The art of bowing.

[David Powell]

I've tried a few times to bow the head of "Take Five". That one is still a bit beyond me in Eb. I might try it transposed.

I am doing the whole head of "Footprints" bowed and I worked really hard getting a good sequence for the strokes. I am cheating a bit on the positions, compared to how Stanley Clarke plays it. I play the whole thing above the heel and use the open G string for the pick-up note or drop that note an octave to the BB string up at the heel. For the melody I use mostly the same position and the open D and G. I'm hanging at the 5-Spot now without my bass so I couldn't tell you what the strokes are, but they work.

I don't play too close to the bridge unless I am above the octave in the upper range of thumb position. In first position, I bow closer to the FB. It really just depends on the position for me. The lower the position, the closer to the FB usually.

I use the black hair also, which seems to be far more sensitive to where you bow the string. It's more challenging, but when you get it right, it is so different from the white hair. To my ear it is better, but the articulation has to be perfect or it will scratch or squeak.

One question I have is about pulling with the fingers and hand (German bow) as well as wrist before engaging the whole arm? It's totally a German bow thing, but I wonder who else uses this attack? This seems to give me more control on the attack, but I have to really "think it" into motion. It's more work than just sawing away at it.