hi it's Geoff Chalmers here from discoverdoublebass.com if you want to
learn the double bass please go and check out our website we've got plenty
of video courses lessons interviews gear reviews all sorts of things to help you
in your journey and today I'm joined by orchestral tutor the wonderful Joseph
Conyers so Joe welcome it's great to have you here thanks happy to be here
we've just been filming a series of lessons on orchestral excerpts obviously
we've been talking about articulate different articulations and bowings and
you were talking about scooping and it was a concept that I found it was just
really great to hear about I found really informative that I was hoping
that you could maybe give us a brief overview of what this is to share with
people at home is that okay sure yeah I think a lot of players when they
first play the instrument they see these strings and they see as one plane so the
ideas that we put the bow on top of the string and just move the bow across the
top which works and you can get a sound a sound whether it's a good sound or not
that's something else but you get a sound you just move the bow across the
top of the plane you can even do it at the appropriate speed which is very
important placement weight speed and placement of the bow
will determine the sound so and it works but I want to emphasize more the weight
part because the weight implies that we're dropping weight down into the
string if you're dropping weight down through the string this is what I start
to think about one of my favorite foods on the planet ice cream and scooping the
sound out of the instrument so I always if you look at the hair of your bow
under a microscope you will see these little hooks and those hooks actually
pull the string and make the string vibrate if you want to kind of get
richness out of your instrument don't think about just scratching the surface
literally scratching the surface literally scratching the surface only on
potential of sound but dropping your weight into the string and scooping so
as acting as if you are trying to play a string that's down here but these
strings are up here stop is it but this kind of scoop yes that is correct so
the the the U would be like this yeah I see I mean the dropping the weight
stop the weight and then pull the sound out same way you would scoop and pull the ice cream out there's a tension throughout the yeah
see what you mean because it's it's different to just putting a U through the air it's
like there's actually resistance there is there's a resistance and the pull out
that's really important so if you're doing a down bow it'll be going through
your first finger your first finger is the one that does the the last scoop so
first finger I'm scoop scoop all the way through the tip to the tip
of the bow and then at the tip of the bow you start with the first finger
scoop down the string drop the weight and then come out so your first finger
is kind of directing the energy is that what you're saying
that is correct but it's all coming from my back
technically originating from my feet but that's much longer lesson Geoff coming from
my back through my arm then to my finger to transfer the weight into through the
string and down through the instrument and you can really can obviously you're
really controlling the bow beautifully and you're getting an even sound from
you know heel to tip and we can practice we can practice techniques like this in
our scales and it's literally just literally going from frog
frog the tip I'm scooping a little bit so I'm not
making legato just to emphasize the scooping gesture
and really
now ultimately to get the real sustain you want to be able to scoop
and then continue that sound going but if you're playing like for example and
when the courses we talk about Beethoven 5 if you're playing the coordinates from
the Scherzo of Beethoven 5 that's definitely a scoop and release yeah make
sense and as literally I'm not thinking about scratching the surface I'm playing
here and then pulling the sound out and then letting that sound resonate it's
fantastic have you got any tips about allowing the weight into the string because I
know that you're not pressing the string with your right hand yeah is this
coming from the arm from the shoulder it's all coming it's all coming from the
arm now I I do this exercise it's gonna be hard to do it on myself okay we'll
see how this works I always say that playing the bass of literally be as
difficult as this is sit just like this okay and the weight is all your weight
going down is how it says is all you need to actually get to sound out your
instrument and this is regardless of your size you do not have to be a
bodybuilder or a power lifter or someone who moves cars or trucks to be able to
play the play the bass as a matter of fact if you utilize your weight well
anyone almost of any size can can get away with with playing and I'll show you
why if I were to drop the whole of my weight of my arm on the string the whole
of the weight of my arm this is what this tell me okay
literally that's the whole of my way now most people would say that's too much
yeah okay so then what we're doing is managing the amount of weight we put on
the string so in which case it requires no effort we don't want the press you
should never feel like you have to get on top of this one of the things that
scares me the most is I see people get on top of the string of the press
because when you press two things happen one you're forcing from your arm but two
you're actually suffocating with the instrument from vibrating you want the
note to vibrate freely so instead just drop the weight in the string find that
sweet spot and always I call this surfing Geoff yeah once you write catch
the wave because this is a way I think about the vibrations being a wave once
you catch a wave once you get it going stay there and just ride away just like a surfer
would once you catch a wave stay there there's you'll see you surfer like doing
this once they passed away they just ride the wave
until you're done with your bow
Joe that is fantastic I really appreciate you sharing with that with us
today so I thought it was just such a wonderful content just to finish quickly
flavour ice cream do you have a favourite oh I thought I'm kind of a minimalist I like vanilla but I grew
up in the south and butter pecan is pretty good yeah like a mint chopped it myself
that's me listen thank you so much for joining us today thanks everyone for
watching at home and if you've enjoyed this lesson you'd like to learn more
from Joseph please follow some of the links below this video where you'll be
able to learn about his courses and particularly Orchestra chops which is
something we've been working on this week where we look at orchestral
technique and orchestral excerpts and bringing it all together in a way that
only Joseph can so I'm sure you'll enjoy enjoy that so thanks for joining us and
we'll see you all next time