easier than it sounds!
