Hi Everyone! I've been reading and lurking the forums for awhile, and have appreciated all the accumulated wisdom found here! I have an adult double bass student, who is a pretty proficient electric player, but brand new to upright. He is just learning to read music and play with the bow. I am looking for a book (or books) for him to use. I'm imagining something designed for beginning bass players, but not kids. I think Storch Hrabe, Bille, etc, are too advanced for now. I have been out of the teaching/being a student loop for awhile, so I'm not as up to date as I would like to be. Thank you!
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Double Bass Book Suggestions?
- Thread starter SallieB
- Start date
Franz Simandl: "New Method for String Bass" volume 1.
George Vance: "Progressive Repertoire for the Double Bass", volumes 1, 2, and 3.
George Vance: "Progressive Repertoire for the Double Bass", volumes 1, 2, and 3.
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Simandl is always good. You have to supplement with more up to date fingerings, but if he's an EB player, the sequential nature of the etudes will be somewhat familiar to him. I'm not a fan of the Vance. Also, I wouldn't consider Bille to be too advanced, just a bit overwrought.
It is never wrong to start with Simandl book 1 for a sound foundation.
You can then move to Bille or whatever.
You can then move to Bille or whatever.
Perhaps the Simandl New Method vol 1 as others have suggested and maybe in 3-6 months add Simandl 30 Etudes so your student can play some etudes that have musical form to them. The first 8 etudes don't go too high generally, except for one ends on high A, which you can change to a harmonic on the D string for higher satisfaction levels.
Start with Vance Progressive Repertoire before Simandl! You will need a teacher that knows how to use these books as the pedigogical reasons and goals are not written out in the book. But, IMHO, they are far and away the best way to start learning how to play the bass at any age.
If you look around to the mentioned books, I would also take a look to the "New Simandl" of Cole Davis..
THE NEW SIMANDL — Cole Davis
For using the book I like Gaelen McCormick's "Mastering the bow Part 1" very much...
Mastering the Bow (Part 1)
and so on..
THE NEW SIMANDL — Cole Davis
For using the book I like Gaelen McCormick's "Mastering the bow Part 1" very much...
Mastering the Bow (Part 1)
and so on..
If you are asking this question then Simandl, not Vance not Cole Davis is the answer. Use your own common sense. The Davis book assumes Simandl is a fingering system. It is not. It is position and intonation exercises that work in any fingering.
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Not a technique manual, but the 'book' that helped me bring my arco technique around is the "Anna Magdalena Bach" notebooks. This is a collection of short, very catchy tunes that are easy enough for a beginning/intermediate player to play, and interesting enough for him/her to actually want to play them. These tunes are written/published for keyboards with a bass & treble line. I've found that on most of these tunes, both bass & treble lines are melodic enough to keep me interested/infatuated with the tune.
These tunes changed my life!
These tunes changed my life!
I have used material from the old Bob Haggart Bass Method. It's based on Simandl but updated. He was a jazz player so the material is geared in that direction but contains arco and pizz and more simple melodic material along with basic harmony info and bass line construction. It's good stuff if you can fine it- out of print for many years.