Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi, it's Geoff here from Discover Double Bass. I've got another lesson for
you. This one's following on from the initial left-hand lesson. We're going
to be looking at the six most common problems that I see with left-hand
technique. Of course I'll show you how to put them right. Let's start
straight in and look at the six problems.
The first problem that I see is when people are playing a note that they
bunch up the other fingers. I think they're doing it to kind of support the
hand by moving the fingers across. If it was the last note that you're
going to play of the piece that's fine. The problem comes that when you
want to play another note you have to separate the fingers back out and you
may or may not now be in tune.
So problem number one is bunching up the fingers and not maintaining hand
shape. Have a look and make sure that you're not doing that yourself.
Number two. This is to do with the little finger. It's a failure to
maintain an arch on the little finger. If you just let me explain a little
bit more. If you stretch out and you're struggling with the stretch you
might make the first, the little finger, sorry, flat. You play using the
pad rather than the finger tip.
You can see there's one movement coming from the first knuckle there.
That's not what we're trying to do. We want a gentle arch. Now, I know you
won't be able to arch as much as in the other fingers because of the
stretch. Try to just have a gentle arch and play through into the finger
tip.
This also applies in the first finger as well. Sometimes I see people kind
of doing this. Try to just keep the arch in the fingers.
The third problem is one that you will have heard before. I just want to
look in a bit more detail of that problem. That's to do with collapsing at
the knuckle. I think you'll be aware about not collapsing at the first
knuckle. That's got to be obvious. Just check by using the mirror that
you're not collapsing at the second or even at the third, the larger
knuckle. That your whole hand isn't collapsing.
It's really important just to keep an eye on that. Use the mirror. Look and
see what's happening. You'll make some really good progress with that.
Number four is related to the previous one. This is about collapsing the
whole hand. A really good way to check this is play the open G. Play the
low G on the E string. Play them both together. You should be able to keep
the G ringing.
The problem is, if you're doing this, where you collapse the kind of third
knuckle, the whole hand down. Occasionally I see this. The gap, there is no
gap here. It needs to be a natural arch all the way from the shoulder,
through the hand, into the finger tip.
Be careful that you're not collapsing at that part of the hand and choking
off those notes. You may need to play those. You need to maintain a hand
shape as well.
Problem number five is with the first finger. It's that sometimes people
seem to be, instead of stretching out from the middle of the hand in the
two different directions. They start with the first finger kind of angled
so you approach it from above rather than from this direction. You can see
I'm pointing up from below. Now I'm pointing down from above. It moves the
finger round so you're kind of like this. Almost that you're in line with
the string rather than playing across them.
When you do that you end up reducing the span of the hand. You're unable to
play a three notes in tune. Just check that you're not doing that. If you
need a bit of help think about this finger extending up in this direction
away from you. Maybe towards your own head or to the scroll.
The final problem is raising the fingers away from the finger board whilst
you're playing a note. If you do this, I'm putting the pressure into my
little finger. Pushing down. I'm pushing away at the same time. It is
really common.
Now if you're using a heavy vibrato by this [for instance] you may choose
to make that choice. In regular playing you keep your other fingers down.
Don't push in two different directions. Try and be relaxed. Try and use
your arm weight and your hand weight. Then you'll be able to keep the
tension out of your hand and hopefully maintain the correct hand shape.
I hope you've enjoyed the lesson today. Don't forget to rate, comment or
subscribe if you want to on YouTube. If you'd like some more double bass
lessons head on over to discoverdoublebass.com.