The art of bowing.

[Richard Prowse]

Originally Posted by David Powell

Take Five;- I'll give it a shot later today, Richard. We will be performing tonight and will probably do "Take Five" but I have to play it in key to match the sax. I remember my biggest problem last time I tried it was figuring out where to place the arpeggios in those chords. It seems I was leaning heavily toward thumb position for the whole series of chords but it is possible to do it several different fingerings, all of which result in several different appoaches to the strokes. That is the toughest jazz melody to put on the finger board that I have tried yet. I'm sure once I get the "trick" of the placement down, it will be pretty straight forward.

The tune's pretty easy (note wise) in Gm. I play the A section down the bass and do the B section in thumb position. It's the arco articulation of that B section that I spend a lot of time thinking about. I worry about not getting a good feel. I'll be very interested to get your opinion.
Thanks David

[Johnny Layton]

Hey I found some guys playing Take 5 (well, as part of a medley of sorts). Haven't tried to ape it yet and don't quite know which key they're playing in, but thought you guys might like to see it and compare notes. Just scroll down the page till you get to the Bass Gang and click.

http://www.xbass.org/Eng/index.php

[Mark Mazurek]

WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!!!







...deep breath...









You know how women think?

I've bowed for a long time (longer than I've understood verbs or how women think) and probably...

[Mark Mazurek]

I'm new to bowing. So I can't contribute to the discussion, so I will try to entertain between the helpful posts.

(Although as a 'new guy', I enjoy black hair on my bow.)


I would be afraid to bow near the bridge as I'd be worried about something like this happening...



I mean, what if I couldn't swim?

[Richard Prowse]

Thanks for the bass gang clip Johnny.
I've watched them before, they're fantastic!
I noted how he bowed the B section but I will have to watch it a few more times.

Mark, bow near the bridge and feel the sizzle! I think you need to spend less time thinking about women and more time practising with your bow... or is it the other way round? Women always get me a bit confused.

[Ken Smith]

I have seen most DB customers on the higher end purchase range test the Bass by Bowing down by the Bridge. Back in the early-mis '70s when I studied with Lew Norton (NY Phil) he had me get this Book called 'Gradus Ad Parrnassium Book II written by Simandl and edited by Zimmermann (Fred?).

The exercise he assigned to me was #21 on page 14 to be played at 60bpm, 1 note per click (Lew's handwritten instructions still in my book) with 8 notes (2 groups of 16ths) per Bow. His written instructions also say 'play as close to the Bridge as possible'.

Also, he assigned me to play #23 with the exact same instructions (2 Bows per bar as this one is in 6/8) with the exception 'play as close to the Bridge as comfortable'.

I don't know if he meant the same thing between possible and comfortable but those of you that have this book, chime in with your war stories!

I don't know where Lew got his interpretation from on this exercise but his teacher was Keith Robinson in Texas who is the father of Hal Robinson, current Principal Bass of the Philly Orch and former Prin. of the National Symp. as well. Maybe if I call Lew up and ask him he might remember. He is about 70ish I think by now and retired only 9 months ago from the Philharmonic.

Now, if the title of this thread is about the Art of Bowing and not just how to play Take 5, then maybe some of you 'warriors' would like some serious material to shed with. Here I have just giving you an inside lesson that is not written in any method book. Buying a book is one thing but knowing a few tricks about using it can almost draw blood from a stone!

Try doing this exercise or anything similar and see how much better your tone improves.

[Charles Federle]

My thought for bow placement is mostly determined by the tone color I want for the music. In orchestra I usually need a warmer and rounder sound so I play closer to the fingerboard, this is also because my bass is a bit on the bright side. For solo work I tend to play much closer to the bridge since I want a more focused and projecting sound. As for practice I tend to work with my technical work (scales and such) close to the bridge since it is harder to play and I need to practice the hard stuff