Daily Practice - Audition and then some

 Let me catch you up on yesterday's practice log

I played through the E melodic harmonic and natural scales in various fingerings from The School of Agility.

I played variations 21-40 in #4 Bille School of the Bow.

I worked on Bartok Concerto for Orchestra opening page excerpt.

I finished memorizing Bach Cello Suite 1 Allemande.

I played through the exposition of Vanhal Concerto.

TODAY.... 

well today I had to teach and I played cello...

em... no bass today... 

😕

Daily Practice - Auditions

Greetings,

I am taking a break from German bow for a few weeks as I prepare for some upcoming auditions.

Kalamazoo and Indianapolis are the two symphonies with-in a 200 mile radius with openings for a section player. It may seem like quite a distance, but as I've been accustomed to driving 1200 miles round trip for work in New York, 400 round trip seems like a breeze.

As for the daily practice:

Every day I take one scale and play a variety of fingerings and bowings. I've been using the Eugene Levinson "The School of Agility" as a guide. It's a book that I've had for years and didn't bother with. Today was G major, yesterday was F major, and the day before F# major. 

Playing through the various fingerings with the rhythm and bowing variations takes about an hour. Metronome click on to keep me honest, and accurate. I follow his recommended patterns: 3  quarters slurred, separate; 6 eights slurred, separate; the arpeggio; triplets slurred; sixteenths slurred; and I choose a few of the other variations depending on my mood. Two slurred/two separate (or reversed), syncopated triplets, two legato/two portato or slurred staccato.

I also like staring fresh by reading a few of the Bille art of the bow variations. 
I am playing through No. 4.
Today, I played through variations 1-22. 

Lasty, I will work on some of the excerpts for the auditions. I will focus on the least familiar and the shared repertoire. 

Meanwhile, I am also close to memorized - which I never forced myself todo - on the Allemande from the 1st Bach Cello suite.

Happy practicing!

The Right Hand: Learning to Play with the "German Bow" part 2

Here are some photos of the various underhand bow holds of master players and teachers.

Some screen captures of Joel Quarrington:

Some shots of Boguslav Furtok:

Last, but not least, Josef Semeleder,

More photos in the next post.

As for my own practice:

I have started using both the Isaia Bille School of the Bow (Part 1 Book 2) and A contemporary concept of bowing technique for the double bass by Fred Zimmermann.

I find the Bille to be very useful, traditional, direct, obvious and playable. 

Today I worked through studies numbers 1 and 2 with all of the variations at 82 beats per minute. I also started study no. 3 and played variations 1 - 21 at 112 bpm.

I have been applying the string crossing and bow direction concept from the Zimmerman book. His approach must have influenced Michael Klinghoffer. Michael was the first person to make me aware of the different "sides" of the string. 

The strings have apparent (but not real sides). This concept come from the function of the curvature of the bridge! Each string has a side because the bridge is rounded, and the bridge must be rounded for the player to be able to play one string at a time.  

Let's try to see this in action:

Look at or manifest in your mind the second string, the D string. The D string has two neighboring strings, the G and the A. From the player's perspective the G string is left and slightly lower than the D. There is a G string "side" to the D string. On the other "side" of the D string rests the A string. The A string is right and slightly lower than the D. 

The D string has a G side and an A side. We could also say far side and near side; left side and right side; top side or bottom side: whatever you wish.

The concept is that in most typical or normal bowing patterns one draws a down-bow on the far side or the left side of the string and - conversely - pushes an up-bow on the near side or bottom side.

Let's try to see THIS in action:

Start by drawing a down bow across both the G and the D strings simultaneously (a double stop). Retake the bow and play another down bow across both the G and D strings and slowly allow the bow to lift from the G string while continuing to play the D. 

At the moment the bow no longer engages the G shows the player the G side of the D string.

The same procedure can be done to observe the A side of the D string, but with the up-bow.

Start by pushing an up-bow across both the A and the D strings simultaneously (a double stop). Retake the bow and play another up-bow across both the A and D strings and slowly allow the bow to lift from the A string while continuing to play the D. 

 At the moment the bow no longer engages the A shows the player the A side of the D string.

More soon...