Your first Bass Books...

[Ken Smith]

I started playing Bass in 7th grade and can't remember the name of the Book we used. When I got to High School the Bass teacher told me to buy the Simandl Book. This was the first serious Bass book I had seen. Just about every private teacher I went to used the Simandl along with their own exercises for training and breaking bad habits.

Here's a thread I started on Talkbass about a year ago. it is still a Sticky in the Orch section.
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Orchestral Technique & Method Studies Thread (pub. on TB 3/06) I am starting this thread to compile a list of method books and fingering styles as well as Bow Techniques for the Double Bass student. I myself am still a student after starting slightly over 40 years ago.

Here's one brief story and my inspiration why I have most recently begun to study again. I played professionally in NY for about 20 years. In that time I had a few private Bass teachers formally. One of them (a top student of John Schaeffer, NY Phil. Prin.) worked mainly with my Bow hand to correct bad habits. After he had left NY for an Orch. Job I found another teacher in the NY Phil.. He said my bow hand was good now and we worked on technique. I also did the Dragonetti, Eccles and a bit on the Marcello. After a few years on and off as our work schedules allowed he told me that unless he trained me through Orchestral Repertoire he couldn't teach me anymore. At that stage I would get up in the morning and play some the Dragonetti before breakfast and some of it from memory. I was at a peak at that time. I will mention that prior to this teacher, another in the NY Phil. turned me down as a student for the same reason as far as goals go. Some teachers would only work with students training for an Orchestral career.

After retiring in 1988 officially I gave up playing for the most part and eventually sold all my Basses. After a few years I got the bug and bought a new Bass. A few years later I bought 2 more. Then I just had to play. Shortly after I joined a local Orchestra and then another. The music seemed so hard to me as I usually would avoid playing excerpts or pieces that I didn't like. In Orchestra, you have no choice but the play the program they choose for each concert. Now it had me pulling out all my old books and practicing again. I soon realized I had made a HUGE mistake turning down my teachers offer to train me with Orchestral studies. Since playing about 4 years now in 3 Orchestras as well as some chamber groups I have developed a new found respect for the difficulty of playing the Double Bass as it had been intended (Jazz etc excluded).

Here’s is a list of some of the Books I have as well as methods I know of. Please feel free to discuss these and add to my list. This will become the official TB ' Orchestral Method' thread for the Double Bass. I may also start one on the Regular Technique to discuss the non-orchestral styles of the Double Bass.

Books and methods; Simandl - Zimmerman, Simandl - Sankey, Simandl 30 Etudes (now available from MMO with CD and Piano), Classical and Modern Duets - Zimmerman, Kreutzer, Storch-Hrabe 57 studies I and II, Sturm 110 studies, Classical & Modern Works Excerpt and Contem. Bow Tech all by or edited by Zimmerman. Modern Methods by Hal Robinson, Eugene Levinson, Tom Gale, Rabbith and New Dutch School by Dalla Torre to name a few.

I have some more books at my office as I am home now and will list them as well. Please feel free to contribute and discuss any Technique for the Orchestral Double Bass for the Left hand and French or German Bow as it applies regardless of your playing level.
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also from 4/06;

I have about the entire set of Bille. Regardless of your level, I suggest you get Book I if for any other reason than to understand his approach. Warning: Bille uses the 1-3-4 Italian fingering method. For starters, read thru using 1-2-4 using the 2 instead of 3 unless it's in TP. Then, try the 1-3-4 fingering to strengthen your 3rd finger. I use the 3rd now quite often with a pivot to get 1 1/2 steps in a position when I so desire like for instance on the G-string, C-D-Eb using 1 - shift 2-4 as in Simandl or 1-pivot slightly 3-4. I have seen many Players using this including the Philly Principal and his students.

For Beginners or younger students a new Book came out just last year (August, 2005) called 'My First Simandl' .. http://www.carlfischer.com/fischer/nraug2005.html

This guy played in the Rochester and Dallas Symphony and is not an un-known by any means. He was a student of Oscar Zimmerman. This book as described is a good way to get younger players into Simandl on the gradient approach from what I have read. I called a local store yesterday that sells Carl Fischer books and ordered one for my collection and review.
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Current;

I believe that studying the Bass as did the greats from the Prague School, one will develop strong hands and fingering. Playing Jazz requires different skill but using some of the same notes. Bowing a string holds the note longer to built finger strength. Pizzing the note puts more pressure on the finger holding the note during the attack and in a different direction than the bow vibrates the string against the finger. All practice is good practice but these books and methods listed above have developed some of the greatest Bass players in history.

Feel free to continue this discussion over here on 'Ken's Corner'.